Mark Gail - Superintendent William R. Hite, Jr., left, greets students as they enter the new Barack Obama Elementary School in Upper Marlboro.
William R. Hite Jr., the Prince George’s County school superintendent, announced Friday that he will leave his post as head of the Washington region’s third-largest school system to run the Philadelphia school district.
Hite, who has worked in the county for six years, was one of two finalists in a nationwide search to replace Arlene Ackerman. He is expected to leave the 123,000-student system later this year for one of the largest school systems in the nation.
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Pedro A. Ramos, chairman of the Philadelphia school reform commission, said: “Today we take a giant step toward providing safe, high-quality educational opportunities for all Philadelphia children. Dr. Hite is an eminent educator and a proven transformative leader.”
The departure of Hite, 51, is certain to create upheaval in Prince George’s, which has had rapid turnover at the helm.
He leaves a school system that has made significant strides, including improvements on state test scores and the implementation of successful educational reforms. But the school system continues to lag behind many others in the region, and it faces dwindling enrollment, a continued lack of trust in the public schools and an increase in the number of students from low- income families.
“I’m happy with the progress we’ve made,” Hite said. “I just wanted every single student in Prince George’s to have an opportunity. And I think overall the quality of the education that the students are receiving now is better than it was a couple of years ago.”
Hite said the Philadelphia job is a “tremendous opportunity” to make an “even greater impact in a larger system.”
In a statement, the county school board said “it was with deep disappointment that we greet the news” of his departure.
“He has led Prince George’s County schools with vision and innovation under financial challenges that might have broken a weaker superintendent,” the board said.
With Hite’s departure, the Board of Education finds itself in familiar territory: scrambling to find a replacement for a departing superintendent.
It happened in 2003, in 2005 and again in 2008.
This time, there is no natural successor. This month, Bonita Coleman-Potter, deputy superintendent, resigned to take a position in Mississippi.
“At this point, we’re looking at what the transition could look like,” board Chairman Verjeana M. Jacobs (District 5) said.
Residents and community leaders said they are once again concerned about the lack of stability in the system.
“Montgomery County had Jerry Weast for [12] years, and we can’t keep a superintendent for five years over here,” said Howard Stone, a former school board member and a strong supporter of Hite. “It just doesn’t send a good signal to have a change so often at the head of the school system.”
Five superintendents, including Hite, have run the school system in a permanent or acting capacity since 1999. Hite has one of the longest tenures of the five. He joined the county in June 2006 as deputy superintendent. He took over as interim chief of the school system after the abrupt resignation of John E. Deasy in 2008.
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