Did the best get the job? No one will ever know

Wendy Webb might have been the best applicant for superintendent that the Youngstown City School District could have had. No one will ever know.
In short-circuiting the search process Thursday and naming Webb superintendent, the board did the school district and Webb a disservice.
In January 2003, Superintendent Benjamin McGee announced that he would be retiring at the end of the 2003-2004 academic year. That gave the board about a year and a half to find a new superintendent, which was more than enough time to develop a set of criteria for the new superintendent, conduct a comprehensive search, interview the top contenders and make a choice.
The board started down that road. A consultant was hired and qualifications for the new superintendent were set, one of which was "experience as a superintendent in an urban setting with a diverse multicultural clientele including students, parents and the community."
Then, though no one on staff met that description, in-house applications were solicited. There were two applicants, one of whom was summarily eliminated, leaving only Webb, the district's assistant superintendent to be considered.
By a 5-2 vote Thursday, the board, meeting in a room packed with Webb supporters, many of them teachers and principals whom she will be supervising, rejected a national search and appointed Webb. The crowd cheered.
This is a school district that, while improving, is borderline dysfunctional. The very least that city taxpayers had a right to expect was that the board would use the time available to it and examine all the options before making a decision.
Passing the torch
Perhaps as disconcerting as this board of education's rush to appoint, was the reluctance of any of the four board members-elect to speak up and suggest that the decision should be theirs, since they will have to work with the new superintendent.
Even Shelley Murray, who said before the election that she would only support an internal candidate if it were someone with classroom experience in the Youngstown schools -- a pointed reference to Webb, who was a librarian before becoming an administrator -- said Thursday that she fully supported the board's decision.
In January, the seven-member board will have four new members, but if the events of this past week are an indication, it will be a board no more inclined to look outside the box for answers to the difficult questions facing the city school district than the present board.
And that's a shame, because the students of this school district deserve better than they've been getting.