Deborah Gist. That’s one of the names I received after I wrote that District residents should ask presumptive Mayor Vincent C. Gray whom he intends to select as schools chancellor, if he ditches Michelle Rhee.
Personally, I think Rhee has done a terrific job and deserves to be retained. But even with an increase in the schools population — the result of the chancellor’s aggressive recruitment campaign — and notable academic improvements, it appears Gray will say bye-bye.
I was amused by the mentioning of Gist, Robert Bobb, former president of the D.C. State Board of Education, Paul Vallas, head of the New Orleans school system, Clifford Janey, who served as superintendent prior to Rhee’s arrival, and others.
Gist was named by Fenty as his first state superintendent of education. The post, as redefined in legislation that provided mayoral control of schools, was fairly powerful. By most accounts, Gist was well-liked and praised for her careful and expert consolidation of agencies that once had operated separately or had been part of D.C. Public Schools. But she wasn’t favored by Fenty, who made it clear that Rhee was off-limits, preventing Gist from imposing any reporting regimen. Those tensions sent Gist to Rhode Island, where she now serves as state superintendent.
Some in D.C. may consider her a milder version of Rhee. But in Rhode Island, Gist has been called brusque, mission-driven and unwilling to suffer fools. She created a stir earlier this year when she approved dismissal of the entire staff at Central Falls High School, one of the state’s lowest-performing institutions. A compromise eventually was struck. But that maneuver put her on the wrong side of the unions and gained her national attention.
Bobb was school board president when Gist was superintendent. He also had served as city administrator during former Mayor Anthony A. Williams’ second term. He arrived in the government when the executive was accused of being aloof and disconnected from — you guessed it — the African-American community. Bobb helped quiet those complaints while winning accolades from nonblack residents.
Calling his tenure in Detroit contentious is speaking in understatement. He once told Time magazine that city’s school system is “academically bankrupt. This is almost academic homicide.”
Since taking the job in March 2009, Bobb has been sued multiple times; closed 59 schools; demanded the restructuring of 17 others; and reduced the personnel rolls by 1,000 positions. But his reforms are beginning to yield marked improvements.
Vallas has had an equally controversial career. He was reform czar in Chicago, Philadelphia and now New Orleans.
Truth be told, Gist, Bobb and Vallas are quite similar to Rhee. Each would make a healthy share of enemies but certainly would move reform forward.
As for Janey, well, he has been leading the so-called reform of public schools in Newark, N.J. The governor of New Jersey recently announced he doesn’t intend to renew Janey’s contract. Hiring him to replace Rhee would be an indisputable step backward.
Jonetta Rose Barras’s column appears on Monday and Wednesday. She can be reached at [email protected].
