Dr. Harold Fitrer has 35 years of experience in the Richmond Public Schools, most recently as a deputy superintendent. He left that post over the summer to become executive director of the Richmond affiliate of Communities in Schools, a non-profit that focuses on helping at-risk students cope with the severe challenges they often face outside of the classroom: poverty, weak or non-existing family structures, and tough neighborhoods marked by crime, drugs and gangs.
"It's hard for me not to put academics at the top of the list," he observes, when asked about the qualities needed in a new school leader, but the superintendent "needs to be a team builder, needs to bring a lot of constituents to the table." Parents, politicians, the business community -- "all of those folks need to come to the table."
To build that consensus, Fitrer believes, requires not just someone with strong educational and communication skills but a person who also can sway hearts and minds in one-on-one settings.
"We've done too much in Richmond, in my view, from the pulpit," he says, meaning that the schools' agenda and needs have been issued from on-high and not conveyed effectively on a personal level.
Former superintendent Dr. Deborah Jewell-Sherman was a passionate public speaker and oversaw substantial academic gains during her tenure. However, these gains primarily moved the needle from failure to minimal competency.
"We had some tremendous gains academically," Fitrer says, "but that was the low-hanging fruit." Further gains will come but they will be harder fought and will require a superintendent with a forceful and effective personality.
"Dr. Jewell-Sherman was a pretty good instructional person, and they just beat her to death," Fitrer says. "You've got to be good at these other things."
George Braxton, current chairman of the Richmond School Board, also focuses on these skills when discussing qualifications of the next superintendent.
"There is a need for a singular individual who is recognized as the voice of the school system," he says. "Sure, they report to the board. But that individual, in my opinion, should be bigger than the board.
"It's only in Richmond where when there is a fight at a school, you see board members on TV. If a bus driver is found to have a suspended license, you see a board member on TV. If work permits aren't going in fast enough, you see board members quoted in the paper. You never see that anywhere else."
A new superintendent "needs to be just very in tune with the pulse of the community," Braxton says. "Not that Dr. Jewell-Sherman was not out there dealing with that, but I think that is just paramount because of where things have gone and how hyper-political things have gotten of late." Also, the new superintendent "needs to have the unfettered support of the business community."
Part of understanding the pulse of the community includes developing an accurate read on its expectations. Being a strong leader means being able to shape those expectations so that people believe their priorities are being addressed and that progress is being made. It entails a form of communications alchemy where the glass is viewed as half-full, not half-empty. And that magical touch has eluded most of Richmond's top public leaders in recent years.
Those expectations must include the recognition that Richmond's public schools are dealing with students who face enormous obstacles. And this effort must not come across as an excuse for poor performance but an accurate depiction of the reality in which the schools operate.
Fitrer believes that the city's decision many years ago to create segregated public housing complexes has perpetuated the cycle of poverty into third and even fourth generations of occupants. Area schools face enormous obstacles having little to do with the skills and commitments of their teachers or their other educational resources.
"I would say everyone over 50 thinks they understand poverty, particularly African-Americans who think they understand poverty, because they all say, ‘Oh, we were poor, too,'" says Braxton, who is African-American. "They don't understand what it is and they don't understand the challenges these children face and the walls they have to climb just to be there."
Reading doesn't occur in the home. Children don't have the comprehension, writing and speaking skills to be effective learners. They may not know their colors or their basic numbers. Or, as Braxton notes, they may not even be able to distinguish among different types of animals.
"People talk about truancy and graduation rates and those things," he adds. "You know the two biggest factors affecting graduation rates [in Richmond public schools] are incarceration and pregnancy."
There are complex and extensive relationships between school performance and virtually all other significant aspects of urban life -- health, personal safety, drugs, unemployment, affordable housing, transportation and so on. This maze requires a superintendent who understands the relationships and can effectively deal with public and private interests to help neighborhoods and the broader community fashion solutions.
It is unbelievably difficult and demanding work. It's about a lot more than money, but sustainable progress will require more money than we've traditionally provided to public education.
To succeed, Braxton adds, he believes attitudes in the city need to change. "We need to move from a culture of blame to a culture of learning. I don't know if the people in this city are quite ready for that. It seems to me that the culture of blame works just fine for them. That's unfortunate. But I can definitely say I feel that the board and whoever the next superintendent is will have to embrace that culture of learning in order to make a better school system for us all."
About the author -- Phil Moeller, a recovering newspaper journalist, is a communications consultant and writer in Richmond.
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