Join Us in Welcoming the New Chief Executive Officer of Prince George’s County Public Schools
Dear Prince Georgians,
As you know, over the last few months, the County has been conducting a thorough and comprehensive national search for the next Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) system. After a thorough process, the search committee presented us with three outstanding finalists to interview, and today, I am proud to announce that I have selected Mr. Millard House II to be our next PGCPS CEO. Mr. House is eminently qualified, coming to us with over two decades of leadership experience. He has a well-rounded background that makes him the perfect fit for our school system.
We conducted our search based on the process dictated by Maryland State law, which included a search firm and a search committee. In March, we selected a national search firm, Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates, to assist with this search process. Following that, a three-member search committee was formed in accordance with State law. Our search committee included two County residents, who were selected by the Governor, and one member of the State Board of Education, who was appointed by the State Superintendent. The members of our search committee were Brigadier General Warner Sumpter, a member of the State Board of Education; Oretha Bridgewater-Simms, a retired educator; and Candace Hollingsworth, a parent within our school system. We want to thank each of them for the hard work and time they dedicated to this process.
Our search firm conducted focus groups, interviews, and surveys to engage the community and gather feedback during the search and decision-making process. Our countywide online survey received responses from more than 5,400 community members and stakeholders, with the majority of the survey responses coming from PGCPS staff, followed by students, then parents. Their responses told us that the ideal CEO candidate is courageous, innovative, a collaborative leader, and an outstanding communicator. They also wanted our new CEO to have the transparency, integrity, empathy, and determination necessary to succeed in this role. Our survey also showed that respondents believed our next CEO should possess experience in kindergarten through twelfth grade instructional and administrative leadership, as well as have a passion for student success in all areas of growth and development and the ability to create and foster a safe and open learning environment for our youth.
Our search committee worked to interview numerous candidates for the position, and in accordance with State law, sent three finalists to me to interview for the CEO position. While all three of those finalists were outstanding candidates, I selected Mr. House because I believe he is the right person to continue leading our school system forward, and to ensure the number one priority of our school system is the education of our children.
Since 2021, Mr. House has served as the Superintendent of the Houston Independent School District (HISD) in Houston, Texas, where his leadership has produced outstanding results. He has had tremendous success in leading HISD, which is a school system that is similar to ours and has a diverse population similar to what we have here in Prince George’s County. As HISD Superintendent, Mr. House supervised 275 schools with 25,000 staff and 200,000 students, and worked with a $2 billion annual budget.
Mr. House has successfully implemented programs that closed the achievement gap. During his tenure with HISD, Mr. House’s leadership resulted in 40 of 50 schools improving from a D or F rating to an A, B, or C rating, and currently, 94% of HISD schools have earned an A, B, or C rating, up from the 82% that earned this rating prior to his arrival. He also minimized classroom vacancies by increasing investment in recruitment strategies, especially in hard-to-fill areas, and creating comprehensive compensation plans that incentivized educators to commit to the district.
Prior to his work with HISD, Mr. House served as Superintendent of the Clarksville-Montgomery School System (CMCSS) in Clarksville, Tennessee. As Superintendent of CMCSS, his district topped the state in student academic achievement for four years in a row and he achieved an 88% retention rate for certified employees. In addition, he developed the first multi-pronged “Grow Your Own” Initiative pipeline to expand and diversify the pool of future teachers, created the only elementary Spanish immersion school in the state, and developed an early college technical trade high school and a three-year bachelor’s degree program for high performing classified employees and graduating seniors that helped build a strong and diverse internal pipeline for teaching positions. Mr. House also enhanced green technology through a propane bus fleet expansion and equipped school buses with internet connection. Under his leadership, CMCSS also became one of the first school districts in the nation to partner with Google.
Mr. House also has experience with day-to-day operations, previously serving as Chief Operating Officer of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School System in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he oversaw facilities management, bus transportation, business operations, curriculum, as well as other administrative details. He also has experience tackling deficits and balancing budgets. In addition, Mr. House spent nearly 10 years as a teacher and a principal for Tulsa Public Schools in Tulsa, Oklahoma, eventually going on to serve as the Associate Deputy Superintendent and Deputy Superintendent. He has fully experienced the everyday classroom role and has been in the shoes of our teachers.
Mr. House has a unique view of what it’s like for parents and for schoolchildren, growing up as the son of two educators. As a student himself, he worked hard to overcome challenges including dyslexia, so he understands the struggles our children may be going through. He knows what a safe and nurturing learning environment should feel like. As a parent, Mr. House’s own children were virtual learners during the COVID-19 pandemic, so while he was working to keep the students in his district safe, he also knew what parents were dealing with as well as administrators and teachers, who were all navigating a challenging time.
All of these experiences have helped shape Mr. House into the person that we believe is right for this role. They help him to see the many similarities that our school system shares with other systems that he has led, and he can tackle the challenges we face from a fresh point of view. Mr. House’s experiences have also informed the thinking of a leader who knows he cannot do this work alone. He has a track record of working well with others, from education boards to community stakeholders and elected officials. Mr. House is willing to reach out to other superintendents to seek advice and support and has experience with managing growth. He is a talented recruiter who knows how to keep team members happy and motivated and how to cultivate good talent. In addition, Mr. House knows that parents have a voice, and that they must be partners in order for our children to succeed.
Mr. House holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Montevallo in Montevallo, Alabama and a Master of Education in School Administration from Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. In addition, he is a graduate of the Fisher School Leadership Program at the University of California at Berkeley’s Hass School of Business in Berkeley, California. Mr. House holds a Superintendent Certification in Oklahoma and Tennessee and has served on numerous boards, including the Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents and the Texas Urban Council of Superintendents. He has also received numerous accolades, including being recognized as the Oklahoma Magazine’s 40 Leaders Under the Age of 40, Tulsa Area Association Black School Educators’ Outstanding Administrator, Tulsa Public Schools’ Administrator of the Year, and was nominated for Tennessee mid-Cumberland Superintendent of the Year in 2020 and 2021.
With his background and expertise, we believe that Mr. House is the confident and capable leader we need to keep us moving in the right direction. He has an existing relationship with our outgoing CEO Dr. Monica Goldson through Chiefs for Change, a network of state and district education leaders working on education issues, and together, they have put together a succession plan that will ease the passing of the torch and help smooth the transition. The most sacred obligation we have in government is the education of our children. As we move through this transition process, I’m asking everyone to please lend your support to Mr. House, so we can ensure the education of our children remains the primary focus of our school system.
We want to take a moment to thank Dr. Goldson once again for the outstanding job she has done leading our school system. She has been a strong leader through some incredibly difficult and unforeseen challenges, and she led with integrity and dignity. Under her leadership, our school system provided the most significant salary increase in a generation to employees. We broke ground on 10 new schools and expanded mental health services for students. Dr. Goldson met the unprecedented challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic with her own extraordinary response that had never been done before, shifting all of the County’s students in one of the nation’s largest school systems to a virtual learning format.
We know that both our outgoing CEO and our new CEO share a deep love for students and their well-being, and they both know that what truly counts is their growth and development. We saw that spirit in Dr. Goldson, and that same spirit came through when I met with Mr. House. He’s a determined, motivated, and caring leader. He wants our children to win, and he has a fresh perspective on how to tap into the greatness we have here in Prince George’s County.
Mr. House will begin his role with PGCPS on July 1, 2023. Please join us in welcoming him to Prince George’s County, and we look forward to working together with him to continue moving our school system forward.
Yours in service,
Angela Alsobrooks
Prince George’s County Executive
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