Interviews with two candidates for superintendent have revealed two very different approaches to running a school district.
By THOMAS C. TOBIN
Published March 13, 2004
[Times photo: Scott Keeler]
Joseph J. Marinelli, 60, called himself a "vision-setter," a collaborator, a catalyst and a leader, "one who does not have an authoritarian style of leadership."
Poker-faced and polite, Pinellas School Board members kept their impressions to themselves as they started interviewing candidates for the superintendent's job Friday.
But the responses to their questions by two markedly different managers made clear that the board will face a stark choice about the style of leader it wants to hire.
Hard-driving Timothy R. Jenney told the board he is seen by some as an autocrat and has made enemies, but has succeeded in turning around a mid-sized Virginia school district.
Joseph J. Marinelli assured he is no authoritarian, and instead relies on a friendly, collaborative style to run a group of New York districts.
The third candidate, Clayton M. Wilcox, will be interviewed this morning. He led his troubled Louisiana district through dramatic, fast-paced change. He has turned heads but also hurt some feelings.
The board will decide today which candidates to invite back for a second round of interviews, tours and public appearances next week. A final selection is expected Thursday.
* * *
Jenney has a well-documented record of restoring credibility to Virginia Beach City Public Schools, which had a $12-million deficit when he arrived eight years ago.
"I don't necessarily want to leave Virginia Beach," he told the School Board on Friday. But it is time to at least start looking, he said.
Genial and polished, Jenney told board members his initial goal as a twenty-something Michigan teacher was to be a principal by age 28. When he reached that goal at age 27, he decided to be a superintendent of a large district and has been working toward that goal ever since.
Pinellas, the nation's 22nd-largest district with 112,000 students, fits neatly into his career plans, said Jenney, a 51-year-old grandfather who likes woodworking and rides a Harley-Davidson.
Asked what his staff would say about his style, Jenney said it depends on the situation.
"I'm very direct, not without couth, and I think I'm generally savvy," he said. "I have high expectations for my staff, and if I'm guilty of one thing it's that I work them very hard."
He said some of his staff would describe him as autocratic and domineering while others would say he includes them in decisions.
He faced a board that is looking for ways to tackle a sizeable gap in achievement between white and black students.
"We've figured out what it's going to take," Jenney told them. "The bad news is it's not going to be easy."
School districts first have to show the will to tackle the problem, he said. That includes a "massive training program" for teachers, as well as more money for struggling schools.
Districts have spent too much money teaching topics that don't relate to what students are being tested on, he said. He cited the example of teachers who dwell on dinosaurs, which aren't mentioned in state standards.
"You've got to focus on the issues relating to student achievement, and it is as simple and as complex as saying no," he said.
He cited numbers showing Virginia Beach black students were starting to catch up to white students on standardized tests. He also described how he turned around a school system in crisis.
"It's not been easy. I have made some enemies," Jenney said, adding: "Of this I am sure: Wherever I have departed from I've left better than I found it."
* * *
Marinelli, 60, a University of Florida graduate, has strong roots in the state and 35 years' experience. Several Pinellas officials remember him as a high-level administrator and lobbyist for Orange County Schools. But he left the state in 1989, headed a small Michigan district and today heads the Wayne-Finger Lakes Board of Cooperative Educational Services.
Tall and smiling, he came to the interview table with a loud and ready laugh and an emphasis as well on the achievement gap.
In the 1980s, as a top school administrator in Orlando, his goal was to be superintendent of a large Florida district. He said many districts at the time were looking outside Florida and wanted actual superintendent experience. So he headed to the small district of Livonia in suburban Detroit.
There, he weathered budget cuts totaling $16-million over three years and the discovery that a school had been built over a toxic landfill. He took his New York job in 1994, still intending to return to Florida.
He called himself a "vision-setter," a collaborator, a catalyst and a leader, "but one who is not a controller - one who does not have an authoritarian style of leadership."
Conversant in the language of researchers who have studied the achievement gap, he told the board he has served eight of the last 10 years on a team of experts that advised high-poverty schools with large numbers of black and Hispanic children. Those schools have doubled and tripled achievement numbers, he said.
He also chaired a panel of New York district superintendents that advised the state education commissioner on how to close the gap.
Closing the gap "can happen anywhere," Marinelli said. "The studies show it can be done."
