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OPSBrief: What positions have you held over your career?
Superintendent Kilbert: While in college at Dillard University, I was a student teacher at E. D. White Elementary; then I was in graduate school at The Ohio State University.
With OPSB, I have held seventeen different assignments since I began as a substitute teacher at James Derham Junior High School in 1978-79. I taught at Derham, mostly as a mathematics teacher, but at different times I was a reading teacher, administrative assistant (a position that used to be called an "O-3"), intervention counselor, coach, band director, and assistant principal.
One summer I worked in the HR Department at Central Office. When Derham merged into Booker T. Washington High School, I became assistant principal there. I also became director of the truancy and alternative program that was housed at Derham. I later became principal of McDonogh #38 Elementary (renamed Banks), where I had to have some tough initiatives to hold parents accountable for student absenteeism.
I then served as principal at Fortier High, Marshall Middle, and Carver High Schools. For six months, I was assigned as Director of Transportation at the request of the Administration to resolve some major challenges in that department.
Before Hurricane Katrina, I was an Area Superintendent. In 2006, after Dr. Ora Watson resigned, I became Interim Superintendent in July and then Superintendent in December.
OPSBrief: What was your favorite position?
Superintendent Kilbert: I cannot really say that I had a favorite position, but there were things I enjoyed most about each assignment.
In elementary schools, I enjoyed seeing children's eyes light up when they learned something new. I enjoyed middle school because you meet the students' need to be nurtured. I enjoyed seeing high school students graduate and the pride their parents had in them, which in many cases represented the first high school graduations in their families. At Central Office, I enjoyed working with so many very intelligent, self-directed and dependable people.
But there were also things I did not like. At elementary schools, I did not like that many children were being neglected and were so dependent upon their needs being addressed by social agencies. And at the high school level, I did not like how so many young people were being taken advantage of by the streets.
OPSBrief: What was your biggest accomplishment?
Superintendent Kilbert: The Hurricane Katrina recovery. The challenge was so great and yet we had to take action not knowing what were the "rules" for addressing such an unprecedented event, especially with the transition from being a school system to a system of schools. But all along the way, you would see kids being successful.
OPSBrief: What were the biggest lessons learned from the challenges you faced?
Superintendent Kilbert: Everyone must have the agenda of putting children first. Some people have other agendas, and those other agendas create barriers to meeting the needs of children. Also, more people need to be concerned about the lack of finances for education, especially compared to the costs of prisons and rehabilitation.
OPSBrief: After the storm, what were the biggest challenges to getting the schools open?
Superintendent Kilbert: The extent of the devastation had never happened to anyone before. Pre-Katrina, the district had almost $900 million in unfunded capital needs with decades of deferred maintenance. The state and local officials had different plans as to what to do to recover. School operations were moving to charter schools. People were coming back, but neighborhoods had no schools.
OPSBrief: What were the biggest areas of support you had for reopening?
Superintendent Kilbert: People started paying more attention to education and the teaching-learning process. Parents had evacuated to cities where their children attended newer, modern schools, and they returned asking why New Orleans could not have the same.
OPSBrief: What were the political challenges to reopening?
Superintendent Kilbert: The State Legislature passed Act 35 that allowed RSD to take over more than 100 OPSB schools. This gave the appearance that New Orleans was being taken advantage of because of the hurricane. Of course, something had to be done to improve the schools in New Orleans pre-Katrina. But Act 35 did not take into consideration the reform programs that had been instituted locally, such as Signature and Focus Schools and planned school consolidation, and that some schools, now relabeled by Act 35 as failing, had actually been recognized by the State as improving significantly before Katrina.
Alvarez and Marsal, which had been brought in by the State to take over OPSB's finances, started to get into the academic areas, using dollars and cents as the criteria to make academic decisions. Making all decisions on an equal per-pupil basis is not always correct - the needs of children are not always equal but they must be equitable.
Sometimes equal spending gives inequitable results.
OPSBrief: What challenges and opportunities do you see the district and your successor facing over the next five years?
Superintendent Kilbert: Folks now look at education in business terms but often forget that education is the business. The needs of children should always be the consideration for decisions, and the focus should be on achieving equitable results.
The reforms of site-based management and autonomy are helping the principal become the manager and decision-maker; the Central Office must provide the resources and the support for the principal to be successful.
OPSBrief: How ready is the OPSB to accept back schools from the RSD?
Superintendent Kilbert: OPSB is very ready. The current Administration does not micro-manage schools. The role of Administration is to support schools to be more successful. The Board should be the policymakers and not micro-manage. Schools must be the decision makers in order to better meet the needs of children, which are slightly different at each school. Since Katrina, schools, businesses and the community are more in sync.
OPSBrief: What are your thoughts for future school governance?
Superintendent Kilbert: People need to come together with cooperation and communication to address the question of governance. Everyone, from every side of the fence, needs to work for what is best for children. What is working for kids should be kept.
However, the system-of-schools approach must account for the cost-inefficiency of some functions like transportation and how to better serve special needs children. Also, it seems that children are being recycled through different programs, even though children need continuity. Does "choice" always result in moving students to something better?
OPSBrief: What advice do you have for your successor?
Superintendent Kilbert: Keep the goals of education as teaching and learning. You are not going to please everyone all the time so keep the needs of the children first. Try to have good public relations, be open to criticism, and don't take things personally.
OPSBrief: Ten years from now, when people look back at your tenure as Superintendent, what do you hope they will see as your legacy?
Superintendent Kilbert: That I acted to get the system back up and running and to help youngsters become successful.
OPSBrief: Do you have anything else you want to add?
Superintendent Kilbert: I thank the Orleans Parish School Board for my employment over the past three-plus decades and allowing me to see my work come to fruition, so that I now run into my former students who are grown, and they thank me. I thank the people who worked with me at the schools and Central Office. And I thank the parents for entrusting their children to us and believing in us.
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