VIDEO: Starr Signs On as Next Schools Superintendent

Joshua P. Starr came to Rockville on Wednesday to make it official, signing a four-year contract that will pay him a base salary of $250,000 annually as the superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools.

Starr will succeed Jerry D. Weast, who steps down on June 30 after 12 years at the helm of the largest school system in Maryland.

He inherits a school system that grew its budget significantly and , including a graduation rate that ranks first among the nation's largest school districts as ranked by Education Week magazine.

Asked about his charge to improve upon a school system that is already a nationally recognized leader, Starr said that he is up to what he called “the best kind of challenge.” 

“Nobody doesn’t want to get better at what they already do,” he said. “And it’s just a matter of engaging folks in that process and making sure it’s something that’s defined from within. And I think I can help do that.”

Starr’s contract calls for $35,000 in annual deferred compensation and a contribution of $18,750 annually toward his retirement. Health, disability and life insurance, moving expenses and the use of a vehicle are also included.

With 200 schools and 144,000 students, the county school system is significantly larger than the 15,000-student Stamford (CT) Public Schools that Starr has led since 2005. But the demographics of the two school systems are similar, Starr said.

“About 14-15 percent of students in Stamford are English language learners. I think that’s pretty comparable to Montgomery County — there may be a few less here,” Starr said when asked by a reporter to compare numbers.

Starr, who has forged a reputation as a data-driven executive, passed the pop quiz: Indeed, 13 percent of students in county schools this year have limited English skills.

But numbers aren’t everything, Starr said.

“At best, the data help you ask better questions,” he said. “We know the test scores tell us often times what’s wrong, not what’s right about what’s going on in our schools. In order to really understand whether or not we’re serving kids at high levels you have to talk to kids, you have to be in classrooms, you have to really see the work they’re doing.”

Data can also be used “to name names — to really understand individual children, their situations and how we can help them achieve the standard that we have for them," he said.

The county school board . The board made it official during its meeting on Tuesday.

County school board President Christopher S. Barclay said that he was not concerned about reports that Starr has had a combative relationship with the Stamford school board, as noted in a recent Washington Post article and an editorial in the Stamford Advocate.

“There is never a moment that boards and superintendents are going to agree on everything,” said Barclay (Dist. 4) of Takoma Park. “And I think that struggle back and forth is appropriate. It’s something that we have to do. We have to look at what is the interest of the board in terms of the vision and then we work with the executives to have that executed. So I don’t have any issues in my mind or concerns.”

“As David Hume said, ‘Truth springs from arguments among friends,’” Starr said, paraphrasing slightly the 18th-century Scottish philosopher. “And in order to do this work well you have to be honest and you have to be engaged in discussing really, really difficult issues. And that’s healthy, as far as I’m concerned.”