Norfolk schools superintendent leaving prematurely

NORFOLK

With less than 16 months on the job and in the wake of dismal accreditation results, Superintendent Richard Bentley is on the way out.

Three Norfolk officials confirmed Tuesday that Bentley is leaving before the end of his four-year contract. The School Board is expected to take action on the matter today at its regular meeting. Bentley did not return a call to his cellphone or an email Tuesday afternoon.

Community buzz about the superintendent's imminent, early exit has been rising since the board held a closed session Nov. 9 with the city attorney.

Asked whether the board was ending Bentley's employment, member Linda McCluney said, "We had a meeting, but I wish you would call the chair; he has words for you." Board Chairman Kirk Houston refused to comment.

Several other board members did not return phone messages.

City Councilman Andy Protogyrou said he has heard from several community leaders that Bentley was forced out last week.

"I'm not happy that 14 or 16 months into his contract, it appears he's being asked to leave," Protogyrou said. "If that's true, that's not a prudent use of the funds taxpayers provide the school system."

Spokeswoman Elizabeth Mather said in an email late Tuesday afternoon that the division would have no comment on Bentley's employment status.

Bentley's premature departure could feed perceptions that the division is rudderless and floundering. Ten of the 45 schools missed full accreditation this fall - one of the worst records in the state - with Lafayette-Winona Middle being denied accreditation for the second consecutive year.

Norfolk's previous superintendent, Stephen Jones, retired in 2010 after the state found improprieties in how Standards of Learning tests were administered in some schools. The scandal stoked a crisis of confidence among school staff and in the division's credibility with the public.

"I don't see any upside to this," Thomas Calhoun, president of the Norfolk Federation of Teachers, said of Bentley's exit.

Calhoun said the union and superintendent had a good rapport and that losing Bentley early would tarnish the division. "If I hire a coach on a four-year contract and he only lasts one year, it reflects, in a poor way, on me," Calhoun said.

Last month, several City Council members faulted Bentley and the board for the division's poor accreditation record.

"What are other districts doing differently than we are?" Vice Mayor Anthony L. Burfoot said, noting that urban divisions including Portsmouth, Richmond and Hampton performed better than Norfolk.

A new state accountability standard for graduation and dropout rates pulled down the accreditation of four of Norfolk's five high schools, Bentley told the council.

Burfoot and Councilwoman Theresa Whibley didn't buy that explanation, saying divisions knew well in advance that the new standard was looming. "What do you think went wrong? What's not working?" Whibley asked.

Bentley is paid $200,000 annually. His contract stipulates that the board can terminate the superintendent at any time "for sufficient cause" and that student performance on SOLs and the federal Adequate Yearly Progress benchmarks will be reviewed yearly.

If Bentley is terminated early for reasons other than for cause, he could receive a year's salary plus an amount equal to what the division paid over 12 months for his and his wife's health insurance.

At regular meetings and work sessions, there have been no open conflicts between Bentley and the current School Board. Three months ago, the board approved Bentley's plan for his upcoming work and tasks through 2014. His midyear job evaluation was scheduled for Jan. 25.

Bentley's priorities for the division have included shepherding the board and the administration toward adopting three main goals, a process that took months. The "Achievable Results" goals call for divisionwide accreditation, improving on-time graduation and raising community support for student achievement.

Early in his tenure he embarked on a "listening and learning tour," visiting civic leagues, parent groups, union meetings and each Norfolk school.

He said he heard both support and suspicion for the division on the tour.

"There's a real sense of this lack of trust, and it's pervasive and it's something we're going to have to work on, as a system, for the next few years," he said in May.

Bentley struck some bold themes, such as telling teachers at an employee rally that they did not have to "teach to the test" - that is, focus their teaching on state Standards of Learning tests that drive accreditation.

For an urban superintendent, the average tenure is 26 months, even though it usually takes about seven years for a superintendent to transform a division's performance, said Ronald Barnes, an education search consultant with the BWP & Associates recruiting firm.

Jones, Bentley's predecessor, held the Norfolk superintendency for five years. By comparison, David Stuckwisch has been Portsmouth schools superintendent for nine years.

Cutting short a superintendent's tenure can hurt a division's ability to attract new candidates, Barnes said: "If the superintendent's job has been a revolving door, why would people apply?"

State law requires that school boards appoint a new superintendent within 180 days after a vacancy occurs.

In choosing Bentley from a pool of 40 candidates to succeed Jones, the board

originally split 3-3, with one member absent. Its final, official vote was 5-0, with two members absent.

Bentley started in the post in August 2010. He came to Norfolk from the Ysleta school district in El Paso, Texas, where he was an associate superintendent for six years. He is a former teacher and middle school principal.

His hiring was celebrated by at least some of the board members. "We were all impressed with how he interacted with people," Karen Jones Squires, the board's vice chairwoman, said at the time. She called Bentley an excellent communicator and noted that his Ph.D. thesis focused on relationships between superintendents and school boards.

"That surely will help us out," Squires said.

Pilot writer Harry Minium contributed to this report.

Steven G. Vegh, (757) 446-2417, steven.vegh@pilotonline.com