New Era of Leadership?

The 10-month long merger process and the turnover in leadership have badly shaken public confidence in the district’s ability to guide the city’s schools.

“What ended up happening was the credibility of the system was on the line, and I think still is today, because of the inability to communicate,” Sullivan says.

At a recent meeting with representatives from local universities to discuss Cambridge’s schools, Turkel said that although she thought city schools are actually doing better now than they were 10 years ago, in the public’s eyes their credibility has plummeted.

“If we can’t turn around public perception we will lose middle class families and our university families,” she said. “We will lose our ability to be anything other than a school system of last resort.”

Parent Mark McGovern says the district needs new school committee members—leaders who will have a clear vision and let the new superintendent do his job.

“You would watch these meetings and it was almost like children squabbling with each other,” says McGovern, a candidate for the school committee in this fall’s election. “The result was that not much got accomplished. There didn’t seem to be any kind of leadership or clear academic goals.”

Fowler-Finn will inherit this legacy when he takes the helm this fall.

“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.”

Fowler-Finn currently runs the public schools in Fort Wayne, Ind., an urban district that is much larger in population but demographically similar to Cambridge.

He is credited with having improved public confidence in a cash-strapped district and improving minority achievement. He has said that he will apply his experience in reducing the achievement gap in Fort Wayne schools by 30 to 40 percent when he arrives in Cambridge.

“The problems of public education are the same across the country: student achievement and closing the achievement gap,” he said just after he was offered the post. “I think I can make a huge difference in the lives of those students.”

Fowler-Finn will restore “credibility, integrity, and faith in the system,” Sullivan says.

Fowler-Finn’s contract ups the superintendent’s salary to $175,000 a year. More importantly, his contract will give him unprecedented authority over the district.

“We have no authority over anything anymore,” Turkel joked last week. “Basically he’s employing us instead of us employing him!”