BusinessTN

Dr. Kriner Cash, 53, who was selected in June to be the next superintendent of Memphis City Schools, assumed the helm of Tennessee's largest school district last week. The former superintendent of Martha's Vineyard (Mass.) Public Schools from 1995 to 2004 and most recently the chief of accountability and system-wide performance for Miami-Dade County (Fla.) Public Schools replaces former superintendent Carol Johnson, who left to take the top post with Boston Public Schools last year. BusinessTN editor Drew Ruble recently spoke with Cash about his plans for the district. The following is an edited transcript of that conversation.

BTN: The Memphis City Council recently voted to reduce school funding by about $70 million. You were quoted at the time of those cuts stating that you were not concerned about the shrinking local investment in schools in that it provided the opportunity for the district to look for efficiencies. Since you made those statements, the state has threatened to withhold nearly a half a billion dollars in state funding if the Council doesn't restore funding. Has your opinion of the situation changed as a result?

Cash: The concern, of course, is exponential now in that regard because now you have a state overhang that is connected to this city's withdrawal of money. So I'm very, very concerned about it. I've become more aggressive in calling for a sit-down between the parties to work out a win-win resolution, primarily for children. There are 110,000 children and thousands and thousands more parents and relatives and community members and staff in Memphis who would be affected by that latter decision. So it's a domino effect, and I'm very concerned about it.

I'm optimistic that it will be resolved, but at this point, I'm concerned about the way in which we're sort of in a wait mode. I want to get us into an action mode, and not let it be a decision done by the courts but by the leadership in Memphis.

BTN: What will be the role of the business community in the Cash tenure at MCS?

Cash: I'm calling a council together made up of key business leaders here in the community with whom I will meet on a regular basis. I want them to do a number of things. I want them to keep score for me. We expect to be much more accountable than we were before in all aspects of our work from the curriculum side to our business practices. This is a $1.1 billion business here in the schools, and we need some assistance in some of our operational efficiencies and business planning.

I'll be calling on them to help provide internships opportunities for our young people earlier in their school careers--8th and 9th grade. I want our students to shadow and be mentored by our business leaders so students don't have to wait until after high school to figure out what they might want to do--they'll get early exposure to these businesses. There are a lot of businesses doing well here in Memphis, and I want our students to have a piece of that. I'll also be asking business leaders--not just of large businesses but also of small businesses--to be part of the work of improving schools.

BTN: During the process that led to your selection, Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton expressed a desire be appointed as head of schools, a post he held before being elected mayor. I understand that you two met recently and had productive talks. But will your work be complicated by the fact that he has openly stated his desire to have your job running the school district? And more generally speaking, what is your view of the proper governance of public school administrations?

Cash: We had a very productive meeting. He was openly supportive of the schools. He has a deep history with the schools, of course. But he said that he would be supportive of my leadership, that I am now the superintendent and he would do everything he can to make sure that I'm successful.

BTN: Perhaps you'll disagree with my assumption, but philosophically speaking--why is it that there are examples of great schools, but arguably no examples of great school districts?

Cash: I agree with that. I've been researching in this domain for 30 years, and there are no consistently high-performing--what I call "high reliable"--organizations in urban public education. In other words, where you break through and have the whole district achieving at a level of excellence for many, many years. What you have is excellent top-flight high schools, some high-achieving students who go on to [top colleges]. You have outstanding teachers of the year and outstanding principals of the year every year in your own district. But what I am all about through these many years of public education is achieving excellence to scale. What will benefit the community is when you have a high-achieving school system for a whole city, a whole district. That is what will benefit the nation. We haven't done it yet but we have learned a lot about how to do it.

Having been in Miami for four years as the accountability chief for system-wide performance, I had a unique perspective of having my hand on every aspect of the operation and knowing what needed to be improved and what needed to be maintained and sustained. With that expertise, I can do a quick scan of where we're soft, where we're weak and where we're strong. And I'll go right to work [to start] the systemic work that will have children achieving and improving every year, teachers getting stronger and broadening their repertoire of practice every year, and having our overall organization become a learning community. When you have that humming at the level I expect, then it doesn't matter if Superintendent Cash is here or Superintendent Ruble. It doesn't matter what teachers or principals come and go, we will be strong and the city will stay strong and viable.

We have challenges in the nation now: a faltering economy and a continual battle for resources and funds in school districts that sometimes are reasonable and sometimes are unreasonable. But we can do better, will do better and must do better for our schools. And I want Memphis to be a beacon of how to do that for the whole nation. It'll take us six years to do it.