By Theresa Vargas
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 15, 2008

The Alexandria School Board has narrowed its superintendent search to three candidates, including one who had already decided to leave his struggling school district after coming under criticism by state education officials.

Michael Glascoe, superintendent of Paterson Public Schools in New Jersey, announced in January that he would be stepping down at the end of June. The announcement followed a warning by the state's education commissioner that his contract would not be renewed unless improvements were seen.

In a letter to New Jersey Education Commissioner Lucille Davy, Glascoe explained his resignation, writing: "It is clear you will not give me your complete trust and support in this effort. Without that trust and support, in the end the children will be the losers, the progress will stall, and it might even reverse."

Paterson has 52 schools and 30,000 students, according to the system's Web site. Alexandria has 17 schools and 10,557 students.

Glascoe emerged as a finalist for the superintendent's job in a brief news release issued by Alexandria schools late yesterday. The release said that preliminary interviews were done and that two board members and one community member would conduct site visits of the three candidates' school systems.

The other finalists are Scott Kizner, superintendent of Martinsville City Public Schools in Virginia, a small district with 2,600 students, and Eric Williams, assistant superintendent of Collier County Public Schools in Naples, Fla. According to news reports, Williams has applied for at least 10 superintendents jobs in the Southeast. Collier County schools serve nearly 43,000 students.

"I'm interested in serving in a superintendent position," Williams told the Naples Daily News this month, after interviewing for a position in Knoxville, Tenn. "I'm attracted to the challenge of focusing on students' achievements while also managing the daily operation of a school district."

The new superintendent is expected to start in July.

The three candidates were narrowed from a pool of 65 applicants. The search firm Ray & Associates narrowed the list to 12 semifinalists. William Newman, the firm's national executive director, told The Washington Post this month that Ray & Associates was "very pleased with the quality of the pool."

Although some parents and board members had expressed concern that the board's contentious relationship with former superintendent Rebecca L. Perry would discourage qualified candidates from applying, he said that the firm "felt it had no effect on the search."