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Senior Military Officers Chosen for Elite National Training to Become Urban Public School Superintendents

Posted on: Thursday, 11 January 2007, 09:01 CST

Seven high-ranking military officers have been selected to participate in the 2007 Broad Superintendents Academy, The Broad Center for the Management of School Systems announced today.

The Broad Superintendents Academy is a 10-month executive management program to train top executives from military, business, non-profit, government and education backgrounds to lead urban public school districts. It is the only program in the country that recruits and trains leaders from industries other than education to become superintendents. To date, 33 of the program's graduates have served as superintendents and another 26 have gone on to hold senior school district executive positions.

For the first time in the program's five-year history, nearly half of the 15 members of the 2007 class are high-ranking, senior military leaders, including a rear admiral, a major general and a chief master sergeant. Two are already working as school district executives. A full list of participants follows, and a photo of each is available upon request.

"The late General John Stanford, former superintendent of Seattle Public Schools, proved that military leaders can provide the leadership needed to improve urban education for tens of thousands of students," said Eli Broad, founder of The Broad Foundation, which funds The Broad Center. "The impressive military leaders in this year's class already have successfully managed million-, some even billion-dollar budgets and overseen hundreds to thousands of personnel. With intensive, deep exposure to the best of what's working in school reform, they can apply their proven leadership abilities to make a dramatic difference in the lives of young people and improve the quality of urban schools."

Distinguished military graduates of the program now leading public school districts include:

Maj. Gen. John Barry, U.S. Air Force (Retired), superintendent, Aurora Public Schools, Colo., serving 32,000 students

Rear Adm. Barbara McGann, U.S. Navy (Retired), fourth woman line officer in Navy history to rise to "two-star" rank and upon retirement, second highest-ranking woman in the Navy, now superintendent, Marlborough Public Schools, Mass., serving 5,000 students

Brig. Gen. Frederick D. Van Valkenburg, U.S. Air Force (Retired), chief of Staff, Fort Worth Independent School District in Texas, serving 80,000 students

Colonel Arnold Woodrow Carter, U.S. Army (Retired), superintendent, Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District, in Northern California, serving 23,000 students

Colonel Thomas Brady, U.S. Army (Retired), chief business operating officer, District of Columbia Public Schools, serving 65,000 students

Following a rigorous review and selection process, only five percent of this year's applicants were accepted into the program. Other participants include business leaders and high-level education executives from urban school districts in the following cities: Atlanta, Boston, Cobb County, Ga., Memphis, Tenn., New York City, Philadelphia and Topeka, Kan.

Participants in The Broad Superintendents Academy keep their current jobs and attend seven extended-weekend training sessions covering CEO-level skills in education, finance, management, operations and organizational systems. This year's sessions will be held in Los Angeles, Long Beach, New Orleans, Chicago, New York, Houston, and San Francisco. The Broad Center covers tuition, travel and all program expenses. At the conclusion of the program, The Broad Center will help place participants in urban school districts as superintendents and senior executives.

The 2007 class is the sixth to be trained by The Broad Superintendents Academy. Sixty percent of the graduates of the first five classes have been hired around the country as superintendents or school district executives or have been promoted into those positions, and nine out of ten graduates from the first four classes are still working in the same, similar, or higher positions. One quarter of large, urban districts that have conducted external searches for new superintendents in the last two years have filled their positions with graduates of The Broad Superintendents Academy.

Spread across 17 states, graduates of the program today work as superintendents in school districts in the following cities: Andover, Kan.; Antioch, Calif.; Arlington, Mass.; Aurora, Colo.; Benton Harbor, Mich.; Charleston, S.C.; Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C.; Christina (Wilmington), Del.; Durham, N.C.; Duval County (Jacksonville), Fla.; Elizabeth, N.J.; Fairfield-Suisun, Calif.; Fort Bend, Texas; Fort Wayne, Ind.; Fort Worth, Texas; Highline, Wash.; Houston, Texas; Marlborough, Mass.; Montgomery, Ala.; North Allegheny, Pa.; Oakland, Calif.; Paterson, N.J.; Pittsburgh, Pa.; Pomona, Calif.; Portsmouth, R.I.; Prince Edward County, Va.; Prince George's County, Md.; San Diego County, Calif.; Swampscott, Mass.; and Utica, Mich.

Those graduates who have served as superintendents for at least two years have already demonstrated district gains in reading and math -- 86 percent are increasing overall district-wide student achievement on state reading and math assessments given at elementary, middle and high school levels. And three out of five are reducing ethnic and income achievement gaps faster than the following four comparisons: their own districts under previous leadership, other districts in the state that serve students with similar levels of poverty, other districts in the state with new superintendents and the state average.

The Broad Center for the Management of School Systems is funded by The Broad Foundation, a Los Angeles-based venture philanthropic organization established in 1999 by Eli and Edythe Broad. Eli Broad is a renowned business leader who founded two Fortune 500 companies, SunAmerica Inc. and KB Home. The Foundation's mission is to dramatically improve student achievement in urban public schools through better governance, management, labor relations and competition. For more information, go to www.broadcenter.org or www.broadfoundation.org.

The Broad Center for the Management of School Systems

2007 Broad Superintendents Academy

PARTICIPANTS

Jose Betancourt

San Diego

Chief Administrative Officer

San Diego Unified School District

Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy (Retired)

Jean-Claude (J.C.) Brizard

New York City

Regional Superintendent

New York City Department of Education

Randolph (Randy) Bynum

Atlanta

Area Assistant Superintendent

Cobb County School District

Ingrid Carney

Boston

Deputy Superintendent for Clusters and School Leaders, Boston Public Schools

Brenda Cassellius

Memphis, Tenn.

Middle School Superintendent

Memphis City Schools

Paul Gill

Riverside, Calif.

Senior Vice President, Regional Operations

American Dental Partners

Colonel, U.S. Air Force (Retired)

Tomas Hanna

Philadelphia

Senior Vice President, Human Resources

The School District of Philadelphia

Alan Ingram

Oklahoma City

Executive Director of Federal Programs

Oklahoma City Public Schools

Chief Master Sergeant, U.S. Air Force (Retired)

Christine (Nickey) Knighton

Springfield, Va.

Chief, Leader Development Division

Army Human Resources Command

Colonel, U.S. Army

Veleter Mazyck

Atlanta

General Counsel, Atlanta Public Schools

W. L. (Tony) Sawyer

Topeka, Kan.

Superintendent

Topeka Public Schools

John Scanlan

Jacksonville, Fla.

Commanding Officer

Fleet Readiness Center Southeast

Captain, U.S. Navy

Terrence (Terry) Stecz

New York City

President and CEO, Edison Schools, Inc.

Stephen Wilkins

Las Vegas

Brigade Commander, 6th Recruiting Brigade

Colonel, U.S. Army

Bennie Williams

Fort Belvoir, Va.

Chief Operating Officer, Defense Logistics Agency

Major General, U.S. Army

Source: Business Wire

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