New Henrico schools leader seeks input

One of the first goals for Henrico County's new superintendent of schools is to develop goals.

And Patrick Russo said he won't do it alone.

Teachers, staff, residents, parents and students will have a say in developing a vision for the future of the county school system, Russo said yesterday in a discussion with representatives of the Richmond Times-Dispatch's news and editorial departments.

His approach to goal-setting comes from business more than education, he said, as his bachelor's and master's degrees are in business administration. His doctorate is in education.

"It's a nice opportunity to combine the business aspects of running a company -- I consider any school system a company -- with the educational philosophies and belief systems," he said.

Russo, who began his tenure July 1, said he already has met with principals and specialists, and he has scheduled his first "community priorities workshop" for Oct. 8 to begin the process of developing a strategic plan for 2009-13.

In meetings with the community and school groups, Russo said, he asks people to identify three things the school system is doing well, three things that need to continue and three things that need to improve.

"I never look at negatives," he said. "I look at opportunities for improvement. If there's something we're not doing well enough, we need to identify that, address that quantifiably. We can address that in a manner that we can hold each other accountable."

Russo described state Standards of Learning system as a basic quantifiable minimum that every school should be expected to meet. He said he's "very optimistic" about the number of schools that will be fully accredited this year in Henrico as well as in Hampton, his former school system. Hampton had 97 percent of its schools fully accredited last year, while Henrico was at 92 percent.

Preliminary SOL data will be presented to the Henrico School Board next Thursday, he said.

He said he expects adjustments to the federal No Child Left Behind system for determining Adequate Yearly Progress, because its goal of proficiency for every child in every subgroup is unreasonable.

As part of a group of six Virginia superintendents that call themselves the Da Vinci Design Team, Russo said he's looking at what's needed to prepare students to meet international standards. The International Baccalaureate program, which is being expanded into several schools in Henrico, may offer a model for other programs. The IB program currently is offered at Moody Middle and Henrico High schools. In 2010, Tuckahoe and Fairfield middle schools and Tucker High School also will have IB programs.

On the subject of laptops, Henrico recently renewed its contract to provide a laptop computer for every high school student. On the middle school level, he said, the question of value versus cost will have to be considered when it's time to renew.

"The question is still out" about the middle school program, he said.

On the perennial question of whether the East End gets a fair share of consideration from Henrico leaders, Russo said he expects the East End to boom in the next five to 10 years as water and sewer lines are extended by developers.

"Look at the map," he said. "The west side is pretty much grown out. The east side is where your expansion is going to come from. I think you may hear in the next five or 10 years, 'Hey, the east side is getting everything and we're not getting anything.'"

Contact Katherine Calos at (804) 649-6433 or .