By Julianna Stephenson
Buena Vista Superintendent Tony Francis plans to retire after four years in the school district. His successor will face challenges, such as adopting new state education policies, renovating old schools and retaining teachers. The following is an edited conversation with Francis about his work in the district and hopes for the future.
Q: Why did you decide to retire?
A: The main thing is 38 years of service in public education. Also, I’ll be almost 62, so I had set that goal. I wanted to be able to do some other things personally instead of professionally. I just felt like it was the right time.
Q: What are the most memorable things during your time in Buena Vista?
A: One of the most memorable was getting all the schools fully accredited this year. We also made a big jump from number 82 in the state for our Standards of Learning (SOL) scoring to 38.
The thing that stands out is the academic gains that we’ve made. The other is being able to move our salary scales and get them very close to the surrounding counties. Our starting teacher salary was last in the state. Our starting teacher salary was $32,000, and we were about $8,000 behind the area’s school divisions. It made it really tough to attract teachers. Our starting salary now is $42,000.
Q: What does the search for the next superintendent look like?
A: Well, that’s entirely up to the school board. They have the sole responsibility of hiring a superintendent. When I was interviewed, the school board used the Virginia School Board Association. They can do that again, do the search themselves or use an independent search company. The board will be meeting and coming up with their game plan. I’m really not involved with it. I told them I would be happy to assist after they hire a new superintendent in the transition to make sure that things run smoothly and be involved as little or as much as they want.
Q: How will the new superintendent continue the work you have been doing?
A: The division is on solid ground. They’re going to need to have a big focus on the facilities. Our middle school is 100 years old, so we need to do something. They’re going to have to work with the city and the community to come up with the best solution.
We also need to work on retaining the teaching staff. It’s always hard to replace people. We have a lot of people who have been in Buena Vista their whole career, so when they leave and retire, it’s really tough to find teachers and retain them.
We need to add some staff and support our teachers. The challenge will be to meet the happy medium where you’re taking care of your staff through the compensation, but you’re also able to add some support staff and some positions in the schools that take a little pressure off of them.
Q: What qualities does the next superintendent need?
A: They need to be a people person because, in a small division, the superintendent does interact with teachers, paraprofessionals, bus drivers and custodians. They need to be able to interact with the school board to come up with solutions. I think it’s also going to need to be someone who’s organized and can really kind of guide that next phase of the facilities, too. They need to make sure that the plan is followed, moves through and keeps moving forward.
Q: What are you hoping they’re going to do about the middle school?
A: I think that’s up to the committee. There are options. They could build a new pre-K to 7th grade school. They could build an addition to the high school. There are just different options there. We are doing a feasibility study, and we will get three options that will help alleviate our situation here.
Q: What are your goals for these last nine months?
A: We have to transition to the new accreditation system which starts with spring testing. One of our big goals is to work toward that and make sure we’re hitting the marks on the new accreditation system. I also think putting together the budget that the new superintendent inherits. I want it to compensate teachers, add some positions and set that next superintendent up for success
Q: What are you hoping to do after you retire?
A: Right now, my only plans are to spend more time with my family and help support my wife a little more. She’s supported me for a long time. Then, I want to do some things that I like to do. I love to fish. I love to hunt and snow ski. I just want to be able to say, yes, it’s a Tuesday, and I want to go fishing.
Q: Do you have anything else you’d like to share?
A: I think that just thank the community and thank the school board for giving me this opportunity and this chance. I want to pass it along to someone else, and hopefully, they’ll have the same type of experience that I have had, which has been a great one.