This week's column: Grier's decides to dance with who brung him
So Terry Grier isn't outta here after all. Good for Guilford County.
Grier has been a strong superintendent here and if he had gone off to Charlotte — as a few had hoped, many others had feared — it would have been a loss for this community.
Grier is driven and inventive and has consistently championed the cause of the most challenged students in our schools, sometimes at great political cost.
Yet it's hard to believe he felt a sudden twinge of homesickness for the Triad, and decided he'd left his heart on Eugene Street.
"While meeting with the various interview groups in Charlotte," Grier wrote last week in a News & Record op-ed, "I reflected on the work that has been accomplished in Guilford County. As the day progressed, it became increasingly difficult for me to passionately answer the repeated question, ‘Why do you want to leave Guilford County for Charlotte?' "
Why would Grier want to leave Guilford for Charlotte?
That's easy. It's the biggest school system in the state, pays nearly $60,000 a year more than Guilford and has some of the same challenges and opportunities Grier has been concentrating on here.
Who among us wouldn't be flattered — and probably interested — if a bigger company that pays a whole lot more money came knocking on our door? Why not check it out?
It's also easy to see at least one unstated reason Grier withdrew last week from consideration for the Charlotte job. Odds are, he wasn't going to get it.
As the Charlotte interview process moved along, Grier, 56, likely saw the handwriting on the chalkboard: He was the third horse in a three-horse race featuring Peter Gorman of Tustin Unified School District in Orange County, Calif., and interim Superintendent Frances Haithcock of Charlotte-Mecklenburg.
So like a guy in a country song, Grier's not running off with some floozy named Charlotte after all. He's coming home, hat in hand, to his first love.
That's his tune and he's sticking to it.
He wrote in his op-ed: "I believe that we are ahead of the curve and feel a deep commitment and responsibility to the children, citizens and leadership of Guilford County Schools to continue and improve upon our good work."
Grier's probably delivering a little smoke with those rhetorical bouquets. But there has been tangible progress in Guilford County.
The racial achievement gap has narrowed on Grier's watch.
He has pushed hard to increase the numbers of minority students in honors and Advanced Placement courses.
Alternative programs such as Early College and Middle College have been praised and imitated throughout the state.
The system also has seen more support from the business community on Grier's watch.
But for every solution there seem to be at least three new problems.
Test results have fallen in recent years.
The schools are resegregating racially and socioeconomically.
Two high schools in Guilford County were among 19 in the state ordered by Wake County Superior Court Judge Howard Manning either to improve this spring's state test scores or shut down.
The system still struggles to lure its very best teachers to its neediest schools and Grier hopes a proposed incentive program will make a difference.
Some people had considered his courtship with Charlotte a prime opportunity to "Get Grier Outta Here." There's no pleasing everybody in a job like his.
For instance, a few critics are hot and bothered that Grier even considered the Charlotte job.
"How is it that Terry Grier can flaunt his job interview in Charlotte publicly and I might add, quite proudly, pursue another job in Charlotte and all we do is set back and wait for his answer?" fumed one letter writer last week.
Can't live with him, can't live without him.
Of course, Grier really didn't have the luxury to mull options quietly and discreetly; the Charlotte interview process for the superintendent finalists has been, by design, very open and very public.
So Terry Grier's still here, at least for a little while longer.
He probably wasn't the top choice in Charlotte. But there's no shame in that.
He was well enough thought of that he was a finalist in a strong field.
And he is well enough thought of here that we're glad to have him back.
Contact Allen Johnson at ajohnson@news-record.com.
Comments (8)
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Allen, you said Terry Grier wanted to help the most challenged students "sometimes at great political cost". When did any parent in Guilford Co. ever oppose anyone who wanted to help challenged students? The only political cost has come by enraged parents who had their school sacked by High Point bandits. The sacking of SW High is not part of any kind of district wide strategic plan , it is a simple sacking by people who did it because they could.
Terry Grier said in his guest column that his number one "core goal" was "diversity". In six years all he has done to meet his goal is to change a single one out of fourteen highschools from 44% minority to a projected 56% minority by shady back-door deals. If diversity is his goal he has failed miserably. (a 12% change at a SINGLE HIGHSCHOOL IN SIX YEARS)How can this possibly be his "core goal"
This "core goal" is a blatant lie. Take it to them. If you beleive in diversity you gotta take it to them. Change to G-Boro schools now!
A new low today, Allen. You are obviously taking a dive for Grier. (or is it Melvin) You're throwing away your talent and integrity for this guy. This column is a new low in shameless, pandering propaganda. I know you teach , if it is a journalism class, you need to take today's column in to show your students a prime example of how NOT to write an editorial.
Posted on April 9, 2006 8:44 AM
Looks like the "one's who brung him" are the only one's who'll dance with him.
Posted on April 9, 2006 9:50 AM
Grier is a slimeball loser. He saw that he was not the first choice, and not even the second choice, and then bailed out.
Grier is a loser and a drop-out.
What a nice message to send to our kids. "When you're not winning, just drop out."
Allen, what in the world are you doing making excuses for this liar?
Mr. Gehris is the only person that continues to bring to light your pursuits and claims of being a diversity-lovin' folk. You and Grier sure talk about it a lot.
Charlotte saw right through his used-car salesman approach. Why on earth do you select few continue to try to squeeze a little juice outta his lemons?
Grier is staying because he has no choice. And when he started reminiscing, it wasn't about the good times at Guilford, it was about how foolish he was gonna look when Charlotte sent him a ding letter. He's got the cozy job right here on Eugene st. He does nothing, makes no decions, takes no blame, does not pass Go, and collects his money...only a fool would have ruined that.
Any unskilled, non-toilet trained monkey could do the job that he his doing. And for a lot less.
Posted on April 9, 2006 12:48 PM
Mr. Johnson, You goofed again Sir. We are stuck with this WALLFLOWER is the whole unvarnished truth.
Posted on April 9, 2006 2:38 PM
The Grier to Charlotte episode has the feel of a cynical political move to give cover to the inevitable large compensation increase the school board and local civic leaders seem intent on giving him. How else can you spin someone applying for a job they didn't want that they had no realistic chance of getting? Now we'll have to pay Grier to reward him for not going where he didn't want to go and doing what nobody would hire him to do. It all has a vaguely surreal quality to it.
In the world of business, especially with highly compensated executives, you pay for what a person does and not what he or she wants to accomplish. I don't see how you can endorse Grier when the schools are neither more diverse, safe, fiscally responsible, or effective as measured by any objective standard.
It is discouraging to consider that we all know well in advance how this will play out. Grier will get a big raise, test scores will remain low, discipline and teacher morale will decline. There will be a big bond issue on the ballot which Jim Melvin, the Chamber of Commerce and the News and Record will endorse. And it will all be capped off by an editorial asking why citizens don't vote and make there voices heard. Some things never change.
Posted on April 9, 2006 2:57 PM
Let's say my husband were to run off next week with a neighbor that is a little younger & better looking than I am.
I find out about his infatuation. He knows that I know about it. He continues to pursue it until she makes it clear that he isn't good enough for her. She has her sights on somebody younger & better looking than him!
Now he calls me and says, "Oh baby, you are the best thing that ever happened to me. I love you and I now I realize that I don't want anybody else. My heart was never in it! She called me!!"
What would I do? Kick his butt to the curb!
What will Dot do? Welcome him back with open arms and promise to reward him by putting-out a little more.
(That Lyles is a lucky man! Well...sorta. You get my point)
Hey Dot, how many times until you say "ENOUGH!"
Posted on April 9, 2006 9:33 PM
Dot settles for whatever she can get. That's the mentality of the entire board of education. They "settle" for mediocre. Our kids deserve more and better.
It's obvious which board members have kids in the system. And it's obvious that none are at schools in High Point.
The long, hard screw continues...
Posted on April 11, 2006 10:33 AM
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Posted on November 7, 2006 11:47 AM