SHAOZHUO CUI Special to The Roanoke Times

The Rev. Glenn Orr, president of the New River Valley branch of the NAACP, presents a gift from the organization to Tiffany Anderson. During her time as superintendent, Anderson made it a priority to get more minorities and younger administrators into Montgomery County schools.

SHAOZHUO CUI Special to The Roanoke Times

Outgoing Montgomery County Superintendent Tiffany Anderson listens to the choir with her husband, Stanley, during a June 6 reception held in her honor at Schaeffer Memorial Baptist Church in Christiansburg.

| Anna L. Mallory

anna.mallory@roanoke.com, 381-8627

Tiffany Anderson has the power to change minds.

Her arrival in Montgomery County in 2005 as a first-time superintendent to lead a division with failing schools raised some eyebrows.

Now, many are singing her praises.

"I think the changes she's implemented speak for themselves," said Angie Cornett, president of the Montgomery County Education Association for the past two years.

The association includes about 800 school employees, from custodians to teachers to Anderson herself.

Anderson's $146,000-a-year contract ends Tuesday. From here, she'll head University Academy, a small charter school in Kansas City, Mo., and spend time with her ailing mother.

She declined to be interviewed for this story.

Cornett echoes sentiments from school board members, parent-teacher association leaders and county supervisors who say Anderson, despite a rocky start, has taken the district in the right direction. The top reason: All of the county's 20 schools are accredited by the state, meaning they've performed better on state exams than in years past.

"That in itself is kind of a good gauge for me to judge by," Supervisor Gary Creed said. "That's the mark of a school, that's kind of how you grade one."

Creed was chairman of that board when Anderson was hired and has worked closely with her since. He said he has always been impressed with her knowledge.

Anderson came to Montgomery County at age 33 on a three-year contract. She had no prior experience leading a school division and was the county's first black and first female schools chief. Rockwood School District in St. Louis County, Mo., where she was assistant superintendent for student services, had about 20,000 students.

Anderson had her hands full when she arrived.

Academically in 2005, 11 of Montgomery County's 20 schools were not state accredited. Thirteen had not made adequate yearly progress, the federal government's main measurement for whether schools are achieving.

Top that with controversial personnel issues, and times were trying.

School board member Penny Franklin, who has championed Anderson throughout her four years, said Anderson inherited "a mess."

To clean things up, Anderson set her sights on improving test scores, a task she tackled in her own small publication, "Closing the Achievement Gap." The 60-page self-published book outlined strategies to reach struggling students, particularly those in poverty stricken areas. She made sure teachers used pacing guides that gave them a timeline of when and what to teach. The guides also were designed to help students who moved from school to school to stay on the same page as students who remained in the same place.

She also changed who was in charge in many schools.

Within months of her first year, Anderson reassigned several central office and school-level administrators, including Christiansburg Middle School Principal Peter Wonson, whom she publicly admonished for failing to report bomb threats, and Auburn Middle School Principal Lenny Session, who was escorted from the school by sheriff's deputies.

That made some school employees uneasy, and talk of the new superintendent's retribution quickly spread. Principals started to funnel school-level communications to the central office.

As it stands, four Montgomery County school administrators remain in the roles they held when she arrived.

"She made mistakes," said longtime board member Wat Hopkins, who was absent from the vote that hired her.

In the year following her hire, he would tell people that Anderson was not a good superintendent but that she would be "someday."

In 2007, when it was time to talk about extending Anderson's contract, Hopkins kept that in mind and voted against a two-year contract extension. Both he and current board Chairman Wendell Jones dissented on the contract, which should have taken Anderson through July 2010.

School boards typically decide on contract extensions a year before they end. Hopkins said he preferred a one-year extension because he still worried whether Anderson was right for the job.

"Now, I've had a change of heart," he said. "I've seen her grow."

He points to her personal apologies for some of those personnel decisions and says that she was courageous "even when she knew it was going to get her in trouble."

Hopkins admits that Anderson helped open up the county a bit as well.

When she arrived, the district was used to "old, white men," he said.

Not only did employees need to get used to Anderson's leadership, but she also made it a priority to get more minorities and younger administrators into schools. Three of the county's schools have minority principals.

She also taught a course through Radford University aimed at preparing teachers for leadership roles.

Cornett said Anderson's connection to the classroom was most important to teachers. Her regular "teacher for a day" visits, during which she would relieve teachers so they could attend training seminars or other work, received good response.

"I think it was good practice to put your money where your mouth is," she said.

And Anderson knows how to speak up. If she disagreed with staff, the generally soft-spoken woman would voice it.

Those discussions, and Anderson's attempts to be easily accessible, were important to association members and parents, Cornett said. Whether it was a 3 a.m. e-mail or a quick phone call in the car, Anderson listened and always responded, even if it was in disagreement, she said.

"I never felt like I couldn't say something," Cornett said. "I never felt like I had to walk on egg shells or anything. If I needed information, I'd call her and we'd talk."

They talked about teacher pay a lot.

Anderson worked with board members to find money for an across-the-board pay raise for teachers last school year. The 8.6 percent increase was a shared goal between the superintendent and education association.

"She totally supported it. She could have been like, 'Oh, I don't think this should be a political thing,' " Cornett said.

Through all the rough spots, Anderson kept her leadership focused on gaining accreditation. In 2008, all the county's schools received the state's approval. This year, a national accreditation organization, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement, also awarded the entire district its distinction of accreditation.

That cemented the district's progress in education circles.

As Anderson departs, Cornett and board members say they're looking forward to someone who can continue the momentum that Anderson gave the district but who will also be open to the same kind of changes she put in place. And maybe now people won't be as upset.

"She showed us that things can be done differently and still be a success," Hopkins said.

On June 17, Walt Shannon, assistant superintendent for operations, was named interim superintendent. He begins Wednesday.

Last week, the school board voted to hire national search firm Ray and Associates to find Anderson's replacement. That process could take until December.