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Observations
August 29, 2019 |
 |
 Wingate Lassiter |
School leaders not what they used
to be: Is that good, or not-so-good?
When it comes to service in one place, school superintendents (and principals, too) don't know the word "longevity" anymore.
Is that a good thing? Or a not-so-good thing?
It's a good thing if changes are brought to make our schools better.
It's not a good thing if highly capable administrators "burn out" before their work is finished.
With another change in the Johnston County Superintendent's office this week, I was prompted to delve into some local history. Here's the list of superintendents who have served the county over the past 100 years:
W.H. Hipps held the office from September 1919 through May 1922.
H.B. Marrow, June 1922 till June 1951 --- 29 years.
Evander Simpson, July 1951 till June 1980 --- 29 years.
Jim Ellerbe, July 1980 till March 1991 --- 11 years.
Tom Houlihan, April 1991 till December 1993 --- 2-plus years.
Jim Causby, January 1994 till December 2003 --- 10 years.
Tony Parker, January 2004 till February 2009 --- 5 years.
Ed Croom, March 2009 till February 2016 --- 7 years.
Ross Renfrow, March 2016 till August 2019 --- 3-plus years.
It's remarkable we had two men who served back to back for 58 years!
And what about school principals?
Smithfield had two legendary leaders in the mid-20th Century who served their schools without interruption for three decades during the segregation era:
W.R. Collins, principal of all-black Johnston County Training School, 1929-1964.
A.G. Glenn, principal of all-white Smithfield High School, 1933-1965.
Since those days, the only local principal I recall who stayed with the same school for a long time was Charles Tucker, the first principal at Smithfield-Selma High who served almost 20 years there.
Longevity isn't everything, but in public education it appears to be a fair indicator of a leader's effectiveness in putting together schools that produce well-educated students and make communities proud.
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