School Official Wants Florida Job: Roanoke Superintendent Marvin Thompson Has Applied for the Same Position at Another School District.

By David Harrison, The Roanoke Times, Va.

Apr. 14–Roanoke Superintendent Marvin Thompson has applied to be superintendent in Indian River County, Fla., according to application materials filed with an executive search firm.

Thompson, 43, is about halfway through his four-year contract with the Roanoke school system. His tenure so far has been marked by conflicts with teachers and staff who complain that he has been deaf to their concerns.

Rumors had swirled about his possible departure since at least December, but Thompson refused to address them. School board members said at the time that the superintendent had privately denied any intention of leaving.

Thompson sent his application, signed and dated April 4, to Ray and Associates, an Iowa-based firm that is handling the search process for the school district, the documents show. The deadline to apply was April 10.

Ray and Associates also handled Roanoke’s superintendent search in 2005, which led to Thompson’s hiring.

School officials in Indian River County said they had not yet seen Ray and Associates’ materials, but the Vero Beach Press Journal obtained a list of applications and resumes from the firm under Florida’s open records law.

Those documents show Thompson among a list of 36 applicants for the superintendent’s position, which has an advertised annual salary of $175,000. His contract with Roanoke schools pays him $140,000 a year.

School Board Chairman David Carson said the news of Thompson’s application caught him by surprise.

“I was not aware that the superintendent has been looking outside the Roanoke district,” he said, adding that he wanted to speak with Thompson before commenting further.

“Regardless, on the strength of the outstanding teachers and staff that comprise RCPS [Roanoke City Public Schools], I am confident that we will move forward in a positive way,” he wrote in a later e-mail.

Other school board members also said they had not been informed of Thompson’s application in Florida.

“I know nothing about this and would love to hear from the superintendent at some point on his intentions,” said board member Courtney Penn.

Messages left for Thompson were not returned Friday.

Anita Price, a guidance counselor at Round Hill Montessori Primary School and the vice president of the Roanoke Education Association, said she was not surprised by the news.

“There’s been so many rumors flying forever that he’s applied elsewhere,” she said. “The shocker will be if he gets it and actually takes it.”

Thompson has clashed with many school system employees, who chafe at his management style. They say the superintendent extended the school day and increased their responsibilities without first securing their buy-in and without increasing their pay.

But under Thompson, test scores have risen. This year 23 of 29 city schools are accredited by the state, up from 17 last year.

Teacher turnover has spiked. When school started this year, 227 teachers were no longer in their classrooms, up from 163 the year before.

Most recently members of the Roanoke Education Association have sparred with the school administration by distributing a survey on working conditions in the schools without first getting Thompson’s approval, as is required by school policy.

“I think it is an excellent opportunity for him to graciously bow out from Roanoke city schools and make his stake somewhere else,” Price said.

“I wasn’t aware that he was applying anywhere, but if this is a school system that’s a good match for him, then I wish him well,” said Paul Scott, a teacher at William Ruffner Middle School.

Thompson listed four references on his application, none of them from the Roanoke school system.

School board member Jason Bingham called Thompson’s job in Roanoke “the toughest job in the state” and said he could understand that he would want a change.

“Roanoke city schools has been a heck of a challenge,” he said. “It may have been too much. I just don’t know.”

Ray and Associates will examine the pool of candidates and present a narrowed list to the Indian River County School Board on April 23, said Patty Vasquez, the district’s communications director. The board will then make a decision in time for the new superintendent’s July 1 start date.

The school board fired its previous superintendent a little more than a year ago and hired an interim superintendent who is retiring, Vasquez said. Voters elected three new members of the five-member school board in November, and the new board launched a national superintendent search in January, she said.

Indian River County is on Florida’s Atlantic coast, roughly 135 miles north of Miami. The county is known for its citrus fruit, but developers are increasingly buying up land.

The district’s job announcement says the school board would prefer a candidate with a doctorate. Thompson does not have a doctorate but is studying for one and has said he expects to be done before the end of 2007.

Staff writer Matt Chittum contributed to this report.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Roanoke Times, Va.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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