THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 28, 1995 TAG: 9512280016
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
Virginia Beach has decided to entrust the leadership of its schools to Timothy Jenney. The superintendent of the Greenville, S.C., system has been offered the job and is negotiating a contract. He could start as early as February.
Jenney is obviously an ambitious and aggressive school manager. In 12 years he has headed four districts of increasing size. He's just 43. He was one of three finalists for the job at the Beach.
When the other two contenders withdrew, the board voted 7-2 to offer the spot to Jenney.
After the embarrassment of the past year, the schools weren't in the happy position of trying to recruit for a well-run, widely admired system. Instead, they were hunting what in business would be described as a turnaround expert - someone who can come into a troubled enterprise and fix it.
Jenney's credentials are encouraging. He's reputed to be a more than competent financial manager, which the Beach clearly needed some time ago. He will also have to deal with a system whose morale is at low ebb. Many in the system were partisans of James Pughsley, a front-runner for the top job until he took himself out of contention. Jenney will have to win over new colleagues, angry voters and troubled parents.
There, too, Jenney seems qualified. Reports from Greenville and from an earlier post in Oklahoma suggest he was a popular and effective leader. Community leaders and colleagues are said to be distressed that he's leaving South Carolina's largest school system after less than two years.
One reason for the brief stay at Greenville is a school board that has been described as contentious, prone to micromanagement, dysfunctional and just plain nuts. Jenney apparently found dealing with it less than pleasant and threw his hat in the ring when invited to apply for the Virginia Beach opening.
He's clearly hoping for a more supportive atmosphere. Whether he gets it or not may depend on elections in May when seven seats will be filled. For the sake of the system and its students, we can only hope Jenney gets a board willing to collaborate on creating schools able to deliver a first-rate education to all their students.
Too often, public schools turn into political battlegrounds where every issue except education is fought over and no one wins. That's the last thing Virginia Beach needs. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
TIMOTHY JENNEY
by CNB