The political spotlight that is usually focused on the Inglewood City Council might just be toned down in the coming weeks as Gary McHenry, the new superintendent of the Inglewood School District, begins his tenure.

Appointed to a three-and-a-half year contract last November, McHenry, former superintendent of Mount Diablo Unified School District in suburban San Francisco, replaced interim superintendent Joice B. Lewis, who was appointed following the November 2008 termination of Pamela Short-Powell.

Even before McHenry took his post just after Jan. 1, critical — and anonymous — voices posted messages on wavenewspapers.com in response to his appointment.

One suggested that McHenry created animosity between the MDUSD board, the administration and the unions; while another said he forced hundreds of teachers to leave and hired unqualified family members.

However, current MDUSD President Paul Strange, who has been on the board four years, contradicted those claims.

Reached by phone Tuesday morning, Strange said McHenry was an accomplished superintendent and said that his departure “happened with the election of the last board member. I would just say it was time for a change. But I think he did a lot of great things.”

In his first interview since assuming the new post, McHenry dismissed the chatter and said he preferred to highlight what he sees as credible achievement, why he took the Inglewood job, the challenges ahead and his guiding philosophy as an educator.

According to a local Mount Diablo news report it said you resigned because of lack of support from the school board. Is that true and how do you address those accusations — albeit anonymous — of being a divisive figure and hiring unqualified family members?

The issue is that I was superintendent there for 10 years and there was a change in the board and they wanted to get another superintendent so I agreed to leave and look for another job. As for the other remarks, I’m not going to talk about that. The agreement I made when I left is that I would seek another job. I have nothing to say regards the governing board or any employee. I think you need to do your investigations there. That’s not a question I can respond to. But the fact is I remained in the job for 10 years. If there was anything wrong with my performance I would not have remained that long. The point is I have put Mount Diablo behind me. There was a board election, [and] they wanted to go in a different direction. They would have to tell you why.

What were your achievements there?

Well, student achievement pretty much went up every year. We built one school and passed a school bond that did $400 million worth of modernization over a five year period. Test scores went up. I believe we had 16 elementary schools out of 30 over 800, five out of 10 middle schools and one out of six high schools, by the time I left. During the time I was there we were also 46 out of 46 on the federal criteria for adequate standards.

Why did you want the Inglewood job?

The way it works is that when you are looking for a job you look for one that is available. So once I looked into what was happening here, I felt my background and skill set would be a good fit for what was needed. That is someone who has a proven track record in bringing about positive change in a school district.

What similarities are there between the two districts and how in particular can you arrest declining enrollment?

Well, firstly public school enrollment is declining throughout the state. But generally, it depends on the reasons. If people are having fewer children, there isn’t anything I can do about that. If people are choosing not to send their kids to the district, then the thing is to improve programs so that they do want to. If you look at the data, most of the children coming into the [state] system are the children of immigrants. In Mount Diablo in an eight year period, the Latino student population went from 19 to 31 percent. In Inglewood the student population is 99 percent Hispanic and African-American.

So will that be one of your first priorities?

The first thing I am going to do is a more thorough review of what the patterns are over the last few years and over the coming days, weeks and months I’ll be talking to as many people as I can to better understand what has happened in Inglewood. In terms of an action plan, that will be developed based on what I find.

What is your guiding philosophy of education?

A good school system has to establish what I call the conditions for success. The first things you need are good teachers, a good curriculum and staff development for teachers so that they can do their best work. Secondly, you need student support; academic and social. If a student doesn’t get the lesson the first time, they may need tutoring. They may have other issues that interfere with their life’s circumstances, for instance health issues. I’m talking about if they need to get a hearing aid or glasses. If you can get them those things, suddenly the world is a lot brighter. Thirdly, you need parental, community and agency involvement and the schools need to be safe. Because if they are not, kids don’t want to go there, parents don’t want to send them and employees don’t want to come to work. Fourth, I think you need a comprehensive assessment system, not just on test scores. You have to assess everyone’s work. To get results you need the best employees in the right positions. People need to know where they are going to work, what time they are supposed to start and have the essential equipment and supplies to do that work. Lastly, you need strong leadership. If you have those things you’re going to have a pretty good school system, if not it just won’t fare as well.

How will the state’s budget crisis affect the district?

That’s what school districts have faced in the last six years. If we do our part and create a system and then develop a budget for resources, we’re told in December we thought we were going to give you $100, but now it’s only $90. Unless that is reversed it’s going to make it harder for us to be effective. The impact on IUSD is that we’re losing about $15 million a year. In fact, tonight we’re going to start with a budget study session right here in my office. I’ll be talking with the board about the process for budget cuts and we’ve identified that we need to cut about $4 million. If you take an average salary of $50,000, to balance the budget that means about 80 positions, probably 60 percent of those will be teachers. Cutting those positions is not my decision, which will be left up to the board, but I have to come up with a plan.

Are you in favor of increasing teacher salaries?

Yes, I think teachers should be well compensated. I think that goes for all employees, but it’s all about the funding. I’d certainly be in favor of improving the compensation as best we could but that’s not going to happen in the next year or two because of cuts to the budget.

Inglewood has had its fair share of drama with both former superintendent Short-Powell and former legal counsel, Adrienne Konigar-Macklin suing the district. How will you navigate the politics of the position?

I don’t know enough to answer that. That’s something to do with the board and those former employees.

What do you hope to have achieved in your time here?

Well, I would hope to have stability in teaching and the administration. I would also hope to change things where there is a high expectation and culture of excellence. Whatever your job is you are focused on doing your best work. If you’re a custodian, your school is always clean; if you’re a gardener, the grass is always cut; if you’re in maintenance, you fix things as soon as they are broke; a teacher makes sure that everybody learns the lesson. In the next three-and-a-half years, I want to see a system that responds better to our clients, the students and parents. Because I think if that happens, perhaps people who’ve elected to send there kids elsewhere might want to come back.