Supt. of Schools' Finalist to be Hired Tonight

The Board of Education is scheduled tonight to officially hire David Title as Fairfield's new superintendent of schools after a closed-door meeting that begins at 8 p.m. in Roger Ludlowe Middle School, 689 Unquowa Road.

Title, currently the superintendent of schools in Bloomfield, is the only finalist for the superintendent of schools' job in Fairfield, and would begin as Fairfield's schools' chief on July 1. Title is scheduled to meet with parents tonight in the auditorium of Roger Ludlowe Middle School from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Title would replace Supt. of Schools Ann Clark, who is retiring June 30 after eight years leading Fairfield's school district, which includes 16 public schools and 10,058 public school students.

Title, who received praise from Bloomfield Board of Education members in phone interviews last week, won the 2010 Connecticut Superintendent of the Year award, and he met Tuesday morning with a handful of elected officials, parents and town employees in a conference room at the Education Center, 501 Kings Highway East.

Jerry Kuroghlian, a high school teacher in neighboring Westport for 43 years and a member of the building committee that opened Fairfield Ludlowe High School and renovated Fairfield Warde High School, said Clark was a great superintendent of schools, and he thought Title would be also.

"Fairfield's had a great run under Ann Clark, and I think this guy is going to be equally good, if not better," Kuroghlian said during Title's meet-and-greet with parents and elected officials Tuesday morning.

Title said Bloomfield's school district differed from Fairfield's in that Bloomfield's district has about 2,400 children and its minority percentage is about 95 percent. Fairfield's school district has more than 10,000 students and the vast majority of its students are white.

Title said his Superintendent of the Year award was a credit to the entire school district in Bloomfield and that his tenure saw the opening of two magnet schools - a preschool and a high school - and improved student performance, which led the state to remove Bloomfield from its priority school list. He said Bloomfield residents also agreed to fund renovations at all of its school buildings and that art and music programs in the schools were expanded during his tenure.

Shirley Thompson, a Board of Education member in Bloomfield, said last week that Title, 52, did a great job in her town and that she hated to see him go. "He has done an excellent job here...We hate to see him go, but Fairfield's gain is our loss," she said.

Thompson said Bloomfield's public schools were in disrepair when Title was hired there in 2002 and that one of his accomplishments was in building support for repairs to the schools at an overall cost of $96.8 million. "They never had repairs since the '60s, when they were built," she said.

Thompson said Title also started a magnet preschool in Bloomfield this year that draws students from Simsbury, East Granby, Granby, Farmington, West Hartford and Bloomfield. "That was Dr. Title's idea," Thompson said.

Richard Dale, Jr., also a Board of Education member in Bloomfield, said Title revised and formalized the curriculum in Bloomfield schools and improved students' performance on state standardized tests; increased teacher retention in Bloomfield; built support among students and parents for a dress code to end the "clothes competition" among students; put forward a 0 percent budget increase this year despite contractual raises of 3.5 percent for teachers; and was a collegial manager who won the trust of teachers and administrators in Bloomfield's school district.

The dress code started in the elementary schools and then moved to the middle school and high school. "Last year, 98 percent of high school students adopted the dress code...98 percent of high school students agreeing to adopt the dress code is incredible. Throughout this year, there have been six violations," Dale said.

Dale said one of the teachers in Bloomfield broke down in tears when she learned Title was leaving. "We're very upset with Fairfield for stealing him," Dale said.

Title, if he's hired by the Fairfield Board of Education, and it appears a near-certainty he will be, will be leading a much larger school district than he did in Bloomfield.

Thompson said Bloomfield's school district has three public elementary schools, but one is scheduled to close before the 2011-12 school year due to declining enrollment; one middle school that has grades 5 through 8, and one high school. Bloomfield also has a magnet high school that has about 70 students from Bloomfield and surrounding towns.

The number of students, including the preschool, totals about 2,450, Dale said.

By contrast, Fairfield has 11 public elementary schools, three middle schools and two high schools and its enrollment, including public preschool programs, is 10,058.

Sue Brand, chairman of Fairfield's Board of Education, said the board was "delighted to have a candidate that is so well qualified to be our next superintendent" and that school board members "look forward to having the community and school staff meet Dr. Title before a final decision is reached."

Title was named Connecticut Superintendent of the Year in 2010 by the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents and is a six-time winner of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education's Excellence in Education Communications award. He also received the University of Connecticut's Alumni Association's Excellence in Teaching Award.

Title has a doctorate of administration in Planning and Social Policy from Harvard University and a master's degree in Educational Administration, also from Harvard University. He received a bachelor of arts degree in History from Dartmouth College, with a minor in Education.

Title has made presentations to the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education; Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents; and American Association of School Personnel Administrators. He also has written articles in the Connecticut Journal of Educational Leadership.

After Clark announced her retirement, the Fairfield Board of Education hired Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates, a national superintendent of schools' search firm, to find candidates to replace Clark.

Dale said Fairfield's Board of Education heard nothing but praise when its members came to Bloomfield to talk with Bloomfield Board of Education members about Title.

Dale said the job of superintendent of schools in Fairfield would be challenging, but he expected Title to do well. "David's perfectly capable of taking the best and the brightest and asking them to do more," Dale said.