News from Minneapolis

We first met Bill Green at the BelievetoAchieve conference in Minneapolis who welcomed those attending with Mayor R.T. Ryback. Immediately we were all impressed with his heart, commitment, determination, confidence and intelligence. To say we are pleased for Minneapolis would be an understatement. Superintendent Green has told us that he will be coming to Birmingham to pass the TFI/BelievetoAchieve "Torch of Hope" to Superintendent Mims and Birmingham City Schools . Please join us in bringing congratulations to Dr. Green. Eric

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School board is unanimous: Bill Green

The Augsburg College professor and eight-year Minneapolis school board member was elevated from interim superintendent.

By Steve Brandt, Star Tribune

Last update: February 13, 2007 – 11:55 PM

Bill Green

Bill Green is no longer a temp.

The school board unanimously awarded him the job of Minneapolis school superintendent on Tuesday after an overwhelming show of public support

"I'm going to be here as long as I'm needed and as long as I have something to offer," he said before getting the offer.

The offer caps a year in which he was named interim school chief following the forced resignation of Thandiwe Peebles. Board members said they have been impressed with how Green has approached the job.

"We have had a working job interview," Board Member Chris Stewart said, describing that year.

"I'm thrilled," said Catherine Jordan, president of Achieve!Minneapolis, a nonprofit group that raises money for the district. "We can now get the traction we've been missing for almost three years to get things done."

The decision whether to name Green or do a broader search was the first big choice facing a relatively inexperienced board only a month after four new members were sworn in. But Board Member Lydia Lee said that 90 percent of the comments collected at 20 meetings across the city supported Green.

Yet board members reached out to skeptics who favored a search, especially black parents, with this message: We heard you. Support the district. Hold our feet to the fire on student achievement.

Green assumes the job at a time when the district has shrunk to its smallest enrollment in more than 20 years, partly because of student defections to charter and other schools.

The district has shown some progress in narrowing its racial achievement gap.

But Green's chief mandate will be to accelerate that pace to avoid further enrollment losses.

He steps into the job from a career as a college professor. But he prepped himself with eight years on the board, during which he, as chairman, engineered the lightning hiring of Carol Johnson as superintendent in 1997.

Johnson's six-year tenure was the last period of stability in the Minneapolis superintendent's chair. Hers was also the longest tenure in almost 20 years.

Green won the job partly by quieting the tumult that arose from the board's abortive hiring of David Jennings and the divisive tenure of Peebles, who brought academic skill but administrative chaos to the post.

When he was named interim leader, Green moved quickly to seek out some of the district's severest critics, saying he wanted them to feel that their views were heard. He also reassured many at district headquarters battered by Peebles' mercurial ways.

"He went into the fire, those parts of the community that were angriest with us," Lee said.

Green then won plaudits for bringing on academic and financial specialists to offset his own inexperience in running a big organization. Jointly they are steering the district toward marshaling its dwindling money behind best academic practices for reaching failing students.

Some outside the district fear that Green is unlikely to shake up what they view as an inbred central administration that inhibits progress. However, he has demoted two deputies since taking over.

Mayor R.T. Rybak was among those urging Green's appointment. "He has the vision and the understanding to lead our school district at this critical time," Rybak said in a statement.

Unlike the Green-engineered hiring of Johnson and the board's attempt to install Jennings, the decision on Green played out in public. The new board majority elected in November campaigned on a search that didn't award Green any preference.

But that feeling began to change in November when the leader of a big-city schools trade group warned the board of significant national competition for superintendents. The public, including area advisory groups of parents, began to chime in on Green's behalf, prompting the new board to test that support in a round of community meetings. Supporters argued that he has launched important initiatives that would lose momentum during a search.

The board now needs to negotiate a contract with Green. He is paid $168,405 annually under an interim deal that expires in June. Unlike Peebles', that contract includes no performance bonuses, and Green said that's his preference.

"I know what needs to be done," he said, "and I don't want to be in this job if I'm not doing it."

Steve Brandt • sbrandt@startribune.com