Once again, LMSD is on the hunt for a new superintendent. Over the past four years, LMSD has seen four different superintendents, with an ongoing search taking place for another. While LM students may believe this is the norm, it is anything but. A survey conducted in 2018 by the Broad Center at Yale found that in 100 of the largest school districts in America, the average superintendent tenure was around six years long. So why does this number vary so greatly from our own district, and what impact has it had over the past several years?
One could point to the global pandemic as the catalyst for this phenomenon. In 2021, Robert Copeland retired from his role as the district’s superintendent, writing in his farewell letter and announcement to the district, “[2020] has forced me to reevaluate many plans for my family and myself” and “what I realized was I, like everyone else, lost a year… When you get to retirement age, you don’t have as many years to make up for lost time.” After the initial chaos of the pandemic and its educational fallout that required LMSD to shut down its schools and offices, the district lost one of its most important pillars; Copeland had served as superintendent for six years. Before him, Dr. Wagner Marseille acted as the interim superintendent, and Dr. Marseille’s predecessor, Christopher McGinley, was in office for six years.
Following Copeland’s retirement, Dr. Khalid N. Mumin took over the role, serving admirably by planting the seeds of the exploration of healthy start times, universal full-day kindergarten, and finalizing the field space for Black Rock Middle School. However, his work soon drew the attention of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who appointed him as the Pennsylvania Secretary of Education after only fifteen months of serving as LMSD’s superintendent. In his farewell letter, Mumin referred to the new position as “an offer I couldn’t refuse.”
After Mumin’s departure, the district employed Megan Shafer as its new acting superintendent. Shafer had been with the district since 2011, including serving as the Assistant to the Superintendent for District Administration. She served as an interim until the next person could be found. Shafer’s primary directive was to move along the aforementioned plans of Mumin’s tenure, and she proved capable of doing so well enough. After seven months of searching, the district decided on Dr. Steven Yanni, who had previously served as superintendent for two other districts. Finally, Dr. Yanni finalized the plans to shift start times after years of debate and implemented universal full-day kindergarten. However, after less than a year, Yanni received an offer for the same position from the school district of his hometown, Bucks County. LMSD immediately deployed another search team and employed Shafer as the acting superintendent once again, who now presides over the district while the school board attempts to find yet another replacement.
However, LMSD Executive Assistant to the Superintendent Denise LaPera views this recent development as an inevitable part of district management, claiming that this shouldn’t be viewed as “a lot of turnover” or a “trend.” LaPera, who has served as the Executive Assistant to the Superintendent throughout the terms of the aforementioned superintendents, explains that “the administration has a consistent role within the district and continues to focus on supporting and educating the students.” Elaborating on her own position throughout the past several years, LaPera says her role “is one that does not and should not change with each superintendent… it is an expectation that my boss will change every so many years.” She later added that “the best part of my job is that each day is different.” Clearly, the district feels there is no cause for panic on this matter; LaPera believes acting superintendent Megan Shafer has been the calming hand on LMSD’s shoulder throughout the entire ordeal. LaPera explains that Shafer has “allowed the transitions to be smooth and has kept the goals of our strategic plan in place” and kept the “important work that gets done regardless of the superintendent” on track.
Clearly, our district believes the recent turnover can be attributed to an unrelated series of events that should inspire no doubt on the future of our leadership. Nonetheless, some still wonder if this has impacted the district’s policies over the years. These startlingly frequent transitions and the constant shift of leadership could be part of the reason our district has seemingly faced something of an identity crisis over the past several years. Some examples of these changes have been the plans for healthy start times, universal full-day kindergarten, and the purchase and subsequent sale of Oakwell.
While a shift in school start times has been on the agenda for the past ten years, it is only now being implemented this year even after it was promised to go into effect a year earlier in September of 2023. While it was not necessarily delayed, the idea of universal full-day kindergarten played out similarly to this; it was debated for years under several different superintendents until it was finally confirmed to begin in the 2024-2025 school year. Lastly, when LMSD purchased the lands of Oakwell in 2019 under Copeland, they intended it to serve as the upcoming Black Rock Middle School’s athletic fields. However, this August, after several years of turnover and public dismay, the idea was scrapped and the district sold it to Natural Lands, a conservation nonprofit in Media. While the initial purchase was not necessarily the optimal solution to Black Rock’s development needs and was protested by many, this flip in plans resulted in what was essentially a five-year waste of resources and time that could have been invested elsewhere.
How do we end this trend once and for all? Well, one solution could be to hire the next superintendent from within. All the superintendents that have been listed already were hired directly from a different school district and were sought after because they were the candidates with the highest-profile name. However, the problem with this strategy is that when you hire a candidate who was already a superintendent for another district, they are just as likely to leave your position as quickly as they did theirs. This was the case for Dr. Yanni, whose swift departure left many puzzled; LaPera explained, “I am not 100 percent sure why Dr. Yanni left so quickly, but not every decision you make in life turns out to be the right
choice—I wish him well.” Clearly, hiring from the outside isn’t always the best option. The alternative to this approach is cultivating leadership from within, ensuring the loyalty and stability that other candidates may not provide. Thus, the new superintendent would come onboard having had experience and collaboration with LMSD and its staff; a longer and more stable tenure would be likely.
While many other issues and complications have stalled the district’s plans, the relatively short terms of these superintendents could have damaged LMSD’s decisiveness and ability to efficiently carry out its plans on its own desired timeline. All we can do now is hold our breath and wait for whatever decision the district makes next.
