The new guard: Brady set to take over as sparks fly

After two months as chief operating officer, he was named interim District leader, amid drama. He is eying the permanent job.

by Dale Mezzacappa

Thomas M. Brady

Thomas M. Brady, who was named by the School Reform Commission on May 16 to be the interim leader of the School District effective July 1, has had a baptism by fire, to say the least.

Not only did one commission member stalk out of the meeting in protest, but the mayor and governor – who both have great sway over District finances – issued a statement the next day blasting the SRC’s action.

None of that has stopped Brady, however, from wanting to fill the considerable shoes of Paul Vallas on a permanent basis. He took in stride the political drama that played out on the day of his appointment, a drama that exposed the strained relationship between SRC Chair James Nevels, installed by Republicans, and the Democratic mayor and governor. He said that he didn’t take it personally.

“It was unique, a surprise, but have I seen stranger?” said Brady at a session with reporters after the SRC meeting. “The world of K-12 education is a unique place.”

What’s more important to him, he said, were concerns expressed at the meeting that he is an unknown quantity in the city. “I have to reach out to people who said, ‘We don’t even know this guy, and make sure they do know me,’” he said.

Brady, 56, was appointed by the SRC just two months earlier to be the District’s chief operating officer (COO), plucked from the Washington, DC system, where he had been in a similar job since 2004. From 1999 to 2003 he was COO in the Fairfax County, VA schools, which his five children attended.

He decided to make school leadership his second career after 25 years in the Army. He retired in 1998 as a full colonel and commanding officer at Fort Belvoir, VA.

Ever since Vallas announced his intention to leave, Brady had been discussed as either his temporary or permanent replacement. Brady said that he is confident he’ll “be in the mix” as the SRC launches its national search for the next long-term leader of the District.

He told reporters that he and his wife, a nurse, have bought a house in the city and plan to stay. He also said that he doesn’t intend to put himself in the running for the CEO position in other school districts.

In 2004, before taking the DC job, he spent a year as a Broad Superintendents Academy fellow, a 10-month program that trains executives with backgrounds in the military, business, nonprofit organizations, government, and education to lead urban public school districts.

In Fairfax County, a diverse but mostly suburban district of about 70,000 students, he was president of his children’s high school parent-teacher association. The experience opened his eyes, he said.

“I guess I was the first male president and got to know the school administration,” he said. “It suddenly dawned on me, I thought I had a pretty tough job being a commander of a fairly large military post, and I saw the daily workings of the principal of a large secondary school and thought, this is pretty tough work, too. So I said, here’s an opportunity to try and make a difference.”

Son of a New York City cop, he attended parochial schools in Queens and then Niagara University, a Catholic institution. While not a professional educator, he said he had been certified to teach secondary education in New York before entering the army.