Superintendent Larry Lewis called visionary by some, reviled by others for management style
Larry Lewis and the Lancaster school district were both looking for the same thing in 2003: a change.
The first-time superintendent arrived to the district's top post with big plans, but Lancaster's needs were great: Test scores were abysmal. Teacher morale was in the dumps. And school buildings were crumbling.
Dr. Lewis' selection as the first black superintendent in the mostly black school district was a milestone for many in this small city 15 miles south of Dallas.
Four years later, Dr. Lewis' attempts to turn around the worst-performing district in North Texas have left the 52-year-old hailed by some as a fearless visionary who requires summer reading and pushed to get a $110 million bond package passed. He is reviled by others for his management style and proposal to launch a four-day school week shortly before classes started in August.
As for Dr. Lewis, he has said he was "sent by God" for the children. He declined to be interviewed or to respond to questions for this story.
Now, the Texas Education Agency is taking the rare step of auditing the district because of budget discrepancies and other financial questions that surfaced when the four-day plan was introduced.
Dr. Lewis has said Lancaster is better off financially and academically than when he arrived.
"We're on a journey to excellence, regardless of who says what," Dr. Lewis said during a recent speech to the Chamber of Commerce.
Dr. Lewis, now a father of four, grew up in a large family in Fort Worth. He attended Stephen F. Austin State University before becoming a teacher and coach in the Dallas Independent School District. In 1990, he took over as principal at J.W. Ray Elementary, in an impoverished area of Old East Dallas just east of Central Expressway.
Dr. Lewis seized the chance to work with poor students, like many kids he now serves in Lancaster. Test scores rose and absenteeism improved. The Dallas Morning News' editorial pages praised him for working "educational miracles with poverty-level students."
"Larry could have stayed right there in Dallas and probably retired there, but obviously something was driving him," said J. Rodney Short, who taught Dr. Lewis while he took classes at Texas Woman's University.
"He just had that burning zeal in some ways to say, 'I can do it. Maybe I can be a role model to show other students of color and low disadvantage that they can do it.' "
From Harvard to Austin
Dr. Short recommended Dr. Lewis to Harvard University. After he graduated with a master's degree in education, Dr. Lewis became an area superintendent in the Austin Independent School District, in charge of 18 campuses and 16,000 students. Always hands-on, he was known for conducting "Learning Walks" to ask his students what they were doing in class.
He finished his doctorate at Texas A&M University in 2001.
That year, his personal life led to a brush with police.
He was charged with one misdemeanor count of assault with injury in a family violence case, police and court records show.
Dr. Lewis' wife, Sylvia, told police that he would not let her leave the kitchen for 12 hours during an argument over money, according to Austin police reports. He said he wanted the couple to talk about the matter because "the Lord wants us to communicate and work out our problems right now," records show.
The Travis County district attorney's office granted Dr. Lewis deferred prosecution, dismissing the charge as long as he did not break any other laws. The case was dismissed on June 10, 2002, and he fulfilled the terms of the agreement a year later.
By the 2002-03 school year, Austin schools started reorganization plans to cut costs for the following year, replacing five area superintendents with four associate superintendents. Dr. Lewis did not receive an offer.
He told The Dallas Morning News at the time that Austin officials told him they would find a job for him. Andy Welch, Austin ISD's communications director, said officials knew that Dr. Lewis wanted to run his own district.
That chance came about 200 miles north, where the Lancaster trustees were looking for someone to replace previous superintendent Bill Ward, who had resigned in August 2002.
At the time, Lancaster had the second-worst test scores in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, above only the Masonic Home district, which taught students at a Fort Worth orphanage that has since closed. The teacher turnover rate had hit nearly 35 percent, more than twice the state average.
School board member Russ Johnson said the board selected Dr. Lewis in April 2003 because he was the best fit for the district, which was looking for someone with a firm understanding of finances and strong leadership abilities. The fact that he was black was "icing on the cake," Mr. Johnson said.
About three-quarters of Lancaster's students are black. About 27 percent of the teachers were black. Now, that figure is 60 percent.
Dr. Lewis said his race might make him more sensitive to black students, but that all students would be pushed to perform academically.
Board member Carolyn Morris, a vocal critic of Dr. Lewis, said the new superintendent took advantage of the way people accepted him into the district.
"It was almost like he was the savior to come into the district, and this is how he allowed people to view him – as the person who wants to make the big changes," Ms. Morris said.
Monday morning staff meetings began when the staff heard Dr. Lewis coming down the hall.
"In every meeting, he is the main character, there is no doubt about it," said Randall Hoadley, who worked in the district's financial office and now works for a private company. "He comes by, shaking everyone's hands. His people skills are outstanding."
Dr. Lewis' team immediately focused on finances, finding a $5.6 million hole left by the previous administration. They swiftly took out a loan to fill it. It would be the first of several loans during Dr. Lewis' tenure.
Bond package
It had been 19 years since voters had approved a bond proposal, which had left officials with no cash to build campuses or fix older schools.
In 2004, voters passed a $110 million package put forth by Dr. Lewis to pay for a new high school and stadium along with other projects.
The school board swiftly extended Dr. Lewis' contract until 2009 and raised his salary 68 percent from $117,000 to $197,000, which was slightly higher than the surrounding districts of DeSoto and Cedar Hill.
"He is a visionary in my eyes, and I've seen other leaders like him who have that same vision," school board member Marie Elliott said. "He thinks very far ahead, not tomorrow but where we could be 10 to 20 years from now."
After the bond election, he took aim at academics, requiring summer reading projects. When 750 students showed up without them on the first day of school, Dr. Lewis promptly suspended them all. Many outraged parents swiftly blamed him for failing to communicate with families.
"In his leadership style, he finds something he is really sold on, he believes it's going to make a difference and he puts it into effect," school board member Marjorie King said. "He lets the people finally come around to his way of thinking."
Though he later extended the deadline, he continued to suspend students who didn't finish the projects.
"It's better if we give them a harsh penalty now than the penalty of not being able to read later," Dr. Lewis said this fall, after 254 students were suspended.
Between 2004 and 2006, the district's performance on the state's Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills improved by 14 percentage points based on current passage standards. That increase falls short of statewide growth during the same time period of 18 percentage points.
In 2006, 38 percent of Lancaster students passed all sections of the TAKS, compared with 65 percent statewide. The scores are the lowest in the Dallas area. Of the 58 school districts in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Lancaster finished 50th in the size of its TAKS gains since 2003.
The new $72 million high school and stadium opened in 2006. When some teachers complained to the board about a lack of supplies at the new school, teachers say, Dr. Lewis told them all at a meeting not to speak with the board.
Librarian Connie Fowler filed a grievance about the meeting and later filed a retaliation grievance after she was moved to a Lancaster elementary school after 18 years at the high school, records show. Dr. Lewis has said she was moved as part of a reorganization plan. The school board denied the grievance, but Ms. Fowler is pursuing it at the state level.
"It was intimidation," Ms. Fowler said. "He can't stand it that there are a few of us – not many of us – who are willing to stand up and say you can't do that."
Questions about $7 million in cost overruns on the high school and stadium project spurred Ricki Gardner and other residents to form a group opposing three more bond proposals supported by Dr. Lewis' administration.
When Mr. Gardner attended a district meeting, he said, the superintendent told him, "The Lord isn't pleased with you because you're taking this away from the children."
Mr. Gardner said he was taken aback.
"Our only concern in this whole process was that the taxpayers' money was being properly appropriated," Mr. Gardner said. "All I know to do is what is right, and I don't like people to use the Lord to make other people feel guilty."
A high school teacher who declined to be identified for fear of retaliation said Dr. Lewis encouraged staff to lobby people for support of bonds. She did not participate.
"It's not my place to go knock on doors and sell a program," she said. "Other teachers did. They all wanted to be viewed in a positive light from Lewis."
Bond packages failed in May and November in 2006, and in May 2007.
Dr. Lewis has maintained the support of most of the school board, but some people have questioned his relationships to its members.
"They've been completely co-opted for reasons of cronyism and nepotism," said Greg Stephenson, a parent who frequently follows board activities. "They've lost their ability to act and think independently."
Mr. Stephenson and others point to the fact that Dr. Lewis' administration named school board president Ed Kirkland's wife teacher of the year during the last school year.
Mr. Kirkland did not respond to requests for comment.
In February, Dr. Lewis wrote an e-mail to the staff, titled "Dear family members," recommending three people who could help refinance mortgages. One of them was school board member Sue Mendoza, who also served as the lender for the home Dr. Lewis bought in 2003.
Ms. Mendoza says she no longer works as a lender and is now a teacher working outside the district.
"He may have referred some staff to me for refinance," Ms. Mendoza said. "I don't know if he did that or not, but I have not refinanced any loans for school district staff."
Audit deadline missed
This winter, signs of financial trouble surfaced when Dr. Lewis and his team missed the deadline to file the district's annual state audit.
District officials said it was a software problem, but the delay meant the district failed the state's financial accountability ratings system.
The board had also taken out loans to pay the bills while waiting for state funding every year since Dr. Lewis arrived. The latest $6 million loan was approved in the spring.
Faced with slim finances, Dr. Lewis announced a plan just weeks before the school year began this summer to launch a four-day school week. Initially, he said it would save as much as $1.9 million. He later said it might not save anything.
One July evening, about 1,000 people came to a public forum on the unusual schedule, expecting to ask questions. When the six-foot Dr. Lewis stepped on stage in his crisp suit, he spoke for nearly two hours before he took the first question. It was midnight before he left the stage.
"I can understand that everybody might not agree with us," Dr. Lewis told the crowd, "but here's what I say: Why would we not give our children an opportunity to show us [if it works]?"
Dr. Lewis told the crowd that he researched the plan using Google, which drew intense criticism from many parents.
Dr. Lewis dropped the plan after TEA sent a long list of questions making it clear that Lancaster would have many hurdles and many answers to provide before the state agency would consider such a drastic move.
Two months later, the agency decided to launch an audit of Lancaster's finances, a step taken with only 3 percent of the school districts in the state each year. It could be months before the audit is complete.
In a recent speech to the Chamber of Commerce, Dr. Lewis introduced a proposal to buy subscriptions of the Lancaster Today newspaper for district families. In exchange, the paper would carry the district's news. The school board is scheduled to consider the plan today.
He also said he's confident that the district will soon get approval to launch an International Baccalaureate program, a top-level college preparatory curriculum.
And he assured the community that the district remains in strong financial shape.
He recently sent the same message to staff.
He wrote in an e-mail: "Let's stay focused and committed to academic excellence while we welcome the TEA to LISD! Go Tigers."
