180-degree shift for new school chief

Come July 1, Chris Augusta-Scott will not only change jobs, she will also change scenes.

That's when the Nova Scotia-born educator will leave her job as superintendent of the Norfolk public schools, a small, rural school district where 95 percent of students are white, to become the education chief in Lowell, a large, urban system where the majority of students are non-whites.

For five years, 41-year-old Augusta-Scott, who lives in Cambridge, has led the high-achieving Norfolk school district in this scenic Republican hamlet that some affectionately call horse country. But now the former principal of schools in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Cambridge says she is ready to get back to her roots in urban education.

The Lowell school system has often struggled with state test scores. Two-thirds of its students are classified as economically disadvantaged, and the high school dropout rate is well above the state average. But Augusta-Scott, who used to teach first grade, says she welcomes the challenge of helping students overcome such obstacles.

"All of those reasons . . . are why I want to go to Lowell," she said in a recent interview. "That is the attraction - to work with families who want the best for their kids and deserve the best for their kids. It's a calling. It's not just work."

The Lowell School Committee voted, 4 to 2, in March to appoint Augusta-Scott to replace Superintendent Karla Brooks Baehr. Committee members Dave Conway and Regina Faticanti voted for Wendy Jack, the director of curriculum and instruction at Lowell High School, for the job, but later switched their vote, making the appointment unanimous.

Augusta-Scott bested a field that began with 21 candidates.

Richard Howe, a local blogger who followed the selection process and posted updates on YouTube, said Augusta-Scott was impressive and came across as committed to urban education. "It's quite an accomplishment to go from a district she's coming from to a place like Lowell. It usually takes two or more steps," said Howe.

In Norfolk, Augusta-Scott led a district of 1,100 students in kindergarten through sixth grade. She oversaw a staff of 84 teachers and typically had no students with limited English proficiency.

Still, she said, she was forced to "wear many different hats." That's because she lacked the midlevel administrators and technology infrastructure found in larger districts. As Norfolk superintendent, she had to learn details of school finance because she did not have a business manager.

"I'm not an accountant, but Norfolk gave me this opportunity," she said. "I learned a lot."

In Lowell, Augusta-Scott will head a district that has some 13,500 students and is trying to raise its 69 percent high school graduation rate. (The state's average graduation rate in 2006-2007 was 80.9 percent.) It has nearly 1,100 teachers, and 30 percent of its students are labeled limited English proficient under the federal No Child Left Behind law.

The vast difference in size between the Norfolk and Lowell systems gave some School Committee members pause.

Conway, a critic of Baehr, said despite his initial support for another candidate, he fully supports Augusta-Scott and was impressed by the way she handled herself as an administrator. He said he was also impressed with her promises to reach out to the community for input and build partnerships with surrounding universities.

Augusta-Scott said she is not ready to unveil details of any changes for the district. Her immediate goal, she said, is to move to Lowell and show residents that she is really the one for them.

She said the thoughts that keep her up at night are whether she can navigate the politics of the job, and she fears that the politics could overtake the reason she got into the business in the first place - helping youngsters learn.

Howe said he believes Augusta-Scott will be able to swim through the rough political waters of Lowell. But he said she should expect to face some resistance.

"Confrontations are inevitable in Lowell. There are a lot of competing interests," he said. "But she can't do her job by pleasing everybody."

Russell Contreras can be reached at rcontreras@globe.com.