Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) "I was surprised that they found a superintendent in such a short time," Buffalo parent advocate Sam Radford told WBEN, two days after the announcement that Dr Pascal Mubenga is the new leader of Buffalo Public Schools.
"With four school board members leaving in January, I thought they might have done what they have done in the past, by leaving an interim superintendent in place, and let the new school board make the decision. I'm a wait and see kind of person. We'll see how this plays out," he said.
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Radford was also surprised that the board went with a national search, as opposed to searching in-house.
"When you bring a new person in from out of town, there's a learning curve. It takes time for them to adjust."
Dr. Mubenga, he said, does have a really good track record in terms of academic outcomes. He turned around a school district in Durham, North Carolina, something that Radford said Buffalo needs right now.
Mubenga, however, resigned from that district in Durham after a pay dispute controversy. It involved a promised raise for staff that the district did not have the funds for.
Radford said that is definitely a red flag, but he was satisfied with Mubenga's explanation and said it couldn't happen in Buffalo because of the system in place here.
There are two challenges that Radford said the new superintendent will face, when he takes over August 15.
"The first is that he has never worked outside of North Carolina in his 38 year career. It's going to be very different dealing with the strength of the union, and not being able to move teachers as easily as you can in North Carolina is going to be a bit of a culture shock," he said,
The second thing is an expected high turnover in senior staff people. Radford said how he adjusts to that to get the best outcome for kids is something that is going to be incumbent on all of us, he added.