I am honored to have been selected by this Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to serve as the State’s Superintendent of Education. It is an honor, but it is humbling for many reasons:

1. There are about 650,000 children who attend public school in this state and who count on the leadership of the State Superintendent.
   
   
2. There are about 100,000 adults who work hard every day in the classrooms and elsewhere to educate our children, and they count on the leadership of the State Superintendent.
   
   
3. There are 69 school boards and superintendents, from Cameron to St. Bernard and from East Carroll to Caddo and all points in between, who oversee the administration of education and who depend on the leadership of the State Superintendent.
   
   
4. There are several hundred people in this building who are capable and eager to tackle the significant challenges ahead, and they rely on the leadership of the State Superintendent.
   
   
5. There are nationally recognized initiatives of accountability, teacher quality and PreK education for 4-year-olds, developed by Cecil Picard, his team in the Department of Education, and this BESE, that must not falter but rather must be continued and expanded, that depend on the leadership of the State Superintendent.

Perhaps most humbling and daunting of all, is that I follow in the footsteps of Cecil Picard, a wonderful leader and a dear friend who left a large and indelible mark on public education. No person that I know possesses all of the powerful attributes of leadership and experience that Cecil had, so I can only pray that I will be able to follow adequately in those footsteps.

There were many times, both before and after I served on this BESE, that I consulted with Cecil about decisions related to our mission of educating. I will miss him for many reasons, but certainly his absence to help guide me now will be one of the biggest reasons.

Cecil, with the incredibly able assistance of his Deputy, Carole Wallin, built a great team in this building. Although as an individual he cast a long shadow, he was a team builder, nonetheless. He supported his team. He promoted his team. He continually refreshed and upgraded his team. I hope to be a team builder too.

Cecil believed in partnerships. Because of his educational background and his political background, he knew that partnerships were critical to the success of his mission. He partnered with everyone who would partner with him. Just one example of his partnering spirit is that he reached out to every school district in this state and traveled to each one. It was a remarkable feat of endurance, but it was just one powerful example of placing heavy emphasis and focus on building partnerships. I hope likewise to build partnerships.

Cecil was keen to base most of his decisions on research-based solutions. Cecil gathered smart educators around him to advise him, and he respected their opinions and gave them great latitude. I hope to do the same.

Cecil was a great listener. As is evidenced by my remarks this morning, I can be a bit of a talker, but I hope that I can temper that and listen carefully to all points of view, even those that I may not at first understand or agree with. I will look for common ground. I pledge to meet with the Superintendents’ Advisory Council, the School Boards Association, and the union organizations and listen carefully to their ideas.

Most importantly, Cecil believed in children and their right to the best public education that we can offer. Although he recognized the importance of the role of adults to educate and grow our future, Cecil always tried to make his decision on the basis of what was best for the children. They are who we serve. I hope likewise to always focus on the children.

My core values as they relate to this journey are as follows:

1. Keep our focus on the children.
   
   
2. Nurture and continue to build a team inside the Department so we can focus on the children.
   
   
3. Build partnerships outside the Department to extend our ability to focus on the children.
   

When I first joined the Board of Education in 1996, someone gave me a Save the Children tie. It was a little too cute, so I didn’t wear it at first. But after a few months, I began to wear it to Board meetings to remind myself who was at stake in every decision that I made. Since 1996, I have now amassed many of these ties and rid myself of all of the other geometric and striped ones. I have since worn Save the Children ties every day that I suited up – every day as a lawyer, and every day that I served at NASA. I intend to continue that tradition and remind myself of my solemn responsibility to serve them.

Why did I seek this nomination, and what do I propose to accomplish?

As I began my serious analysis of whether to pursue this nomination last week, there were many things to consider. The most important was: Why do this at all? While I have a very successful law practice and comfortable life, simply put, I want our public education system to go to the next level of success.

Under Cecil’s leadership and this Board’s guidance for the last 11 years, the administrators and teachers in this state have made significant improvements in public education and in the lives of children, but we know that there is still much to do. We must work harder and smarter to close the academic achievement gaps. We must work harder and smarter to raise overall academic achievement.

I have been working to make public education better for 20 years. At first, I was just a passionate volunteer in a public school in New Orleans, Andrew J. Bell Junior High School. For several years, I saw teaching in an inner city school “up close and personal.” In some cases, what I saw was appalling. I was moved to do something serious about what I saw. I began to expand my avocation in public education and looked at other schools. I began to read literature. I then started working with the Chamber of Commerce in engaging with the school district in the New Orleans area. Then, at the request of Leslie Jacobs, I was appointed to the BESE in 1996. I was pretty determined to quickly correct the problems that I saw, but over those years of service, I learned from Cecil to temper my zeal, and of course, I supported Cecil during my membership with the BESE until 2004.

After serving my tenure with BESE, I decided to step back from education, but it didn’t last long. I was bothered by two circumstances  after 8 years of Accountability, we still had a large number of schools that were chronically low performing, and although the achievement gap had slowly been reduced, we needed to look for new ways to expedite the closure.

I spoke to Cecil in the Spring of 2005 about my interest in forming a nonprofit foundation to create a statewide think tank that would work to support the Department of Education in developing strategies that would take us to the next level of success beyond Accountability.

At about that same time, I met Dr. Phillip Rozeman, a successful cardiologist in Shreveport, who, like me, was a passionate supporter of public schools. Phillip gave me several books about national research and trends in reform. In particular, he had me read a book by Dr. Michael Fullan called Change Forces. Dr. Fullan talked about Accountability as the first horizon of education reform, but he observed that while Accountability was necessary, it would only take us part of the way to where we need to be. It was a lever, but it could only leverage so much. More levers were needed. He argued that we needed to move to the Next Horizon of reform. That resonated with me.

Phillip and I formed a nonprofit foundation called Next Horizon and gathered twenty people from around the state. We have met for the last year and a half, creating a coalition for moving to the Next Horizon. We have brought powerful thinkers and practitioners to the State of Louisiana to question our assumptions and challenge us. We have held public forums in Shreveport, Alexandria, Lafayette, Baton Rouge and New Orleans, and listened to nationally renowned educators and policymakers, and we have also listened to smart citizens who reside in our state. During the past year, Dr. Fullan has been an advisor to me and Phillip personally on our Next Horizon effort.

When I was approached recently by folks asking me to serve as State Superintendent, my first reaction was to let someone else take the risk. But I kept thinking this past weekend that, as Cecil always said, there are dribblers and there are shooters.

I consulted many people and received a mixed reaction. Some told me that I could do no good in one year, but I believe there is no time like the present. Some told me that the risks were ridiculously high, and that’s true. However, I am obviously a risk-taker. Some told me that it might diminish my professional career, which is in its prime. That’s true too. But my wife, Kathy, and my friends who know me the best and who also know of my passion and commitment to children and public education, told me to shoot the ball.

I would have wished to consult Cecil again and seek his wisdom and support. Of course, that was not possible, so I called the people who knew him best, Gaylen and Tyron Picard, and asked for their support; remarkably and importantly, they said yes. I am grateful to them and appreciate their appearing here today.

Passion without direction, though, is inadequate; there must be direction. During my tenure, my team in the Department of Education will focus on six priorities:

1. Expanding quality PreKindergarten education for children under the age of 5, particularly at risk children. We presently have a program that benefits some children, but we need to bring many more children into the mix.
   
   
2. Increasing teacher pay, especially increasing the reward to those who seek to be Nationally Board Certified.
   
   
3. With the help of Dr. Michael Fullan, who has agreed to support me, I wish to focus on an education policy which relies on three pillars, Accountability, Capacity Building , and Partnership. I intend to put the highest priority on reading, writing and math, and put into motion steps that will result in substantial improvement over the next 4 years through the use of these three pillars. By keeping a firm hold on Accountability, but expanding to the next level of reform – building the capacity of our teachers, our principals and our administrators, and working in partnership with key stakeholders – we can be successful, rather than have them feel as though they are stuck with the punitive aspects of Accountability. With Dr. Fullan’s guidance, this approach is presently being pursued in New Orleans, and it has set the stage for the transformation of education there if we will just stay the course.
   
   
4. Gaining a better understanding of the fiscal challenges that face school districts in being able to deliver the expected achievement levels and responding to those fiscal challenges accordingly.
   
   
5. Focusing more attention on the other districts that were ravaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. It does not escape my attention that from St. Bernard in the east to Cameron in the west, and from Terrebonne in the south and Union in the north, the direct and indirect impacts of these storms continue to resonate.
   
   
6. As for New Orleans, we must do three things:

• Communicate a clear vision for the Recovery School District in New Orleans and its relationship with the New Orleans Parish School District.
• Recognize that while challenges are great, much good has been accomplished under the leadership of Dr. Robin Jarvis and the team that she has assembled. For example:
  • Normal school districts the size of New Orleans open a handful of schools a year, and they have a full staff of facilities planners and engineers. The RSD has had to open nearly 20 schools in the last year and possibly 20 more schools this year, and this had to be done in a city that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
    
  • Staffing of teachers, though spotty in some cases, has been accomplished in large quantities, and the quality of teachers in the classroom has been improved by the use of screening and other methods.
    
  • The three pillars that Michael Fullan proposes are already being implemented in New Orleans, and there is reason to believe that we are setting the stage for real transformation of the quality of teaching in New Orleans RSD school.
    
• Although much good has been done, we must secure additional assistance on the ground in New Orleans in the next 60 days to support the hard-working individuals led by Dr. Robin Jarvis in order to respond better to the challenges of the growing population as well as the needs of the community.

Once again, I appreciate your confidence in me, and I am excited about the prospect of doing good things for the children of Louisiana.

Cecil laid a firm foundation of reform for education in Louisiana. It is now my duty to continue the journey, taking the state and its children to the next level. You will see a roadmap being developed for us to follow in the next weeks and months.

My Save the Children tie that I’m wearing today is themed, “If we all work together.” I couldn’t think of a better theme for today, because with the help of the professional and dedicated Department of Education team and the support of this Board, with all of us working together, I am confident that we will arrive at our final destination.

Paul G. Pastorek
State Superintendent of Education
paulpastorek@la.gov