The rumors that have persistently swirled around Broward County, Fla., Superintendent Frank R. Petruzielo have been confirmed.
Mr. Petruzielo, 54, announced last week that he will be leaving his post as head of the nation’s fifth-largest school system for the greener pastures of Cherokee County, Ga., a small but growing suburb of Atlanta, where he will head the 24,000-student school system. The new job pays $150,000 a year in salary and benefits.
Mr. Petruzielo said he expects to stay on the job in the 230,000-student Broward County district until Feb. 1, when he will begin his new post.
Meanwhile, in Detroit, the school board last week named acting Superintendent Eddie L. Green to the permanent chief’s job.
For Mr. Petruzielo, family was a big factor in his decision to leave the $173,000-a- year Florida job. His daughter, son-in-law, and two grandchildren live in Cherokee County, he said, and his 14-year-old son will attend a county high school.
“I can continue to do what I love doing--being a superintendent--and my family will be together,” Mr. Petruzielo said in an interview last week.
During his five-year tenure in Broward County, some of it rocky, Mr. Petruzielo helped remove from the state’s list of failing schools all the district’s schools that were on it. He also helped raise academic and graduation standards. Before going to Broward County, he served as the superintendent of the Houston school district and as a top administrator in Florida’s Miami-Dade County system.
Bob Parks, who has served on Broward’s school board for 12 years, said his district’s “loss is Cherokee County’s gain.”
“Schools have never seen as much reform and innovation as they have under Frank,” he said. “He is a brilliant leader. Whoever comes in can ride on his coattails for the next couple of years.”
This election cycle, the Broward school board expanded from seven to nine members and changed from at-large to district representation, Mr. Parks noted, adding that one of the new board’s first big decisions will be hiring a new superintendent.
Stability in Detroit
Detroit’s Mr. Green was unanimously appointed by the school board Nov. 10 to be the 183,000-student district’s permanent superintendent. He had been acting superintendent for the past year.
Mr. Green, 56, who has worked in the Detroit schools for 33 years, will earn $144,000 in salary and benefits in his new post. His contract expires next June, but it will likely be extended.
Rodeana Murphy, a six-year veteran of the school board, said she and her colleagues are “very excited” about Mr. Green’s tenure as superintendent. She said he was chosen for his proven leadership skills and his shepherding of several new initiatives, including an end to social promotion and a new site-based decisionmaking structure for schools.
