Shawnee Mission schools looking for a new superintendent. Outsiders need not apply

The Shawnee Mission School District is looking for a new superintendent, but outsiders need not apply.

Citing the importance of continuity, school board members voted to keep their search for a new leader in-house. By only considering internal options to replace soon-to-be-retired Superintendent Mike Fulton, the Shawnee Mission school board is severely limiting the pool of potential candidates — and all but ensuring that diversity will be lacking among the applicants.

The district’s executive leadership team remains predominantly white, including the top two deputy superintendents. If the district places any value on attracting a diverse pool of candidates, an internal search for the next leader likely won’t accomplish that objective.

Of the 11 top district leaders listed in an online database, nine are white, including four women. One person on the executive team is Black, and another is of Hispanic descent, district officials said.

While hiring David Smith as chief communications officer and hiring Tyrone Bates as coordinator of diversity, equity, and inclusion were steps in the right direction, Fulton’s cabinet is still short on administrators of color. Smith and Bates are Black.

Both the lack of diversity among current administrators and the school board’s decision to do an internal search call into question the district’s commitment to offering equitable opportunities to all.

Every eligible employee who seeks the position will be considered, school board president Heather Ousley said.

“We have qualified candidates who have worked in the district since we instituted our strategic plan,” she said. “We built equity and inclusion into every step of the plan.”

Fulton has championed equity since he was hired in 2018. But some minority parents say the district has lacked urgency in addressing the needs of all students during his tenure. Others say Fulton was hamstrung by district politics and the influence of powerful stakeholders.

Shawnee Mission schools’ demographics changing

The Shawnee Mission School District is in the second year of a five-year strategic plan that includes an emphasis on equitable opportunities for students of color and advancement for non-white administrators. And some progress has been made.

The district’s investment in cultural proficiency training could bear fruit over time. A plan to target historically Black colleges and universities when hiring teachers is a promising strategy. The Grow Our Own initiative to recruit former students of color to come back to work in the district is in the early stages.

The demographics of the district and its student body are changing. Staff and district leadership have yet to follow suit. While Shawnee Mission’s student population has become more diverse in recent years, the faculty and staff remain predominantly white.

This year, more than 28% of Shawnee Mission’s nearly 25,740 K-12 students are Hispanic or Black, yet the makeup of faculty doesn’t reflect that. At the secondary level, the district has just one person of color at the associate principal level or above.

Even more troubling: Shawnee Mission school board members are all white, and the board has never included a person of color.

Last year, long-time school board member Brad Stratton announced that he would not seek reelection after his term is up in 2023.

Citing the lack of diversity on the board, Stratton pledged to grow a diverse list of possible candidates to replace him. He referred questions about the superintendent search to Ousley.

“An internal candidate can easily meet the needs of the district,” Ousley said.

The market for top-tier superintendent candidates is tight, consultants say. External candidates are expensive and may want to implement their own vision. And outside candidates were hired the last two times the Shawnee Mission School District conducted a superintendent search.

But in a district where 36% of students are minorities, the lack of effort to ensure that the next superintendent is selected from a diverse pool of candidates is a disservice to all.