George Parker is on the job. (CP photo by Sarah Vogelsong)
Incoming superintendent George Parker still remembers the day when he realized that education was not just another job: it was his calling.
The realization came early in the morning, as the now-23-year veteran of the schools was driving to Virginia Beach’s Bayside High, where he was in his first year as a math teacher.
“I was really excited about getting to school and starting my day,” he said. “And I remember that vividly, because I thought to myself, I never felt like this going to my ship in the Navy.”
As Parker settles into his “first 100 days” in the Caroline County Public Schools’ superintendent’s chair, he sat down with the Progress to share some details of his road to Caroline and what he sees ahead for the school division.
For Parker, education wasn’t the first choice.
“I wasn’t in high school saying, ‘Hey, I’m going to be a principal one day, I’m going to be a superintendent,’” he said. “That wasn’t the case. It really became a passion once I tried it.”
Parker came to education after obtaining his undergraduate degree form Norfolk State University, where he studied computer science and participated in ROTC. Upon graduation, he was deployed to the Persian Gulf as part of Desert Shield, the operation that preceded the better-known Desert Storm and was part of U.S.-led coalition efforts to force Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait, which it had invaded in 1990.
After a second tour—a less fraught one in the Mediterranean—he was considering either a return to computer science or a foray into law (“I like to argue,” he said, “and I like to win”) when a friend suggested teaching. Intrigued enough to go through the certification process, the gamble soon paid off and led to his hiring at Bayside, where he also became the varsity wrestling coach.
Although Parker soon began to pursue higher education—he received his master’s in education from Norfolk State and then, in 2010, his doctorate from Virginia Tech—and moved into administrative positions with Virginia Beach City Public Schools, including assistant principal of First Colonial High School and principal of Green Run High School, he never lost his love of life before the chalkboard.
“I still consider myself a teacher by trade,” he said.
Those experiences, furthermore, continue to inform his perspective as an administrator.
“I really understand how living on a teacher’s income can be difficult at times,” he said. “That’s why we want to always continue to make sure we’re looking for ways to compensate our educators.”
Adequate compensation has been a recurrent problem that has bedeviled CCPS, particularly since the recession, with Caroline losing valued employees to surrounding districts that can offer more attractive salary and benefit packages. Fixing the division’s slipshod salary scale was a major priority of the School Board over the past year, and one to which Parker already seems attuned.
When asked about how to address the retention problem, Parker outlined an approach that he described as “very simple”: identifying a clear vision of where the division wants to go and then determining the resources required to get from the present Point A to the future Point B.
“In a rural area, you really have to be a good steward of your money, and you really have to have clearly identified needs for your school district,” he said.
Key to that effort, he emphasized numerous times, is collaboration with all of the division’s stakeholders, whether they be parents, students, teachers, civic and business leaders or government officials.
“We all want the same thing,” he said. “Ultimately, we want the best education for the children in this county. And while I sit at the head of this organization, it’s not my job alone.”
Collaboration, dialogue and relationship building, for Parker, lie at the core not just of addressing issues such as teacher retention and student discipline but also of the profession of education itself and in particular his role as superintendent—a position whose holder must often navigate tricky political terrain.
“You have to be willing to collaborate and willing to listen, to understand the demands of all and how the needs of the division fit into that picture,” he said. “My job is to advocate for the school district. But my job is also to build relationships with the community and with our city officials so that we can work together for the betterment of our students and for the betterment of this community.”
Asked about how he would approach the shift from a suburban school district with some 68,000 students in 86 schools to Caroline’s rural district of five main schools and some 4,200 students, Parker noted that the essence of education remains the same no matter where a school is located.
“A competent teacher in every classroom leading instruction is still the dynamic that really moves education forward,” he said. “Personnel will always be the driving factor in a superior school division, and your commitment to personnel will pretty much guarantee your success.”
In fact, he said, it was Caroline’s small size that was one of its primary attractions: “I thought it would be a great opportunity to be in an organization where you knew the names of your staff, where you knew the kids and the families,” he said, and where it was possible to build “organizational trust” among those staff members and foster a team with shared expectations and goals.
Outside of the School Board Office, Parker expressed a commitment to transparency driven by the needs of stakeholders.
“There may be avenues or resources we haven’t used, such as social media or other means to communicate, that may be very effective,” he said. Hearing from stakeholders about what has or has not worked in the past is, he said, one of the primary goals of his first 100 days.
“Part of your immersion into a new environment … is to really take the time to look, listen and learn, and from there you start framing what you’re going to do moving forward to meet the needs of the organization,” he said.
As he settles into his new job, Parker and his wife LaTonya, who collectively have four children, are simultaneously settling into life in Caroline, purchasing a home in Ladysmith Village and getting out to meet members of their new community, which Parker sees as inseparable from the school division.
“I’m very passionate about the opportunity to work and serve an entire community, instead of just the high school kids or just the middle school,” he said. “I have the opportunity to impact the lives of all public school students in an entire county. Who could ask for a better job than that?