January, 2008 Memo to the Madison School Board: Hire the Best. 1/07/2008: School Board releases five candidate names.

Sixty years ago at the University of Chicago a newly hired professor gave a lecture which started with the following:

When a University Department seeks a new chair, one of three things will occur:

A) Deterioration
If the University chooses a chairwoman who hires people less talented than she is, the Department will deteriorate.

B) Status Quo
If the University chooses a chairman who hires people of equivalent talent, the Department will remain as is.

C) Improve
If the University chooses a chairwoman who hires people more talented than she is, the Department will improve.

The chairman was in the first row and he beamed.

The Department grew to be magnificent.

We, the undersigned urge the Madison School District's Board of Education to choose a Superintendent who will act as Chicago's chairman did, so that the Madison Metropolitan School District will grow to be the School District Madison [2.2MB PDF "2008 Madison Measures"] needs.

Signatures:

Roseanne Drake-Schmitz Becky Baumbach Ed Blume Pamela Keehn Steffen Lempp Cara Hoffert Rebecca Cole Gabriele Meyer Becky Van Houten Ingrid Beamsley Richard Askey Bob Kilpatrick Katherine Rosing Andrea Nilsen Mary Kamp Deborah Elsas Elizabeth Dohrn Mariel Wozniak (MMSD Coordinator of Fine Arts 1990-2002) Joan Knoebel Mike Rosing Jim Zellmer