Raymond O. Shelton School Administrative Center: Although not known as the friendliest person, Ray Shelton got results for a district in need of help.
By MICHAEL CANNING
Published June 18, 2004
Loyal, blunt and sometimes abrasive, you always knew where you stood with Ray Shelton. Arguably Hillsborough County School District's most iconic leader, Shelton left an indelible mark on one of the nation's largest school districts.
Shelton was born in 1929, the son of a Missouri school superintendent. After graduating from high school in Unionville, Mo., in 1945, he attended Northeast Missouri State Teachers College in Kirksville, now Truman State University. He earned a bachelor's degree in education in 1948, then got a job teaching high school in Bloomfield, Iowa.
After a stint with the U.S. Air Force from 1951-53, Shelton got a job teaching high school in Bonaparte, Iowa. While working, he went back for a master's degree in school administration from Northeast Missouri State. After earning it in 1956, he became school superintendent in Bonaparte.
In 1960 he moved to Omaha, Neb., to serve as an assistant superintendent. Five years later he earned his doctorate in education from State University of Iowa.
In 1967 at age 38, Shelton was hired as Hillsborough County's first appointed superintendent. He inherited a school system that was floundering.
Many students were performing below their grade level and state and national averages for test scores. Schools were overcrowded, poorly equipped and running on double session. The previous superintendent, J. Crockett Farnell, was under indictment on embezzlement charges. He was later cleared of the charges.
A teachers' strike in 1968 and school desegregation in the early 1970s soon followed. Through it all, Shelton's strong traits emerged.
An outspoken man, Shelton was sometimes criticized for being abrasive. But his administrative skills showed as he cut the student-teacher ratio in half, established a strong summer school program, bolstered reading and math programs in the primary grades, and ended double sessions.
Also during his watch, student test scores rose above state and national averages, technical and vocational training improved, full-day kindergarten and drug education programs began and 40 new schools opened.
Shelton's caustic side was well known to the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association. In 1987, after a contentious budget session and salary negotiations, 3,000 union teachers and clerical workers called for his resignation.
Nonetheless, that same year he was elected president of the American Association of School Administrators, one of the most prominent educational leadership organizations in the country.
Shelton was also an original board member of the University Community Hospital and served as a trustee for 25 years. In 1993, he played a pivotal role in the hospital's acquisition of Centurion Hospital on Dale Mabry Highway, now University Community Hospital-Carrollwood.
The school district renamed its downtown Tampa headquarters after Shelton 10 days before he retired on June 30, 1989.
In 1993, Shelton was diagnosed with a malignant tumor. He died Jan. 8, 1994, at UCH, two days after his grandson was born at the same hospital. The child was named Raymond Patrick Shelton.
- Source: Times files, Hillsborough County School District
