Robert Bobb facts for kids

Robert C. Bobb is a leader who has held important jobs in government and education. He was once the Emergency Financial Manager for the Detroit Public Schools. This means he was in charge of fixing the school district's money problems.

Mr. Bobb also worked as a city manager for many years. A city manager helps run a city's daily operations. He has also been involved with groups that support different ways of running schools, like allowing more choices for families or involving private companies. He also owns a company that helps both government and private businesses.

Before working in Detroit, he was the president of the school board in Washington, D.C. from 2006 to 2009. He is known for being the longest-serving African-American city manager in the United States, working in that role for 30 years.

Early Life and Education

Robert Bobb was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He grew up on a farm in southwest Louisiana, where his grandmother worked. He worked hard to pay for college. He cleaned floors during the school year and did tough jobs in the summers.

He earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Grambling State University. Later, in 1978, he received a master's degree in business studies from Western Michigan University. In 2005, he also completed a special program called the Broad Foundation's Superintendent Academy. This program is like a training course for top leaders in education.

Career Highlights

Serving as a City Manager

Robert Bobb spent 30 years working as a city manager in several cities. These included Kalamazoo, Michigan (from 1977 to 1984), Santa Ana, California, Richmond, Virginia (from 1986 to 1997), Oakland, California (from 1997 to 2003), and Washington, D.C. (from 2003 to 2006).

In Oakland, California, the city had a new way of being run. It had both an elected mayor and a professional city manager. For a while, this system seemed to work well. However, in 2003, Mr. Bobb had a disagreement with the mayor, Jerry Brown, about where to build a new baseball stadium for the Oakland Athletics. Mr. Bobb wanted the stadium there, but the mayor wanted homes. Because of this disagreement, Mr. Bobb was asked to leave his job.

From 2003 to 2006, Mr. Bobb worked in Washington, D.C., as city manager and deputy mayor. He was in charge of 20,000 employees and an $8 billion budget. In 2004, he even traveled to China to represent Washington at a big conference. In 2006, there was a mistake where an employee was paid too much money. Mr. Bobb approved the employee keeping the extra money, but other officials disagreed. He then resigned to run for president of the D.C. Board of Education, which he won.

Emergency Financial Manager Role

In March 2009, the governor of Michigan, Jennifer Granholm, chose Robert Bobb to be the Emergency Financial Manager for the Detroit Public Schools. At that time, the school district had 172 schools, 85,000 students, and a large money problem of $219 million. By the end of his first year, this money problem had grown to $363 million.

Mr. Bobb said he took the job because Detroit had some of the toughest urban schools. He felt he understood the challenges and chances for success in big cities. Besides managing the schools' money, he also made plans to improve education. These plans included setting standards for students to move to the next grade. He also suggested ways to improve school buildings and get the community involved.

He used $500 million in federal money to make school buildings better. He also led a successful effort to get more students to enroll, bringing in 900 more than expected. He asked for 2,600 volunteers to help students learn to read.

His time as emergency manager had some challenges. These included closing schools, cutting jobs, and hiring outside companies for some school services. In his first ten months, he closed 29 schools. He also hired special helpers to improve 17 schools. When it seemed that combining high schools and having large class sizes might cause problems, he hired back 137 guidance counselors and 20 piano teachers. This helped music education continue.

Mr. Bobb was paid $280,000 a year by the government. He also received $145,000 from the Kellogg Foundation and the Broad Foundation. These foundations support ideas like giving families more choices in schools and involving private groups in education. Mr. Bobb also owns his own consulting company, the LAPA Group, LLC.

His time as emergency manager was set to end on March 1, 2011. At that point, the state government gave him more powers. These new powers allowed him to change contracts, end agreements with teachers' unions, and even fire elected officials. He planned to use these powers. He sent notices to all teachers in the school system, which meant he could call them back or move them to different schools without considering how long they had worked there. Mr. Bobb also suggested that up to 41 Detroit Public Schools he planned to close could become private charter schools instead.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr. Bobb was chosen to help lead the ReOpen DC Committee in Washington, D.C. This committee worked on plans to safely reopen the city.

Awards and Community Involvement

Robert Bobb has received several awards for his work. He earned the L.P. Cookingham Award for Career Development. He also received four Innovation Awards from the International City/County Management Association. The National Forum of Black Public Administrators gave him the Marks of Excellence Award. Governing magazine also named him public official of the year. In 2010, Walsh College, a business school in Troy, Michigan, gave him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree after he gave a speech there.

Mr. Bobb has been a president of the National Forum for Black Public Administrators and the City of Oakland Black Chamber of Commerce. He is also a member of the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity and has a lifetime membership in the NAACP.

He is also a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration (United States).

Election Results

Here are the results from the 2006 election for President of the Board of Education of D.C.: