During the past year, Dr. Casey Wardynski has brought his management strategies to bear on Huntsville City Schools.
As he works to build and shape the future of the school system, to recruit the best teachers to lead in the system's classrooms and to set a standard of excellence for the system's staff and students, Wardynski's philosophy and values remain rooted in one of the nation's top leadership institutions. His commitment to the development of the nation's young people -- witnessed on a national level with his work to implement one of the nation's most popular military computer games managed at Redstone Arsenal -- is being realized in Huntsville as the first senior class under his tutelage graduates this week.
To many local residents, Wardynski was not a known commodity when he was appointed by Huntsville City Schools Board of Education in June 2011 as the new superintendent of Huntsville City Schools, a school system that at the time was ravaged by financial woes, a lack of staff accountability, poor facilities, insubstantial technology initiatives, and a growing lack of confidence expressed by parents and teachers.
But the Army knew Wardynski and his abilities to make a difference.
"I went from major to colonel in the same job (as director of the Army's Office of Economic and Manpower Analysis at West Point for 15 years)," he said during an interview in his spacious office at the system's main office in downtown Huntsville.
"I reported and advised on policy to senior Army leaders, including the assistant secretary of the Army of Manpower and Reserve Affairs, the Army G-1 (Human Resources) and G-3 (Operations), and commanders of major subordinate commands. My mission came from the Pentagon. The Army gave me a lot of freedom to do my job, and that came with a lot of pressure and responsibility, especially when talking policy with national media."
In that role, Wardynski led change in areas ranging from Army human capital development to managing the development, retention and employment of the Army's 60,000 officers. Along the way, he also pioneered the use of game technology and new media to support Army marketing, serving as the project originator and director of the well-known America's Army computer game.
"In 2004, I started going on TDY once a month to work on America's Army and to work with the Software Engineering Directorate at Redstone. I was here working on the Army game on 9/11. I had to drive back to West Point," he recalled.
Those trips weren't his first association with Huntsville. As an Army ordnance officer, Wardynski was stationed at Redstone in 1980 to participate in the nuclear weapons school and then in 1985 to take the captains' course. His oldest son was born in Huntsville.
"I had a good impression of Huntsville," he said. "There were a lot of things to do here. The people were friendly and there was nice weather."
When he retired in 2009 after 29 years of service, Wardynski was one of 14 executives chosen for development by The Board Superintendents Academy, a Los Angeles-based organization that trains executives to lead urban public education systems. His sights were set on leading only one school system -- Huntsville City Schools.
But the job wasn't available.
Instead, Wardynski served for about a year as the chief financial officer for Aurora, Colo., Public Schools, where he guided financial, food service and risk management activities for a district of 51 schools with revenues of more than $320 million and more than 35,000 students.
"Timing really is everything," he said. "I waited and when the superintendent's job did open up for financial reasons, I applied."
He applied for a top leadership position in a school system that was $20 million in debt, and that had a $240 million maintenance backlog and a host of issues that needed to be addressed. Those issues, though, didn't make Wardynski hesitate from the challenge.
"It was not surprising what was going on here," he said. "I knew money was going to be an issue no matter where I went. Every school system is facing the same picture. Finances permeate everything. When money is plentiful, school systems don't do the things they are really forced to do when money is harder to get, and they have to be more efficient and effective. That's what I did for the Army, and school systems aren't much different."
In conversation, Wardynski comes across as matter-of-fact, straightforward and relaxed. But when he speaks about the school system and education, he takes on a passionate, non-comprising position of providing quality education, no holds barred.
"This job is about talent management. It's mostly about labor, just like in the Army," he said. "It's about putting the best people to work in our classrooms.
"Just like the Department of the Army is focused 10 or 20 years out, the school system is focused on the educational needs of kids along a 13-year horizon. We are building programs that unfold over long periods of time. We are measuring success, building capacity. It takes a long time to build effective principles, effective teachers and effective students. And it takes strong, persistent leadership to make change."
It wasn't long after he took on his duties as superintendent that Wardynski was embroiled in controversy. There was an incident where a popular teacher and coach was arrested driving drunk on city school property. Wardynski fired him. He then fired a principal that was caught in fraudulent activity involving school records. A second teacher was reassigned after failing to report for duty during the first week of school.
"Teaching is a profession. It's a special calling. It's not just a job. It's a profession that has an enduring effect on people's lives," Wardynski said. "It's a profession that puts the needs of kids first. And my job as a leader in this profession is to create incentives, measures of accountability, vision and overall strategy, and then work through the board and school leaders to bring that to fruition.
"The Army has a strong culture based on the warrior ethos and values. Educators need to have values, too. They need to keep focused on the higher purpose and what's best for kids. That builds a strong culture about this profession, a profession that creates pathways for people to grow."
Wardynski has made several staff changes both in the school's administrative offices and in the classroom; shifted or revamped school programs such as moving New Century Technology School to the new Lee High and establishing a ninth-grade academy at Butler High School; addressed the system's financial troubles; introduced accessible computer technology for students; implemented a teacher selection and tenure program; started a program that will put 20 pre-kindergarten classrooms in the system; and made school maintenance a top priority.
Today, the system has not only overcome its debt, but is now $7 million in the green. Its maintenance backlog has been replaced with an $80 million construction and renovation plan.
"These are changes that lead us toward better education," Wardynski said. "They are purposeful and directed toward growth and improvement."
Along the way he has reintroduced staff, teachers and students to higher educational standards, and reached out to the community by speaking about those educational standards at various local gatherings, including Parent/Teacher Association meetings and civic clubs.
"As the superintendent, I have to set the conditions for success. We have to grow a culture of success where educational opportunities can grow in a safe environment," he said.
"There has to be a certain level of expectations. The Army had to do the same things to take the "hollow Army" to the Army of today in regards to managing talent, putting standards in place, and developing a professional work force of Soldiers and civilians. Hard choices were made to really change the way the Army did business. At Huntsville City Schools, we are setting the expectations for the education of the next generation."
High standards don't account for much if employees aren't held to those standards. Wardynski likes to not only set those standards, but also likes to surround himself with talented people who live those standards and who are highly motivated to make a difference. Coincidentally, many of the terms Wardynski uses to describe the school of the future and the best teachers of today could have been pulled from an Army strategic report.
"The best leaders are the ones who can adjust on the fly, who are adaptable and flexible. They think of new ways to do business," he said.
"The best teachers are agile and flexible in their approach to learning. They are lifelong learners themselves. They adapt with their students, and use today's technology in their classrooms and in their educational approach. They use new techniques and new approaches, and value diverse viewpoints in the classroom."
With the school system now headed in the right direction, Wardynski looks toward new challenges, including incorporating leading edge educational initiatives, such as the virtual school system where all lessons are taught with the use of computer technology in the place of textbooks, and students become comfortable with online and distance learning. He wants to incorporate technologies that allow teachers and parents to see where students are on the educational spectrum and what is needed to help them advance on that spectrum. He understands the importance of quality facilities and how they impact neighborhoods, and the need to be a school system that is flexible enough to support growth with new and improved schools.
"I can walk through the door of a school and tell you if it is a high-performing school or not just by first impressions," he said. "Those first impressions do matter."
As an Army colonel, Wardynski wrote several papers on talent management, based on the premise that success happens when leadership puts the right person at the right place at the right time. So, too, is it for education, where leaders "match the right teacher with the right kids to create relationships that motivate kids to learn," he said.
Wardynski does admit he has faced some criticism in relation to his management style. But he said the results prove that Huntsville City Schools is now going in the right direction.
"A lot of people are invested in the old ways of doing business," he said. "I have had to persevere and articulate and secure buy-in. Basically, I have worked to overcome the old ways in securing the goal of creating a system with effective teachers in every classroom and learning situation. A lot of people just don't like change. But life is change."
Wardynski will continue overcoming obstacles on the way to improving Huntsville City Schools. And he hopes the system's record of performance will overcome naysayers.
"We are putting the right educators in our schools, we are adding technology, we are working for success. How can you argue against that? Doesn't everyone want their schools and their kids to be successful? I hope people see me as an advocate for great education for their children," he said. "I hope they see Huntsville City Schools as a provider of education and future employees for the needs of this growing community. And I hope our students leave here well-prepared for the next stage in life and to be lifetime learners."
Just like commanders on the battlefield, students should know how to analyze conflicting information to make choices. They should be taught how to look at problems critically, and know how to work toward goals. Teachers are the leaders who "can help guide and coach kids to acquire and synthesize information, and to be critical consumers of information; and to ask questions and develop the practice of thought," Wardynski said.
Students educated in good local school systems are key to the future of Redstone Arsenal.
"We are an enabler of success. We want to help kids understand opportunities and raise their probability of success," Wardynski said.
"Redstone Arsenal has situational awareness of what we are doing. Redstone needs us to educate students so they have a resource of educated employees to fill jobs. If we are not a high performing school system, then Redstone would have to import employees and pay more for those employees. The military is a discerning consumer of education, and that customer expects high performing schools."
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