IV. Superintendent Race

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"Additional Comments about the Materials inside This Box I did not attempt to scrub out a lot of embarrassing notes because they do reflect the work of the campaign.

My dream had long been one of running for state school superintendent because the position is one from which leadership can be exercised to make substantial improvement on the quality of learning students receive.

In returning to Georgia from Washington, this was my intent. In the winter of 1986, considerable thought was given to whether this was feasible to do. But one day I received a note from the brother of the existing state school superintendent saying that I should not pull out of the campaign. That his brother would probably in the end not run.

Not too long after receiving this note, the current superintendent, Charles McDaniel had a heart [attack] and died. Shortly after, the governor appointed Warner Rogers as the state school superintendent. It was obvious that the governor would put his resources behind Warner making it a difficult race to win. Again, I was toying with not pursuing it. One day when I was in the capitol, I was confronted with the governor's campaign manager who told me that if I persisted in running, I would never again work in the state of Georgia. Being an independent type from the mountains of Georgia, I told him I was considering not pursuing the race, but in light of this threat, there was no way he was going to get me out of the race. So, one of the first tricks his reporter buddy pulled was to put a picture of an African American person with my name and my announcement. I later learned that his name was Bottoms and that he was head of the Black Presbyterian Church. Later I had the pleasure of meeting several members of that family who were educators in the Southwest Atlanta Public Schools.

A little background - in the 1830's four Bottoms brothers came to Georgia building the railroad. They were from South Carolina. My Bottoms ancestors settled in West Forsyth County on the Sitting Down Creek basin. One of the brothers settled in Fayette County with a large farm. I learned from one of his descendants that he had freed his slaves before the Civil War and the present minister's family was a direct descendent of those slaves. In fact, the current mayor of Atlanta married a man who was a descendent of those slaves. This bit of history just illustrates how linked together we are in the South. I haven't been able to find any record that the brother that settled in Forsyth County owned slaves. The land was not conducive. So that is the story behind the picture in the top of the box.

You will find news releases concerning my speeches in different places across the state, and you will find several papers running editorials supporting my candidacy including Bill Shipp of the Atlanta Journal You will find written notes that have not been edited, and they certainly depict my dyslexia of spelling. They do reflect my ideas for teaching all students to higher standards and to make learning meaningful for them.

In a public opinion poll taken two weeks before the election, Warner Rogers and I were "neck and neck" in a virtual tie. You might ask, "What happened?" The governor had a large campaign reserve fund and he shifted sufficient funds to Warner's campaign in which they could buy a full - page ad in every daily newspaper in the state on Sunday before the election on Tuesday. In s race for a constitutional office in Georgia that was the turning point. There were four persons in the race. Warner got just over 50 percent of the vote. I came in second.

Knowing that there would be a bit of last minute push, I had met with Bill Shipp one day late in the campaign and told him I was considering pulling out some of my retirement funds to mount a major effort. He said, "Gene, if the people of this state aren't interesting enough in providing you financial support, you should not do that."

So with having lost the election and having no job, with one child already in college and two others close to being ready, what was I to do? Two days after the election, several things happened. Frist, a staff member from the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB ) called and said , " You have a job here starting August 1 , 1987. " Since the governor is chair of our Board this year, we would not feel comfortable in making the move immediately.

Several conversations between myself and SREB staff over the previous year and with selected state leaders about creating a network of high schools focusing on improving education for these "other students ". During the same two days, I received a call from two state superintendents of different states and a large district superintendent from Georgia requesting that I conduct a major study for them on improving career and technical studies linked to improved academic studies for the career - oriented students. Thus, for the next 12 months working from my basement office, with Helen's support , we completed those studies and earned more money that year than we had ever earned .

So August 1, 1987, I joined the SREB staff for a 50 percent time position and other 50 percent time position with Georgia State University .

During the 1987-1988 school year, we launched what became known as the High Schools That Work (HSTW) [network] of schools. In July 1, 1988, I became a full - time staff member with SREB and charged with leading the high school reform effort across the South. In 1989, we received a major federal grant that enabled me to add an administrative assistant and additional staff.

With the help of a person , who had befriended me in Washington named Sam Halpern , convinced the Wallace Readers Digest Foundation that the work being done by SREB was worthy of the foundation's support . That was the beginning of a 20 - year working relationship with the Wallace Foundation in which they supported the work with several million dollars. That support and the support of other foundations and a $ 12 million federal grant in 1999 enabled us to build an extremely large staff to support over 1,000 high school and middle grades schools across 30 states. In 2000, we began to do contract work with school districts to support comprehensive school reform around the HSTW and middle school design. This work was greatly enhanced beginning in 2014 up until my retirement with additional grant funds from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This is just a glimpse of the story. In one of the books in which I have written a chapter, there is detailed documentation of the work up until about 2000 with future projects beyond that."

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