A Quick Take on Candidates for Madison Schools Chief

The Madison School Board has selected three finalists from a pool of 60 candidates. Credit the board for attracting a fairly large candidate pool. According to this morning’s Wisconsin State Journal, and supplemented with some of my own quick online research, here’s what we know about the finalists.

Yvonne Stokes served for only two years as superintendent of a suburban Indianapolis school district before she resigned last September, perhaps under pressure from the school board. There’s a lot to this story. Stokes was controversial there from the start. She was hired on a 5-2 vote during a board meeting that featured protestors outside the building who were against her appointment, apparently over her support for racial equity programs. She left the district after new, more conservative board members took over. The teachers union and other community members were angry over her, perhaps forced, departure.

Mohammed Choudhury has a background very much like Stokes, only he’s more abrasive. He also served only two years as a superintendent, this as the state of Maryland schools chief. His contract was not renewed in September. Both he and Stokes emphasize equity, but whereas Stokes seemed to have the support of the teachers union and some community members, Choudhury appeared to get on the wrong side of everybody. Here’s what a local writer in Maryland, who had been a supporter of Choudhury at first, had to say upon his departure: “The tale is a Shakespearean tragedy of self-inflicted downfall. I’ve noted that Choudhury “is hardworking, smart, data-driven at warp speed and passionately devoted to equity.” But he is also in denial — unable to get beyond his misbelief that criticisms about him were because he was, in his own words, “a disruptor” who was “going to rub some people the wrong way.””

Joe Gothard comes with no baggage that I can find in my quick search. He has served as superintendent for the St. Paul, Minnesota district, a district larger than Madison, since 2017. He was named Minnesota Superintendent of the Year last year and is currently under consideration for the national honor with the same title. He won that award primarily for his innovative use of federal pandemic relief money in programs that advance equity. He grew up in Madison and attended Madison public schools and he started his career in education as a teacher at La Follette High School. He doesn’t appear to be running from anything and he doesn’t need a job. Rather, it looks like he just wants to come home.

There’s some process left, with three or four sets of interviews ahead, and the board isn’t expected to make a decision until the end of February. At least on paper, Gothard is clearly the strongest candidate while Choudhury seems like a guy you’d want to stay away from. But I would give the edge to Stokes. I’m not sure this board will be able to resist the chance to hire the first Black woman superintendent.