RUSD gets new leadership

Tonight the RUSD board voted on, and approved, two separate recommendations from the Executive Search committee. The new RUSD interim superintendent will be Dr. Jackson Parker, and the interim/permanent chief financial officer for the district will be Mr. David Hazen. Both men have long and successful careers, and both have previous ties to the school district.

Dr. Jackson Parker started his teaching career in 1963 in Racine. He was one of the co-founders of Walden III, Racine’s most successful middle and high school. He went on to become a RUSD administrator, and left the district in 1989 to become the superintendent of Burlington’s school district. He retired from that position in 1997.

Mr. David Hazen has an extensive background in finance – he has an MBA and is a CPA, having his own successful business for over 20 years. He also served on the Racine Unified School District Board of Education from 1995-2003, two of those years as RUSD Board President. He is also a current Racine County Supervisor.

The district is lucky to have both of them on board. I have to be honest, my first choice for interim superintendent would have been Dr. Marguerite Vanden Wyngaard, but fate does work in mysterious ways. When one door closes, another opens - if Dr. V had to deal with the day-to-day dealings of the district, she would not have time to transform our secondary schools.

Dr. V unveiled her “Secondary Transformation” plan tonight for the RUSD board and the 4 people in the audience. Unfortunately the JT reporter had left by then, so I will probably be the only person talking about her visionary plan in the immediate future. I apologize up front for what I’m sure will be a never-ending discussion of her plans for the district.