In Public Glare, Top Job Candidates Feel Burned

James A. Fleming will never forget the day in 1993 when he flew to Kentucky for what he thought would be a quiet, exploratory interview with the Louisville school board.

As his flight landed, Mr. Fleming had no idea that he was about to walk smack dab into a full-blown media circus.

"We stepped off the plane to a panel of blaring lights, television cameras going, microphones stuck in my face," recalled Mr. Fleming, the superintendent of the Capistrano, Calif., schools. Except for his board members, he hadn't told anyone back in California that he was looking...