
{"id":11706,"date":"2010-07-29T10:49:11","date_gmt":"2010-07-29T18:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=11706"},"modified":"2010-07-29T10:49:11","modified_gmt":"2010-07-29T18:49:11","slug":"pedersen-announces-retirement-after-18-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2010\/07\/29\/pedersen-announces-retirement-after-18-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Pedersen announces retirement after 18 years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Susan Dickson<br \/>\n<\/strong><em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Looking back on his years at the helm of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, Superintendent Neil Pedersen said he is pleased with the work that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done, but that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still a long way to go.<\/p>\n<p>Pedersen, who turned 60 in June, announced at a school board meeting last week that he would retire at the end of the 2010-11 school year after 18 years leading the school district. The move followed weeks of speculation that the soft-spoken administrator would retire, since he hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t asked the board to renew his four-year contract. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The major focus for us when I became superintendent was to close the achievement gap &#8230; and I am proud of the progress that we made during this time and the supports that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve put in place to increase student achievement among students of color in particular,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Pedersen said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153At the same time, I will leave feeling like the goals that we set were not fully accomplished.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Pedersen is the longest-serving superintendent in the district\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 100-year history and the longest-serving superintendent currently working in North Carolina, with 17 years as superintendent under his belt. He has overseen tremendous growth, with the construction of nine new schools during his tenure, and has approached the minority achievement gap head-on, launching programs and initiatives to improve student achievement. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a very effective superintendent, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clearly been involved in every program that the school system has in place currently,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d school board chair Mike Kelley said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Almost every classroom, every program and right down to the bottom, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been involved at some level.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>In 1992, shortly after he became superintendent, Pedersen convened the Blue Ribbon Task Force to take a hard look at the achievement gap. Based on the recommendations of the task force, several programs and services were launched, including the Blue Ribbon Mentor-Advocate, a mentoring program focusing on improving the achievement of black and Latino students. <\/p>\n<p>Graig Meyer, program coordinator of Blue Ribbon Mentor-Advocate, pointed out that Pedersen was one of the program\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s original mentors. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The way that I got to know him was not as a superintendent, but as a mentor,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I could see the way that he was learning from the experiences of his mentee and really considering deeply what those experiences meant for other students.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Meyer said Pedersen has always been a very supportive superintendent who listens and tries to understand what is going on in district programs. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I really believe that he has done a fantastic job of &#8230; keeping our focus on the most important issues and not taking our foot off the accelerator,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s due all the credit that comes to him.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>As he enters his final year as superintendent, Pedersen said he is aware of the challenges before him \u00e2\u20ac\u201c in particular, another tight budget cycle. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I certainly approach the year as my last shot to enhance our educational services and improve student achievement and I hope to make significant progress,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Pedersen said.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Preparing a budget this year will be once again quite challenging and almost certainly more challenging than it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been for the past two or three years. I hope that we can develop a budget that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lean but does not detract from the quality of education that our students receive.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I want to make sure that we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t lose many of the programs and resources that have come about during my administration,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he continued. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We certainly will stay focused on student achievement in a variety of ways.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>As for the end of his final year, Pedersen has no concrete plans, other than to take a little time for himself. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I certainly would like to have some more time for my family and for myself and for me to reflect on the experiences that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153And to change the pace of my life to some extent.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Looking back on his years at the helm of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, Superintendent Neil Pedersen said he is pleased with the work that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done, but that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still a long way to go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11706"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11759,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11706\/revisions\/11759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}