A Blue Chipper in a Land of Volatility - superintendent Chris Wright of Illinois' Riverview Gardens school district - Brief Article

School Administrator, Jan, 2001 by Jay P. Goldman

If Chris Wright worked in any field watched by Wall Street, she'd be hailed as a corporate savior-someone who deftly leads an organization through tumultuous waters into the promised land of high performance.

But her field is public education, where she runs a school system that defies easy classification and whose sharp gains of late have yet be fully appreciated.

While she may work in relative obscurity, Wright has done nothing short of reinventing the Riverview Gardens school district, located just across the northern boundary of St. Louis, Mo. It's a world away from the neighbouring middle-to upper-middle-class school communities, such as the Parkway district where she grew up a few miles to the west.

Riverview Gardens, with its 7,400 students, is one of the fastest growing in the region with a 29 percent enrollment burst over the last five years. Its student population, 90 percent African American, also is becoming needier. A generation ago, the district was all-white and staunchly middle class.

When Wright moved in 1995 from an assistant superintendency in nearby Ritenour, Mo., to the top post in Riverview Gardens, she inherited a student system with no breakfast program, no full-day kindergarten, no before-and after-school child care, no alternative education programs and no full-time social workers, instructional aides or curriculum coordinators. The district had fewer than 100 computers for students and staff and its $25 million operating budget was developed by hand on a legal pad. Just a year earlier the system had shed its unaccredited status.

"She's taken this district and turned it around completely," crows Rudy Smith, a former school board president.

The remarkable changes since then have left many observers in awe. Wright's infectious spirit, her brand of inclusive leadership and her knack for surmounting the odds have infused a new vitality in Riverview Gardens.

"Anytime there's a significant change in population in a community, you almost have to start over. ...It takes more than just tinkering around the edges," she says.

Wright's bold strokes surfaced early. In her first year, she led a successful campaign to increase the district's tax rate by 99 cents per $100 of assessed property, by far the district's biggest tax hike ever. Two years later, she pulled another coup, a successful $14.3 million bond campaign to modernize and expand every school in the district.

The margin of virtories--69 percent and 71 percent, respectively-defied Riverview Gardens's makeup of mostly lower-income families.

Wright undergirds her reform efforts with a leadership style steeped in communication and listening. She spends one in every five days inside classrooms and principals' offices and holds monthly gatherings for a 28-member superintendent's Advisory Committee, a 22-member Communications Committee and a 15-member Support Staff Advisory Council. She meets with retirees, real estate agents and the clergy.

"She's very sensitive to the socioeconomics of this community," says Ernest Perryman, an African American parent. "She reaches into the community and asks for leadership, a very inclusive approach."

Her magic touch was no more apparent than when she convinced a parent of Catholic school students to lead one of the successful bond drives to resuscitate the aging and overtaxed public school facilities.

Encouraging results have begun to emerge. This fall, Riverview Gardens was one of only three school districts among Missouri's 524 districts to be cited by the state education agency for dramatic gains on the statewide performance assessment. Student test scores improved at every school, notably at the elementary level where one state official described the progress as "Phenomenal." The college-going segment has risen from 57 to 79 percent.

Still, the district's aggregate performance remains below what the state views as acceptable, and Riverview Gardens has been given provisional accreditation status. Few expect that label to linger long. Just this past fall, the district was one of six nationwide to receive a $12 million federal grant over five years to implement the First Things First program.

A former colleague, John DeArman, now a supervisor with the state education agency, gushes over Wright's work ethic and engaging nature. "She's tackled very serious problems and handled them very well. ...She doesn't shy away from difficult situations, and I always appreciated that."

Jay goldman is the editor of the School Administrator.

BIO STATS: CHRIS WRIGHT

Currently: superintendent, School District of Riverview Gardens, St. Louis, Mo.

Earlier: assistant superintendent for administration, Ritenour School District, St. Louis, Mo.

Age: 49

Greatest Influence on Career: My dad, who got his GED at age 35 and taught me perseverance; my mom, who encouraged me to follow my dreams; and my high school history teacher, who through his masterful pedagogy showed me the power of teaching.

Best Professional Day: The day we passed our 99-cent tax-increase bond issue. It was tangible proof of the positive results that come from board-based, inclusive public engagement.