School Board Confident About Perry's Replacement

Consultants Say City Will Attract Candidates

With the application deadline looming, more than 123 potential candidates have inquired about replacing Rebecca L. Perry as superintendent of Alexandria City Public Schools.

The deadline for applications is Feb. 19.

School board officials, who allocated $40,000 for the process, said that while relatively few prospects have formally applied so far, they expect to receive many more applications in the next few weeks. Consultants have assured them, they said, that qualified candidates are generally too busy to apply for new positions as the school year begins, and that the winter holidays are when most consider making a move.

"The search is going well, and our consultants, as well as other contacts in the school superintendent world, tell us that our location, district size and pay scale all will work in our favor in securing a superlative superintendent in a competitive market," said School Board Chairwoman Claire M. Eberwein.

Search consultant firm Ray and Associates, based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has been recruiting at superintendent conferences, and the board has been advertising the position in national education publications and on several Web sites. The board is advertising a salary of about $230,000, slightly more than the $226,234 that Perry earns, plus a "comprehensive and competitive" benefits package.

Perry's annual benefits package includes 20 vacation days, 15 sick days, four personal days, insurance, retirement, $10,000 contributed to a tax-sheltered annuity, a $650 monthly car allowance plus mileage for out-of-town travel, continuing education, and leave for seminars, conferences and other education-related activities.

Consultants said that while the pool of qualified superintendents for urban districts is small and competitive, Alexandria has several attractions.

"Alexandria is an interesting town. It's a good place to live, and the history there is having school boards that are bright, with a lot of good staff people in the district," said Paul Houston, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators. "It's a small, diverse community, but it doesn't have huge problems . . . I've talked to a couple people who were interested and were already talking about it."

Houston applauded Alexandria for saying it wants someone eager to take on the challenges that come with diversity. Advertisements note that the student body is "ethnically and economically diverse" and that children come from more than 80 countries and speak nearly 70 languages.

"Alexandria has always played off their diversity as a strength, which is a smart move on their part," he said.

Houston said that one potential drawback in recruiting candidates is Perry's troubled history and tension among board members. Perry, who came to the system in 2001 after leading a rural Southside Virginia district, became a lightning rod for controversy when she was arrested for drunken driving in 2004. Although a number of residents called for her immediate dismissal, the School Board instead gave her time off and a $15,000 raise. In the public outcry that followed, with many residents saying that Perry had lost credibility as a role model, eight of the nine board members decided not to seek reelection.

Ironically, board members said one reason they didn't fire Perry was thatthey were concerned it would scare away future candidates. "If we'd turned her out, we wouldn't have been able to attract good candidates," Vice Chairman Charles H. Wilson told Washington Post columnist Marc Fisher at the time. "The superintendents' world is very small."