New Hawaii public schools Superintendent Christina Kishimoto comes into office Aug. 1 aiming to make Hawaii “the No. 1 state in terms of educational quality.”
There’s nothing wrong with thinking big, but overpromising only puts a political target on her back.
A more realistic goal would be to continue the steady progress made by her predecessor, Kathryn Matayoshi, in lifting our schools from the performance pits that historically put us closer to No. 50 than No. 1.
Matayoshi was dismissed by the Board of Education despite achieving improvement in student reading and math scores, graduating more students on time and better preparing them for college.
Her ouster had more to do with politics than performance; in pushing schools to do better, she ran afoul of the politically potent teachers union and disgruntled principals who helped elect Gov. David Ige.
Kishimoto, 48, will be paid $240,000 a year — $40,000 more than Matayoshi — and says all the right things about involving communities in “student-
centered schools,” but it’ll be a daunting task if her job tenure depends primarily on making teachers and principals happy.
She’s also challenged by coming into the job with little community or political enthusiasm behind her.
Ige appeared to push former principal Darrel Galera, who worked with first lady Dawn Amano-Ige at Moanalua High, but questionable efforts to position him for the job forced him to withdraw his candidacy.
Kishimoto, most recently superintendent of Gilbert Public Schools in Arizona, became a finalist along with Maryland schools consultant Linda Chen.
Neither, however, made big impressions in public appearances here and many complained about the lack of a local candidate.
Concerns arose about Kishimoto’s previous dismissal as superintendent of Hartford Public Schools in Connecticut after receiving low performance marks.
There’s much public wariness in Hawaii of high-priced mainland hires who bring baggage from earlier jobs.
Former University of Hawaii President M.R.C. Greenwood and former rail CEO Daniel Grabauskas, also hired after controversial tenures in previous positions, both ended up forced out amid much acrimony.
Faring equally poorly here are hires who come in making big promises that are impossible to fulfill, such as former UH President Evan Dobelle. Like Greenwood and Grabauskas, he ended up the main course at a political feeding frenzy.
But the Board of Education has made its decision, and the hope here is that Kishimoto is given the benefit of the doubt and a fair chance to succeed before those who questioned her appointment go to work on bringing her down.
Our public schools are too important to continue the endless toxic politics that subject our children to subpar learning in hot and decrepit classrooms.
At some point, we must pause the constant reinvention of public education and give somebody the space to draw and implement an improvement plan.
