Hinojosa: 'I Can Work with the School Board in a Unified Way'

About 50 Cobb County educators, parents, business representatives and government officials came to Monday afternoon to meet the superintendent candidate, Michael Hinojosa.

Hinojosa is the superintendent for the Dallas Independent School District in Texas. He has been the superintendent since 2005 and has been an educator for 30 years.

The Cobb County Board of Education announced Hinojosa’s candidacy Thursday. Scott Sweeney, East Cobb's Post 6 school board member, explained that the process began last year when the board worked with the Georgia School Boards Association to search for a candidate. The district eventually looked out of state.

“We had a host of candidates and applicants at that stage, and we decided to broaden the search as well,” Sweeney said. “We interviewed a host of very highly qualified candidates, and Dr. Hinojosa was the standout candidate." 

Hinojosa is five days into a state-mandated 14-day period in which the school district will take comments from the public.

“During that period of time it’s really for public comment and discussion, at which time the board would take a vote,” Sweeney said. “Basically, that would be a vote to approve his contract. And the contract would be for the terms identified.”

Monday’s meet-and-greet at Campbell is one component of the public comment period. At the meeting, Hinojosa outlined his plan for his first 90 days as superintendent if he’s hired.

“What I’m going to do in my first 90 days is do a lot of listening,” he said. “It’s a structured listening, though. It’s an organized way by which I will gather input about the major issues that are facing Cobb.”

Hinojosa thinks he’s the right man for the job.

“You have a lot to be proud of,” he said. “However, we also need to get better because we’re going to be competing with kids from all over the world when our students graduate from Cobb. I’m hopeful that I can add some value to that. I am confident that I can. I’m also confident that I can work with the school board in a unified way to make this the premier school district in America.”

Former Smyrna-area school board member Holli Cash is the mother of four children who attend schools in Cobb County. She said Hinojosa is a promising candidate.

“I know he has a lot of experience in a very diverse district like Dallas where you have some very affluent areas and some that aren’t,” she said. “I think it mirrors Cobb County. It’s a bigger district than Cobb. I think one of the struggles in Cobb is sometimes it’s so big, there’s a lot of great people and a lot of great things out there, but we’re too big. So the fact that he comes from a big district is very important.”

When Cash learned of Hinojosa’s nomination, she called friends in Texas to learn more about his reputation.

“I hear nothing but glowing things from him,” she said. “I think any time you’re doing your job, there’s always going to be somebody who’s displeased. And I think for us to start writing him off already in one of the local papers and bringing up all the issues for him, that says already that they’re concerned that he might come in and rock the boat, but I think he’ll do a great job.”

Linda Ramsey is a teacher at Cheatham Hill Elementary School in Marietta. She hopes that Hinojosa will listen to teachers, as well as district administrators.

“I told him that I felt like a leader should remove obstacles so that others can get their jobs done and I hoped he would reach out to try to see what our obstacles are as teachers,” she said. “He said he was going to meet with all the principals to discuss such items. And I told him I felt like all principals would not be able to represent the teachers in a way the teachers would like to be represented. I hoped he would include teachers in that to find out what needs to be addressed because there are some obstacles.”

Ramsey said some Cobb County teachers feel restricted by obstacles not related to teaching itself.

“We have a lot of great teachers in the school system, very fit teachers, and we need to let them have the freedom to do their thing,” she said. “A lot of teachers at many schools are feeling restricted by paperwork and administrative requests that are coming down actually at a higher level, not necessarily from our administrator, but above them.” 

Ramsey said she is confident that Hinojosa heard her suggestions.

If the school board does not appoint Hinojosa after the 14-day period, the search for a candidate will begin again.