There's an opening in Memphis and environs for a school superintendent for the newly unified district for that city and Shelby County. This reporter doesn't know if Minneapolis Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson is interested because she didn't return an inquiry last week. But Johnson now has top dog experience that she didn't have in her stint as deputy supe in Memphis schools. She was recruited to that post by Carol Johnson, the erstwhile Minneapolis chief who jumped to Memphis and later Boston. The new Memphis-area district will include at least 102,000 students, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reports, making it roughly three times the size of the Minneapolis district. Bernadeia Johnson also has roots in the region, having grown up in Selma, Ala. It's unlikely that Johnson is restless to leave Minneapolis only 21 months into her three-year contract, with much of the strategic plan for improving schools incomplete. That includes her two top priorities – teacher evaluations and training teachers how to focus their instruction. But stranger things happen in the world of big-time athletic and superintendent contracts. But as long as there's a possibility, let's link to the musings of Commercial Appeal columnist Wendi C. Thomas on the qualities expected in the ideal candidate for superintendent. Shorn of Memphis-specific material, it's a humorous primer on what we expect in a superintendent, including as Thomas suggests, the genius of Steve Jobs and the patience of Job.
