The Superintendent Who Listens Ever since Ben Canada took the reins of Portland Public Schools, he’s been working as if the community’s future depends on him. Turns out he’s right. Story by LEE SHERMAN Photos by JUDY BLANKENSHIP

PORTLAND, Oregon—
When job seeker Ben Canada was on the hot seat back in the spring of 1998, answering questions about his management style, one of his words seemed strangely out of place. What does "healing" have to do with running a school district? was the question that lodged in the mind of School Board Chairman Ron Saxton, one of seven board members conducting interviews to fill the vacancy at the top of Portland Public Schools. Healing brings to mind scalpels and blue scrubs. Self-help books. Revival tents. Talk shows. But teachers and textbooks? Not really.

"I never would have expected the word healing to come out at a job interview for superintendent," Saxton admits.

But that word arguably embodies the most important mission of Portland’s top administrator today. And it’s something that the 55-year-old Canada seems to have a natural bent for.

"The truth is," says Saxton, "Ben told me one time that if he had another career, it would be as a minister."

Battered by a 10-year cash crunch, bruised by critics, and plagued by a persistent achievement gap between middle-class White kids and poor Black kids, the district was in danger of becoming another urban casualty. The pattern is all too familiar: When city schools start to falter, families flee for private or suburban alternatives. Scores plunge, resources wither, buildings decay. It’s a death knell Portland doesn’t want to hear.

Yet two prior superintendents, both widely viewed as "aloof," had failed to knit the district together.

In Canada, who had led the Atlanta school system for four years, the board thought they saw a man with the right blend of warmth and doggedness to lead the ailing district back to health.

Canada’s first year on the job is barely behind him, but already, a note of optimism is creeping into school discussions. Maybe, people are beginning to say, Portland can hold on to its claim as one of the nation’s best urban school systems. When they hired Dr. Benjamin O. Canada, they hired, above all, a healer.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

This document's URL is:

Home | Up & Coming | Programs & Projects: Northwest Education | People | Products & Publications | Topics

© 2001 Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory

Date of Last Update: 9/28/01
Email Webmaster
Tel. 503.275.9500