Return to Normalcy

School Administrator, March, 1997

For 18 months, North Carolina had one of the most awkward governance structures in the nation: a deputy state superintendent operating as chief administrative officer for the state education department while the state superintendent cooled his heels on the sidelines.

But with the statewide election last November of Mike Ward to the superintendency, the state board of education has approved a resolution restoring the state superintendency's authority. The North Carolina legislature has transferred the powers to the deputy superintendent, Richard Thompson, in midsummer 1995.

Since both Ward and Thompson were former colleagues as district superintendents in the Tar Heel state, they have pledged to end the divisiveness that has plagued the governing structure for public schools.