Pat Harvey, who as St. Paul Public Schools superintendent demanded better of low-performing schools at the start of the No Child Left Behind-era of test-based accountability, died Feb. 24 in Alexandria, Va., at age 72.
Harvey in 1999 became the district’s first female African-American superintendent, recruited out of Chicago Public Schools, where she was a teacher, principal and accountability chief.
Her first year in St. Paul, she angered teachers by placing 11 schools on “academic probation” for low test scores.
“She felt that we needed to stop sweeping underperforming schools under the rug, and she wanted to encourage people to do better,” said Yusef Mgeni, who was Harvey’s director of educational equity.
Kent Pekel, who was Harvey’s research director, said she valued public input and empowered parents to influence decisions at their schools. However, she would remind her senior staff that they are “the education experts” and should act like it.
A major focus was elevating the teaching profession. Pekel recalled carefully planned teacher training sessions with tablecloths and flowers that sent the message: “This is a serious endeavor.”
Harvey lit a fire, Pekel said, and teachers “just rose to the challenge.”
Harvey dressed loudly and drove a Jaguar with vanity plates, but she did not crave the limelight, instead relying on a strong team of administrators.
“She was so good at delegating and yet accepting the ultimate responsibility,” said John Brodrick, who first was elected to the school board during Harvey’s tenure.
“She was on the cutting edge of all the latest educational reform … (and) she knew how to apply it to kids,” Brodrick said.
Mgeni said Harvey was quiet but effective and “a genuinely authentic human being.”
“She respected people without regard to their status, real or imagined. And she was very comfortable in the halls of power or in the public housing projects,” he said.
Facing major budget deficits, Harvey won the support of the city’s mayor and chamber of commerce in 2000 to pass a property tax referendum.
Two years later, the school board pushed through a second tax increase while Harvey stood on the sidelines, unwilling to alienate seniors and business leaders.
Despite public and board support, she left the job in 2005 for a year at the University of Minnesota, then went to work for the National Center on Education and the Economy in Washington D.C.
“I think it’s fair to say she’s the last truly extraordinary urban school leader that Minnesota has had,” Pekel said.
David Geary, her friend and chiropractor, recalled Harvey sticking around in his waiting room for 20 minutes or so to read with a young girl whose mother was a new patient.
“Despite her position that she was in, that never kept her from connecting with kids,” he said. “She was very special.”
Harvey died from multiple sclerosis, according to her niece, Kimberly G. Jackson, who calls Harvey her role model and favorite aunt.
“It was like being with a rock star,” she said.
Jackson called Harvey patient but firm and someone who listened but always had a recommendation.
“I’m an attorney because of her,” she said. “I have a daughter with Asperger’s, and my aunt gave me the strength to educate her.”
Jackson said that after leaving St. Paul, Harvey decorated her office with photos of the city’s diverse student population.
“She loved everything about that time period,” she said.
Family members held a memorial service over videoconference on Sunday but hope to have another ceremony once the threat of COVID-19 wanes. Harvey was preceded in death by her husband, Fred Hiller, and had no children.