TAMPA, Fla. — The Hillsborough County School Board has made it official after voting unanimously to offer a one-year contract to administrator Van Ayres — who now takes over as the interim superintendent at the district's schools.
Outgoing Superintendent Addison Davis recommended Ayres for the job.
A short time after the school board awarded Ayres the contract, the 48-year-old spoke about the road ahead in some familiar surroundings, Jefferson High School.
That’s where Ayres graduated, later became Jefferson’s principal, and now the superintendent.
“Here I am now. It's a little bit surreal right now,” said Ayres. “I'm still in awe right now of all that's happening.”
Ayres also has the perspective of having been a chemistry teacher at Blake High School.
He’s the ultimate insider and has been instrumental in shaping several policies as the district's chief innovation officer and chief of strategic planning.
After 28 years with the district, “superintendent” is the title he hopes to keep.
“This is a job and an opportunity that I'm going to give 100% of my full attention to,” said Ayres. “This is a job that I want. And over this next year, I will leave this district like it's going to be mine for the next 10 years.”
Ayres is an innovator with plenty of ideas, but until the school board decides whether to make his position permanent beyond the one-year deal, he intends to follow the five-year strategic plan he helped shape.
“We're year two of a five-year plan,” said Ayres. “Now it's my responsibility, with my team, about how we are going to meet certain goals.”
Ayres says it takes a team to succeed.
At Jefferson High School, where he played baseball, trophies still bear his name.
To this day, he’s an avid long-distance runner. It’s a passion, says Ayres, that keeps things in perspective.
“I find how much better I'm able to think and process things. It just really helps me. I can't do without it,” he said. “And I think there's a competitive drive within me that I think it's going to be good in the job that I have now.”
School board members had originally planned to offer Ayres a six-month contract but ultimately extended that to a year. That gives him enough time to deal with some of the major boundary changes ahead in Hillsborough County schools.
It also gives board members more time to assess his performance as well as decide whether to conduct an outside search for the next superintendent.
Ayres will be paid the same salary as Davis, $310,000 for the year.
The contract was originally structured to start July 15, the day after Davis' resignation takes effect, but board members voted to make the agreement with Ayres effective immediately after he said he was ready now to transition into the leadership role.