NEW: Gist Now The Only Candidate For Tulsa Job
Friday, January 30, 2015
The Tulsa World newspaper reported Friday that the only other candidate besides RI Education Commissioner Deborah Gist for that city’s superintendent position has dropped out of consideration for the post.
Millard House II, who was a deputy superintendent in Tulsa, made it known to the school board that he was no longer interested in the job. In a letter to the board, House stated that, “the timing is simply not right for me right now.”
In a statement Gist told GoLocalProv that she "looks forward to hearing from the Tulsa School Board following its meeting on Monday night."
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTGist came to RI in 2009 from the Washington, DC school system. When she was appointed she said, "I started my career as a teacher more than two decades ago, and I cannot imagine wanting to do anything other than helping children to learn. I have never and will never—even for a moment—forget the joys and challenges of teaching children every day, and that is the heart of every decision I make as a leader."
In 2010, she was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 who impact our world.
Gist received a bachelor of science degree in early-childhood education from the University of Oklahoma, a master of arts in elementary education and curriculum from the University of South Florida, a master’s degree in public administration from the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government, and a doctoral degree in education from the University of Pennsylvania.
Gist's Contract in RI
As GoLocalProv reported in December of 2014, her contract and future beyond June 30, 2015 is in doubt. "By law, we can only do 3 year contracts," said Rhode Island Board of Education Chair Eva Mancuso (told GoLocal in a December interview). "With the current contract, the sentiment from Chafee was he didn't want to extend contracts past his tenure, and it didn't make sense to do a year a and a half. That was his philosophy. [Governor-elect] Raimondo might feel that 3 years works. As chair, we know enough about Gist, that you either give her three years, or nothing. There's no in-between."
OK v RI
The numbers between the two regions are dramatically different.
Tulsa Public Schools serves approximately 42,000 students in 86 schools. The efforts include approximately 7,000 employees, 88 campuses, 250 school buses and about 173 square miles. The school system has an annual budget of $556 million.
In contrast to Rhode Island teachers salaries, Oklahoma’s are among the lowest. A recent GoLocal and FindTheBest analysis found that while elementary school teacher’s salaries in RI were the highest in the country ($72,630), in Oklahoma they are just $43,190.
Recently Rhode Island was graded a C+ in Education Week’s national scoring and Oklahoma received a D+.
Related Slideshow: Who Could Be RI’s Next Education Commissioner?
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