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By Steven G. Vegh The Virginian-Pilot May 15, 2012 NORFOLK The School Board on Monday chose Samuel T. King, superintendent ofRockdale County, Ga., schools, to lead Norfolk's educational systemstarting July 1. Board members voted 6-1 to hire King, who will be paid $235,000 inthe first year of his four-year contract. Stephen Tonelson cast thelone dissenting vote. Board Chairman Kirk Houston declined toidentify the two other finalists for the job. Houston said of King and the Rockdale schools: "He's asitting, successful superintendent of an urban school district, andtheir demographics are very closely aligned with ours." King has been superintendent for seven years in Rockdale County, acommunity of about 77,000 located 24 miles east of Atlanta. Itssingle municipality is Conyers, which has about 11,500 residents.The district has about 16,000 students attending 11 grade schools,four middle schools and three high schools. King could not be reached at his home Monday night. King has 27 years of experience in public education, starting as aclassroom math and science teacher in grade school, middle schooland high school. Under King, Rockdale's schools all have met federal Adequate YearlyProgress goals for the past few years, lowered dropout rates andraised graduation rates, Houston said. King was named Georgia's2011 Superintendent of the Year by the Georgia School BoardsAssociation. King will take over a division with multiple challenges. Last year,Norfolk posted a 15.7 percent dropout rate, the worst among localdivisions and the fourth-highest in Virginia. It had an on-timegraduation rate of 73.6 percent. Ten of Norfolk's 35 schools missedfull accreditation last year. Although the city manager agreed this spring to budget $6.6 millionmore in school spending, including a 2 percent employee salaryraise, the division has pared its budget by about $50 million inthe past two years by closing schools, cutting programs andeliminating 548 positions. The division also is still healing from a scandal two years agoinvolving manipulation of test scores on a statewide studentassessment test that affects accreditation. The bad publicity put a cloud over then-Superintendent StephenJones, who already had strained relations with some board members.He retired that spring after five years in the job. He was succeeded in mid-2010 by Richard Bentley, an El Paso, Texas,school administrator who took charge promising greater transparencyin the division and long-term changes that he said would pushstudent test scores higher. But in November, the board terminated Bentley's contract after just15 months. Houston at the time cited a general agreement across theboard that its relationship with Bentley was "no longerproductive" and said, "right now, we can't afford theluxury of only long-term solutions - we need short-termsolutions." Houston said King will have the board's strong backing. "Wehave to work together, the eight of us - School Board andsuperintendent - to gain the confidence of the community and ourstakeholders - and that means open and constant communicationregarding the plan of moving toward success in the district,"Houston said. "I'm confident that over time, we'll be able to regain thepublic's trust and credibility and confidence," he said,"but it's going to come through some arduous work anddifficult conversations. There's no progress without change." According to the Rockdale Citizen, a local newspaper, King inFebruary withdrew his application to be superintendent in EastBaton Rouge, La. "After careful consideration and discussions with my family, Ihave chosen not to move forward," King said in a statement,the Citizen reported. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as LED Street Lighting Fixtures , Outdoor LED Floodlight for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits LED Tube Light Fixtures.
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