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Ship Ahoy

The next Richmond School Superintendent must have strong educational credentials but success will hinge on administrative prowess and, especially, on powers of persuasion and people skills.

With November elections looming for Mayor, City Council and the School Board, it would be helpful to let the dust settle a bit and to have these new leaders in place before serious superintendent wooing commences.

It's possible a great candidate would be currently between jobs but it's more likely the best person is already in a school system somewhere else, and will have obligations to finish out the school year. Interim Superintendent Dr. Yvonne Brandon is extremely capable and 2008-09 programs are in place that will seek to build on recent gains in educational achievement.

George P. Braxton chairs the School Board and is not standing for re-election in the fall. Whatever you think of the job done by the nine current board members, they deserve our thanks for devoting enormous amounts of time to the effort and receiving in return a steady flow of criticism and assorted bumps and bruises. This is not a job for the faint of heart. In Braxton's case, he has a growing family and a more than full-time day job at LeClair Ryan, where he directs the law firm's recruiting and diversity efforts.

Braxton may be leaving the board but remains committed to the schools. He understands and accepts criticism of the schools' efforts but argues, with some passion, that critics might feel much differently if they'd occupied his vantage point during the past several years. One battle that must be waged, and won, is to shape public expectations for the schools that lead to stronger community engagement and support.

"We have to come to the realization, as harsh and brutal as it is, is that 70 percent of our students are in at-risk categories," he says, "and if you take maybe four or five schools out of our school system, that number probably goes up into the 90s. Are some of those schools excelling, and students at those schools excelling? Absolutely. Are students coming through the same academic program having very different experiences? Absolutely.

"People point at our completion rate of a little over 50 percent, between all the different ways you can complete a high school degree. They almost accuse the school system of doing something to run off 50 percent of the students. Well, we're no more running off 50 percent of the students than the average school district in the state is running off 30 percent, considering the completion rate is about 70 percent statewide."

Ironically, Braxton notes, the increasing criticism of the Richmond schools, particularly for lax administrative oversight and financial controls, is happening in part because the system is no longer in the kind of crisis it was several years ago. We can afford to criticize it today because we can afford to have higher standards and aspirations. This should be a good thing, but where the Richmond schools are concerned, the glass is half empty. A new superintendent will have a tough time succeeding unless that perception can be changed.

Departed Superintendent Dr. Deborah Jewell-Sherman was, in her defenders' eyes, pretty much run out of town by Mayor Doug Wilder. But fewer than 10 percent of the city's public schools were accredited as she assumed her post, and today more than 90 percent meet state standards. Don't be surprised if her efforts are recalled with growing fondness as time passes.

"We have been in a triage situation, and what we have really put the resources towards are educating students," Braxton says. "We were a school district [in 2002] that was ripe for takeover by the state. You're talking 10 percent of the schools accredited; 10 percent of the schools meeting a standard that was set by the state. That's an emergency situation. You have limited resources. Not to be facetious, but you have a choice. You're on a ship. It's sinking. You either upgrade the buffet or you put in pumps to keep it from sinking ...

"Today, the ship is afloat. Not blasting through the water. But the ship is afloat. The ship is not sinking. Now all of a sudden, it's like, well, can we move a little faster? Can we upgrade the buffet? Can we have movies? Can we have newer movies? All of a sudden, we're looking at things that the other vessels are providing, and we're saying, why can't we be there?

"These are 100-percent legitimate questions. And that's the step that we have to make. But, at some point, we had to stop sinking. But now, we're dealing with, and the next school board will have to deal with, what has been just about a half-decade of almost myopic focus on bringing the school district to a level of competency in terms of educating children. Now, we're saying, how do we get to the next level? How do we get to the point where more children are college-prepared, more children are workforce prepared, more children are ready to deal with an international marketplace? How do we get to that point?"

How, indeed? Tune in next week for some thoughts.

About the author -- Phil Moeller , a recovering newspaper journalist, is a communications consultant and writer in Richmond.

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