Hinojosa Promises to Listen, Not Make Radical Changes

Michael Hinojosa inspires some, offers hope for others and leaves lingering doubts for still others as he finalizes details to become Cobb County’s 20th school superintendent.

The sole finalist for superintendent met the media with many answers and greeted the public with plenty of handshakes at media center Monday afternoon.

Hinojosa, the six-year superintendent of the Dallas Independent School District in Texas, started his first workweek since the Cobb Board of Education announced by meeting the district’s school principals and the system's Executive Cabinet, then had lunch with school board members.

He spent the final 75 minutes of his whirlwind tour at Campbell.

If he is hired after a mandatory 14-day waiting period, Hinojosa said, he plans to listen to 100 people in his first 90 days on the job, then gather with school officials to determine his areas of focus.

“This is a great job, and I have a lot of desire for this job, and it’s just a great match for me,” said Hinojosa, who was open to the job after learning that his oldest son from his first marriage is expecting a child, Hinojosa's first grandson. “I’m definitely not going to do anything radical with the school system. I’m going to do a lot of listening.”

Contract Almost Complete

Hinojosa, 54, said he has “just minor details left” in his contract talks with the Cobb school board. He said his base salary will be about $237,000, or $29,000 more than retiring Superintendent Fred Sanderson’s base salary of $208,000, and he won’t have any performance-based incentives.

In addition to his Cobb salary, Hinojosa said he will receive a pension “north of” $200,000 from the Teacher Retirement System of Texas.

“I’ve worked hard for 32 years and been a superintendent for 17 years. In fact, when I started I was 6-5,” Hinojosa joked, “and now I’m 5-foot-7. I’ve been cut down to size.”

Although it won’t be easy, Hinojosa said he plans to work through June 30 for the Dallas Independent School District to complete a grueling budget process. At the same time, he will work with Sanderson to ensure a smooth transition. Hinojosa officially would start work on Glover Street in Marietta on July 1 without a break between jobs.

Whether Hinojosa’s wife, Kitty, a high school English teacher in the Dallas-area Highland Park Independent School District, will be with him when he moves to Marietta hasn’t been decided. Hinojosa said his wife has only a year left to earn her Texas teacher retirement.

As for his own retirement plans, Hinojosa plans to work at least six more years. "I want to work till I'm 60," he said. "After that, I don't know. I have to be on the go. I want to finish with a job like this."

Despite losing Chief Financial Officer Larry Throm and Chief of Staff Arnold Viramontes in the past five months in Dallas, Hinojosa said those departures didn’t play into his willingness to listen to Cobb County officials when they called this month. Hinojosa said both men were ready to retire–although the Houston Independent School District hired Viramontes–and have been replaced by experienced personnel.

Focused on Education

Georgia’s tough new anti-illegal-immigration law didn’t affect his desire to become Cobb County’s first Hispanic school superintendent, said Hinojosa, who legally immigrated to Texas from Mexico as a toddler and became a citizen after high school, the Marietta Daily Journal reported.

“I don’t get involved in that at all,” he said of politics. “I focus on education.”

From that perspective, he told the Marietta Daily Journal, the starting date for the school year doesn't matter, and he didn't take sides between a balanced school calendar and a traditional calendar.

While Hinojosa answered seemingly every question reporters threw at him, school officials and community members also met the educator. While Board of Education members Tim Stultz of Smyrna and Scott Sweeney of East Cobb watched, Hinojosa seemed at ease in the room of strangers and frequently smiled as he shook hands.

Robin Benifeld, a 20-year Cobb County educator at , said she’s “very excited” about Hinojosa's likely becoming superintendent. She was particularly impressed with his efforts in Dallas to increase test scores and to start a vocational tech program “because not everyone goes to college.”

School board Chairwoman Alison Bartlett recently complained that the Cobb County School District was making a mistake by pushing all students toward college instead of preparing some for high-paying jobs that don't require a college degree.

Benifeld also discussed the hiring of Hinojosa with her son, Darrial, a rising junior at .

“We talked about some of the negative comments we’ve seen online on the Marietta Daily Journal,” Benifeld said. “He said, like I have, we should give him a chance. I think next year will be an interesting year.”

Hispanic Inspiration

Campbell High rising senior Melissa Ortega said Hinojosa will provide inspiration for Hispanic students, who make up 16.5 percent of Cobb’s nearly 107,000 students.

“I think it’s a good thing,” she said. “It’s an inspiration for a Latino student like me to be successful. He’s a charismatic person by the way he shows interest in the way he greets (people). It was nice to know he spoke Spanish.”

The district's chief technology officer, Chris Ragsdale, was among the top school officials at the meet-and-greet session, including Chief Financial Officer Mike Addison and interim Deputy Superintendent Alice Stouder. Ragsdale called Hinojosa a “very qualified candidate” and said he'll be happy to have him as the next superintendent.

“His overall character” impresses him, Ragsdale said. “He seems to have a strong moral character, and that goes a long way when you’re building a billion-dollar company.”

Lingering Questions

Although many of the people Hinojosa met appeared supportive, parents Farah McCready and Susan Lewis peppered him with questions regarding his Dallas academic policies and how they conflict with some of Cobb’s.

They also sought answers from Sweeney and Stultz about how the search was conducted and why only one finalist was chosen.

The parents talked to Sweeney alone after Hinojosa left at 5:03 p.m. to catch a plane back to Dallas.

“It just seems rushed,” McCready said of the selection of Hinojosa, named the finalist less than three weeks after Cobb officials contacted him and a week after he formally applied.

McCready is a parent of three children at Northeast Cobb's , and .

“I want to know from our board what makes them think that he’s a good match for our district and to turn things around,” she said. “The problem is people are more focused on the balanced calendar than substantial educational issues like teaching to the test, the CRCT, integrated math and the superintendent.”

Cobb residents will have more chances to meet Hinojosa before the board votes on him, district spokesman Doug Goodwin said. The board must wait until June 2 to act and is expected to vote at its June 8 work session.

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