After hiring and firing a string of good men incapable of turning around a floundering school district and handicapped by bitter divisions, the Pulaski County Special School District Board in July signed a franchise superintendent in Dr. Charles Hopson.
This guy appears to have a game plan, to know how to execute it, and is capable of calling an audible, as he did when he ran into problems implementing a new bell schedule.
A couple of weeks ago, we thought he was blessed with good luck to have had a small degree of unity imposed upon the board by September school elections that replaced two members obsessed with derailing the unions, even at the cost of progress, and also at the cost of several hundred thousand dollars in court and attorney fees.
Since then, it has become apparent that some in the school community—most notably the two school employee unions—are feeling emboldened by their success in replacing those two union opponents with their own candidates.
Hopson has made some missteps in his attempt to move the school district to the end zone late in the fourth quarter. The unions and their supporters, including those they control on the board, seem determined to run off Hopson, the district’s last, best hope.
Teachers’ union president Marty Nix passes notes to one of their “hires” on the board, Tom Stuthard, during the meetings.
Here are some of the reasons they don’t like Hopson: He threatens their control of the district. They fear any change that might upset the teacher apple cart. He wants a longer school day, they don’t. He wants year-round education, they don’t. He wants to close and consolidate some schools, they don’t. He seems to want teacher accountability, they don’t.
The district is in danger of being placed back in fiscal distress in January, as it was between 2005 and 2007.
Hopson and Chief Financial Officer Anita Farver, with board approval, have rectified many of the problems that the state legislative audit have discovered. Most recently, the way Hopson spent his $25,000 relocation stipend—which was part of his contract—concerned the auditors, but that has been resolved when Hopson explained the stipend would be included as part of his pay when he files his tax returns.
Hopson has worked to make the district more efficient, managing on the corporate model and even bringing in non-educator experts to oversee complex and important aspects of the school district, such as information technology and facilities.
Hopson arranged for seven district personnel to accompany him to China—with the Chinese government indirectly picking up most of the tab—an initial step toward bringing a Chinese Mandarin language teacher to the school district.
That’s a good thing, commendable and in line with his goal of providing PCSSD students with the tools for a world-class education.
