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Duquesne district's superintendent wants to get students 'up from under'
Monday, February 19, 2001 By Eleanor Chute, Post-Gazette Education Writer
When JoAnne Wells was working on getting a superintendent's certificate at the University of Pittsburgh, she remarked that she'd prefer to lead a small district because she didn't want to give up working directly with children.
That comment eventually led to her job as superintendent in the Duquesne City School District, a position that opened in 1999 with the resignation of then-Superintendent Ronald Mento.
Duquesne has about 940 students, all in one building and in portable classrooms next to that building.
When she was hired, Wells, 49, of Penn Hills, had been a director of special education in McKeesport Area School District for about four years. The only other administrative post she'd held was as assistant principal at then-Cornell Middle School in McKeesport Area. Her career began as a special education teacher in 1974 in McKeesport High School, her alma mater.
Now she has what arguably is one of the toughest superintendencies in the state.
Duquesne City School District's students are among the poorest in the state, academically and economically. Costs of the district's renovation project have skyrocketed, complaints over the quality of construction are being debated and the district's financial situation had been deteriorating.
During her first year in Duquesne, all three levels -- elementary, middle and high school -- got new principals. The new middle school principal didn't even stick around long enough for the students to arrive.
Then the state declared the district financially distressed in October, and an appointed board of control took over its finances. That board declared a hiring freeze and assigned the sixth grade to the elementary principal and the seventh and eighth grades to the high school principal.
The special education director resigned this school year, leaving Wells to handle those concerns in a district in which about 170 students, or 18 percent, are in special education classes.
There was teacher turnover, too. Of a staff of 73 teachers, 15 were new this school year.
In the summer, Wells' office was moved downstairs. Her voice mail took so long to catch up to her that 300 messages had built up on her old telephone.
Her secretary went on medical leave for several months. To get the filing done, Wells took boxes of papers home and filed in front of the television.
The district's electronic mail system hasn't worked correctly for months, so Wells has people e-mail her at home, where she reads it in the evenings.
"I've had friends who said, 'Are you crazy? You could have done better than that,' " said Wells, who earns $85,000 a year, the second lowest superintendent's salary in Allegheny County.
"I didn't come here for the money. I came because there were students I felt needed to be turned on to education. They can get up from under anywhere if they can get the proper education they need," she said.
Wells hasn't had time to decorate her plain white office walls except to put up a few items: a Kennywood 2001 calendar, and a framed photo of her awarding a high school diploma to a McKeesport Area student a couple of years ago.
She and the boy encouraged each other when they both faced cancer and chemotherapy in 1994, she said. Now, both are doing fine.
Her office -- with a nameplate that says "exam room" because it used to be a medical exam room -- is so small that only a few visitors can squeeze in.
While the rooms are small, the board of control has its eyes on the administrative offices as potential space for students. The board is talking about moving school officials down the street later this year to a renovated house that used to serve as the administrative offices. The move would cost $19,000 to install computer wiring and the phone system and make other basic improvements.
With the current office in the school building, Wells said, "I've grown attached to seeing these kids on a daily basis."
Virtually everyone in the school knows who she is, and many seek her attention in the hallways or by stopping by her office.
It's not every superintendent who, when moving through the halls of a school, has a girl ask for help in a boyfriend-girlfriend dispute, a parent greet her with a hug and a teacher ask for her approval to try a new idea. She stopped to talk with the boy and girl, spoke with the parent and gave the teacher the green light.
Her smile is contagious as she gives enthusiastic responses in a deep voice. At the same time, there's no mistaking her determination, whether it's telling a boy to remove his hood or finding a place for a special education student.
She is making a point to try to bring parents, staff and the community together to work on education. She holds a monthly meeting with parents and has received a foundation grant to help pay for parent education.
Some parents say they previously felt alienated and unwelcome in the schools.
"We cannot have schools without parents. ... They need to be part of the governing of this school. They have been left out," said Wells, who is working on a doctoral dissertation -- when she can find time -- with a focus on parent involvement.
Big issues are high poverty and the low value some families place on education.
"I don't see that value here as I see in other communities," Wells said.
She thinks some families have "lost the hope of what these children are able to do. They don't see education can be a way out of poverty."
Wells grew up in McKeesport in a family in which her father, who worked in the mills, had just an eighth-grade education and her mother, a licensed practical nurse, had some education beyond high school. But all four of their children had education beyond high school.
"We were told to set goals," she said. "My father said, 'You're not going through the mill.' "
In Duquesne, she said, "these students don't dream. They don't dream of doing something better and bigger. They've lost the dream. That's why I say they're disenfranchised."
She wonders about the fate of one student, for instance, who had wanted to become a teacher.
"Her sister told her because she had a baby she could never be a teacher. That is all too wrong," she said.
Wells is married to Randy Wells, who worked as a millwright at the LTV works in Aliquippa, until the plant stopped manufacturing late last year. They do not have children.
"I take on everybody else's kid as my kid," she said.
Wells' personal approach is winning supporters among parents and academics.
"In the past, I guess, things were sort of hush-hush. A lot of times parents didn't know where to go or call," said Rochelle Jackson, mother of two in the school, a kindergarten assistant, president of the PTA and a 1989 Duquesne graduate.
"I have to give Mrs. Wells credit. Parents know they can call her," Jackson said. "She has made sure her staff makes themselves accessible and available to parents and their concerns."
She said Wells "walked into a mess. A lot of people would have just walked away, but she's working through it."
But both Wells and Jackson know much work remains to get more parents involved. Jackson said paid PTA membership increased from 37 last year to 110 this year. She said about three parents formed the PTA core last year, and about a half dozen do so this year. Only about a dozen attended a PTA meeting with Wells last month.
Faith Brown, project director of the Urban League of Pittsburgh's Family Support Center and a lifelong Duquesne resident, said Wells has been "really well received in the community. I like her willingness to listen and her openness to share and her ability to pull people [into involvement]."
At the same time, Brown said, "I don't want people to have a misconception about Mrs. Wells coming in and being able to turn that system around within a year or so. But working with her, she brings with her a lot of talent and a lot of resources."
Charles Gorman, executive director of the Tri-State Study Council at the University of Pittsburgh who has worked with Duquesne City School District for about a decade, said, "I think if someone can turn this thing around, it's going to be JoAnne."
With the district's double whammy of academic and financial distress, Gorman said, "I hope she can survive."
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