Curious hiring of Torres, but we wish him success

As now seems customary, the Elgin Area School District U-46 school board has made a big decision -- amid broken promises and concerns the public never got a chance to address.

School board members had promised to conduct public interviews of all candidates for the superintendent's job. They did not.

Jose Torres was named the superintendent without a single query posed in public.

The finalists for the post, U-46 tells us, all said they would withdraw if publicly named as candidates. Why? We can only surmise, because the board gives us little real information, that none of them were top tier candidates -- people with a few years at the helm of a smaller district ready to move up.

But we can understand why U-46 would only be able to attract second-tier candidates. The district is barely out of a deep deficit and fighting a multi-million dollar discrimination lawsuit. Because all five of its high schools fail to meet state standards -- notoriously low as they are. All this amid the ruinous rancor left behind by the arrogant and costly former superintendent, Connie Neale. We wouldn't be surprised if no one wanted the job.

Yet Torres did, and for that we give him credit. Still, we don't know much about him, other than that he was born in Puerto Rico, that he's a regional superintendent for Chicago Public Schools and seems an affable and competent person. And we know that he was fired from his only other superintendent's gig after only six months on the job.

We also know details of his new contract, which the district wisely make public. Thus, we know this new contract contains an unusual provision requiring five school board votes, or a super-majority, to fire Torres. Torres said that this properly reflects the seriousness of such a decision. What we don't know is if he asked for this provision because of the quick hook he got in California. Again, we can only surmise -- which many residents of U-46 have already done. This does no one any good -- not Torres, not the school board, not residents of U-46. The board, in its usual half-hearted, half-competent manner, left us no other choice.

What is apparent is that the second-biggest school district in the nation's fifth-largest state was not swamped by untarnished candidates with proven track records of success.

We have no idea who did apply, other than Torres. Again lacking information, we are left to surmise that the best of the candidates willing to take on this dysfunctional district was fired once -- and would only take the job if it was really difficult to get fired a second time.

Still, he has taken the job and has signed the contract. He is the U-46 superintendent.

As such, the Puerto Rican born educator now heads a district nearly 50 percent Hispanic. He believes this connection will help improve district performance.

"Just showing you understand, you connect, goes a long way," he told us recently.

We hope so, because this district has a long way to go. Teacher contract talks were acrimonious (mainly thanks to Connie Neale), which may make academic changes more difficult to institute. Which means raising tests scores in the most needed schools, the middle and high schools, might be more difficult.

Whatever change the district's first Hispanic leader does bring will take place in the shadow of the discrimination lawsuit, which accuses his district of treating black and Hispanic kids like second-class citizens. The district has spent more than $5 million fighting the lawsuit, and so far has shown no interest in settling.

Starting out under this cloud, Torres knows gaining trust won't be easy.

"Trust has to be gained based on actions," Torres said.

We hope his actions are the correct ones. We hope he can improve relationships, between teachers and the administration, between taxpayers and the district. We hope he can build trust. He'll have our support, and we hope he has yours. We also hope he doesn't rely on the school board for too much direction.