Dr. Wilcox's successor

Funny how the mind works -- I had just stopped thinking of Clayton Wilcox as "the new guy" in charge of Pinellas County schools, even though he was hired in 2004. Now he's quitting to work for a national textbook publisher.

Wilcox never dominated the school bureaucracy in the style of his longtime predecessor, Howard Hinesley, who basically created it. But he did try to reform it and make it respond better -- I liked the way, early in his tenure, he kicked the bureaucracy in the butt when it failed to deal vigorously with a series of school bus accidents. And of course, his main legacy will be the transformation of the school system from the old days of busing and quotas to the new world of "close-to-home" schools, for better or worse.

Neither did Wilcox enjoy the same dominance that Hinesley had over the School Board -- or more precisely, the co-cabal that Hinesley shared with some previous board members known collectively as "the boys." Instead, a new and fractious board never stopped taking potshots at him. But it wasn't just him; they took plenty of potshots at each other too. No matter what he says graciously, I bet he was plenty sick of it, and now is taking secret delight at the prospect of not having to put up with it.

The question  will be whether the board replaces him with strong leadership, or whether the system will just flop along for a while under the board's inconstant direction.

Comments

[Larry]

Howard, certainly Dr. Wilcox is smiling inside to be leaving behind that bunch of bickering biddies on the school board. He was never supported in the manner that he deserved. Maybe they can elevate the school board attorney to the position of Superintendent. They seem to have such faith and confience in him.

[john]

Wilcox inherited a mess from the idiot Hinsley. The school choice plan was the worst thing that could have happened to Pinellas County. He had the guts to try to change it.

Thankfully we at least have the close-to-home plan now.

[Don Mott]

My bet is on flopping since they cannot seem to reach a consesus on any thing else.

[Jon McPhee]

Looks like the gent will go quietly into that good next job. I for one will not miss the self-promotion, the endless demon-dialer phone calls from "This is Clayton Wilcox, remember me, your Pinellas County school superintendent, announcing the lunch choices for the week of April 1" to my cell phone, at my expense and annoyance. Will anyone miss the "privatizing" initiatives to bring advertising and learn-how-to-consume-more into the classroom and micromanagement and the demand to turn classrooms into multimedia playgrounds to hold the little darlings' attention, and all the other things I am sure teachers will be chewing over until the dust settles behind the next Guy (or Gal) on a White Horse. Was anyone but me bugged by the magnetic and stick-on advertising signs that appeared for a while on School District vehilces? Since we do not have a training ground for future leaders that teaches them the idea of governance and the value of preserving some of the old-time ways of learning, you know we will get more of the same: waste of money on "process" and phony "progressive" pedagogy rolled over for "new" every other year, book burnings big and small, further pinching of real teaching resources (including teacher pay), grandstanding by the charmers on the school board -- you all know the drill. Is there any chance things will ever get any better?