Hicks follows up with a message to all RUSD staff

Superintendent Tom Hicks stepped down Monday as head of the Racine Unified School District following months of speculation surrounding a controversial contract he negotiated with a consulting firm hired to manage the district’s finances.

His resignation comes one week after the release of an investigator’s report that raised serious concerns about Hicks’ management related to the contract he negotiated with Public Business Consulting Group.

During his six years as head of the state’s fourth largest school district, Hicks made sweeping, at times unpopular changes to a district wracked with several problems, from high poverty and low student test scores to decades of union strife.

Board members announced that Hicks would take a leave of absence effective Friday, Aug. 31. Hicks will retire at the end of his contract with Unified, which expires June 30, 2008. Hicks asked to take a leave of absence from the position he has held since 2001.

“The board and Dr. Hicks mutually agreed that this leave was in the best interest of the district,” the School Board said in a statement.

The school district pays Hicks more than $195,000 annually in salary and benefits. The terms of his settlement with Unified were not yet available.

Hicks’ decision comes one week before school starts on Sept. 4 and at a point where the district is working to finalize its annual budget.

Below is a message from Dr. Hicks to all RUSD staff:

The job of superintendent in urban districts across this country has become an exercise in hello and goodbye. Some people are happy when you say 'hello,' some when you say 'goodbye,' but it is what happens, after the freshness of hello wears thin and before goodbye, that really matters.

Every superintendent knows that the person who preceded them in the job wasn't the sum of the gossip and media coverage, and every superintendent hopes that the person who follows in the job will have more success, better luck, and smoother waters.

And every superintendent knows that somewhere between the hello and goodbye is the struggle to balance the competing interests and adult conversations that distract us from the real reason we put up with this endless cycle of hello and goodbye in the first place: the children.

I want to thank the community members who served as Board members during my time here in Racine, especially those who chose to serve in Board leadership positions, for their commitment to the changes this organization has made in the last six years to benefit the children and young people of our community. I also would like to thank the business leaders in the community for their support in helping us improve our schools, especially those who gave so freely of their time to serve on the Independent Commission on Education. I want to thank the administrators, union leaders, and staff in every school and operational department for the hard work they have done to make this district a better place to learn and work.

And finally, I want to thank the executive management team for modeling the competence, creativity, and courage it takes to transform an urban district facing serious academic, financial, and operations challenges.

Thomas A. Hicks, Ph.D.