For the first time in five years, the Chapel Hill – Carrboro City School System has someone other than Tom Forcella leading the district as superintendent. Forcella’s retirement was effective at the end of July.
Now, Dr. Jim Causby is taking over the superintendent position on an interim basis.
Causby says he has worked at all levels of public education in North Carolina during his more than 40 year career.
“I had the pleasure of working as a teacher at the elementary and middle school levels for several years,” Causby said, “and then was an elementary principal, a middle school principal and a high school principal.
“And then my superintendent career, I covered three districts over a period of 27 years.”
After he retired from his post as superintendent in Johnston County, Causby said he took on statewide roles in public education.
“Fist one as executive director of the North Carolina Association of School Administrators….did that role for two years,” Causby said. “And then I became executive director of the School Superintendents Association.”
Causby said those roles allowed him to visit and speak in every school system across North Carolina and has extended his career beyond what he initially planned.
“I’ve been trying to retire for a long time, in fact I’ve done it five times, and people keep coming along and saying, ‘How about doing this for us,’” Causby said. “I love public education, and I love the role and being involved and doing the good things we do for young people.”
While his retirement may not have gone according to plan, Causby said he is now able to be very selective over what he would like to be doing, which led him to be interested when Chapel Hill – Carrboro City Schools was in need of an interim superintendent.
“This school system is among the best,” Causby said. “There’s no question about that. It’s among the best in North Carolina, among the best in the southeast, among the best across the nation.”
Causby continued, “This system does a lot of things the right way. That doesn’t mean there are not issues and things that need to be worked on and improved, there certainly are.
“That’s the case everywhere.”
Causby said he will get direction from the school board of priorities it would like to see prioritized during his tenure. He said those priorities include Project ADVANCE, which Causby called an “outstanding initiative, and I think again the school system is leading the way in that.”
Another priority Causby said he has heard from the board is work aimed at closing the achievement gap.
“The equity issue – how do we make sure that every single child in the school system is achieving at their potential,” Causby asked.
Causby said he views his role when leading the system as being one to keep the train on the tracks until a new conductor is chosen.
“It’s more a role of maintaining, of looking at where things are and continuing those things and making sure they’re being done,” Causby said, “looking at the priorities of the Board of Education and making sure that those are continuing to be talked about and emphasized until a new superintendent is on board.”
Causby said when he was chosen as interim superintendent that a goal of his was to meet every district employee within the first 30 days on the job.
The school board has said it hopes to have a permanent superintendent in place at the beginning of the 2017 calendar year.
There are several ways for the public to get involved in the search for the new superintendent.
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