We have a crisis in Colorado Springs that only a real leader can resolve.

The metro area’s central District 11 performs among the worst school systems in the state. Most of the district’s students cannot read and write at grade level or complete simple math equations. Black lives matter, but the minds of Black and other non-white students are left behind in D-11 schools at a disproportionate rate that comprises institutionalized racial injustice. We need all students to learn regardless of demographic identity.

Our failing central school district is a paradigm of disgrace in the country’s most desirable city, as ranked by U.S. News & World Report last week. Blessed with generous taxpayers, enviable revenues and successful households, D-11 ranks 158th in proficiency among the state’s 183 districts. It is in the bottom 15%. Why? Colorado Springs deserves better. Multiple districts with lower-income households and less tax support perform better. Parents who know and care about the problem are justifiably pulling their children from D-11 and inadvertently contributing to plummeting enrollment, a downward spiral that exacerbates problems.

Voters responded in November by electing a new majority to the board. Those new members quickly encouraged the resignation of Superintendent Michael Thomas – who ran the district through four consecutive years of academic regression after voters approved a massive tax hike in 2017 on the promise of better results.

This week the board has a chance to quickly improve the district’s trajectory and get the results voters hoped for when they elected them. The board will interview three finalists to replace Thomas, and they must find a leader – a proven agent of change. Business as usual cannot be an option, as it means failing our children.

The board deserves accolades for finding an impressive finalist pool, which includes District 49 Chief Education Officer Peter Hilts; Tammy Clementi, a career educator and self-described “agent of change” who managed Turnaround Schools for the Colorado Department of Education and served as the chief academic officer for schools in Aurora and Pueblo; and Michael Gaal, a former Air Force fighter pilot who served as deputy superintendent for schools in Detroit, Oakland, and Washington, D.C.; 

The board will interview finalists in public meetings on Tuesday, at the Tesla Professional Development Building auditorium, 2560 International Circle. Interviews are scheduled at 4 p.m. with Hilts, 6 p.m. with Clementi, and 8 p.m. with Gaal.

The board must choose a finalist ready to lead a turnaround – a leader with the skills, track record, and an uncompromising focus on improving academic results.

The right hire may or may not have the resume of a typical academic administrator. The right leader will be bold, strong, fearless and ready to initiate creative solutions that don’t fit the outdated model that is failing. The new superintendent must lead with a constant knowledge that our schools should teach children to compete and survive. The right leader will put student needs ahead of union and political agendas that distract from fundamental learning. The new leader must have a history of identifying problems and opportunities and addressing them decisively and quickly.

The new leader must love the children of D-11 schools so much that he or she will stand up to antagonists and take the heat that accompanies hard-earned success. No good deed goes unpunished, and the right leader will not cave to establishment pressure.

Given the plight of D-11, which fights to keep the state from imminently commandeering control of Mitchell High School, we need a superintendent with skills and passion reminiscent of Joe Louis Clark. He’s the principal who changed the futures of students attending East Side High School in Patterson, New Jersey, in the 1980s.

Proficiency scores at East Side were so bad the state planned to take control. The newly hired Clark, a former Army Reserve drill instructor, confronted his faculty for failing to prepare students to succeed. He demanded better outcomes and fired teachers who did not rise to the occasion. Clark initiated tutorial programs, including a remedial reading program on Saturdays. He worked directly with families to achieve participation. Results came quickly, and the story was made famous when Morgan Freeman portrayed Clark in the hit 1989 movie “Stand by Me.”

The D-11 board needs to find a leader who will crusade like Clark, standing up against all forces to improve student outcomes. A mind is a terrible thing to waste. Choose a leader worthy of our children and give that person the authority, tools and support to help all of them succeed.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The public may review each finalist’s resume https://www.d11.org/SuperintendentSearch.

Colorado Springs Gazette editorial board