The Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce has added its voice to those who are urging the Lafayette Parish School Board to include as many segments of the community as possible in the search for a new superintendent.

"The request is that the public participation begins with determining the selection process and extends through the application and candidate review, and finally, the actual candidate selection," the chamber said in a statement.

The word that gets used a lot in this context is "transparency," a term usually applied to the ability of the public see how public business is being conducted. That's important enough on its own, but the word seems to mean more than that when it comes to the superintendent search. It's not just letting the public watch what goes on, but letting the public participate in the selection of the next top administrator for parish public schools.

The immediate and unofficial response from the School Board has been positive, and that's good. The Lafayette Parish School System needs effective leadership in the superintendent position. That will require both a qualified superintendent and a broad consensus in among faculty members, parents and the community at large that the right person has the job.

Earlier, a group of community groups called the Lafayette Public Education Stakeholders Council had urged to the board to make transparency part of the process.

We've spoken about the challenges facing the superintendent. He or she will presumably start work about Dec. 31, when Burnell Lemoine retires from the post.

That will be a few months after Lafayette Parish voters decide the fate of a hefty tax increase to fund the first phase of work it the facilities master plan. Whether the tax passes or fails, and at 25 mills it would have to be considered a tough sell, the superintendent will either have to supervise the work or figure out how to proceed without the tax hike the board wanted.

Teachers will be evaluated in a different way under a system that takes student test scores into account. Schools will receive letter grades instead of the star system used up to now under the school accountability system, and the early word is that a surprisingly large number of schools will get "D's" and "F's." Lafayette is struggling to find money to maintain and expand its pre-K education program, and board members may turn to a tax increase for that money, too.

The best-case way to address all these challenges involves setting goals, communicating them and getting everyone behind the effort. So why make the process of consensus-building wait until after a superintendent is hired?