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Education Finalist Quit A Job Amid Unrest

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By MARILYN BROWN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 28, 2007

TAMPA - One of three finalists for Florida's education commissioner resigned from his last superintendency in the wake of teacher union distrust and an unflattering audit.

Those stinging reports in The Washington Post made little difference to the Milwaukee search company that proposed Eric J. Smith for the Florida job, said Nancy Noeske, president of Proact Search Inc.

Media clips or background of the messy last days of Smith's tenure in the Anne Arundel School District in Maryland weren't included in the information given Florida Board of Education members who met in Tampa last week to interview seven candidates, she said.

In 2005, The Washington Post reported on a district audit alleging Smith had awarded substantial pay raises to senior staff and that the hiring division had handed out unauthorized bonuses to top executives brought in by Smith without the knowledge of the school board. The paper then reported on a union survey of teachers showing he lacked support in matters of trust and cooperation.

'There's all kinds of allegations,' Noeske said Thursday. 'From what I remember, when there were things the audit brought up, they corrected it.'

Noeske said when state Board Chairman T. Willard Fair asked whether Smith had anything in his background to be concerned about, she told him there were conflicts with some school board members in Maryland, but 'there was really nothing to them.'

'I don't think I went into too many details,' Noeske said. 'We figured you guys would do your job,' she said, referring to the media.

Fair confirmed that Noeske had given him no details but said he has asked her for a written report before the committee interviews the three finalists in Tampa on Oct. 8.

'I said that would be one of the questions I would raise publicly for explanation,' Fair said Thursday. 'I'd like an explanation from him. Now that he's in the final cut, there's no holds barred.'

The other finalists are Joseph Marinelli, a district superintendent for 25 school districts in five counties in New York, and Cheri Pierson Yecke, Florida's K-12 education chancellor since 2006. Fair said he had no similar questions on the background of either.

Smith said Thursday, 'If you want to make changes, you ruffle feathers, and those certainly were controversial issues that drew headlines.'

Smith, who has been vice president for college readiness of The College Board since 2006, said he did nothing unethical or illegal and that The Washington Post never uncovered anything to dispute that.

'I wasn't forced out by anybody,' Smith said.

He said his exit from the district had nothing to do with the audit or the union.

'I felt I had done the job I needed to do,' he said.

Michael G. Leahy, a school board member in Anne Arundel then and now, said, 'Dr. Smith came in and turned the world upside down.

'I think he's brilliant,' Leahy said. 'He understands the synthesis of dealing with a multitude of types of kids ... I would have no reservation at hiring him.'

Leahy called Smith's problems 'a clash of personalities that reached a point that a majority of the board wasn't going to let him be effective.'

Smith has a national reputation for academic change. He was North Carolina Superintendent of the Year and finalist for national superintendent in 2002 as he completed six years as Charlotte-Mecklenburg's superintendent. There and in Anne Arundel, Smith was credited for helping close the achievement gap for minority students and increasing enrollment in advanced placement classes.

Reporter Marilyn Brown can be reached at (813) 259-8069 or mbrown@tampatrib.com.

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