The Interview: Dr. Harold Dodge

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - A MUCH LONGER THAN AVERAGE TENURE

Dr. Harold Dodge said he enjoyed serving as Mobile County Public School Superintendent for 10 years because he really cares about the kids. Dr. Dodge recently talked about his tenure and the challenges of big city schools superintendents.  

"The life expectancy of a superintendent in a big city is 2.1 years. The life expectancy of a major league baseball manager is 2.3. You think about that for a minute. But, I enjoyed it the superintendency. I was 10 years on the job as a big city superintendent, and I was the senior big city superintendent in the nation," Dodge said.

Dodge survived nearly five times longer than most of his colleagues around the nation leading Alabama's largest school system of more than 60,000 children.

A DECADE OF SUCCESSES

Dodge believes a decade of leadership provided the time to move Mobile County schools forward.

"We made a lot of growth.  We were drawing huge national attention because our test scores were improving so quickly. They're beginning to see successes, and it’s paying off today.   We passed a tax issue for the first time in 41 years; that drew national attention from San Diego, California to New York to Washington State. We took phone calls for years about how did you do it.   A lot of school construction too, probably over $400 million over close to $500 million during the 10 years I was there. It really is nice.  We had schools that were just breathtakingly bad, and now when you look, you really see some progress; some real progress.  We also did a great job surviving some pretty catastrophic hurricanes. I think if you put the two together it could have been between $30 and $45 million worth of damage.  After Katrina we opened in nine days, and everyone told me you will not open in that amount of time. We did," said Dodge.

Dr. Dodge said he realizes that struggles with what he calls an "active" school board in Mobile County had consequences and likely led to the end of his tenure.

"It was a little bit tough. There were some court cases involving board members. There was a huge court case involving an influential company about construction and whatever, and we won that. And I just knew that the political pressures were going to build a little bit.  Boards are very different; very, very different. This board was very active. They all have a chemistry.  I think I finished first class back in December of 2007, and I left first class,” Dodge said.

IT”S ABOUT THE KIDS

Dr. Dodge was a teacher, principal of elementary, middle and high schools, and a superintendent of several school systems before Mobile County.   He said over the years, he never lost focus of what's most important.

"I really enjoyed the kids and the fun. The focus, it's about the kids. I always hope that I did it that way, because it’s real easy to make it about the big people.  Sometimes I would say to other staff persons, ‘Wait, wait. What are we talking about here? We're talking about you the big people or are we talking about the children? No, no, no, you are not the issue. The issue is the kids.’ I always loved the kids,” he said.

TEACHING TEACHERS

Dr. Dodge is still living and working in Mobile, and has returned to the classroom.   Now, he teaches graduate school at t University of South Alabama.

"It's still about the kids as I'm teaching graduate school, and I'm lucky that’s what I get to teach. I teach finance and I teach leadership,” he said.

He said following two rules has made his career a success.

“I have two simple rules for that leadership class by the way. ‘You can't teach people to be human, and you can't teach horse sense.’  (It’s) about 90 percent of the problems that you see on the news in the morning and that we run into. If someone had just used a little horse sense and been human, it wouldn't have been a news story for you.  After 40 years of administration, I probably have been there and done that. Very seldom do they (my students) ever throw me off.  They sometimes feel like I'm tough, and I throw the work at them pretty hard. But it’s about them being better so that they can go out and be principals and future superintendents," says Dodge.

Dr. Dodge is using his experience to also prepare his graduate students for the challenges of leadership.  

He believes it’s hard to move any school system forward when principals and superintendents jobs turn over so rapidly that they have little job security. 

Dodge also said he believes Mobile County's new Superintendent Martha Peek will do a good job and emphasize results.  Dodge said he promoted Peek to the Central Office when he was leading Mobile County schools, and she's also his 14th assistant to become a superintendent. 

"The life expectancy of a superintendent in a big city is 2.1 years. The life expectancy of a major league baseball manager is 2.3. You think about that for a minute. But, I enjoyed it the superintendency. I was 10 years on the job as a big city superintendent, and I