The Vallas news is pretty big. In fact, I'd say that for those of us closely following the mayor's race, the announcement that Vallas is leaving at the end of the school year should be an "Imus moment" if not an "Anna Nicole" moment for the coverage of the race. And who knows? Maybe it will be. (edit to add) And it happens to come on a day when there seems to be no news about the candidates at all!
But I wonder, how much of an influence will the next mayor have on the selection of Vallas' replacement? We've already seen one case in which the next mayor's hands were essentially tied when the board of PHA re-upped Carl Greene for another five years. Each of the candidates had a different response to this, mostly aimed at Mayor Street's decision making, since he chairs the board, rather than at the job Greene has done.
But now, a new replacement will have to be named, sooner rather than later. If Vallas is sticking it out until the end of the school year, it seems like his replacement would need to be lined up pretty early in summer, if not before. We've all been going on the assumption that the winner of the Democratic primary would be the "presumptive mayor" but statutorily, he'd have no more of a standing to make that choice than they guy who sells me my pretzel at 6th and Chestnut. Actually, come to think of it, considering how the SRC functions, the current mayor probably has only slightly more of a standing.
Regardless, the next mayor should have some say and very well may get it behind the scenes by influencing the members of the SRC. Before we can see how this plays out, it's right to wonder if the next mayor will be stuck with a school's chief that they had absolutely no influence - even just be talking to the SRC - in choosing.
Maybe they'd consider an interim CEO? Who knows?
It's also possible that some of the candidates would actually be relieved that it's not their decision to make.
Comments (1)
While the next mayor may not have the authority to make this decision himself, the ammount of respect he commands, and his popularity with Philadelphians will be the the key factor in his choices having some weight with the SRC, or an other regional/state authority. Right now the problem is not just that Street doesn't have authority over the schools- he does not have much of a mandate to speak on behalf of Philadelphians. Many people in positions of authority (I percieve, especially statewide)simply don't take him seriously. We should all be keeping in mind that the next mayor will need to have broad appeal and popularity, and an upstanding record of integrity to have any real influence over our schools and so many other things.
Some of the candidates are running a campaign that primarily appeals to certain races/classes in this city. We simply can not afford another mayor who only gets support from a small pocket of this city. We need someone who will try to look out for all Philadelphians. The future of this city depends upon embracing our diversity.
Posted by Liz | April 12, 2007 12:44 PM