Dear Editor:
After a career dedicated to K-12 students and public education in Osceola County, our Superintendent Dr. Debra Pace has just retired. We first got to know each other back in 2002 when she was an Assistant Principal working for then-Poinciana High School Principal Mike Brizindine.
Not long after we first met, she got promoted to principal, and we were there together after hurricanes Charley, Frances and Jeanne wreaked havoc at PHS. The storms peeled the gym and cafeteria roof open like a sardine can with rolled metal. That first day of student classes after the storms meant new schedules, and instead of meals in the cafeteria, students ate under a big tent — affectionately referred to as “under the big top.”
Soon Dr. Pace got the job as Principal at Harmony High School, which made life easier for her because the Pace family lived much closer to Harmony than Poinciana. While she was at Harmony, the school board was giving serious consideration to a comprehensive K-12 school uniform policy. In 2007 we both attended a Christmas high school basketball tournament, and she chewed me out big time at it about her opposition to school uniforms — a most memorable conversation.
When Dr. Mike Grego became Osceola superintendent, he promptly promoted Dr. Pace to Deputy Superintendent. Before Dr. Grego arrived, our schools struggled with academic performance. Together, they increased our academic performance and had all our high Schools as either an A or B grade.
In 2011 we had some horrible school board members who ran Dr. Grego off. He was appointed Pinellas County Schools’ superintendent, and we had a mass exodus of talented educational leaders due to toxic school board members. Dr. Pace was part of that mass exodus and went to Brevard County Schools.
After the 2012 and 2014 School Board elections we got four new board members. The new makeup of that board was laser focused on academic performance. Soon after, our superintendent Melba Luciano announced she would be retiring. The Board did an exhaustive search, and Dr. Pace was clearly the top choice for a bunch of reasons.
The one thing that stood out most once she started was her confronting conflicts head-on, instead of passing difficult situations to others. District staff all raised their performance level. This still is among the best examples of leadership I have ever seen, and I had a front row seat.
This is not to say that Dr. Pace was a perfect superintendent. We had our differences. She would often say to me when we had differences: “Don’t you trust me?” My reply was always, “Of course I trust you, or I would not have hired you,” followed by, “Even people I trust aren’t right 100% of the time, and part of my job is to keep you from making a mistake.”
Over the past 20 years our families have become friends. Debra, Pete, and their kids are world-class human beings. Being able to hire Debra back as superintendent in 2016 turned out to be not just a great hire. More importantly, it was a blessing for our community making a positive impact on tens of thousands of our kids, and their families.
Thank you, Debra, for your dedication, hard work, and all you have done to make dreams become reality for so many students. Enjoy your retirement. (Side note: I let her know in six months she will be bored — let’s all hope so! She has a lot left in the tank!).
Jay Wheeler, Kissimmee
Former Osceola County district 1 School Board
