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By Jaime Sarrio CHATTANOOGA - Three years before a 2002 federal law put pressure on school districts to improve minority students' test scores, Jesse Register gave it a try. Register, then the director of schools in Hamilton County, received a pile of data highlighting the gap between Chattanooga's poor, urban students and their suburban counterparts. He called his staff into his office 10 minutes before quitting time, recalled Ray Swoffard, an assistant superintendent. Register held up the data and issued a challenge. "He said, 'If I don't have the people on board to close this gap, I'll get the people on board,'" Swoffard said. "We got in gear to do what we needed to do to close the gap. I'll never forget that." Thursday, Register assumed control of Metro schools, a district where low-income students are struggling to succeed. For years, these students haven't passed the state's basic reading and math skills test. The school board that voted to hire him wants Register to bring his success to Nashville. While in Hamilton County, Register convened city and local leaders to discuss Chattanooga's problem schools. Those conversations led to support from outside groups and a $5 million grant to reform Chattanooga's worst schools, which became known as the Benwood Initiative after the foundation that launched it. He went on to secure more than $100 million in private money during his tenure. Schools such as Hardy Elementary, a Benwood school where almost 100 percent of students are in the free- and reduced-price lunch program, were at the center of the transformation. Hardy was identified as one of the worst schools in the state. Students ranked in the bottom fourth percentile in all the basic subjects. Now, students obediently walk in straight lines with their arms crossed. The hallways are clean and decorated with student artwork. Enrollment is strong and, most importantly, the students are learning - 80 percent of Hardy students passed state math tests and 89 percent passed the writing and language arts portion. Principal Natalie Elder, who took over the school in 2001, said reassigning ineffective teachers and training new ones helped the school make progress. She credited Register for setting the vision. "He lifted me to another level, which made me want to come back to school and give all I had," she said. Register won high marks from members of the NAACP in Hamilton County for implementing a racially divisive merger of two districts and for his willingness to listen to outsider concerns. Members of the area's Chamber of Commerce said Register was always open to working with the business community, though the group has a significantly smaller role in school politics compared to the Nashville-area chamber. Grants gave too much control Not everyone was enamored with Register's knack for supplementing the budget. Hamilton County school board member Rhonda Thurman, one of Register's most outspoken critics, said the grants gave outsiders too much control of the district. "He didn't decide what programs we needed and then seek the grants," Thurman said. "He saw what grants were available and then decided we needed the programs." Thurman and others criticized the magnet school program created during Register's tenure, and county commissioners became critical of the number of people in administration, a topic that hampered budget relations. Like Nashville, the Hamilton County school board hires the director and sets policy for the district, but the County Commission approves all funding. In a 2006 article in the Chattanooga Times Free Press, Register admitted his biggest downfall was not communicating the district's achievements and challenges. "I never did bite the bullet and fund a communications department, and I think we lost the opportunity to win as much of the community as we could," he said then. "I am a better educator than I am (public relations) person." News accounts show commissioners openly criticized Register's choices and called for more transparency in the district's spending. They also cast a skeptical eye on academic gains of low-performing schools. Eventually, criticism of Register hit a fever pitch, and he made the decision to retire in 2006, after 10 years with the district. Political climate is sticky Register enters an unprecedented political climate in Nashville - the district is under partial state control after five years of lagging test scores, and the board of education could be abolished this year if things don't improve. Metro board members resisted calls to hire an interim director and voted to give Register a three-year contract with a $250,000 annual salary. There's also a one-year buyout penalty if he is fired. The annual salary plus benefits is a boost for Register, who earned $215,000 as an educational consultant and associate professor in the two years following his departure from Hamilton County, where he pulled in $156,000 a year. Nashville Mayor Karl Dean said he is developing a plan to lead the troubled district, should he be called on to do so. He would not say Thursday whether he would keep Register as schools chief, but said he was impressed by Register's background and excitement. "We're on the same page," he said. Dan Challener, president of Chattanooga's Public Education Foundation, said Register did the city a favor by inviting so many parties to participate in the reform process. He said Nashville is a good fit for the respected leader. "To this day, people still criticize Jesse Register, but I believe the data says it all," he said. "We may quibble over whether it was done right. But at the end of the day, there's no argument that student data increased under his leadership. That to me is the end of the argument." Contact Jaime Sarrio at 615-726-5964 or jsarrio@tennessean.com. |
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