Four Finalists Chosen For D.C. Schools Chief

A committee of city officials and residents agreed last night on four finalists to run the District's public education system, according to members of the committee.

The finalists, all professional educators, are Clifford B. Janey, 58, the former superintendent in Rochester, N.Y.; Eugene T.W. Sanders, 47, superintendent in Toledo; Robert E. Schiller, 57, superintendent of the Illinois State Board of Education; and John W. Thompson, 59, superintendent in Pittsburgh.

Members of the committee, which included Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) and members of the D.C. Council and Board of Education, identified the finalists on condition of anonymity.

The panel was cloistered for nearly eight hours in a hotel near the Capitol, and the selection process was so secretive that members of the search committee did not know the names of the candidates until they entered the interview room.

The meeting adjourned at 9:30 p.m. with four finalists picked by general consensus out of seven people interviewed Thursday and yesterday. Several officials who are in a collaborative responsible for recommending a candidate to the Board of Education stayed behind to discuss the finalists.

"The collaborative has not come to a decision," said school board President Peggy Cooper Cafritz, who declined to comment further on the search.

The interviews and the selection of the finalists represent a new chapter in the city's prolonged search for a permanent chief to replace Paul L. Vance, who resigned in November. Two interim chiefs have led the 64,000-student system since then.

In addition to the four finalists, the three candidates who were interviewed are Marion Canedo, recently retired superintendent in Buffalo; Meria Carstarphen, executive director for school improvement and accountability in Kingsport, Tenn.; and Candy Lee, a former United Airlines executive who was a finalist in an earlier round of the search process.

Members of the search committee suggested that they hope to reach a consensus on a candidate in the next two weeks. The mayor and several aides are to travel to Boston today to attend the Democratic National Convention.

The search process ground to a halt last month after the front-runner, Carl A. Cohn, former Long Beach, Calif., superintendent, withdrew from consideration. In May, another leading candidate, former New York schools chancellor Rudolph F. Crew, dropped out to lead the system in Miami-Dade County, Fla.

By late last night, the consensus of the committee was around seasoned educators who had dealt with the messy finances and personnel of urban school systems and worked in school districts with many low-income children.

The candidates, most of whom could not be reached yesterday, come from diverse backgrounds.

Janey was named a vice president at Scholastic Inc., the New York-based educational publishing firm, after a long tenure in Rochester, where he headed the schools from 1995 to 2002. In his final year, the system reeled from a budget crisis and Janey feuded with board members. Janey, a graduate of Northeastern University, holds a doctorate from Boston University and spent most of his career in Boston's public schools.

Sanders, who has a doctorate from Bowling Green State University, has received high marks from school board members in Toledo, where he became superintendent in 2000 after a career as a principal and professor. In a brief interview yesterday, he said he built political support for an $823 million school construction and renovation program and raised academic performance.

"I've had a wonderful day here in the capital," he said.

Schiller, who has a doctorate in education from the University of Pennsylvania, was a state education official in New Jersey, Louisiana, Delaware and Michigan. In 1997, he was a finalist for the superintendent's position in Fairfax County, and in 1997 and 1998, he was interim schools chief in Baltimore. He led the school district in Shreveport, La., before taking the Illinois position in 2002.

Thompson, a former superintendent in Tulsa, took over Pittsburgh's schools in 2000 and soon proposed raising property taxes and closing underused schools. A commission appointed by Mayor Thomas J. Murphy concluded last year that the schools were "beset by poor performance" and "a very public record of failed leadership and governance and community indifference," but Thompson has retained the support of key members of the city's board.

"They were spectacular candidates, really the best in the nation," said a member of the D.C. school board who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We were really pleased. I was floored."

The member said the atmosphere was "very collegial." Each candidate gave a brief presentation, and search committee members took turns asking questions.