As of today, Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent John Thompson is a free agent.

Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette
Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent John Thompson. Longtime critics say he has never been a good fit for Pittsburgh and never will be.
Click photo for larger image.

---

Related article
Timeline: A chronology of Thompon's time in Pittsburgh

---

While he's made it clear he'd rather keep the job he's held for four years, Thompson's future with the district looks shaky. Even some supporters acknowledge their ardor for him has cooled in recent months.

Thompson's contract runs through July 1, 2005, and until today, it has kept him from considering job offers. If he did so, he'd have to forfeit his severance pay.

That prohibition expires today, however, because the school board did not vote by midnight last night that it intended to renew his contract in January for another five-year term.

Board members now must decide if Thompson's leadership is what the school district needs.

The school board elected last fall -- unlike the fractious groups who have governed the district in recent years -- is bent on peaceful collaboration, said board member Patrick Dowd. But Thompson, he said, prefers to chart grand visions and blaze bold paths.

"I've seen a few instances where he's tried to build consensus, but mostly he forges ahead," said Dowd, whose election last year helped create a pro-Thompson majority on the board. "He's much better at clearing paths than building consensus. One has to ask, What is the role of the superintendent?"

In private, several board members said they and their colleagues are, at best, torn over whether to keep Thompson. Several said they hope he will take the opportunity to find a new job, leaving them free to make a better match.

And even longtime allies such as board president Bill Isler -- who declined to discuss Thompson's future, saying it was a personnel issue -- spoke of the need for Thompson to work toward consensus with the board.

"It certainly is incumbent upon the superintendent to work with the board because nothing can be accomplished without board support," Isler said. "It is very much a two-way street."

If Thompson -- who now has run two urban school districts -- begins looking for a job elsewhere, he very likely will find one, according to Paul Houston, executive director of the Virginia-based American Association of School Administrators.

Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette
John Thompson with the school board Tuesday night.
Click photo for larger image.

"He's well-known and well respected and when he went to Pittsburgh, the general consensus was that Pittsburgh was lucky to get him," Houston said. "I suspect if he gets into the open marketplace he'll get snapped up, given the general dearth of people with the kind of experience he brings."

Currently, the districts of Houston; Fort Worth, Texas; Tucson; Hillsborough County, Fla.; Washington, D.C. and St. Louis are searching for superintendents.

School officials in Washington and in St. Louis have been looking for about six months, and Pittsburgh might find it equally difficult to find a superintendent with Thompson's experience as an urban school administrator, Houston said.

Before taking over in Pittsburgh in May 2000, Thompson had served as superintendent in Tulsa, Okla., for six years.

In an interview yesterday, Thompson said he doesn't plan to rush out and start interviewing for a new job, just as he doesn't expect offers to start pouring in immediately.

None of the board members have told Thompson of their intentions. But the members' decision not to secure him by today, along with some supporters' apparent lack of enthusiasm, speaks clearly, he said.

"I'm surprised by some of the reactions -- it sends a message to me," Thompson said. "It certainly sends a message to my wife and myself. Better now than later."

Thompson can now search for a new job and still receive severance pay if the board fires him before his contract expires, although he cannot collect it if he leaves voluntarily. He earns a salary of $175,000 plus benefits, making him the highest-paid superintendent in Pennsylvania.

If Thompson does find a new position, his four-year career here would be a relatively long tenure. The national average is 2 1/2 to 4 years for superintendents of urban districts, said Houston.

Tumult in the fall

He would leave, however, at a time of upheaval for the district and the city.

In September, hundreds of students will begin attending new schools because of the school board's decision to close 10 schools this August and another two next year. School officials are likely to announce even more school closings this fall, and the city is now grappling with a financial recovery plan that will require tax increases and service cuts.

In deciding whether to keep or replace Thompson, the stakes have never been higher, according to Maxwell King, president of the Heinz Endowments, one of three foundations that withheld funding from the district in 2002 over what they called a sharp decline in governance and leadership.

"I don't think there's a more important job in Western Pennsylvania in terms of our future," King said. "The school systems in southwestern Pennsylvania will be the most important factor in terms of building successful communities, and city schools is the bellwether."

Thompson has partly succeeded in righting the district's finances, eliminating a projected $40 million deficit and building a $50 million surplus, closing and consolidating 23 schools and improving technology, according to board members and community leaders.

Despite those gains, board members will have to make their decision based on an incomplete picture of Thompson's performance, according to Alan Lesgold, dean of the University of Pittsburgh's School of Education. Thompson cares deeply about children and has succeeded in some of the broader aspects of his job, Lesgold said, but has struggled to get the board to agree on how to boost student achievement.

The new board, elected in November, should give him a chance to improve, he said.

"I think he's a guy with his heart in the right place who, given the scene he inherited, has not been entirely successful," Lesgold said.

Thompson hasn't done enough to smooth the tangled politics that snarled past boards, some observers said. Those tensions still lurk beneath the friendly banter and mostly placid public demeanor of the current body, they said.

And longtime critics say Thompson has never been a good fit for Pittsburgh and never will be.

That is, not for the Pittsburgh where board member Jean Fink grew up -- a gritty steel town with a penchant for byzantine neighborhood politics and a disdain for conspicuously displayed wealth. Thompson has never tried to understand the city's psychology, its dynamics or its traditions, she said.

"I have more of a neighborhood look at it because I'm a Pittsburgher and he's not," said Fink, who has served on the board since 1976 except for a single four-year hiatus. "Every city has its own personal things it treasures and when you're not from here it makes it hard. ... He's real hung up on new. He likes bright and shiny and he doesn't understand why anybody would want to send their child to a school building that's 100 years old."

Thompson wears fashionable suits and spotless wingtip shoes and occasionally a straw Panama hat -- nice clothing that he said expresses a professional image. He has a driver and a car provided by the board, a perk that irks some board members but has been afforded to previous superintendents.

At 6-feet-5-inches tall, he towers over most people, whether he means to or not.

Diplomatic questions

Thompson says what he thinks, and by his own admission becomes impatient with navigating board politics. The sight of Pittsburgh students ending up in hospitals and funeral homes because of violence makes school board battles seem superficial, Thompson said. So does the knowledge that some children are missing out on receiving an education that could earn them a better life, he said.

Instead of sometimes petty squabbles during board meetings, "We could have been talking about something that mattered," Thompson said. "That's that sense of urgency. That's that sense of rage in me."

Critics such as Fink, however, sometimes find that forceful approach overbearing and arrogant. Worst were the two arguments in which she and Thompson "were screaming in each others' faces," she said.

"He thinks he knows everything and he's always right and if you don't agree with him, he's going to fight you," said Fink, who abstained from voting on Thompson's contract as superintendent.

Former board member Darlene Harris said Thompson has yelled at her as well.

But board members Dowd, Isler and Dan Romaniello said that while some of their conversations have grown heated, they have always been polite. Board members Randall Taylor and Floyd McCrea could not be reached for comment.

Thompson's defenders say the confrontational behavior isn't unprovoked, and both Harris and Fink acknowledge they could get under Thompson's skin. The superintendent, while able to charm, sometimes had to deal with board members who could be abrasive and even rude, according to Al Fondy, president of the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers.

"Sometimes he's not so charming," Fondy said. "It's better to be a diplomat, but sometimes it's tough to be a diplomat, given the people you have to work with."

On the other hand, Fondy said, Thompson also enforced discipline in the schools, got the district's budget in order and is the right person to close the gap in performance between black and white students. He should be given an opportunity to continue his work in Pittsburgh, he said.

To other supporters such as board member Alex Matthews, Thompson's candor was a "breath of fresh air" and his leadership of the district has helped erase old stereotypes about how African-American men should act and talk.

"The good part is people are now starting to realize there are African Americans who have money and can dress well and who are intelligent and not arrogant, that they don't feel they are above everybody else and they are not pimps or drug dealers," Matthews said.

Thompson should not necessarily be judged by what he was able to accomplish through the board, said board member Mark Brentley. Some board members, he said, insist on playing politics and "dabbling in things they shouldn't be dabbling in," such as the appointment of a principal to a particular school.

Succeeding as a superintendent "has nothing to do with educational achievement," Brentley said. "It's based on striking deals with certain board members to get something accomplished or to stop something from happening."

Thompson doesn't always take advice from board members, and doesn't always heed their concerns about personnel matters and budget issues, according to board member Theresa Colaizzi.

"It kind of hurts in a way. I'm your board member and when I tell you something, I'm not telling you to hurt you. I'm telling you to help all of us," she said. "His attitude is, 'I'm superintendent. I'm supposed to deal with it.' Well, I'm a board member and I have to deal with it, too."

Romaniello, who joined the board in December, said he has found Thompson helpful in guiding him to administration staff members who can answer his questions, and has listened to his concerns about personnel.

But if Thompson leaves, "it wouldn't really matter to me," Romaniello said.

"If somebody offered him more money to work someplace else and he accepts it, my feeling is, God bless you and we'll go on from there," Romaniello said. "Somebody can always take somebody else's place."

First Published: July 1, 2004, 4:00 a.m.