Gary school board member James Piggee, left, chats with Peggy Hinckley’s immediate support team Amy Marsh, center, and Paul Pastorek
Hinckley's team strong on charter schools and career readiness
Contributed By:The 411 News
Chief and deputy chief of staff are next in command to emergency manager
All eyes have been on Peggy Hinckley, a lead member of the MGT Consulting Group team named by the state of Indiana as emergency manager for the Gary school district and the state’s partner in its first ever takeover of an entire public school system. Named to the position by the state’s Distressed Unit Appeal Board on July 31, Hinckley, a Schererville resident was on the job the next day.
MGT is a national firm that works with corporate and governmental units. Gary’s emergency manager will take over the duties of School Supt. Cheryl Pruitt and the Board of School Trustees.
Making her first public appearance at Tuesday’s school board meeting, Hinckley said her focus has been to ensure the district’s schools are ready for students and teachers. School starts August 17.
She’s had meetings with Supt. Pruitt, Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson, school principals and their staffs, Gary’s police chief and parents. Bringing in temporary staff to help get schools clean, getting plumbing problems fixed and lawns mowed were among Hinckley’s priorities.
She introduced Paul Pastorek as her chief of staff and second in command, making it a point that “he is not to be confused with the Pastrick name from East Chicago." Robert Pastrick, East Chicago’s longest serving mayor who died last year, left office in 2004 amid a scandal and allegations of graft and corruption.
Pastorek “is a lot of things,” Hinckley said about the former Louisiana State Superintendent of Education from 2007 to 2011. Following Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of New Orleans in 2005, over 100 of the city’s failing public schools came under state supervision, absorbed into Louisiana’s Recovery School District. During his time as state superintendent, more of New Orleans public schools in the state-run district switched to charters.
According to the Cowen Institute for Public Education Initiatives, a think tank at Tulane University, in October 2010 “… 28,212 students, or 71 percent of all public school students in New Orleans, are enrolled in RSD schools. A record 69 percent of these students attend charter schools, a 26 percent increase from the previous year.” RSD charter schools also outperformed their traditional school counterparts.
Pastorek is also a lawyer. From 2002 to 2004, he was the general counsel to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, appointed by then U.S. President George W. Bush.
Pastorek resigned as Louisiana’s state superintendent in 2011 to become chief counsel and corporate secretary for EADS North America (the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company), now known as Airbus Group, Inc. He stepped down from Airbus in 2014, saying he would start a company that would advise on education policy.
In October 2015, The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation appointed Pastorek to lead the group’s efforts to expand charter schools in the Los Angeles, California Unified School District.
Amy Marsh is Hinckley’s deputy chief of staff. Marsh was most recently Director of Career Readiness for the Indiana Department of Workforce Development.
Previously, she was an independent consultant focusing on career pathways, school counseling, career and technical education and curriculum development. She has worked for the College Board (the company that administers the SAT) as a senior educational manager in the K-12 division. Marsh worked for the Indiana Department of Education as the state coordinator for advanced placement, international baccalaureate and dual credit and as the assistant director of college and career readiness.
Marsh has also been a school teacher, school counselor and director of high school counseling – all at Indianapolis schools.
Immediate duties for both, Marsh said, “… are providing support to Dr. Hinckley. Dr. Hinckley will generally direct matters as the Emergency Manager. However, from time to time, we receive instructions from her on matters that need to be addressed and we see to it that the appropriate person with the school corporation handles it.”
Story Posted:08/14/2017
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