Abigail Leavins
Monica Santana Rosen, the CEO of the Alma Advisory Group, left, and Nichelle Nichols, president of the Madison school board
Monica Santana Rosen, CEO of the Alma Advisory Group, left, and Nichelle Nichols, president of the Madison school board.
Amid concerns about transparency in the search for a new Madison superintendent, school board president Nichelle Nichols held a news conference Feb. 13 to emphasize the board’s commitment to transparency. Yet key questions from the media were not directly answered.
“I’m wondering about the decision to only have two of the [interview] panels be livestreamed or open to the public…Can you talk about the public's right or interest to be part of those conversations and how you balance that?” Kayla Huynh from the Cap Times asked.
Monica Santana Rosen, the CEO of the Alma Advisory Group, which consulted on the superintendent search, explained why the board thought it was important to provide a platform for students, in particular, to ask questions of the candidates, but she did not answer why additional panels were not made available to the public.
“In the end, we felt it was better to prioritize the conversations that were going to bring the best information to the broader community,” Rosen said. “We really wanted to hear what the students had to ask the candidate and how each of them were going to respond.”
“Ultimately,” she added, “the board prioritizes students and parents as those who really are the closest and have a lot at stake in giving them the opportunity to have that platform and share it with the rest of the community.”
In late January, the district announced three finalists for superintendent: Mohammed Choudhury, the former state superintendent of the Maryland State Department of Education; Joe Gothard, the superintendent of Saint Paul Public Schools and a former Madison principal; and Yvonne Stokes, a former superintendent of Hamilton Southeastern Schools in Indiana. On Feb. 6 the district hosted two interview panels; one led by students and another by parents and caretakers. These were livestreamed but neither the public nor media could attend in person. The interview panels held on Feb. 7 were not livestreamed or open to the public or media at all.
Nichols said she called the news conference “to come back and really reflect on the integrity of this process, and try to close the loop on anything that might have been misunderstood.”
“As a board we established a shared purpose early on in this search process to really lead a transparent process, a process that was accessible and guided by the input of our greater Madison community. And we also wanted to design a process that would mitigate bias every step of the way.”
She said the “community has shown up” by participating in surveys and ultimately serving as interviewers. About 300 people had expressed interest in serving on the panels, with more than 100 ultimately chosen.
“These were unprecedented efforts for us compared to previous searches and as a board we have a rich body of information to support our decision-making.”
Rosen praised the board for its work “at every stage of this process.”
“They centered their work on community voice and ensured that this process was accessible to everyone,” Rosen said. In the end, she said, the board “successfully identified three outstanding finalists for the role.”
When asked how Choudhury, who resigned from his previous post while facing substantial criticism over his leadership, made the cut as a finalist, Rosen shared that the board wanted to evaluate the “totality” of each candidate’s career.
Rosen avoided saying anything specific about Choudhury and did not address the published criticisms of the candidate. But she noted that references had been “analyzed” and the competencies of each candidate “evaluated” through board interviews and a review of all past jobs.
For each candidate, Rosen said, “The board took a holistic view of their backgrounds and experiences.” References were spoken to and the board looked “very comprehensively at the press” on the candidates. She said they found criticism as well as support.
“And so you're really looking at the full puzzle, not just what shows up in the media, but all of these other aspects and everything at the end of the day grounded in competencies: Do the candidates have the skills set required for this job? And each of these candidates did, which is why they came before the community,” Rosen said.
Lila Szyryj from WMTV15 asked “what are some of the problems that the district has seen that you are actively trying to address with this new superintendent hire?”
“I think that what we will want [from] the next superintendent is to really come in and understand the investments that this district has already made,” Nichols answered. She noted that students are facing challenges, particularly from the pandemic, and that the board is looking for a “leader to come in who can cast a vision,” provide stability, and help the board and district stay “student-centered.”
The board met in closed session the night of the news conference to continue its evaluation of each candidate. Members will be evaluating the feedback of the more than 100 panelists, emails from the community and concerns of parents and students. The board expects to announce a final decision no later than early March.
Madison school officials have faced criticism for a lack of transparency in recent years. During the last superintendent search in 2020, former Cap Times reporter Scott Girard requested the public comments submitted on the finalists online or at public forums. The district initially refused to release the records, but changed its position when Girard said he would write about the district’s refusal.
In August 2023, the district agreed to pay $18,000 to settle an open records lawsuit with the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty. In January 2020 the group had requested instructional documents it argued would be racially discriminatory.
And in the spring of 2023, Tim LeMonds, the former public information officer at the school district, sued to bar the release of a 14-page complaint against him, filed by current and former staffers. A Dane County Circuit Court judge ordered that the district release the records, citing the “significant public interest in the release of documents pertaining to investigations and public employees.”
The complaint revealed that LeMonds bullied employees and reporters. LeMonds resigned in August after an outside investigation found that he “engaged in retaliation against and bullying toward” two district employees and that he “was dishonest with district employees, including his supervisor, and insubordinate toward his supervisor.”
