Bill Harrison is a class act

The battle to lead NC public schools took a welcome turn yesterday when Bill Harrison resigned as CEO of the Department of Public Instruction.

Dear Colleagues,

As you are aware, I have spent a great deal of time during the last two days responding to a legal dispute regarding my position as CEO. Quite frankly, I’ve wasted too many hours on this case – hours I would rather use working with you and education leaders across the state to accomplish the one thing Gov. Perdue asked of me six months ago: reforming our public education system to best serve our children. Because the 1.4 million students in this state remain my primary focus, and because I feel I can best serve them by focusing on my role as chair of the State Board, I will retire from DPI effective Aug. 31, 2009.

I have truly enjoyed working with this staff, and I look forward to continuing the relationships we’ve built since March. Like many in the field, I came to this job with a perception of DPI that wasn’t accurate.

There are incredibly talented people working in this Department, and the work you are doing makes a real difference in the lives of our kids. I hope you feel I have supported you in that work, and know that as we go forward, you can count on my continued engagement and involvement as chair of the State Board.

Thank you for what you do everyday to improve the public education system in North Carolina. I look forward to working with you and Superintendent Atkinson.

Bill

Sometimes stuff like this happens out of the blue, but I'm hoping the Governor and Mr. Harrison talked this through carefully and came to a measured conclusion that his resignation would be a graceful way to avoid an expensive dispute that no one could possibly win.

I also hope the Legislature will take an equally careful look at the situation and determine how to best structure DPI leadership for the long haul. Of course, they could have and should have done that years ago, so I'm not holding my breath.