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The Roanoke City Public Schools Superintendent has brought energy and experience to the job.
The toughest school year of everyone’s life was winding down.
Roanoke City Public Schools Superintendent Verletta White was determined to say “Thank you” to teachers and administrators and staff. So, over four days, she traveled by bus to every city school and program, delivering a goody box and hand-written note to thousands of RCPS employees.
“What I’ve learned is that people don’t quit jobs because of salary or because of the paperwork. People quit because they don’t feel appreciated and supported,” White explains. After months of school staff enduring changes and uncertainty, of learning new technology on the fly, of remaking every moment of the school day, White reasoned that personally sharing gratitude was the least she could do. “It would be a travesty to lose teachers because they don’t know how much we appreciate them.”
The outreach was one example of the energy, dedication and vision that has defined White’s first year as leader of Roanoke City’s schools.
She was hired in May 2020. Roanoke’s school board unanimously chose her from a field of 34 applicants.
Her first day on the job was July 1. She didn’t know if the Virginia Department of Education would permit in-person instruction for the upcoming school year. She didn’t know if teachers would feel safe in their classrooms or if parents would feel comfortable sending students to school.
What she did know was that she had a lot to learn about her new schools and her new city. So she set out on walking tours of each neighborhood. She scheduled three virtual town halls where parents could ask questions. Thousands of participants turned on their screens to see White’s warm smile, her easy-going manner and her office shelves filled with children’s books.
White says over the course of the year, she has heard loud and clear that “school is more than school.”
“School is also about kids meeting with their friends,” she says. “It’s about having us be able to recognize if something’s wrong.” White says she pushed hard to bring students back to the classroom “because we need to have our finger on the pulse of what they need. And it’s not just the academics, but it’s also that social-emotional side.”
White, 52, was born and raised in Baltimore. She attended Towson University and earned her masters at Notre Dame of Maryland University. She spent 25 years as a teacher, principal, assistant superintendent and interim superintendent of the Baltimore County school system, the 25th largest in the nation. She is currently completing her doctoral degree in urban educational leadership from Morgan State University in Baltimore.
“I’ve never known another home,” she says. “I never even went away to college.” But she has found a good fit in the Star City. “I love that Roanoke is my new home,” she says. “The people are as beautiful as the landscape.”
In a few ways, White’s year mirrored that of other area families. She adopted a pandemic puppy, a Shiba Inu named Mika. She’s spent hours walking the Roanoke River Greenway, as many local attractions were closed. And her youngest daughter virtually attended her freshman year of college from her bedroom.
White says she’s undaunted by the challenges the pandemic posed or the problems — catching up students that have fallen behind, creating a more equitable school system — that lie ahead.
“I love watching learning happen, and I love being in a position where I have influence over how that learning happens,” she says. “This is about being a servant leader and my service to children.” The need is so great right now, she says.
“What gets me up every day is that I have more to give.”
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