Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 26, 1993 TAG: 9301260340
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
SHORT LIST LONG ON CREDENTIALS
Here are the three finalists announced Monday for the Roanoke schools superintendent position: E. Wayne HarrisHarris is considered one of the most promising top administrators in Fairfax schools, according to The Washington Post. He is an area superintendent working directly with Fairfax County School Superintendent Robert R. Spillane.
"I'm ecstatic about the possibility," Harris said Monday of his selection as a finalist. "Roanoke is an outstanding school system with strong community support and a strong group of teachers and administrators. I view people in Roanoke as wanting a first-rate school system for their children."
Before taking a yearlong leave of absence to participate in a doctorate program for urban superintendents at Harvard University in 1990, Harris oversaw roughly one-quarter of the county's public schools, primarily in the Annandale, Bailey's Crossroads, Falls Church, Merrifield and Oakton areas.
His 37-school, 27,000-student administrative area included schools with some of the highest concentrations of minority students, particularly immigrants who spoke little English, The Post reported. Harris was one of the prime architects of several programs targeting at-risk children, and he championed a recent plan to convert three of his intermediate schools to middle school format, winning support from wary parents and School Board members.
Harris was considered a prime candidate to lead his own school district eventually and some even suggested him as a potential successor to Spillane, The Post reported.
In the past two years, Harris has faced a range of issues - an attempted ban by high school principals on an advertisement for a gay and lesbian youth group in several high school newspapers; the suspensions of three Fairfax County football players; controversy over the redrawing of attendance zone boundaries.
"A lot of people admire him for things he did," said Patricia McIntosh, a Fairfax middle school guidance counselor who chairs a Virginia Education Association caucus of minority educators.
"He was an educator who has done a lot to help minority students, particularly the underachiever. He was very good with human relations, working with people. He was a mentor to a lot of teachers moving to administration."
In 1988, Harris received three awards honoring his commitment to and work on behalf of human and civil rights. The National Education Association's Human Relations Committee selected Harris to receive the 1988 H. Councill Trenholm Memorial Award, which is presented annually to one black and one non-black educator for their contributions in fostering better human relations.
Harris also was awarded the Fairfax County Human Rights Award and the Virginia Education Association's Fitz Turner Award. The awards recognized his role in developing education programs to support and encourage minority student achievement, among other efforts.
Harris began his career with Fairfax schools in 1968 as a biology teacher and coach. He has been involved in a variety of initiatives designed to increase minority parent involvement in education and foster the self-esteem of at-risk students.
Herbert R. Cottrill
Cottrill began working for the Charlottesville school system in 1973, as director of middle schools. He has held his current post as assistant superintendent for finance/personnel/data processing for 10 years.
"I never thought about applying anywhere, but when the [Roanoke superintendent] job came open, I applied because it's a good school system," Cottrill said Monday. "I think there's a challenge. There are a lot of things going on in Roanoke."
Cottrill, 59, began his career in education in 1958, as a teacher and later as an assistant principal at a Wicomico County, Md., high school. In 1963, he left to take a principal's job at a Jefferson County, W.Va., high school. Five years later, he moved to the Jefferson County school administration office as assistant superintendent for curriculum/instruction.
In 1970, he moved to Columbia, Md., to work as a middle school principal. There, he headed the development of an open-space school, recruiting staff, developing an instructional program and conducting teacher in-service programs.
In 1973, he returned to administrative work - as director of middle schools in Charlottesville.
Cottrill's work for Charlottesville schools has since included director of finance and assistant superintendent for finance.
"He's an outstanding person with respect to managing school budgets," Charlottesville School Superintendent Joseph McGeehan said Monday. "He's extremely knowledgeable about computers, technology and data processing and how all of that can be used relatively in a school division. He's an innovator, a self-starter."
McGeehan said Cottrill has been willing to make tough decisions, particularly "when we needed to make budget reductions.
"He was willing to identify areas in which we could assist in carrying out the decisions of the board to see that we meet our goals, even if it means changes with respect to personnel and programs," McGeehan said.
Cottrill said he finds similarities between the Roanoke and Charlottesville school systems.
"We have a lot in common when you look at what's happened in the last 10 years - financially, in test scores," he said.
Charlottesville schools have an enrollment of 4,500, 57 percent of which is white and 43 percent black, Cottrill said. White enrollment is expected to drop to 52 percent for the 1993-94 school year, he said.
In recent years, the school system has grappled with losing enrollment to surrounding Albemarle, Fluvanna and Greene counties, primarily for lack of room for growth in Charlottesville, Cottrill said.
Willis B. McLeod
Like Harris and Cottrill, McLeod has an extensive background in education, including work as a junior high school math teacher, elementary school principal and administrator.
McLeod was an assistant superintendent in New Orleans in 1977 and 1978. In 1978, he became an associate superintendent of Guilford County schools in Greensboro, N.C. He later served as superintendent of Northampton County, N.C., school system before assuming the superintendent's post in Petersburg.
Monday, McLeod said he did not seek application for the Roanoke superintendent's post, having moved from Petersburg to an associate superintendent's post in Richmond only last September.
McLeod said he was approached about applying for the job. He complied, primarily because "it's just a fine place for one to have an opportunity to continue to provide high-quality leadership," McLeod said.
In Petersburg, McLeod inherited a school system that was plagued by low faculty morale and grumblings about the quality of public education, according to news coverage in the (Petersburg) Progress-Index.
Among his achievements in Petersburg, the newspaper reported, were McLeod's leadership in establishing an in-school child-care program for high school students who had young children.
He also was active in the Chamber of Commerce and played an active role in the applicant search for Petersburg's chief of police, the Progress-Index reported.
During his tenure in Petersburg, McLeod was often mentioned as a candidate for school jobs elsewhere. He was a finalist for superintendent positions in Virginia Beach in 1991 and St. Louis last year.
McLeod was credited with turning the Petersburg school system around. When McLeod arrived, the school system had the highest dropout rate in the state and suffered from a negative image.
"Dr. McLeod came at a time when we needed a person to pull the community, faculty and staff together around the school system," Perry Massey, chairman of the Petersburg school system, said last week. "He was able to do that. It's his style."
Massey said the relationship between McLeod's predecessor and the Petersburg City Council had become "somewhat strained."
"As a result, we had not had an increase in our budget in three or four years," Massey said. "Dr. McLeod was able to get an increase of $500,000."
When McLeod first arrived, the dropout rate was 13.5 percent. The rate before McLeod's departure was 7.2 percent, the Progress-Index reported.
In a Progress-Index article, McLeod attributed the drop to programs such as the "Yes Shop," which allowed students to earn money while they learned a skill or craft, and an in-school day-care program. Other programs, including a Youth Motivational Workshop and a role-model program that paired students with civic leaders, helped boost potential dropouts' self-esteem.
The Petersburg school system has an enrollment of 6,000 students, 95 percent of whom are black, Massey said. The system has one high school, one middle school, a sixth-grade school and six elementary schools.
Keywords:
PROFILE