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Pinellas schools official leaving

Sterling Ivey's last day as the school district's spokesman will be May 5 - 11 days short of a full year on the job.

By ANNE LINDBERG
Published April 22, 2006

SEMINOLE - After less than a year on the job, the spokesman for the Pinellas County school district has decided to leave.

"It's nothing to do with work," Sterling Ivey said. "It's just strictly a personal decision because of my young, growing family. I think I need to spend more time with them as they're growing older."

Ivey has two children. One is 3; the other, 6 months.

He said he has no other job waiting, and he is not sure if he will stay here or return to Tallahassee, where he was a spokesman for the state Corrections Department.

"Things have been happening kind of quick this week," he said. "That's part of the next phase of decisionmaking."

Ivey's last day will be May 5 - 11 days shy of a full year on the job. He is paid $85,000 annually.

Ivey's departure may not be the only one from the school district.

Superintendent Clayton Wilcox dropped the news about the district's spokesman while speaking Thursday at the Seminole Chamber of Commerce. Wilcox referred to the shakeups in the Bush administration, then said people would read in the next few days about departures from the district.

"We are losing some key people," Wilcox said.

The first, he said, would be Ivey, who would be leaving to "be with his family, which is absolutely the right thing to do."

Wilcox did not elaborate on who else might be leaving.

Ivey said he did not know who Wilcox might be referring to, but did say several long-term administrators are poised for retirement.

Ivey's decision to leave the district is a change from the plans he described shortly after taking the job.

Ivey said then that he and his wife were moving here because they "decided we wanted to raise our children in an environment that was close to our other family members. That was one reason I took the opportunity to come down here."

Ivey also said, "I'm here to stay. I'm not looking to leave. I've got a very young family and this is where we want to raise our kids."

His tenure in Pinellas wasn't easy.

Members of St. Petersburg's African-American community alleged that the school district wasn't doing all it could do to close the achievement gap between white and minority students. School officials admitted that a district bus driver was negligent in the death of an 8-year-old girl.

Police arrested two teachers in the same week on charges of using computers to lure teenage girls into sexual situations. A St. Petersburg police officer handcuffed a 13-year-old girl aboard a school bus.

But through it all, said School Board member Jane Gallucci, Ivey adhered to Wilcox's mantra of being "open, honest and transparent."

Staff writer Donna Winchester contributed to this report.

[Last modified April 22, 2006, 01:38:14]