After five-and-a-half years leading Cobb County Schools, Fred Sanderson retires as superintendent June 30. The longtime educator was brought in from retirement to replace Joseph Redden, who resigned after a failed plan to give take-home laptop computers to students. At the time, Sanderson was seen as a homegrown antithesis to Redden, who was a public-education outsider. Sanderson will be replaced July 1 by an outsider of a different sort, Dallas Superintendent Micheal Hinojosa.
Q: You retired from education and came back to take this superintendent job. Are you really retiring this time?
A: For the moment. I don’t have any plans, and that’s by design. There are some opportunities I am looking at, but I want to see what it is like not to do anything.
Q: You were deputy superintendent before you retired, a principal and educator. Was there anything that surprised you when you took the top job?
A: I think the 24-7 piece of it. I had worked very closely with the board and superintendent for a number of years, so I was pretty aware of what the job was. But now you’re at the top. You’re never not the superintendent. You couldn’t relax and be yourself somewhere.
Q: Is that part of the reason why now you’re retiring?
A: I think it was. I felt like it was time. I had put 36 years into education, and I was ready to do something else, or nothing at all. I wanted to retire when I was young enough to enjoy myself and do something else.
Q: You’re one of the few superintendents leaving of your own will. What do you attribute your longevity to?
A: Staying focused on what you should be focused on. We were focused on the local school. And you have to absorb all the other things that go with it, which is the external noise. It’s hard not to take some things personally, but you have to stay focused on what you’re trying to do. I think that’s the secret to longevity…do what’s right for kids.
Q: But in the board room, you’re careful about the language you select, and the way you approach things. How did you get that skill?
A: It’s years of experience. And part of it is my nature. I am not going to be confrontational to a board member in public. That has no benefit for anyone. But in those board meetings, if I felt like I had to say something I would.
Q: What do you feel like your accomplishments are?
A: Some of the demographic changes Cobb has gone through, and balancing that with cuts in the budget. When you take millions of dollars out of the budget, you lose a lot of insular support. I think that’s our greatest accomplishment – we've been able to sustain or improve our academic performance over the last five years, despite changes.
Q: What do you see as the challenges moving forward?
A: The district will become more urbanized, and more international. And the barriers that brings will continue to be a challenge. Transient rates are extremely bothersome.
Q: What’s been the most difficult time period or issue to manage through?
A: The budget. And having 17 board members in five years. The problem is the turnover and the learning curve. That’s challenging, because it takes up a lot of the superintendent’s time working with individual board members as they learn. There’s a lot of difference in campaigning and governing. But more than that is the budget. We’ve had about a $350 million hit since 2003.
Q: What keeps you up at night?
A: Last year was the most difficult decision I ever made, when we did the reduction in force in teaching positions. Not only are you compromising your academic prowess, but you’re also taking away people’s jobs and livelihoods. That was very difficult for me, and the whole executive staff. Even though I feel like we did what we had to do in the least disruptive manner as possible.
Q: You are someone who has risen through the ranks here. Do you think it makes it easier or more difficult to be in a leadership position when you’ve developed relationships for 30 years?
A: Your learning curve isn’t as steep. You have the institutional knowledge of the district. The other side is you need to be ready to make changes that are necessary, regardless of previous relationships. If you have those factors – the institutional knowledge and you’re ready to make decisions -- to me it’s much better to do it that way.
Q: The calendar issue: Why is this such a hot-button issue for people in Cobb?
A: I think it is external factions that are relentless about start dates. And it was such a campaign issue. The balanced calendar, some of the things that have happened this year have been very positive. It’s not when you start and finish, as much as what happens those 180 days in school. I am not as hung up on the calendar as a lot of people are.
Q: What will you miss the most?
A: The relationships that I have with executive staff and principals, with all the employees.
Q: Anything else you’d like to say?
A: Cobb’s a great district, one of the best in the United States, and it’s a challenge to keep it there. I think we’re heading in the right direction and I don’t see that changing. But there's a lot of white noise out there.
About the Author
