Pr. George's Schools Chief Hired in Unanimous Vote

The Prince George's County Board of Education voted unanimously last night to hire a new chief executive, aiming to stabilize a school system known for leadership churn and academic inconsistency.

John E. Deasy, superintendent of a 12,500-student district in Southern California, will take over the 133,000-student Prince George's system May 1, nearly a year after the last schools chief resigned amid an ethics controversy.

The school board's 9 to 0 vote to offer Deasy a contract came two weeks after the 45-year-old educator emerged as the consensus choice for the position and one week after a board delegation checked his credentials one last time in a visit to the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District.

Terms of the board's offer were not disclosed in the Upper Marlboro meeting. In its search, the board advertised a minimum salary of $250,000 a year. The contract will be made public after Deasy and the board give final approval.

Deasy said Prince George's, which has some of the lowest student achievement marks in Maryland, can become the state's "premier school system."

Yet education experts say school system leadership is just one factor in academic performance.

The efforts of parents, teachers and principals are of paramount importance. In Prince George's, parental support of schools is uneven. Teachers and principals come and go in some schools that need the most help.

Then there are factors beyond a school's control, such as poverty, transience and even neighborhood crime. Pockets of the county have all three in abundance. Researchers have found strong links between socioeconomic conditions and student achievement.

To raise standards and performance, Deasy must build and sustain coalitions inside and outside the Beltway, from Laurel in the north to Accokeek in the south. Such broad support for schools has been elusive in Prince George's in recent years.

"It's not just him," said school board Vice Chairman Howard W. Stone Jr. (Mitchellville). "It's getting the community to buy in, getting parents to buy in, getting churches to buy in, getting businesses to buy in. And we're all rolling in the same direction."

State Superintendent of Schools Nancy S. Grasmick said that Deasy is highly regarded and predicted that his influence would reach deeply into classrooms. "The really capable superintendents will choose and nurture the capable principals, who will choose and nurture the capable teachers," Grasmick said. "It all works together."

Board members said they hoped Deasy would provide stability for a county system that has had four leaders in the past decade. Interim schools chief Howard A. Burnett -- who did not compete for the permanent appointment -- took over after schools chief Andre J. Hornsby quit last May as he faced questions about his handling of contracts and purchases. Hornsby's tenure was two years. Before him, Iris T. Metts led the system through four stormy years. And before her, Jerome Clark led for four years.

Whether Deasy can last longer than those predecessors is unknown. But board members said they thought he would not be a short-timer.

"Number one, it puts people at ease that somebody is coming into the position permanently," said board member Charlene M. Dukes (Glenn Dale). "That says something. People can breathe a sigh of relief. They know who's going to be at the helm."

Deasy faces formidable challenges. He must bring order to the fiscal operations of a system with a $1.4 billion annual budget. In recent years, auditors repeatedly have found management weaknesses, including lapses in internal controls.

He must also strive to reduce the number of schools failing to meet standards under the federal No Child Left Behind law. Seventy-six of the county's 199 public schools are rated in need of improvement. Just two of the county's 21 mainstream high schools made adequate progress last year toward academic standards.

Student discipline is a major issue in some places. Thousands of students are in jeopardy of failing to meet new diploma requirements for the class of 2009.

Deasy, in a telephone interview, said he was thinking beyond high school diplomas toward a "college-going culture." He said he wanted to promote an "absolute, unified expectation that all kids can learn at high levels," so that "every kid gets the fundamental civil right to be ready to go to college."