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Defense schools chief to retire June 30

After nearly eight years at the helm of the Defense Department’s school system, Joe Tafoya has announced his retirement from federal service.

Tafoya, who made the announcement Friday at the meeting of the Advisory Council on Dependents’ Education in Tokyo, has served as the director of the Department of Defense Education Activity since September 2000. His last day will be June 30.

But he began his career with the school system in October 1999 as deputy director of DoDEA in charge of the Domestic Dependent Elementary and Secondary Schools (DDESS).

“He really re-established a trust between DoDEA, military leadership and advocates like us,” said Joyce Raezer, chief operating officer of the National Military Family Association. “He reached out to military leaders, families and advocates to restore trust, and that was huge.

“He also brought the civilian educator’s perspective to a system that had become a little isolated. That’s important because so many of our children come into DoDEA schools from civilian districts, and then leave DoDEA to go back into civilian districts.”

Tafoya encouraged educators to become more accountable to their communities, Raezer said.

“They became more open to leaders and families, and that was very important as we went to war,” she said.

Raezer said the first few years in which she worked on military families’ issues with the Defense Department schools, prior to Tafoya’s tenure, “were so tumultuous.”

But since Tafoya became director, she said, DoDEA has handled the issues well because of his relationship with the community.

“We still hear concerns from families about the quality of education, but nothing like what we heard before,” she said. “Joe put into place a system to address concerns to keep them from escalating.”

Students in the DDESS schools and the overseas Department of Defense Dependent Schools consistently score at or near the top of the charts on national tests compared with their peers in the 50 states.

In his announcement, Tafoya cited two factors that set DoDEA apart from other school districts.

“The first is the support of military commanders and parents,” he said. “The military values continued learning to accomplish the mission, and that priority is incorporated into military family life.”

The other is the commitment of DoDEA staff around the globe.

“During most of my tenure, our students and families have been faced with deployments, the Global War on Terrorism, and military transformation,” he said. “Our staffs at our schools, districts, areas, and headquarters know what our students and families are facing and they are extremely dedicated to providing a quality education, and a caring, concerned learning environment.

“You can’t help but be on a military base and feel a special tie to students and families and appreciate the sacrifices they make every day for the rest of us.”

Tafoya said he felt the most important accomplishments during his tenure were in standardizing, unifying and solidifying the school system’s approach and mission.

“We were able to develop and implement common staffing standards, curriculum initiatives, and most recently bring a common approach to planning and programming our budget process,” he said. “We’ve employed strong academic standards, consistency of instruction and we’ve experienced an even greater level of command support.”

School officials said Tafoya will return to the West Coast and his family, but information was not immediately available about his specific future plans.

Tafoya began his career as an educator in 1969 with the San Diego City Schools, and worked as an educator in California before coming to DoDEA.