I’ve been moderately paying attention to what’s happening with Wake County Schools. I realized over the holiday break that I should be paying more attention because, my now 4-year old son, will be starting kindergarten this year. The last time I checked, his base school was unavailable. But that’s a different post.
It’s been a few weeks since the Wake County School Board announced the hiring of Anthony Tata as superintendent of Wake County schools. I remember seeing it on the news and reading about Tata in the News & Observer coverage: Wake board names retired Army general to lead.
The news reports made it seem like the hire was sneaky and all-of-a-sudden. Perhaps so. But I’m writing this post for two reasons: 1) to learn more about the new superintendent and Wake County Schools and 2) to hear from south west Raleigh on what you think this means for Wake County students.
Tata seems to be getting dinged about his lack of experience. I think this could be a strength that he could bring to our school system. In my eyes, he’s not tainted from how other school systems are run–and this could be advantageous. From what I’ve read, Wake Schools are facing a huge budget short fall. Thinking outside the box, removing the politics, and focusing on the education of all Wake County students will be the keys to success.
Tata talked about his acedemic focus on the WCPSS post:
I am humbled to be selected as the next superintendent of the Wake County Public School System. I intend to focus the system’s impressive resources on the academic achievement of our students and on closing the achievement gap in student performance. I will ensure our teachers and principals have the resources they need to deliver this improvement. One of my goals will be to energize all aspects of Wake County’s very large, complex organization to operate at maximum capacity and minimum cost so that we can push as many resources as possible to where they belong — the classroom.
Now that you’ve had time for the news to sink in and learn more about Superintendent Tata, what do you think? More importantly, how does this impact south west Raleigh?
Do you think the schools in south west Raleigh will be mildly, moderately, or extremely impacted? I’m curious to learn what you think, so please add your well-thought out comments below.
Note: Are you a Wake Schools guru? SouthWestRaleigh.com would like to have more updates about Wake Schools in south west Raleigh. Please contact the editors if you’d like to contribute..
I’m afraid you’re going to have a hard time getting folks who know what they’re talking about to respond to a question like this one Jason -most of the time I feel like I’m whispering in a smoky room, and I don’t work for Wake (any more). People have been fired for speaking out against school boards and school leaders (not me!). Add that to budget cuts and a school board that operates behind closed doors and utilizing ‘fast moves’ on itself, and you won’t hear a peep out of teachers. The atmosphere of distrust in Wake County right now worries me. The article linked above only quoted one retired administrator who voiced the obvious problem with hiring a superintendent to run a district 143,000 students… who has no education experience -a retired administrator. I don’t work for Wake County, but it’s the 18th largest district in the nation, and I’m in education…
It’s not my intention to complain about the school board in the answer to a question about the superintendent, but the new super is an agent of the school board. To clarify, I hope the new super turns out to be strong enough to do what’s good for kids, but the way he was hired -under the table, fiscally irresponsible headhunting, in a hurry-up vote, etc… points toward the same antics our corrupt school board have been utilizing since the last election.
As I said, Wake County is the 18th largest district in the country. The superintendent position is a leadership position, but it’s more political than hands-on ed leadership -the size of the district is prohibitive of a roll-up-the sleeves approach. Wake’s area superintendents are more like the superintendents in NC’s other districts. A lack of experience in education is certainly going to impact the position, but a lack of experience in the unique political climate that makes up Wake county will make Tata’s challenge incredibly difficult.
IMHO: School boards, because they are an elected body and not always made up of the most qualified ed leaders, should hear the voice of parents and voters and work on approaches and problem solving that is both innovative and industry appropriate. The superintendent should be an expert at navigating and prioritizing education initiatives, and the super should be the board’s most trusted advisor. The super works under the school board, but the school board should ultimately respect the wisdom, experience, and expertise of the super… in an ideal world. We don’t live in an ideal world. Del Burns advised the school board against its current course of action with neighborhood schools and ultimately was dismissed because of his disagreement. We hired an expert to tell us how to do this, and then we fired him when he told us to go against the squeakiest wheels.
Sometimes the ‘outside the box’ solutions cooked up by people with no education training and experience -read that “parents and the pressure they put on elected school board members” -are just not healthy for ALL kids, which is what ed leaders have to keep their eyes focused on. Unfortunately, the contrast of these two viewpoints is what lost us Del Burns -and that was a tragedy; I worked with him.
Del Burns had decades of experience from inside Wake County, and his resignation should have set off alarm bells in the minds of every parent in Wake County -alarm that we’ve made a terrible mistake pressuring the school board to make these decisions and even a sudden realization that electing recently elected board members was a terrible mistake… but I digress.
The best case scenario is that Tata changes very little at first -he takes the time to learn the county and the field. I’m afraid that 10 months of weekends cannot prepare even the most successful men for a position of this magnitude. The worst case scenario is that he hacks at the district’s main office like a lumber jack with no idea whether he’s cutting dead wood or the most vital parts of what is working for our kids. Neither the best case nor the worst case points to very effective leadership out of the gate, I’m afraid.
I’m confident that Tata will try to do his best, but it’s pretty clear to me that he’s going to have to overcome the school board’s whispered reputation that is quietly flourishing amongst the educators in Wake County, and he’s going to have to turn on the same board, the hand that feeds him, in order to do what’s right for all kids.