Booker leaves York a better place for kids

By Andrew Dys - The Herald

YORK -- The thuds heard in York on Thursday started with footfalls in the cold dark. Runners, neighbors, two guys thumping and huffing for more than 6 miles. One black and one white, and it sure made no difference to either one of them.

More thuds were heard later Thursday, not feet now but hearts dropping, as people from Smyrna to York in western York County saw the front page of The Herald and found out Russell Booker is leaving.

Booker is more than the superintendent of the York school district for the past three years. He is more than the first black superintendent in York.

Russell Booker is respected in York. Russell Booker is loved in York.

"To me, in this area, in York, Russell Booker is our Barack Obama," said York City Council member Charles Johnson. "This man is incredible. He is an exceptional man who has been a part of almost everything we have tried to do here in York. He is a man for all students and all people. He is inspiring."

Booker, in three years running the schools, has increased people's optimism. Students did better, and parents expected more.

He met with the NAACP and promised greater accessibility for black parents and achievement by black students, and then he delivered. He was in the school buildings often, shank-to-shank with teachers eating off cafeteria trays, hearing their concerns. Or reading to students.

He instituted programs including literacy coaches, and he demanded staff learn the latest, newest and best research and methods to reach all children.

"A hands-on leader who was right there with us," said Elizabeth Bridges, a literacy coach at Harold C. Johnson Middle School. "He didn't tell us to plan a district instructional fair, he sat down with us and helped plan it and make it work. He inspired us."

Then there is Booker the community activist and leader. When St. John Baptist Church in Sharon held a community forum on ways to make sure black males achieve, Booker sat on the panel demanding action and accountability by parents and the community.

When York reeled from a shooting on California Street and community leaders followed with a youth forum to calm a roiled population, Booker was front and center with his sleeves rolled up.

He went to tractor shows in Hickory Grove and meetings of black ministers in York. He was a member at meetings of an almost all-white Rotary Club and an almost all-black Optimist Club.

Russell Booker dove into York like it was a swimming pool and he was its lifeguard. He pulled the community upward to breathe.

"This community, and the parents and children who make up this community no matter what color they are, how much money they have, owe Russell Booker thanks," said Steve Love, president of the Western York County chapter of the NAACP. "He reached into all communities. He was accessible. He listened. He changed the mindset of people."

Nobody fought harder to hire Booker in 2005 than Betty Johnson, the lone black school board member in York. Johnson staked all her political clout on Booker. Johnson was not disappointed.

Nobody was.

"He brought us a long way," Johnson said. "Many people, black and white, have told school board members since then that we made a good choice. He was a positive influence on so many people, so many students. He cares about everybody."

One of the runners three mornings a week in York is Dan Hall, a longtime York County prosecutor and York city judge. Hall also is a parent of four kids who went through York schools. Hall said of Booker, who is the other runner: "York is losing an exceptional leader."

"The highest integrity, a fine man, a person who knows the smallest details add up to a successful big picture," Hall said of Booker. "Russell is a man who earned the respect of all."

In just three short years, Booker came to a new school district and made a difference. Every time test scores would be released, Booker would say that if gains were made, he wasn't satisfied. He wanted better. He wanted York's students to dare to be great.

"I expect the best," Booker said Thursday, after what he called a "whirlwind 24 hours" since word started to get out he was leaving in June for a big job his native Spartanburg.

"I fell in love with this community. You can't separate the school superintendent job from the community. I found a great place here. It is not easy to leave it."

But you can see one thing clearly in the west. In the schools, in the communities that include city, like York, and rural, like Hickory Grove, in the neighborhood where people run in the cold dark, it is clear Booker leaves a huge mark that will be measured in the dreams, and hopes, of little kids who dare to be great.