The State Board of Education explores if they can help or intervene in the Omaha Public School Board’s superintendent search. The discussion takes place during a work session in Lincoln on Thursday.
All 3 recent OPS Superintendent candidates withdrew from the search; two of them because they were informed the board wouldn’t unanimously choose one.
“Sadly in the case of Omaha and I’m just going to put it the way I see it you have a case of a board that doesn’t appear to be functional. It’s affecting their ability to get a superintendent,” Pat McPherson, a NBE Member who represents Omaha.
The state board of education says that they legally can’t do much to help Omaha, but they can offer help and support for the OPS Board if they want it.
Nebraska is a “Local Control” state when it comes to superintendents and the board members.
“I propose however that we start doing work with boards in a fashion and with school board association and others that would be logical to do that work,” said Matt Blomstedt, Commissioner of the NE Board of Education.
A law passed in 2014 allowed the state identify Omaha’s Druid Hill Elementary as one of 3 “Priority Schools” to help them improve, but they said there was no need to give the o-p-s board direction since they had a good working relationship with administrators.
“In this case we do not have a contingency plan and it looks like we might if you will implement one or initiate a contingency plan in such a situation,” said John Witzel, NBE Member who represents the NE/SE Omaha area.
Board members said they’d like to have more options in the future.
