Racine Interim Superintendent

BY PAUL SLOTH
Journal Times
Wednesday, October 10, 2007 7:37 PM CDT


RACINE — For roughly 30 years, Jack Parker has carried around the bag
he found in a little leather shop in Sausalito, Calif.

He carried it through a lengthy education career, spent in two Racine
County school districts.

He carried it as a teacher and administrator in Racine Unified, where
he spent most of his career.

Now Parker, 69, carries it into the superintendent's office in Racine,
where he'll spend the next nine months overseeing the district's
newest struggle in the wake of an administrative shake-up.

Parker's seen a lot, but so has his trusty, timeworn bag, which has
held up after all these years.

"I've probably carried it around more than I should," Parker said. "It
sort of says more about how complicated the enterprise is."

As he nears his 70th birthday in January, Parker knows what he's
getting himself into, taking on the job of interim superintendent.


It's a temporary position in which he'll guide the district as it
searches for a new leader and tries to get its financial house in
order following the departure of former superintendent Tom Hicks and
the changes in the district's business office.

A combination of things drew Parker to the job, he said in an
interview during his second week on the job.

"I've always had the sense that we all in southeastern Wisconsin need
to know that Unified has to succeed for this county to be prosperous,"
Parker said. "If we sit on the sidelines and take potshots, it hurts."

One of the district's greatest challenges is to become something in
which the community takes pride, but the district alone can't handle
all the challenges it faces, Parker said.

Parker returns to a school district he left more than a decade ago. He
returns with a sense that he can do more than just keep the district
running while the School Board searches for a new superintendent,
which is what interim people tend to do.

Parker thinks he'll play an important role because of his history in
the district, where he started working as a teacher in the 1960s.

"If nothing else, I can provide the board and the community with some
honest opinions about how things are going," Parker said. "I think it
is imperative that I provide people with what I think got us to this
point."

A School Board search committee picked Parker from a group of roughly
seven candidates.

Even though he's truly an interim leader, School Board President Tony
Baumgardt is optimistic about what Parker might do while he's here.

"We've asked him to become our superintendent. We've asked him to be
very blunt with us," Baumgardt said in September, when the board hired
Parker. "He's a collaborator. He's a consensus builder. He's a team
player and we've asked him to come in and work with us."

This district has made many efforts to do the right thing. The
community has made many of efforts to do the right thing, but the
times are really challenging, Parker said.

"We have a deep kind of responsibility to parents. I have hope, but I
know how much work there is going to be," Parker said. "It isn't going
to be easy for people in the community or in the system.