Brady

PROVIDENCE — Thomas M. Brady, the city’s prospective superintendent, will need a waiver from the state Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education because he doesn’t meet all of the prerequisites for a Rhode Island superintendent’s certificate.

This may be the first time that the regents have been asked to waive the regulations for a school superintendent, according to Deputy Education Commissioner David Abbott.

“It’s pretty rare that we would do this,” he said, “but I don’t see it as controversial.”

Brady, who is currently interim superintendent of the Philadelphia school district, has taken a non-traditional path to the superintendency. After a 25-year career in the Army, Brady retired, and, in 1999, was appointed chief operating officer of the Fairfax, Va., schools, where he had served as president of a parent-teacher organization.

In 2004, he was asked to participate in the prestigious Broad Center, a nationally recognized program that trains leaders from the private and public sectors to run urban school districts.

The Rhode Island regulations call for a superintendent to hold an advanced degree, including a masters’ degree, complete 36 hours of graduate-level course work and have eight years of educational experience in teaching and administration.

Brady meets most of those requirements, but he has not attended a formal graduate program in education, nor does he have classroom experience. Mayor David N. Cicilline, who recruited the new superintendent and submitted the request for a waiver, said Brady has more than enough experience to manage a large urban school system.

“I set forth the qualifications in terms that I don’t think anyone can question,” Cicilline said. “The requirement calls for an advanced degree or a master’s. He has a masters’ degree in human resources management. He also ran the eighth-largest school district in the country.”

According to Abbott, the regents have to weigh whether Brady’s year at Broad, combined with his nearly 10 years of educational experience, satisfy the graduate-level course requirements of the Rhode Island superintendent’s certificate.

Abbott certainly thinks so, “I’d put what Mr. Brady received from Broad against what I got at Rhode Island College.”

The Broad Center is an intensive, year-long program that trains CEOs to think like educational leaders. Through a combination of case theory, small and large-group discussion and independent research, Broad participants are schooled in how to be effective leaders, close achievement gaps, understand test data, develop a budget and work with the community and school unions.

The curriculum is approached from the perspective of a CEO, focusing on key issues in the CEO’s first year as superintendent and on helping him or her develop a theory of change for the school district.

Peter McWalters, the state commissioner of elementary and secondary education, said he believes that Brady’s resumé is impressive enough to merit a waiver from the state regulations. McWalters, in a letter to the regents, is recommending that they give Brady a superintendent’s certificate.

“I have reviewed Mr. Brady’s resumé,” McWalters wrote, “and find that his credentials, both education and experience … are more than adequate for Mr. Brady to assume the responsibilities of superintendent of the Providence schools.”

On Friday, School Board President Mary McClure said she wasn’t aware that Brady didn’t meet all of the state requirements. McClure said that she asked the mayor’s office to review his qualifications because she said that the School Board had neither the time nor the expertise to vet his resumé.

The timing of Brady’s appointment took some people by surprise. No sooner had Supt. Donnie Evans handed in his resignation in mid-March, effective Sept. 19, than Cicilline and the School Board announced that a new superintendent had been chosen. At the time of Brady’s appointment, Cicilline said that the district couldn’t afford another protracted superintendent search. The district, Cicilline said, needed a strong leader and it needed one right away.

After a number of frank conversations with Evans before the resignation announcement, Cicilline said he had to prepare for the possibility that Evans might step down or that the School Board might not appoint him. The mayor approached the Broad Center in January and asked officials to recommend a candidate. Brady was the group’s top choice.

Once Evans announced his resignation, Cicilline moved quickly, inviting Brady to meet with the School Board, which voted unanimously in mid-March to appoint him. .

lborg@projo.com