Gwinnett school chief not resting on laurels

In his nearly 15 years as head of Gwinnett schools, the 68-year-old Wilbanks has earned an image as a no-nonsense leader with a subdued style that borders on taciturn.

The approach doesn’t seem to have hurt. Wilbanks has guided the system through explosive growth and a massive demographic shift — from a midsize, mostly white system when he started to one now classified as urban and majority minority.

The student population zoomed from 85,000 in 1996 to more than 161,000 this year. The number of economically disadvantaged students grew 266 percent during that time. Some new students did not speak English.

Though Wilbanks has acquired some critics over the years, the Broad Prize comes as a validation of his efforts to not only survive such shifts — he is the nation’s longest-tenured superintendent of a large urban system — but to raise the standing of Gwinnett schools in the process.

“We used to get fads of the month from the central office telling us what worked in Texas,” said teacher Tim Mullen, of Bay Creek Middle School. “When Mr. Wilbanks became superintendent, he developed the [Academic Knowledge and Skills curriculum] so we were all teaching the same thing. He brought stability to the classroom.”

Wilbanks’ authoritative leadership style has its darker side, some say.

“He is low-key, but he is one powerful man and you better not cross him,” said Susan Dietz, who recently retired from Gwinnett schools after 27 years in education. “I was not afraid of him, but there are so many teachers that are. I think we have seen enough in Gwinnett County that they have good reason.”

Wilbanks is a Jackson County native who earned his education degrees from the University of Georgia and Georgia State. He was president of Gwinnett Technical College and an assistant superintendent in Gwinnett before his promotion.

He set about to overhaul the district and find answers to questions that nagged him, such as: “How do we know we are doing a good job? ... We began to look at students. We looked at assessments, at finances,” Wilbanks said. “Expenses were rising. We had a good Board of Education. We worked together to set goals.”

The district was adding 3,000 to 5,000 students each year at the start of this decade, and because of all the mobile classrooms, school yards looked like trailer parks.

“Any superintendent who would have turned a blind eye would have had a short tenure,” said Mary Kay Murphy, school board chair. “He has had a long-term view.”

Under Wilbanks, Gwinnett established a standardized assessment and passed the special purpose local option sales tax three times to raise money for school construction.

As Wilbanks’ profile grew, he was called on by U.S. presidents and governors. He was the only superintendent, for instance, invited to help shape the No Child Left Behind Act, which mandated that states set student performance measures and allowed students to transfer from failing schools. Most recently Wilbanks was a key part of the team that landed $400 million in Race to the Top grant money for Georgia over the next four years.

“He is my hero,” said Jonathan Patterson, principal of Norcross High. “There is a reason he’s the longest-serving urban superintendent in the country — it’s hard work.”

Gwinnett’s five-member school board typically follows Wilbanks’ lead. Policy is often approved without discussion, which sometimes occurs at workshops.

“Our superintendent is the manager,” Murphy said. “We have never gotten confused as a board that we are managing.”

Dietz, a former Gwinnett County Association of Educators president, said Wilbanks was “difficult” to work with.

When association leaders met with him last year about leadership issues at Lilburn Middle School, she said, Wilbanks told them that complaining teachers at the school were troublemakers who didn’t belong in Gwinnett — and have since left.

Irv Wardlow, now a Fulton schools teacher, was let go from Lilburn despite good reviews and success with minority and poor students.

“He is just a good old boy. ... He’ll do anything. He’ll say anything. There is nothing stopping him,” Wardlow said.

Wilbanks advocated building an elementary school beside a landfill, and the board agreed, without seeking the opinions of parents in the district.

Gwinnett was an initial partner in a state program called Investing in Educational Excellence, or IE2, after Wilbanks helped craft the legislation creating it. There was little public input into the decision to sign up for the program, which waives certain state mandates if districts agree to performance standards.

“Alvin has been around for a long, long time,” said Andrew Broy, a former state associate superintendent. “His board is small. ... A lot of people feel that it is set in its ways. Some criticize Mr. Wilbanks and Gwinnett County for [making] executive decisions.”

When an ex-Gwinnett administrator launched a charter school for girls, the district sued its leader — and the state — for approving and funding a campus the county system had rejected.

The case, later joined by six other districts, is before the state Supreme Court.

Recent staffing cuts also earned Wilbanks criticism, with some teachers alleging they were cut because they had advanced degrees and made too much money.

One qualified for unemployment compensation after the state ruled the job loss was no fault of her own. Gwinnett officials say nonrenewals are performance-based.

The Educator Ethics Review Committee is scheduled to vote on whether to investigate the case in November.

Wilbanks declined through a spokesperson to respond to his critics’ comments.

“He is a very authoritative leader,” Murphy said. “Sometimes, in the heat of the day, those of us who live in a community don’t appreciate how tall people in our community stand. Mr. Wilbanks has never been pompous or self-aggrandizing. “

Some parents who once fought against Wilbanks have come to appreciate him.

“My first impression of him was that he was standoffish, that even when he was listening, he was not really hearing what we were saying,” said Mindy Zimmerman, a Suwanee resident who opposed opening Sycamore Elementary near a landfill.

“That was false. Even though we didn’t see eye to eye on a lot, I came to understand and respect him. ... He wasn’t just thinking about one child. He is a businessman thinking about the education of a number of kids.”

Though past retirement age for most people, Wilbanks said he plans to stay put as long as the board will have him. One motivator, he said, is the disparity between white students, the poor and minorities in education. The Broad Prize cited Gwinnett’s success in shrinking them.

“I really believe the Gwinnett County school district is making a difference for children,” Wilbanks said. “I enjoy being a part of that. As long as that happens, I want to be in the game.”