DeKalb offers $300,000 contract for new superintendent

Gwinnett – Alvin Wilbanks — $482,280

Atlanta Public Schools – Meria Carstarphen – $400,000

DeKalb – Michael Thurmond — $315,000

About R. Stephen Green

R. Stephen Green comes from Kansas City Public Schools, where he became the premanent superintendent in April 2012 after eight months as the district’s interim leader.

Green received a bachelor’s degree in English literature and composition and a master’s in English literature from Ball State University and his principal’s certification from Butler University. He received a doctorate from Indiana University in 1995 with two majors: curriculum and instruction and education administration.

Other former jobs include being president and CEO of Kauffman Scholars, Inc., a program aimed at increasing the number of college graduates from urban schools; superintendent of Community School District #28 and a local instructional superintendent in Region 3 for the New York City Board of Education; and national executive director of the CollegeEd Program for the College Board, which focused on helping middle school students understand the importance of a college education and exploring the options available.

He is an active member of the National Alliance of Black School Educators, the National Council of the Teachers of English, the American Association of Secondary School Administrators, the Association for Supervision Curriculum and Development and the National Council on Educating Black Children. Green also serves as a board member of the United Way of Greater Kansas City, the Vice Polemarch for the Independence, Mo., Alumni of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., the Christian Education Board and the Usher Board for Oak Ridge Missionary Baptist Church and the KCPT Public Television Board of Directors.

Green is married, has four children and three grandchildren.

DeKalb County’s school board approved a contract for superintendent finalist R. Stephen Green, a move board members say continues a rebound from financial ruin and problems that prompted state intervention just a few years ago.

The contract, for a three-year term at $300,000 with incentive increases possible after the first year, would make Green the second-highest-paid superintendent in metropolitan Atlanta in base pay, just behind the $375,000 annual salary for Atlanta Public Schools chief Meria Carstarphen.

School districts are large, complex organizations with multimillion-dollar budgets and thousands of employees, and his salary continues the national trend of paying superintendents top dollar to serve as the CEOs.

Focus on student instruction is key for the next part of the district’s revival, DeKalb County Board of Education Chairman Melvin Johnson said Thursday. Others echoed his sentiments.

But several parents have questioned the process for selecting the new superintendent, which one school board member said was secretive and “tainted.”

Board member Marshall Orson said, “Dr. Green will be a strong leader for DeKalb, and children and others will see the benefit in … that long-term goal that every child have a opportunity for a great education. We, as a board, are coalescing around a candidate who we believe could be the leader to take us forward in the system.”

Green said last week while in town for a visit that his focus was on getting into the classrooms and seeing what needs to be addressed. “We need to make sure teachers and students are engaged … and to make sure students have what they need to succeed,” Green said.

DeKalb’s school district is nearly seven times the size of the one he’s leaving. But the districts’ demographic make-up and some of the issues are the same. Officials from Kansas City Public Schools said a focus on student progress and making district employees feel heard helped improve test scores and boost morale. Student enrollment for this year was up slightly.

Gary Ray, president of Ray and Associates, which conducts superintendent searches for school districts across the country, said superintendents of large, urban districts like DeKalb can command high-dollar salaries because of the systems’ size. “That comes with a lot of challenges that they have to deal with, a lot of problems,” Ray said. “There’s only X number of people that have the skill set to run those kinds of organizations.”

Fulton County is likely to continue the trend when it begins searching for a full-time replacement for Robert Avossa, who announced he was resigning last month to head up Palm Beach County Schools in Florida.

Dan Domenech, executive director for the School Superintendents Association, said the average tenure for superintendents is about three years.

The third-largest school district in Georgia, DeKalb serves about 99,000 students and employs about 13,400 people.

Ray said Green’s key challenge in the DeKalb job is communicating effectively with board members and turning around the district hobbled by accreditation and financial problems and school board in-fighting.

“The turnover of the board and takeover in DeKalb, that’s certainly a huge challenge for somebody to come in and work with that type of history,” he said. “Obviously, you’ve got a new board there with an opportunity to start fresh. With a new board, a new superintendent coming in, all parties have an opportunity to start fresh and operate as a unit of one.”

Outgoing Superintendent Michael Thurmond, whose contract ends June 30, arrived in February 2013 as interim superintendent after Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson vacated the job before her contract expired. The district was on the verge of losing its accreditation and a 20-page report from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in late 2012 found the school board at odds and questioned staff hiring and fiscal responsibility that led to a $14-million deficit that year.

That same month, shortly after the Thurmond hire, Gov. Nathan Deal replaced six of the school board’s nine members.

Thurmond recently announced the district has an $81 million surplus. Employees are set to receive raises for the second consecutive year after going seven years with none.

Green is in the middle of a five-year contract with Kansas City, which would have kept him there through June 2018. He’s likely to stay until just before he starts in DeKalb. If he stays through June 30, he is guaranteed a $25,000 retention bonus, according to his contract. He had started with the district in August 2011 as interim superintendent and took the permanent post in 2012.

Joyce Morley, the DeKalb County school board member who cast the lone vote against a contract for Green, said she felt the process was tainted because the eventual hire came from a search firm the board fired, among other things. Green was approached for the job by ProAct Search, tasked with finding Thurmond’s replacement. ProAct was fired in early May amid misconduct allegations against owner Gary Solomon and SUPES Academy, a sister organization Solomon also runs.

Kansas City Public Schools was under contract with SUPES Academy at the time Green was named interim superintendent. “This board was not told this info,” Morley said Thursday before the vote. “I was concerned with lack of transparency … from Solomon that there were 17 candidates with ties to his SUPES Academy.

“How do we cut a tree down, but go to the ground and continue to eat the fruit from the tainted tree?”

Board member Michael Erwin said he was able to judge Green on his merits and what he could bring to the district, not on a possible connection to Gary Solomon.

James McMahan, another board member, noted Green comes from an education background, which Thurmond didn’t have when he was selected. Thurmond is a career politician, serving for years in the Georgia Senate and as labor commissioner for three terms, among other things.

“What really excites me is” Green “speaks education language,” McMahan said. “That’s our focus — our children.”