The clock in my car said 12:34 p.m. Thursday while I waited for a car to pass before I pulled out of my parking spot on N. 53 rd St. I watched as the car turned on to W. Vliet and immediately pulled in front of the Milwaukee Public Schools central administration building. The passenger in the front seat got out and slowly walked by himself to the front door of the building.

It was Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. And he was playing out a scene in what appears to have become a lose-lose political situation for him.  

The bid by Governor Jim Doyle, Barrett, and others to overhaul governance of MPS, giving the mayor dominant power over the school system, is on life support, at best. The effort is deadlocked in the Legislature. It appears to be decidedly on the unpopular end of sentiment in Milwaukee, especially among African Americans. And several days of pretty intense efforts to reach some form of compromise with backers of a less-extensive plan to shift power in MPS pretty much blew up on Wednesday.  The two sides simply and apparently irresolveably disagree on how much power a mayor should have over MPS. 

For Barrett, it means he’s taken an unpopular stand, he hasn’t succeeded in making it stick, and there’s a lot of tension and infighting among people (all Democrats) who would, in other circumstances, be coming together behind Barrett’s campaign for governor. 

In the meantime, the School Board, and particularly its president, Michael Bonds, have been moving forward on picking a new superintendent for MPS,  whatever the surrounding political ruckus. From the perspective of the moment, it appears to be a smart strategy because it certainly looks like they’re going to pick a school chief and make it stick, which may well be the final stake in the heart of governance reform activity for now, if a final stake is needed.

Which brings events to Thursday. The three finalists for superintendent have three sessions set for the day. (The three are Robert Alfaro, a regional superintendent for a large section of the Clark County, Nev., school district, which covers the Las Vegas area; Stacy Scott, an associate superintendent of Montgomery County, Md., schools; and Gregory Thornton, superintendent of a small district, Chester Upland Public Schools, in southeastern Pennslyvania.)

In the morning, each of the three made a half-hour public presentation, talking about themselves and answering questions submitted in advance about issues relevant to the job. There were about 75 people at the session. The three candidates did a reasonably good job. It appeared none blew the crowd away, but none made a major blunder.  By the way, none showed any significant depth of knowledge about the situation in Milwaukee specifically, beyond saying there is a lot of school choice here.

Following that, there was a closed session with a group of about a dozen “stakeholders” in MPS who were asked by the board to meet with the finalists and give board members their reactions.  That’s where Barrett comes in. The group included several close allies of Bonds, but Bonds was shrewd enough to include Barrett on the list. (I ran into Bonds at a coffee shop several weeks ago and he showed me the list of stakeholders. I said Barrett would never agree to take part. Wrong again.)

By Wednesday night, Barrett found himself with a choice. He could take part, which would give him at least some involvement in the process (on the same level as some community activists, the teachers’ union president, and others),  but would mean many would say he was giving in to the School Board and admitting defeat. Or he could not take part, which would leave him outside the process and, in some views, looking he was being a bit of a sorehead who was more interested in power than in school issues.

That walk to the door could well symbolize the end of the governance debate.  Was it an act of leadership and healing, opening the wayfor Democrats to come back together behind Barrett’s bid and move forward? Was it a sign of weakness and a symbol that Barrett’s critics will use to say he  isn’t tough enough to play hardball politics?

The third session for Thursday for the superintendent candidates was a closed meeting in the evening with the School Board itself. No announcement of a superintendent will come out of that session, Bonds said, but a decision will come by Feb. 1.

When that decision is made, Barrett will not be at the table. Which makes it easy to guess that, after all that has gone on in the last five months of debate about mayoral control, Barrett’s walk from the curb to the front door of the MPS headquarters was not a happy stroll for him.