Under District Administrator Leslie Steinhaus, the public school hires teachers — or principals — through an interview panel. That’s common; many public bodies, and private companies, conduct interviews through a panel with several interviewers.
You may be surprised to learn, however, that an interview panel for teachers or principals might include, for example, a building custodian. I am the first to believe that all people are created equal; I reject, however, the idea that a good way to hire a teacher or principal is to ask the custodian’s opinion. That’s egalitarianism at the expense of merit. It would be false to contend that the custodian is an able judge of a teacher’s credentials or teaching method. It should be unnecessary to use a custodian to get a ‘layperson’s’ perspective on a candidate’s demeanor, as teachers and principals on the interview panel should possess the ordinary intuition to do so.