THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 7, 1996 TAG: 9610070045
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALETA PAYNE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 247 lines
Tim Jenney didn't get a honeymoon. He didn't even get a glass of champagne and first dance.
Days after he arrived to lead the city's schools as superintendent, seven members of the board that hired him were called on to resign. Another had stepped down between the time his contract was signed and his arrival. And one resigned on Jenney's first day on the job in a move unrelated to his arrival.
As the city was shaken by a special grand jury investigation into the system's finances, external forces set the marriage between the new superintendent and the division off on a rocky start.
``For a period of time, it was a hollow feeling because the one source of support I knew I had was gone,'' Jenney recalls now, seven months later. ``It created a void. . . . I was forced to deal with the situation from the standpoint I had no stability. None.''
School Board members came and went, chosen by Circuit Court judges, City Council members and, finally, by the voters. By July, with nine people newly elected or appointed to the board in place, the stage was set for the division's first period of relative calm in more than a year. Later this month, Jenney will present his five-year strategic plan for the board's approval, moving into the next phase of his superintendency.
And indications are that the union between superintendent and division - which has had its tense moments - is achieving a sense of balance and stability. It hasn't always been peaceful, and not everyone is happy. But there is growing enthusiasm for what the division can accomplish if a stable leadership can see a long-range plan through.
The basis of Jenney's plan will be goals and objectives set by the board, including a focus on curriculum, technology, school safety and diversity.
``Considering what he stepped into, he's done an outstanding job,'' said board member Neil Rose. ``The real proof of the pudding will be in the next 12 months as we begin to implement our goals and objectives.''
Diane Florence, the immediate past president of the Beach Council of PTAs, said she's anxious to see what the superintendent's vision for the schools will be.
``I think he's doing the best he can with a board that I don't think has quite figured out the teamwork concept,'' she said. ``But I'm waiting . I`m waiting to see what he has planned for our system. The strategic plan will be our first real clue.''
Tim Jenney can be two people. Sitting in his office, talking one on one, he is cordial, accommodating and very funny. In front of a group, however, it's as if he has swallowed cement. He becomes rigid, chilly, given to discussions heavy with education-ese.
Jenney acknowledges that he does it deliberately.
``It's a belief of mine that the person in charge, the leader, should demonstrate professionalism,'' he says. ``Should not be too folksy.
``I'm not a professional joke teller.''
Critics see it as a failure to connect with the people around him, and supporters worry that others will consider him distant and standoffish.
``If you talk to him one on one, he's not a bad guy. He's pretty decent, really,'' said one central office administrator. From a distance, however, he gives the impression ``that he's too busy,'' which in turn leaves some employees ``feeling alienated and feeling they've been jerked around.''
Helen Burroughs, an active parent in the division, said her meetings with Jenney in small settings have left her convinced that he's interested and wants to help.
``I think people aren't patient enough'' if they judge him without getting to know him, she said. ``I hope they give him a chance.''
Based on past experience, Jenney also says that, as he meets with more people in smaller settings, ``over time (the perception of coldness) goes away,'' he says.
But it's not his way to play jolly when he's trying to project his image of a leader.
``I can't act that way in a group,'' he says of himself as a joker. ``I just can't.''
Since Feb. 20, his first day on the job, Jenney has worked with 22 different School Board members. The board has only 11 seats. Two people remain from the board that hired him.
Perhaps the loudest and longest praise for Jenney's work of the last seven months is for his leadership through the bizarre months when board members changed from meeting to meeting while he ran things in a division he barely knew.
``He just got kind of thrown into the deep end here,'' said board member Nancy Guy of the Lynnhaven Borough. ``I cannot imagine anyone could have done better.''
Tim Jackson, of the Kempsville Borough, said, ``He took over during a tough period for us, and he's doing well.''
Jenney remembers the period from mid-March until July 2 as a struggle against the paralysis brought on by constant changes on the board.
``Continuity was not the word of the day,'' he said. ``In many cases, if I didn't do something, it didn't get done.''
As the leadership crisis has resolved itself, Jenney has continued to win accolades and support.
``I'm very pleased with what I've seen so far,'' said board member Paul Lanteigne, from the Pungo Borough. ``He certainly seems to be more a doer than a talker, which I like. I'm optimistic for the future.''
Anonymous surveys of the division's principals by the central office show morale has steadily increased and that they are a happier group. Jerry Deviney, principal of Ocean Lakes High School, described the superintendent as ``fair, up-front and consistent.
``I think he's doing a fine job. I think people are very encouraged.''
And a random survey of parents by the Department of Media and Communications Development found that 96 percent felt the school year had gotten off to a good start.
Others are more cautious in their assessment.
``Results are what we're all looking for, and it's just too early yet,'' said board member-at-large Rosemary Wilson.
And Melody Copper, president of the Virginia Beach Education Association, said it was ``too early to give him a grade.'' Her organization was waiting to see how new initiatives would develop under him.
Jenney also has his critics within the division, most of whom prefer that their names not be associated with their concerns because they say they fear retaliation.
One central office administrator said morale there remains bad, with people feeling they were treated poorly in Jenney's reorganization. He brought in five people new to the division to fill out the 10 assistant or associate superintendent slots. Three of those Jenney had worked with in other states.
``There's a loss of historical perspective,'' the administrator said. ``People are scared their jobs are going to be taken away.''
But the central office administrator also conceded ``that the Almighty could return as superintendent here and some people would want to see him fail.''
Even among those who speak glowingly of Jenney, the fumbled effort to close the Literacy Center just weeks before school opened and the sometimes heavy-handed maneuvering in his reorganization are the most common issues of concern.
``In a perfect world I'd expect everything to be perfect, but we do have some glitches,'' said board member Daniel Arris of the Literacy Center issue. He nonetheless has great confidence in the superintendent. ``All in all, I think (Jenney's performance) has been very positive. I don't see any dark clouds on the horizon.''
In August, the superintendent moved to close the Center, which prepares students who otherwise would be ninth-graders to pass portions of the state-mandated Literacy Passport Test that they have previously failed. A state requirement, for a public hearing before a school can be closed, delayed action until the first day of classes in September, at which point board members decided to keep the program open. Since then, however, the number of students enrolled has dropped sharply, with parents saying they were encouraged to send their children to their home high schools.
Jenney himself concedes his effort to close the Literacy Center was ``messy.''
``I'd have preferred it not be messy,'' he said. ``I'd prefer it had been a lot earlier.''
But Jenney still considers the program to be inefficient in terms of cost and said he would have been just as subject to criticism if he let such a small program continue to operate. The next time he comes to the board about the center and how to best serve the students who qualify to go there, Jenney said he will present a plan with a clear mission and focus as well as measures that will leave no question when the goals have been met that mean the program can be terminated.
On the issue of reorganization, Jenney has no regrets.
``I don't apologize for bringing people in. That's an organizational strength I need,'' he says. ``If I didn't have people who can protect my backside, my chances of success would be greatly reduced. And that's just a fact of life.''
Internally, some felt the plan passed over qualified ``hometown'' candidates, forced some into jobs they didn't want, and hurt stability by shifting people around.
The plan itself diffuses power between departments, creating a system of checks and balances, the superintendent says, and reduces the layers between what's going on in other offices and what he knows.
``The filter is considerably less on information,'' he says.
If all this sounds like the superintendent doesn't trust many and doesn't trust easily, that would be the case. It's not something peculiar to Virginia Beach, he says, but something he's learned from the job.
``Trust takes time,'' Jenney says. ``I don't believe in blind trust, ever. This position is at-risk enough because of its political nature.''
``There are a lot of people, for whatever reason, who don't want you to succeed. There are people who don't want to kill me, but they'll let me die.''
Even with that attitude, Jenney can laugh at some of the rumors spreading through the division even now - the sort of anonymous whispers and unsigned letters that have plagued Beach superintendents as far back as some people can remember.
The most recent one contends that Jenney is to be overthrown in a coup staged by some of the division's long-time administrators - that they plan to gradually undermine him so that he never gets on track and can never succeed.
Jenney says he doesn't lose sleep over such scuttlebutt, but neither does he simply dismiss it.
``You have to give it its due consideration, then file it away and move on,'' he says.
Some people who know the division say from a management standpoint, and a historical one, it was unrealistic not to expect Jenney to reorganize. Even without the high drama of the rumor mill and the internal twists and turns that have unsettled other administrators, it only makes sense that someone in that job would want a structure that suited his style.
``He's doing the same thing I would do if I went to a new company as chair, CEO or whatever,'' said Michael Katsias, a local commercial realty agent who chairs the division's Gifted Advisory Committee.
One division staffer who asked not to be identified said: ``A leader needs people who share his vision, who are loyal to him, who can help him carry it out.
``People forget every superintendent we've had, every single one of them, has had one, two or three people who were loyal to him. In the past that came from within. This time it came from without.''
Jenney is working on a plan.
Not just big words on paper that will be bound and filed away in that dark place where strategic plans go to die. Jenney promises that this plan will guide the division into the next century. The document will represent his vision for educating the city's children, shaped by input from others - including staffers and parents - and refined by the board.
And a lot of people are anxious to see it. Because now that they've stopped fighting fires, now that the waves of crises have stopped battering at every little bit of progress they make, they want something solid and significant to work toward, staffers said.
It's been more than a year since most of the people in the school system had the time, energy or money to look very far into the future. Now they're waiting for the new leadership to tell them what's ahead.
``I don't think anyone can tell you where it is we're going,'' said one administrator. ``I still don't think the teachers and principals have a firm sense of where we're going.
``I'd give (Jenney) an A for the sense of stability. I'd give him a much lower grade on the sense of direction for the future.''
Along with the plan, some people are concerned that Jenney will not stay around long enough to see it through. The life cycle of a superintendent anywhere can be brief, and with the political nature of the Beach thrown in, there are concerns that stability could be fleeting.
``I think people are most concerned that he'll be here long enough to give some stability to that office,'' said Deviney, the Ocean Lakes principal.
``That's my biggest fear,'' said another administrator. ``That no (superintendent) can be successful here.''
Jenney isn't yet revealing much of his plan, which he hopes to present to the board at the Oct. 15 meeting. He says he won't bring it forward until he is confident it is ready.
He is moving, however, to make himself visible and to allay concerns. He has begun an ambitious visitation plan to spend half a day in all 83 of the division's schools before summer break. And he and his wife, Becki, are building a home in the Lynnhaven Borough after months of renting a home here.
Having left his last post after only 18 months - a district where board members hurled insults and microphones during meetings - Jenney says he recognizes his career needs a success here. But he also believes the division needs a success.
``I think the community needs a win and I need a win,'' he says. ``I want a win for what I do as a profession and I think the community wants a win for all they've gone through.
``I think we've taken issues in stride,'' he says of the last seven months. ``We haven't moved too fast, knowing there was significant stress on the system.''
He sees the plan that is being developed based on the goals adopted this summer by the School Board as a new phase for him and the division.
``Things are good here. They could be a lot better. It has the potential to be the best,'' he says. ``This is where we begin to move forward.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
Tim Jenney
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH SCHOOLS SUPERINTENDENT by CNB