Theodore L. Thompson III, an educator with more than 25 years of leadership experience at five urban public school districts, has been named Pittsburgh Public Schools\u2019 deputy superintendent.<\/p>\n
The school board appointed Thompson to a three-year term beginning Aug. 3.<\/p>\n
He will make $210,000 annually.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am honored to join Pittsburgh Public Schools and look forward to partnering with (Superintendent Wayne Walters), our Board of Directors, educators, staff, families and community partners,\u201d Thompson said in a statement. \u201cTogether, we will continue building on the District\u2019s momentum to ensure every student has access to an outstanding experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thompson will work with Walters in oversight and leadership of Pittsburgh Public\u2019s academics and operations.<\/p>\n
Thompson will be tasked with aligning and strengthening the district\u2019s instruction, organization and operations, and the oversight of the district\u2019s strategic plan.<\/p>\n
Walters called Thompson an accomplished leader with extensive experience leading large urban school systems and improving student outcomes.<\/p>\n
Most recently, Thompson was executive director of secondary schools for Denver Public Schools, where he also worked as principal supervisor and associate chief of academics. Previously, he worked in leadership positions at the Baltimore, Washington D.C., Philadelphia and Syracuse school districts. <\/p>\n
He began his education career as a high school history teacher in the Columbus, Ohio, public schools.<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh school officials say that, throughout Thompson\u2019s career, he\u2019s led districtwide initiatives focused on academic improvement, leadership and professional development, strategic planning, school turnaround and operational excellence.<\/p>\n
Thompson earned a doctorate in educational leadership and organizational management and a master\u2019s degree in educational administration from Ashland University in Ohio. His bachelor\u2019s degree is in psychology from Cleveland State University.<\/p>\n
Thompson joins the Pittsburgh administrative ranks at a time where the district is beginning to implement its Future-Ready Facilities Plan, which calls for the closure of nine school buildings, 12 schools, and the realignment of many others. The closings and other changes will take effect with the 2027-28 school year.<\/p>\n
District officials say the plan reduces the underutilization rate in school buildings, addresses aging infrastructure, generates financial savings and expands academic and extracurricular opportunities for students.<\/p>\n
But the plan has been met with public pushback, questions, and criticism. Earlier this month, a group of parents filed a state civil rights complaint alleging the plan is discriminatory, uses flawed building utilization rates and inequitably removes resources for students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Theodore L. Thompson III, an educator with more than 25 years of leadership experience at five urban public…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-253261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}