From the New York Times: Robert Spillane, Who Retooled Boston’s Schools, Dies at 80
Peter Baker, July 20, 2015
Robert R. Spillane, who helped revive Boston’s troubled schools as superintendent in the 1980s and went on to become one of the nation’s leading education innovators as head of a large suburban district outside Washington, died on Saturday in Boston. He was 80.
His wife, Geraldine Spillane, said he died from complications of pulmonary disease while being treated at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Over
a long career, Dr. Spillane was superintendent of five school
districts, including Glassboro, N.J.; Roosevelt, on Long Island; and New
Rochelle, N.Y. He was also a state deputy education commissioner for
New York and a runner-up for chancellor of the New York City schools in 1989. (Joseph A. Fernandez, of Miami-Dade County, got the job.)
As
superintendent of schools in Fairfax County, Va., just outside the
nation’s capital, Dr. Spillane received wide attention for pushing for
merit pay for teachers, longer school days for children and more
rigorous standards for both. President Ronald Reagan visited to praise
his work and President Bill Clinton went shortly after Dr. Spillane’s
departure to hail the district’s handling of immigrants and diversity.
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