The situation facing the Nashua Board of Education is not an enviable one: replace your top three administrators in a fairly short period of time and do it in such a way that the transition doesn’t adversely effect the district’s students and staff.

The departure of Superintendent Mark Conrad and Assistant Superintendents Karen Crebase and Jennifer Seusing leaves a big hole in the district from the standpoint of experience and institutional memory.

Public bodies, far too often, go about filling high-profile vacancies in much the same way that the Vatican’s College of Cardinals approach finding a new pope: they huddle behind closed doors, say little-to-nothing publicly and leave taxpayers to watch for the puffs of white smoke that signals a decision has been arrived at.

That kind of secretiveness wrongly assumes that all of the wisdom resides with those who have to make the decision. Given the fact that – by several accounts – one of the reasons the administrators are leaving in the first place is because of board dysfunction, it’s safe to assume the board could benefit from some of the wisdom that resides in the community itself.

Which is one reason the public should be pleased with the way the board has gone about choosing an interim superintendent thus far.

Three finalists for the job were invited to an open house at Nashua High School North last Monday to meet the public. Then they were interviewed – in public – by board members, who asked some questions that were submitted ahead of time by the public and had some of their own as well.

About three dozen people turned out to meet the candidates – Ruthann Petruno-Goguen, Matthew Malone (who has since taken a job elsewhere) and Betsey Cox-Buteau – who answered questions about curriculum, promoting achievement, managing the budget and their overall vision for the district in the interim role.

The flavor of the answers given by the candidates was, predictably, vanilla. Each sought to position themselves as collaborative leaders with a kids-first philosophy. It should come as no surprise that none sought to grab the mantle of dictator.

It’s hard to know just how much more forthcoming the candidates would have been had the interviews taken place behind closed doors, but each was impressive in their own way and there is a certain value to having the process take place out in the open.

"Trust the process" is a mantra that gets thrown around a lot – usually, we suspect, by those who control the process – but it’s a saying that is only as good as the process itself.

It was important that the board engage the public early in the selection process, and board members deserve credit for doing so. That is especially crucial given that public confidence in the school board may not be at an all-time high right now, between the departure of the administrators and the vote last fall to privatize custodial services throughout the district. It’s also important because taxpayers need to feel they have a stake in the outcome beyond just paying the bills.

Giving the public a voice in the process early makes it more likely that they will have confidence in the outcome.

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