Wanda Creel, who served as principal of Canongate Elementary School and as curriculum director in the Coweta County School System between 2001 and 2005, has been hired as superintendent of the Barrow County School System.

On Feb. 23, Barrow County Board of Education members unanimously voted to appoint Dr. Wanda Creel as the next superintendent to lead Barrow County Schools in what they say is their “continued quest for providing a ‘world-class education with home town values.’”

Creel will replace 40-year veteran Dr. Ron Saunders.
Matt’s Roofing and Gutters

Creel is described as “an experienced educator, researcher, and administrator at the local, state, and national levels.”

In her most recent position Creel served as the assistant superintendent for teaching and learning with the Houston County Board of Education, directing K-12 teaching and learning for core content areas, as well as Career, Technical, and Agricultural Education (CTAE), fine arts, health, physical education, gifted, assessment, instructional technology, prekindergarten, and all federal programs.

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Stakeholders in the Riverview Gardens School District will have a chance to meet their new superintendent, Clive Coleman, Friday, March 5 at Westview Middle School, 1950 Nemnich Dr., when a reception will be hosted from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

On Tuesday, the Riverview Gardens School Board voted to hire Coleman as the district’s new superintendent, passing over the other finalist, Grayling Tobias.

Coleman’s three-year contract (at an annual salary of $165,000) will begin July 1.

“Dr. Coleman’s experience as a leader in a school district with similar challenges to ours gives us confidence that he will bring visionary leadership as we continue to work toward regaining our accreditation,” said Board President Tommie Pierson.

Coleman has served in the Kansas City (Mo.) School District as an associate superintendent, chief academic officer and interim superintendent. Prior to Kansas City, he was the high school education officer in St. Louis Public Schools. He spent the first 26 years of his career as a teacher and principal in New Orleans Public Schools in Louisiana. He currently serves as a consultant for Stanford University.

“My number one priority is regaining state accreditation,” Coleman said in a release from the district.

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The Woodburn School Board recently announced that David Bautista will be the next superintendent of the Woodburn School District (WSD). As you may be aware, David is no newcomer to Woodburn. From January 2002 until July 2007 he served as the district’s director of bilingual programs. His role was to ensure that our English language learners, who make up approximately 60 percent of the district’s student body, were served adequately and equitably. David, however, did not limit his efforts to only those students still mastering English. He was instrumental is helping the district move closer to its vision of “biliteracy for all students.”

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A small, high-poverty school district in Rhode Island is now ground zero for some of the most explosive debates over reforming America’s worst-performing schools.

To the dismay of many local and national union members, all the teachers, the principal, and other staff of Central Falls High School were fired by the board of trustees this week. The move is part of a dramatic turnaround plan proposed by the superintendent and approved by the state education commissioner.

Because of pressure from the Obama administration – and the incentive of billions of federal dollars – more such cases are likely to arise across the United States in the coming year.

Advocates of the “turnaround” approach say it’s a way to remove bad teachers or change a culture that makes it difficult for good teachers to work effectively. But teachers feel scapegoated. And there’s no clear-cut research guaranteeing that student test scores will improve when schools are reorganized with new staffs.

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A Maryland superintendent has been named the nation’s 2010 Superintendent of the Year.

Elizabeth Molina Morgan, who leads the 21,850-student Washington County, Md. school district, was given the award at the American Association of School Administrators’ annual conference, held in Phoenix last week.

Morgan, who has led the district for nine years, was recognized for her achievements in working to close the achievement gap among students and expanding rigorous learning options, such as magnet schools and the International Baccalaureate program, throughout the district.

Before her present tenure in Washington County, Morgan was the chief academic officer of the Baltimore school district.

As the 2010 National Superintendent of the Year honoree, Morgan gets to present a $10,000 college scholarship to a student at her high school alma mater: Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York City.

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VESTAL — Vestal’s new school superintendent plans to spend a lot of time away from his desk. He wants parents to know him and students to recognize him.

“I’m never going to be remembered for the great memo I prepared. What I’m going to be remembered for is being a visible presence in buildings,” Mark D. LaRoach said Monday.

LaRoach met with community residents during an informal reception in the lobby of the African Road Auditorium. He will officially begin his duties as the superintendent of Broome County’s third-largest school district March 1.

LaRoach, who was appointed by the school board last month, was one of about 15 applicants for the Vestal job. The 61-year-old educator has more than 35 years of experience as a high school teacher, college administrator and school administrator. He is coming to Vestal after serving as superintendent of the 1,100-student Newmarket Public School District in New Hampshire.

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Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Ramon C. Cortines has resigned from the board of publisher Scholastic Inc. Cortines, who makes $250,000 annually in his position as schools superintendent, earned an additional $150,000 last year from Scholastic, which does business with LAUSD. LA Now reports:

Cortines’ dual role with the company and the district received scrutiny in the wake of an article on that subject last week in The Times. In defending his position with Scholastic in a recent interview, Cortines said he avoided any issue at the district involving the leading educational publishing company. And his senior staff said this recusal included any decision involving academic intervention programs.

Scholastic provides the district’s primary reading intervention program for high schools. And, as of this year, Scholastic’s program also became a key component for middle schools. The company has earned more than $5.2 million from the L.A. Unified School District since Cortines joined the school system as its No. 2 administrator in April 2008. He became superintendent in December 2008.

Although Scholastic and some of Cortines’ colleagues saw no conflict — school board president Monica Garcia told The Times, “I never met a person with more integrity than Ray Cortines” — others saw things differently. Cortines began serving on the Scholastic board in 1995, the year he stepped down as chancellor of New York City Schools. Read more about his resignation here.

– Carolyn Kellogg

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NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) – 5 of the seven candidates for South Carolina’s education superintendent say the state’s schools face many challenges.

The candidates spoke on Thursday at an event sponsored by Winthrop University’s Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention, and Advancement and answered questions from teachers attending an annual forum.

Several candidates said 1 of the main problems facing the state’s schools is too many administrators and too few teachers.

But none of the candidates supported across-the-board school district consolidation, saying the issue would have to be looked at on a case-by-case basis and be supported by local residents.

Four Republican candidates and one Democratic candidate attended the event.

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Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Ramon C. Cortines on Tuesday accentuated the positive amid dire financial realities in his first “state of the district” address before students, parents, school officials and dignitaries at Belmont High.

He chose the Belmont campus, west of downtown, because of the school’s steep rise in academic performance, but also spoke of the need to do better still, saying that only 52% of district students graduate in four years.

Cortines cited a looming $640-million budget deficit as a prime reason that warring district factions must work together.

“Too many times we focus on blaming each for not achieving our goals,” he said. “We point fingers at our students…administrators and our parents. And that has got to stop.”

Even in difficult financial times reforms will continue, he said, citing such efforts as the hard-fought competition between groups inside and outside the district to control 30 campuses. The bidding frequently has pitted teachers from traditional schools (which operate under union contracts) against independently operated — and mostly nonunion — charter schools.

“I no longer want to see mudslinging” between traditional schools and charters, he said. “A good school is a good school period. … We need to spend more time learning from each other. The best schools in the country are right here.”

He reiterated past remarks that he would brook no excuses for failure to improve, be it family poverty or the budget crisis.

“I will never accept low expectations for students or adults in our district.”

– Howard Blume
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The Minneapolis school board has picked Bernadeia Johnson, the district’s deputy superintendent, as the next leader of Minnesota’s largest school district.
The board unanimously chose Johnson as its sole finalist on Jan. 19 and then had her go through a process of meeting with communities throughout the city in public forums, along with a formal interview, before voting Tuesday night to place her as the permanent superintendent.
Two board members abstained from Tuesday’s vote, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, to express their objection to the board not conducting a wider search.
I asked Johnson yesterday what her first steps were in the new job, and she’s springing into action.
The first priority she listed was to “reduce the number of initiatives—that will assist with addressing workload for teachers, while allowing them to focus on teaching and learning.”
In addition, Johnson wants to ensure all district employees have an accountability system, as principals and teachers do now. A “Connecting For Results” agenda is designed to get everyone from parents to corporate partners involved and focused on raising student achievement.
Also chief among goals is improving the academic outcomes of students of color in Minneapolis. The district signed a “covenant” in late 2008 with local African-American leaders, pledging to improve achievement gaps.

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