Since being named Hamilton County Schools superintendent more than three years ago, Rick Smith’s leadership has had characteristics similar to a yellow caution light: steady, safe, more inclined to slow down than speed up.
He does not rock the boat. Does not take risks. He seems averse to the hot messiness of the political game, such as ruffling feathers, speaking passionately or picking fights.
There are times when we need leaders like this.
This is not one of those times.
Smith’s leadership is a single that needs to be stretched to a triple. Now, more than ever, our public schools need rolled-up-sleeves vision that is bold, big-minded and bodacious enough, like a Sadie Hawkins dance, to buck tradition and make the first move.
Public schools sit on the hinges of society. They have the potential and power to usher us — grandly, in a John Philip Sousa kind of way — into the future, equipping our kids with creative and empowered selves and souls.
Yet without vision and support for teachers, schools can become cement galoshes, sinking kids into yesteryear policies and practices, toxic in their out-of-dateness.
The table is so set for one or the other. A little tweaking here or there, and everything changes.
1. More single-sex classrooms. (Common sense says it’s a good idea, as does research.)
2. Later start times. (Better for student bodies and brains while reducing after-school troubles. Starting school later is righteously trending across the nation; we can either be on the front end of change, or the embarrassing back end.)
3. Smaller student-to-teacher ratios. (What would happen if class sizes went from 25 kids to 13?)
4. Less homework. (Research shows homework isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.)
5. Pushback against over-testing. (The Knox County superintendent recently led the charge to stop SAT testing for Knoxville kindergartners.)
6. Funding for facilities, classrooms and teacher salaries. (Where to begin?)
In such a setting, a public schools superintendent needs to be swinging for the fences and greenlight ready.
I know just the man for the job.
Rick Smith.
Yes, Rick Smith.
I predict 2015 is his year.
I think he comes out swinging — or at least amped up — and braver than ever. There may have been a method to his measuredness — what has seemed like caution to me may prove to be shrewdness. All these years of quiet have been like an investment, as Smith has built political capital, created relationships, avoided making any significant enemies, and is now ready to rock and roll.
If you listen hard enough, you can already hear it.
“What would it take for Hamilton County to be the best public school system in the South?” he asked a PTA group recently.
No question is greater than this one, and it didn’t improv its way into Smith’s speech that day. The fact that he’s already asking it proves he’s got some answers — and 2015 is the year of his big reveal.
He’s also got more support than he may realize. Parents and teachers are aching for some fiery response to the current ho-humness. If Smith starts something, he won’t have to finish it alone.
“I would do whatever it takes to make sure our schools are fully funded,” Scottie Summerlin, of the Public Education Foundation, said that PTA day.
(Scottie, whenever Rick retires, are you interested in becoming superintendent? Please?)
Smith is talking more and more about iPads and art teachers in every school. He’s begun openly criticizing the way teachers are trained. He’s starting to stand tall.
Soon, it will be budget time. My bet (and hope and prayer) is that Smith hands the County Commission a line-by-line budget that will put the pressure on them to fund — or not — the things our children and teachers need.
It will force him out into the open. There, Smith will be ready.
“I’ve got to the point where it’s time to quit talking about it, and it’s time to take action,” he told the PTA.
The crowd applauded.
My prediction: it won’t be the last time.
Contact David Cook at dcook@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6329. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter at DavidCookTFP.