May 10, 2005
FLINT
– The State Board of Education today announced that it has narrowed the field of candidates for the next State Superintendent of Public Instruction to three. Those candidates will be contacted to set up public interviews on May 18 in
Lansing
.
The State Board made the announcement at the
Michigan
School
for the Deaf and Blind, where it held its monthly meeting. The State Board reviewed the applications it received, and responses from candidates to a set of written questions, during a Special Meeting held Monday at the
Genesee
Intermediate
School District
.
“The candidates we are inviting to interview are the top of the list of outstanding applicants,” said Kathleen N. Straus, President of the State Board of Education. “These three, however, are the ones the Board believes meet its criteria and best display the qualifications and qualities it is looking for as the next Superintendent.”
The candidates who will be invited to interview, and agreed beforehand not to request confidentiality, are:
- Nicholas A. Fischer, Ed.D,
Centreville
,
VA
, Assistant Superintendent for the Fairfax County Public Schools.
- Michael P. Flanagan,
Lansing
,
MI
, Executive Director of the
Michigan
Association of School Administrators; and
- Thomas P. Jandris, Ph.D., Cassopolis, MI, Chief Executive Officer, Progress Education Corporation.
Dr. Jeremy Hughes, the current Interim State Superintendent, withdrew his name from consideration.
In other action by the State Board Monday:
It approved a report from the Michigan Department of Education on Public School Academies (PSAs), or charter schools, that included a collection and analysis of enrollment, financial, and achievement data for PSAs in
Michigan
. The Board will recommend to the Legislature changes in state law to require charter school authorizers to oversee the wind-up and dissolution of charter schools going out of business; specify that charter school student records be maintained by the relevant intermediate school districts and that business records be maintained by the authorizer; and that conflict of interest safeguards currently applied to urban high school academies should be extended to PSAs and strict discipline academies.
The State Board also approved the application and review process for the approval of organizations that wish to offer first aid and CPR courses to candidates for their initial
Michigan
teaching certificates, as required by a state law in 2003. The process was developed by a committee including the American Red Cross, American Heart Association, teacher preparation university programs, and the Department of Education.
Michigan Department of Education
www.michigan.gov/mde
|
