COLUMBUS, Ohio – The mayor of Columbus and the school district’s board of education are squabbling over the board’s plan to hire a new superintendent.

The board may be wise to listen to the mayor in this instance.

The school board plans to hire a replacement for former superintendent Gene Harris this summer, but Mayor Michael B. Coleman and group of “community members” – including the teachers union president – are pressuring the board to postpone the decision and hire are temporary interim leader, the Columbus Dispatch reports.

MORE NEWS: From Classroom to Consulate Chef: Culinary Student Lands Dream Job at U.S. Embassy in Paris

“We need to get the school board to focus less on power and authority and more focused on the future of the school district,” City Council President Andrew J. Ginther, who’s among the mayor’s supporters, told the newspaper.

Coleman announced yesterday he would not support the board’s move to hire a permanent replacement for Harris until 2014, when state and federal investigations into grade and attendance record tampering in the district come to a close, the Dispatch reports.

School board members, meanwhile, seem intent on moving forward with their search, regardless of the mayor’s threat. Board members told the newspaper that the mayor’s supporters don’t speak for the entire community, and everyone will have an opportunity to help select a new superintendent through a public process.

“Out of all the superintendent-search meetings that we had with the general public, nobody – and I mean nobody – said they wanted an interim superintendent,” board member Mike Wiles said.

At least one school board member was concerned the strenuous relationship between the school district and the mayor could hamper the district’s search for quality superintendent candidates.

“I certainly think that having an interim (superintendent) right now is not necessarily a bad idea,” board member Bryan O. Stewart said.

MORE NEWS: Know These Before Moving From Cyprus To The UK

Stewart may have a point. Allegations of staff cheating on grade and attendance records suggest that something may be terribly wrong with the quality of leadership in Columbus schools. The school board is ultimately responsible for the mess.

Can it be counted on to hire a superintendent who will take the district in a far more credible direction? It is really possible to know what that direction should be until the investigations are completed?

Perhaps this district should put on the brakes, figure out where it is and how it got there, before making a multi-year, six-figure commitment to a new district chief executive.