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GREENSBORO — In a few short weeks, he’ll start over at a new school.

For the past three weeks, he has spent his time getting to know strangers in an academic setting, rubbing elbows and forging friendships with Guilford County’s best and brightest.

So it’s been for Maurice “Mo” Green, who held a news conference Friday afternoon, the day after his appointment as the new superintendent of Guilford County Schools.

And so it’s been for 14-year-old Luis Suarec, who spent his Friday afternoon 10 miles away, waiting for a ride home from the last day of Academic All-Star Camp at Northern Guilford High.

Luis, his T-shirt and both bare arms covered with hand-written messages and signatures from his new friends, said he hadn’t heard about the Guilford County Board of Education’s 7-4 vote to hire Green. The teen shook his shaggy head when he learned the new school chief holds a law degree but has no teaching experience.

“He’s never taught a class? Really?” said Luis, a rising freshman at High Point Central. “That’s bad. I guess he’s got a lot to learn.”

Funny, but that’s what Green said about himself when he spoke to the standing room only crowd at his news conference Friday afternoon.

Green is leaving his post as deputy superintendent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools to take the top job in Guilford. He will earn a base $250,000 salary to oversee 72,000 students and 10,000 employees at 120 schools.

“When I started out in my professional career, I had no idea I’d end up in a position like this,” Green said. “I still think of myself as a lawyer.”

He replaces Terry Grier, who held the job for eight years. Grier left in February to become superintendent in San Diego, Calif.

Green said he plans to start his new job by traveling the school district on a learning and listening tour.

He said he’ll focus on three questions: Is it child-centered? How can we be united? How can we be excellent?

Those are questions the teachers union seems eager to answer.

“Listening, seeking input and having many voices at the table seems like a simple thing,” said Mark Jewell, president of the Guilford County Association of Educators. “But that’s been a missing component in both past administrations. We cannot move forward in a top-down school district. We need to work more collaboratively.”

Jewell said he and other teachers were skeptical of Green’s lack of an education background — until they heard from other teachers.

“We did some research on our own with our colleagues in Charlotte-Meck,” Jewell said. “They had a positive, collaborative relationship working with him. Their only concern was who was going to replace him there? He was the go-to person for many teachers in the school district. He more or less was the one in charge of directing the … collaboration between school employees and school (administration).”

Jamall Hamlin, a 17-year-old rising senior at the Middle College at GTCC, said he saw Green’s law background as a positive.

“I’d heard about him, and I wanted to come see for myself,” Hamlin said. “I think he’ll be a good superintendent. His answers to people’s questions and the way he acts — you can just tell he knows what he’s talking about.”
Nearby, 11-year-old Joshua Lewis seemed thrilled to shake the new boss’ hand. Joshua, who starts at Aycock Middle in the fall, doesn’t mind that Green has never been a teacher. “I don’t think it really matters much,” Joshua said. “He’s a leader.”

Karen Siler, Joshua’s mother and a PTA volunteer, brought her son to meet Green. She came away impressed.

“I think his history outweighs the actual training,” Siler said. “His history within the Charlotte-Meck district is more important than if he ever stood in front of a classroom. I know that’s not the tradition, but traditions are made to be broken if he can bring about a good change.”

Contact Jeff Mills at 373-7024 or jeff.mills@news-record.com