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Deputy superintendent takes job in Tennessee

Nancy Zambito, a longtime Florida educator, trades her job for the commanding post at a much smaller school system.

By THOMAS C. TOBIN
Published June 2, 2006

Nancy Zambito, deputy superintendent for Pinellas schools and a Florida educator for 34 years, will leave to run a smaller school district in western Tennessee.

The School Board of Jackson-Madison County voted 9-0 Thursday night to hire Zambito as superintendent after a search that spanned the Southeast.

The system, with 28 schools and 14,000 students, is based in Jackson, about 90 miles northeast of Memphis. Pinellas has about 110,000 students and is the nation's 22nd largest school system.

"I'm delighted, just very happy,'' Zambito said Thursday night from her Clearwater home. She said she has wanted to be a superintendent since she started teaching in 1972 at Leesburg Junior High. Her father was a deputy superintendent in Lake County.

"I just always thought, 'That's what I want to be,' " she said. "I think that's where you can really do the most."

Zambito, 59, had planned to retire from her Pinellas post next year.

Less than 20 percent of the nation's 13,728 school superintendents are women, according to a study commissioned last year by the American Association of School Administrators.

Zambito joined the Pinellas school district in 1983 as director of personnel services and rose to deputy superintendent in November 2004.

Superintendent Clayton Wilcox appointed her just days after he took office, calling her a peacemaker who could help ease the turbulence of a transition that would produce significant change. Wilcox has said he will look inside the district for a replacement.

Zambito quickly emerged as the top candidate in Jackson (population 61,000), where School Board members gushed after a recent visit to Pinellas.

"The closest thing to anyone finding fault with her was someone saying she worked too hard," board Chairman Bob Alvey told the Jackson Sun.

Board member Karen Bell said, "They tell us she's caring, compassionate, a good listener, mentor and mediator ... and she does nothing that isn't about the kids first."

In a column last week, the Sun's executive editor, Richard Schneider, noted that the region had few women in positions of power. "Zambito,'' he predicted, "will become the most powerful female in the county, perhaps in rural West Tennessee.''

She begins her new job July 17.

Information from the Jackson Sun was used in this report.

[Last modified June 2, 2006, 05:52:01]