THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 10, 1995 TAG: 9512100035
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM HOLDEN AND ALETA PAYNE, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Long : 165 lines
James L. Pughsley emerged from the Monroe, La., school district with the kind of accolades reserved for heroes, and entered a district on the verge of turbulence he could not have imagined.
His former colleagues had called him ``a king,'' a ``peacemaker,'' a ``doll,'' and even now, Pughsley exudes a kind of quiet confidence and forthrightness that many within the Virginia Beach School District find comforting.
Yet two years after his arrival, Pughsley finds himself confronting the district's worst financial crisis, a debacle that has tarnished the city's reputation for fiscal integrity, prompted a special grand jury investigation and potentially jeopardized his appointment to the district's top job.
Pughsley is one of three finalists for the superintendent's post. He is competing with candidates from Grove City, Ohio, and Greenville, S.C., and this week he sits down with the Superintendent's Search Advisory Committee for a final round of interviews. The School Board plans to settle on a permanent superintendent before Christmas.
Pughsley came to Virginia Beach in September 1993 as a deputy superintendent in charge of school operations and human resources. In that job, he was not involved in planning the budget that spun out of control. He was supervising the work of school principals, forming an alliance that still serves him well.
While he has not been directly tied to the mismanagement that contributed to the crisis, Pughsley's position as second-in-command has left some people wondering what he knew and when he knew it.
Late in 1994, Pughsley had his first indication that the budget was in trouble, he said. Pughsley, along with five other senior school administrators, received an audit report by then-Internal Auditor Kevin A. Jones, who found the proposed 1994-95 budget contained serious mathematical and accounting errors. The largest gap was a $1.1 million shortage in funds for middle school teacher's salaries.
By December 1994, former Superintendent Sidney L. Faucette - who hired Pughsley the previous year - announced that the district would incur a $7.4 million deficit.
``It was a serious problem,'' Pughsley said. He added, however, that he was confident actions had been taken to rein in spending. Before he took control as interim superintendent, the district moved to delay the purchase of goods and services that were not immediately needed to save money.
``Up until that point, I had indications that we would end the year in the black, that's what I was looking forward to,'' he said.
Despite more stringent measures put in place during the spring, concern mounted that the budget would not balance. When that proved true, the City Council authorized an expanded audit by KPMG Peat Marwick, which uncovered a $12.1 million deficit.
How the budget spiraled out of control is the subject of intense debate in Virginia Beach and the focus of the special grand jury probe. Pughsley attributed fiscal problems to free-spending practices that existed when he arrived.
``It was a culture of living on the end-of-year funds and, of course, those monies all dried up,'' he said. ``There was a culture that, if it wasn't budgeted for, then go ahead and spend it and the expenditure would be taken care of when a transfer would be submitted.
``How that came about, I don't know,'' he added. ``I stepped into that kind of a culture.''
As deputy, Pughsley supported actions approved by the School Board to stop the problems. The administration created a line item within the budget for activities that were previously paid for by money left over in the operating budget. With specific line items in place, he said, the district can now accurately account for the money it spends.
Late last month, in a letter to the School Board, members of the Virginia Beach Association of Elementary School Principals and the Association of Secondary School Principals offered their ``overwhelming'' support of Pughsley for the superintendent's job.
The group, made up of most of the district's principals and assistant principals, believed that Pughsley showed ``effective leadership in very difficult times'' as deputy superintendent, according to Jerry Deviney, principal at Ocean Lakes High School.
Were it not for lingering questions about Pughsley's role in the district's financial crisis, his appointment to the superintendent's post might be a given. His support within the school division is not limited to the principals. And, there has been increasing pressure from some in the community to at least extend his interim appointment until board members have more time to focus on a permanent selection.
``The only word that immediately comes to mind when anyone mentions him is `integrity.' That's the word everyone uses,'' said one central office administrator who declined to be identified in case Pughsley doesn't get the job.
The way he has managed the crisis and the changes he has made in the way the division handles money go to the heart of what many people see as Pughsley's strengths. And, it distances him from the ``free-spending'' habits of the previous administration.
During the emotional meetings with the School Board and City Council on the August morning when the crisis was made public, Pughsley answered questions directly, providing a depth of information that had been lacking. In announcing a plan to balance the books when the potential for a shortfall was found in this year's budget, he offered School Board members a detailed list of where the budget could be trimmed, told them it would hurt, and set about putting the plan into action once it was approved.
While Faucette was known for his folksy humor and his vague assurances, Pughsley's manner is direct. He has said, repeatedly and simply, that the district will no longer spend money it does not have.
For all the problems, this son of a Tuskegee Airman and grandson of a Buffalo Soldier knows that the mission of educating the city's 75,000 public schoolchildren must continue, regardless of the work unfolding before the special grand jury.
Pughsley said he wants to get the current financial problems behind the district and concentrate again on the task of educating children. Even as he waits for the nod to proceed - or word that he will not - his attention is focused on the job.
``The Virginia Beach City Schools has a rich tradition of academic achievement,'' the 56-year-old Pughsley said. ``It is recognized through the state and the region. But to some degree, we have relied on past achievements and now we have to re-establish the foundation.
``One reason this school division enjoys a high student achievement is the community itself expects there will be achievement. We have to regain that and let that become an overall expectation for every student.''
Pughsley, a former elementary school teacher, would like the district to strengthen its pre-kindergarten and primary education programs so the district can take a more proactive rather than remedial approach to students' development.
Elementary programs sometimes leave children unprepared for the challenges that await them in high school, and the district must undertake programs aimed at helping students achieve, he said.
``I favor a strong emphasis on the traditional reading, writing and arithmetic and, you might add, a fourth, technology,'' he said. ``I don't mean to downplay the need for fine arts because if you want balance, you must have fine arts.''
``I don't mean to imply we are not a good system,'' he added. ``But we should should not be satisfied with what has been done. . . . If it were up to me, there would be less remediation-type courses. There is a need for it, like the Literacy Center. I would continue that, and possibly expand it.''
He credits the district for putting advanced courses in the middle schools because it will help all students.
``I want to get kids to learn to read and then read to learn,'' he said. ``That's probably an oversimplification. I want them to read in K through third. And from that point on, I want them to use that as a tool to learn.''
He links his daughter's accomplishments in school - she is a graduate of the University of Virginia - with her love of learning, a love that she acquired in kindergarten where her teacher began teaching her the joys of reading.
As for the senior high schools, Pughsley said he would like to see some of them experiment with 12-month trimesters. The idea would be to give students and teachers more flexibility over the school year to schedule the courses to acquire the skills they'll need later.
``No student would be required to attend more than two and no teacher would be required to teach more than two,'' he said. ``If a student had a need to repeat, he could do that. If we could get that in place, there would be no need for summer school. Not every high school could do this, but three or four placed strategically around the city could so every kid could get into it.''
Pughsley, who is widely regarded as a deliberate and quietly effective administrator, said one definition of leadership that appeals to him comes from a man who said: ``The leader is the person who gets to the future first. It's measured by the time of arrival and the number of people who follow.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
MOTOYA NAKAMURA/The Virginian-Pilot
As second in command, Pughsley has managed the Beach schools crisis
in such a way that goes to the heart of what many people see as his
strengths.
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH SCHOOLS by CNB