The Hillsborough County (Fla.) School Board has hired Addison Davis, who now leads the Clay County (Fla.) district, as its new superintendent.
The Tampa Bay Times reports that Davis, 43, earned 13 points in a school board ranking exercise, more than twice as many as the next of the three finalists, St. Vrain Valley, Colo., superintendent Don Haddad. Palm Beach County Regional Superintendent Peter Licata trailed the group with just two points.
Jeff Eakins, the current leader of the Hillsborough County district, retires effective June 30.
Davis will lead the nation’s seventh-largest district, which has mounting challenges — from chronically low reading scores to budget problems, a steady migration of families to charter schools and a projected tsunami of growth that will require the construction of dozens of new schools in the next 15 years.
The district expects to pay Davis about $300,000. He must also arrange an exit from his job in Clay County, where he is now a candidate for re-election.
“I love Clay County,” he says. But, with more than 220,000 students compared to 39,000 in Clay, the Hillsborough job is “a game changer."
The Hillsborough district, which includes Tampa, has not hired a superintendent from outside since 1967, and some worry that Davis’ arrival could be disruptive to the district’s more than 200 schools and its workforce of nearly 25,000.
Davis said he wants to keep an open mind about personnel matters until he has gotten to know the district and staff. “My job is to listen and learn, to figure out what’s working, what’s not, and what we can do differently,” he says.
A father of two daughters who spent most of his career in the Duval County (Fla.) school system, Davis is not afraid to push back against excessive student testing and inadequate state funding.
In seeking the new job, Davis had to overcome resistance from community members who wanted the job to go to Chief of Schools Harrison Peters. And there were last-minute questions from charter school critics. Members of the League of Women Voters placed phone calls Tuesday to school board members about contributions to Davis’ Clay campaign from a committee with charter school backing.
Board member Lynn Gray, a critic of the charter industry, said she and Davis discussed charters during their private meeting. He assured her he is "not obligated to any corporate entity,” and won her confidence.
He also convinced board member Tamara Shamburger that he can “bridge the divide that this community has experienced” as people took sides on his candidacy. With that assurance, and wanting the board to be unified in its decision, Shamburger cast her vote with the other six.
