Editorial
State should utilize LeMahieu's skills

State school board members say they are considering a six-month severance package for former school superintendent Paul LeMahieu on a "compassionate" basis.

Since LeMahieu quit, he technically does not qualify for the severance that would come his way if the board fired him.

But it was clear that LeMahieu was effectively forced out by an untenable situation that was — at best — only partly of his own making.

LeMahieu, although an expert on school reform, was a relatively inexperienced administrator. He was struggling to impose severe change on a system that resists change.

So the severance package, if it can be arranged legally, should be thought of as more than a compassionate gesture. In fact, there should be a way to maintain LeMahieu's expertise and advice as a consultant at least through those six months or however long the package extends.

This would allow him to serve as a transitional figure, getting successors up to speed on his ideas and where the system stood on the whole standards-and-accountability movement.

His input would also be valuable as the state moves into the next stage in its efforts to meet the requirements of the Felix Consent Decree on services to some special-education students.

Word has it that the state may come close to meeting the requirements needed to prevent a federal court takeover of the special-education system. Those requirements involve getting a certain number of school complexes up to a specific level of service to these students.

If the system can get out from under the shadow of an immediate court takeover, it will be due in part to the herculean efforts of LeMahieu and others. He clearly would have something to offer on this front.

LeMahieu contributed to the situation that led to his downfall, surely. But that does not mean he has nothing to offer. In this case, compassion can run two ways.