The Enterprise Board of Education unanimously agreed to hire Dr. Camille Wright as the superintendent of Enterprise City Schools during a Nov. 26 meeting.
Wright is the first female superintendent in the system’s history and will take the helm beginning Jan. 2, 2014.
She will begin contract negotiations with the board in the near future, though the original motion to hire Wright did set a salary cap at $135,000 annually.
Board President Ross Cotter said Wright's plethora of experience was a selling point for the board.
She has served as an educator in the first, third, fifth, seventh, eighth and 10th grades, and has also served as a school counselor, coach, athletic director and a principal at all school levels.
She is currently the director of instruction at Madison City Schools, which is one of the highest-performing systems in the state of Alabama with 9,500 students and 980 teachers.
Wright received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Auburn University and received her doctorate in administration and supervision from the University of Alabama.
Wright is married to Dr. Walter Wright and they have two grown sons, Austin and John.
“As superintendent of Enterprise City Schools, I see my role as complementing the great tradition that is already here,” Wright said. “We have an opportunity to be the best school system in the state of Alabama and that's due in part to some of the titans that have come before me.”
Wright said every stakeholder involved with the school system is important.
She also quoted a five-goal system used by University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban during his 2003 national championship season at Louisiana State University.
Those process-oriented goals included working as team, working every day to surpass the competition, being personally responsible for your role, having a positive attitude and having a championship mindset.
“It’s obvious Enterprise already has a championship mindset both athletically and academically, and I want to foster that,” Wright said.
Wright said she made her final decision to pursue the position at Enterprise after speaking with Alabama’s State Superintendent of Education Tommy Bice.
“He said in his mind the three most forward thinking systems in the state were Madison City, Auburn City and Enterprise City,” Wright said. “I was already at Madison, and I had been at Auburn before, so I wanted to come to Enterprise.”
When she officially takes over as superintendent next year, Wright said she doesn’t plan to come in and make several changes.
Instead, she plans to get to know the system and its employees to see where her experience can lend itself.
“It’s already a great school system and I want to learn my strengths and my role in it,” Wright said. “So to piggyback on your saying, now our saying: ‘We are Enterprise,’ and I’m proud to have this opportunity.”
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1 comment:
Stan Stinson posted at 12:40 pm on Thu, Dec 5, 2013.
Welcome to Enterprise Dr. Wright!
I can only speak for myself but my gut feeling is the entire community welcomes you. Not many choose to share their thoughts here but that doesn't mean they don't have them. I am confident as you begin to meet more of these citizens of Enterprise you will continue to be impressed by their love of Enterprise and Enterprise City Schools, support for the Superintendent and their desire to see ECS continue to be one of the best in the state of Alabama and the reason so many families, who do have a choice, choose Enterprise for the education of their children.
I would also like to commend the Board of Education in making your selection. I believe it was a very good choice from an impressive group of candidates for this important position.
I was impressed by the way you handled yourself in your public interview and the experience in education and leadership you bring with you as you take over the leadership of the Enterprise City Schools. All of the candidates were asked about the role of the School Board in relation to the Superintendent and all answered similarly as you did. The board sets policy and the superintendent implements the policy in the manner they choose and believe is best. You also added the board should listen to the community.
I trust you will be able to follow through with your role unencumbered by micro-management or unwarranted influence from the board. If you are able to get the board to listen to the community you will have achieved something the community has been unable to achieve for the past 6+ months. I assume you are aware of the circumstances that created the search for a new superintendent but, if not, please talk with some of the people involved and no longer serving on the board or as superintendent and get their side of the story. You will be better prepared for some of the challenges you face in your new role if you do.
You also mentioned communication with the community as being important in the role of superintendent. I hope you will do this and specifically communicate exactly what the Alabama College and Career Readiness or Common Core State Standards is and how it is different from Common Core. There is an article related to that issue in this edition of this paper but it does not answer all of my questions. I would like to know more and suspect others would also.
I also hope you will learn more about the financial agreement between ECBOE and the City of Enterprise and move to bring a resolution to this issue in 2014 and not wait until 2016 as the President of the School Board and city officials have indicated is their preference. There has been a simple solution suggested that will resolve this issue. It would only take the city and school board getting together with their lawyers to write the amendment. My initial thought was city officials might not want to wait until 2016 and make this an election issue but on second thought that may be their intent - to use this as a re-election issue for their benefit. If the intent is really to resolve the issue as both parties have stated publicly it is, there is no reason it cannot be done in 2014.
Again, welcome to Enterprise! As you said as you ended your remarks. "We are Enterprise." My hope and prayer is for your success here in Enterprise as that would also be a success for Enterprise and most importantly, the current and future students of Enterprise City Schools.
http://blog.stanstinson.com/welcome-dr-wright/