By the time the announcement was made around midnight, only a handful of people remained to hear the verdict. But the mayor, who also chairs the school committee, said the ultimate decision conformed to the views of many Cambridge residents who had provided input into the selection.
“From the public panel we had, he was overwhelmingly the choice of those folks,” Sullivan said. “He has educational knowledge and the ability to bring people together.”
On their visit to Fort Wayne last week, committee members interviewed members of the teachers union, which had previously taken a “no confidence” vote in the superintendent, and with a member of the local school board who had voted against his initial appointment—all of whom now enthusiastically endorsed Fowler-Finn.
They also met with black ministers, the local NAACP chapter and the Latino chamber of commerce, who gave them “consistent feedback that change did happen” in the district, according to committee member Joseph G. Grassi, noting that the achievement gap between minority and white students had closed by 30 to 40 percent.
Another of the finalists—Claudia L. Bach, the schools chief in Andover, Mass.—presented an impressive resume, but her candidacy suffered from the fact that she did not run an urban district like Cambridge, committee member Alice L. Turkel said.
Selecting Bach would have required “a leap of faith,” she said. “For Thomas Fowler-Finn there was no leap required. He was walking the walk.”
Walser pointed to Fowler-Finn’s experience in Fort Wayne—a district like Cambridge, although three times as large—where residents praised their superintendent and seemed not to want to let him go.
“We were met by many, many members of the community who begged us not to offer this job to Mr. Fowler-Finn,” she said. “His proven experience was very impressive.”
“I really think we’re choosing the best among the greatest,” Turkel said. “I think we will see real change that we need in the system.”
—Staff writer Andrew S. Holbrook can be reached at holbr@fas.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Claire A. Pasternack can be reached at cpastern@fas.harvard.edu.