Formal interviews for Washoe County School District superintendent concluded Thursday morning with Maryland urban school district chief operating officer Lawrence Fryer, Jr.

Fryer currently oversees various departments, including planning and architecture services, maintenance, plant operations, transportation, food and nutrition services for Prince George’s County Public Schools in Upper Marlboro.

The majority of Fryer’s experience has been a series of jobs he took through the U.S. Marine Corps as a managing consultant and military education planner, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel, serving in Quantico, Va., Beaufort, S.C. and Okinawa, Japan. He earned medals of commendation, a Department of Defense Meritorious Service medal and was selected to attend the National Defense University for senior-level course of study in national security, a top honor for a Marine.

Some of the Board of Trustees’ questions and Fryer’s responses follow:

Trustee Barbara McLaury: As the new superintendent, you’re going to be evaluating many things when you come in and you’re going to have an entrance plan. What do you feel are the strengths and weaknesses of the district? Do you have an idea what to be looking for?

Fryer: I wouldn’t just come in and blow everything up. I’d want to look at what works for you. You’re doing lot of things. I’d meet with you all to determine your priorities, what you need to do to make things come alive and move forward. We need to build on success and be transparent.

Trustee Scott Kelley: High-performing students and accountability are priorities for the district. How would you assess the schools’ current level of performance and teacher effectiveness?

Fryer: I see where you went above and beyond with K-12 students. At UNR, retentions are up in remedial English and math. That’s not somewhere we want to go with our school system; we should be going the other way, whether it be the number of AP exams, ACT scores, SAT scores. The intent should be to raise all students up. We should be raising those who are underperforming at a faster rate, and that’s going to be hard because to raise those at the top end is not going to be as dramatic. I definitely believe all children should learn.

Clark: If you were to be asked about your skills from the operation side versus your educational experience, since you lack teaching or principal experience, how do you propose to handle that?

Fryer: I would surround myself with really good people who know what works and what’s not working, know what framework and standards are being taught and look at multiple assessments.

Clark: Through your resume, I see you have lot of experience overseeing capital projects. What have you learned as far as a deciding process? We have limited money through bonds and how would you determine priorities and where would you put the money?

Fryer: It’s a very politicized process. Our board did a very courageous thing. We had an outlet of facilities assessments done. We did it on all schools older than six years old and then schools were rated in fair, poor or good categories. We would take politics out of it and put schools in poor condition higher up on the priority list. It didn’t quite work out as we hoped, but that was the goal. What we’d need is to involve different community builders and contractors. … We’d never give out contracts to the same company. The public felt that wouldn’t be fair.