Dunsmore ready for challenge
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on July 12, 2015 1:50 AM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Wayne County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Michael Dunsmore said he is excited about the upcoming school year.
Dr. Michael Dunsmore says he knew he wanted to be superintendent of the Wayne County Public Schools two years ago, when his predecessor first announced plans to retire.
A few months afterward, though, then-superintendent Dr. Steven Taylor withdrew his paperwork and decided to continue in the role. He officially retired Dec. 1, 2014.
"I kept my toes in the water and really went after it in earnest," Dunsmore said. "The more research I did on it, it seemed like a great place to live, a good community."
Growing up outside of Carlisle, Pa., near a military base, Dunsmore said he appreciated Wayne County's proximity to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base as well as two colleges and the state capital.
"It seemed like a good fit for me," he said. "I'm just at a point in my life I want to be involved in more things that are going to have an impact in education and through my contacts in the state I knew Dr. Taylor and most of the superintendents surrounding here and I never heard anything negative about Wayne County.
"It was always, wow, this is a great school system and it would be a huge opportunity, whoever would get it."
He and wife, Dianne, high school sweethearts, wound up in North Carolina after their three sons graduated from high school. He was school superintendent in Tyrrell County before being hired by Wayne County and started the job July 1.
Both his parents were educators but had steered him away from the profession. Dunsmore instead pursued criminal justice, becoming a juvenile probation officer and during a stint coaching, discovered he "just loved it," so got his masters degree in counseling and segued into special education.
He said he enjoyed his time in Tyrrell County, as it afforded him opportunities to do many things. But he set his sights on working in a larger school system.
"I truly believe in giving back and making an impact," he said. "I started looking about a year or two ago. I wanted to branch out and do more.
"This was always tops on my list. So I feel very blessed that this is where I landed."
He said he takes the responsibility of educating children very seriously and is concerned that despite advancing technology, some important things are being lost.
"Kids today can't look you in the eye and talk," he said. "They can't sit down and communicate. They can't write if you take that cell phone from them. And so I think one of the real challenges we have is how we teach children to use that technology."
He takes the helm with two goals -- working with the leadership team and developing a strategic plan for the district.
He knew going in there was one leadership position opening, in human resources, but says he "doesn't get hung up on titles" and prefers to assess people's strengths and skill sets and position staff accordingly.
"What I really want to focus on is learning the school system quickly, but I also want to set the tone for strategic planning," he said. "Where do we need to be in a couple years, that we can provide the best for our kids?"
With only about a week under his belt, the superintendent admits he hasn't done much talking.
"I've done a lot of observing and watching. I study human nature. That always fascinated me when I was in counseling, and what makes people tick," he said. "I often reflect -- and I've taught very, very disabled children -- and as I became a parent and dealt with different things, it was always, how would I deal with that, developing that empathy.
"And as I got into a leadership role, I am very empathic. I try to understand everybody's situation. We all have lives. I'm very passionate about what we're doing here. You think about what's going on in your own life. We have 19,000 lives that we're responsible for."
While a learning curve is to be expected, Dunsmore does not plan to stay in that mode. Not when children's education and future is at stake.
"As I tell everybody, we're all accountable, starting with me. Obviously if we're not moving the school system forward, you're going to have a new superintendent," he said. "It's easy to say, 'I'm going to sit this year and look and watch.' No, that's not acceptable, because every day, and I always come back to this, if I don't have a teacher in front of them, that's a day lost. I'm not going to get that back.
"So there are going to be a lot of decisions and changes."
The transportation department is one such area. Plagued with poor efficiency ratings and other issues, it has been a "tangled mess," Dunsmore said.
"I will tell you, transportation was one of my top two priorities," he said. "And part of that, I was the transportation director in Tyrrell so I understand the TIMS (Transportation Information Management System). Not to this magnitude. I have so much to learn here because of all the areas and what I've really looked at. We're probably also the largest, one of the top couple of counties that put the largest sum of local money into transportation in the state of North Carolina.
"So there is a lot of inefficiency. I know there's a new transportation director over there. I'm looking and being told that some good things are happening. We've got a long way to go there."
The district is already doing right things, with specialized programming like academies at the high schools and Wayne School of Engineering and Wayne Early/Middle College High School helping students find their niche, Dunsmore said.
"They're not official, but our graduation rates went up this year by about 5 percent," Dunsmore said. "Good things are happening, so I think my big focus right now is to get all those players and all the stakeholders in the community around the table and get those voices and get those opinions out and you know, let's get some structure to all this.
"How can we really get this taking off because not just North Carolina but across the entire United States, public education's changing. Federal funding's changing. State funding's changing. We've got to figure out ways to do this and do it better."
He fashions himself as a "facilitator" and hopes to promote open dialogue.
"That's what I'm interested in. People come up and say, 'You probably don't want to hear this.' Well, I absolutely do. Good, bad or otherwise, I think that's what the public wants," he said "As a parent, oftentimes all I wanted to do when I put my parent hat on was to tell a teacher or principal, 'All right, let's step back and look at it from this side.' And the ones that would were the successful ones. The ones that were hard-line -- 'We're going to do it my way or the highway' -- well, you know, that doesn't work any more."
Change is imminent, something Dunsmore says he is more than willing embrace, and hopes others will as well.
The foundation of a strategic plan will center around what steps are needed to move the district forward, he said. Besides transportation, Dunsmore said it is imperative to have qualified teachers in every classroom and to support them.
"The challenge I'm going to have is motivating everybody first and foremost in this (central office) building -- be willing to change. Change isn't bad. It's change," he said. "But also I have 33 building principals that are very, very high on my priority list because they're out there on the front lines. They're the ones that are making it happen.
"When they call, I will listen. I will be available to them."
Just as he has some adjustments to make in his new surroundings, so will others have to get used to him, he said.
"What I want is, don't hesitate to come talk to me," he said. "I'm not going to bite your head off. That's not my management style. I'm going to listen to whatever you have to say. And I'm not here to keep a scorecard. I think we have to have short memories. If you made a mistake last week, get over it. Move on.
"I'm really excited about this opportunity and I think we're going to get things rolling."