Superintendent discusses issues
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on February 15, 2016 1:46 PM
When Wayne County Public Schools superintendent Dr. Michael Dunsmore took over the reins July 1, he pledged not to let any grass grow under his feet.
If staffing shifts and strategic plans are any indication, he is making good on his promise.
He spoke about some of the projects he has been working on since his arrival and addressed several rumors, including teachers at Goldsboro High School having to reapply for their jobs, the future of School Street Elementary School and his wife recently being hired to work in the district.
There have been a lot of personnel changes over the past few months, some generated by retirement, others to fill vacancies.
But all are imminently to make improvements to the quality of local public education, Dunsmore said.
The latest announcement was that Robert Yelverton, principal at Northeast Elementary School, will take over as principal at Goldsboro High School, his alma mater.
"He wanted the job. He sought that out and wants to go in and turn things around," the superintendent said. "He's vested. He's concerned.
"I think in supporting him and getting his leadership team together and the teachers that he needs to be there, I don't want to say we're prioritizing Goldsboro because all 33 schools are on my priority list, but we have to recognize what we need to do to help support our staff to elevate what our kids are doing."
With any turnaround, it has to be a team effort, Dunsmore said.
"Everybody has to be on the same page," he said. "Obviously, probably the last, what, 15 years since Goldsboro started to decline they've changed leadership.
"But if you don't support the person, it doesn't matter who you put in, they're not going to be successful."
The notion of putting the onus on the principals to fix things was embedded in the No Child Left Behind model and later the Race to the Top initiative. The federal government stipulated the belief that leadership needed to be changed.
"One of the options is you can open up and actually get a brand new staff, top to bottom, we're starting over," Dunsmore said.
But at this point, nothing has been mentioned about requiring teachers at GHS to reapply for their jobs, he said.
Instead, it is more about creating a new culture and a more solid base at the school.
"We're looking at supporting GHS to turn it around and then I think first and foremost is expectations," he said. "Staffingwise, we know we're understaffing some of the areas. And we know we have a lot of substitute-type positions. We've gotta get quality teachers."
He is also interested in making more career and technical or vocational, offerings available to GHS students, with an eye toward partnering with Wayne Community College, where such programs are more plentiful.
"I can't build auto shop, machine shop at GHS when they have it two miles down the road at Wayne Community," he said. "So (President) Kay (Albertson) and I are looking at those afternoon time periods of starting up a couple pathways and building it from there because all I have to do is get them from Goldsboro High to Wayne Community in the afternoon because we run buses already (for) the early college."
Dunsmore has been having conversations with the mayor and city and county managers, about the school system in general and about upgrades and maintenance specifically, he said.
"I said, 'Look, we're changing leadership, we're rolling things out, we're going to offer different programs to the students and we're going to set the bar. Let's go in and clean this building top to bottom,'" he said. "We're building the new atrium (at GHS), which is going to be gorgeous. But the building needs to be cleaned, it needs to be painted. We need floor ties, we need carpet, we need ceiling tiles. And I need some help with that.
"We're looking to do something like that with a partnership with the city. I'm excited about their willingness to work with us and really do something for our kids."
Dunsmore said he believes that putting extra support behind the schools will make a big difference.
"If we clean the building, we hold the children accountable, we raise the bar, we can get good teachers and keep them," he said. "But we have to support them."
The strategic plan, along with a facilities plan and technology plan, are all being readied to roll out, he said. Part of the effort is broken down to from zero to five (years) and five to 10 years, with implementation likely to start as early as July 1, the one-year anniversary since Dunsmore arrived.
"My goal is to have that in front of the board for the April meeting, and then I'll take the month of April, we're going to go out and do all our community meetings," he said. "And then hopefully (in) May we'll have a budget, June get everybody graduated and get geared up for next year.
"There's no lottery money left and there's obviously no sales tax money left so we have to be very, very fiscally sure what we're doing. We're not just out willy-nilly building."
One critical question in being good stewards of taxpayer money is whether the district is utilizing everything it has, Dunsmore said.
"We have buildings that have empty classrooms. We have buildings that are busting out at the seams. We also have an alternative school, Wayne Academy, building that was originally built and designed as a middle school," he said. "(When some said) we had plans to build a new middle school, my first reaction was, well, you're not using one, because the whole second floor of that is realistically office building."
That holds true at other locations, where unused classroom space has been converted into office space. School Street Elementary, an older building in dire need of renovations, and a site with lagging student numbers, has also been the subject of rumors that it might be closed.
Dunsmore said he has been asked about using School Street for office space and moving the children to a nicer building.
"I don't have an answer to that yet because we're still in the study phase of comparing apples to apples, oranges to oranges," he said. "As we get into the budgeting and have a better idea I know a lot of people talk about School Street, and it is one of our smaller facilities. It's not a high population area.
"I'm not targeting School Street or any other school because it may be, maybe we need to bring more kids into School Street and utilize that. I don't know."
Dunsmore also addressed recent backlash following the hiring of his wife, Diane Dunsmore, as a data manager in the EC, or exceptional children's department.
"I'm not going to make everybody happy," he shrugged. "If we didn't allow husbands and wives to work under the same system, we'd be out of business."
He noted that he did not create a position for his spouse of 35 years, nor was he involved in the hiring process or set her salary.
"She also applied and interviewed for a county position. She applied for a city of Goldsboro position, which she pulled out of because she said this is what she's done her entire career, what she's good at and what she wanted to do," he said.
She has 31 years of experience in the EC program, he said, and has actually worked in education longer than her husband, who had a diverse background in other fields before becoming a superintendent.
"She knows, and we understand, my position's driving where we go," he said. "She has a skill set and a background and where she's comfortable, and that's the school system," he said, adding, "And actually, because she falls under my benefits, it was a savings to the school system because she turned down her benefits."
Dunsmore said the couple feels at home in Wayne County and are invested in being contributors.
He also specific ideas on what it will take to accomplish success for the school district.
"If you look at high flying counties and high flying systems, two things stand out -- they've got great principals and they recruit and attract the best teachers, and they treat them right and they have high expectations," he said. "That's my message to my principals Everybody said, 'Well, you can't evaluate all 33 principals.' I said, 'Watch!'
"Mediocrity and complacency is not an option. We have to elevate what we are doing and raise the bar, raise the expectations."