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Tuesday, August 01, 2006 • BY JOHN MOONEY • Star-Ledger Staff

For the past five years, Lucille Davy toiled mostly behind the scenes on education policy, first as a lawyer in the governor's office and then filling in as New Jersey's acting commissioner.

So when Gov. Jon Corzine launched a national search this winter for a permanent commissioner, many didn't give Davy a serious chance.

But as the months dragged on and other candidates dropped off, the woman who one former colleague calls "a survivor" began to win over Corzine's staff with her work ethic and intelligence, and three weeks ago the governor named her to the post. The state Senate is expected to confirm Davy's appointment.

Now comes her hardest test yet. Davy faces some big decisions for the state's public schools, from finance and state funding to high school reforms and testing.

Friends and colleagues of the 51-year-old Pennington resident say she doesn't seem daunted. They remark that she works at only one speed -- logging long hours, traveling the state, and sending off e-mail messages into the night. Even as an interim commissioner, she was pressing ahead.

"It doesn't feel anything's different," she said recently. "I always took the job seriously, and whatever I have done before obviously remains useful to what's ahead."

But a few moments later, Davy said the appointment after the long search still felt good: "I'm very excited at the prospect of now finishing the work."

Davy has been acting commissioner since September. She said improving math instruction will be one priority of her tenure.

A former math teacher in Livingston and Westfield, Davy talks at length about the details of teaching fractions, for example, and she's quick to cite her plans for improving math instruction. Tougher curriculum standards are likely, she said, as are some specific requirements, including algebra by ninth grade.

"When I came here, the math piece was something I knew I wouldn't be able to get done in six months, but now it's a major front-burner issue again," she said.

Another priority is testing, she said. Davy switched gears on the state's testing program almost immediately after she stepped into the job last fall, pledging to provide exams that would be more useful for teachers and families.

The new system is still under development, but Davy said it will include some significant changes, possibly including exams for each required course instead of the single test now given to 11th-graders.

'VERY UNUSUAL'

Jay Doolan, as one of the top directors in the state Education Department, was involved in much of the work Davy later overturned. But he said Davy won him over with her knowledge of the issues and a willingness to listen.

"We had four or five meetings where she was at the table herself," said Doolan, the state's director of instruction and assessment. "That's very unusual. Normally a commissioner would lay out the vision and charge an assistant commissioner to get it done. Not Lucille."

The rewriting of the state's school funding formula could prove Davy's most daunting task. Corzine brought attention to the problem in his speech to the Legislature Friday, saying the funding formula will be critical in his broader plans to lessen property tax pressures on communities.

"I hope she's given the latitude to have an open ear to all the concerns out there," said Lynne Strickland, a lobbyist for suburban school districts. "There is going to be a lot of competing interests in the funding formula, and hopefully she'll stand tough."

Davy is hardly new to any of these issues or some of the controversies.

Born in Elizabeth, she's from a family of educators. Her father, Anthony DelTufo, was a longtime special-education teacher in Livingston, and her aunt, Elena Scambio, was an assistant state commissioner and Jersey City superintendent.

In the late 1990s, Davy worked for Gov. James McGreevey as his education counsel, and she also worked on the staff of the state's Democratic Committee. Her husband, James Davy, was McGreevey's chief of operations and later human services commissioner.

'HEAVY LIFT'

Colleagues speak of how tenacious Davy is.

"She's a survivor because she's very smart and very effective in what she does," said Peter Cammarano, former chief of staff to Richard Codey, who as governor appointed Davy acting commissioner.

"I'm not surprised he (Corzine) kept her on," Cammarano said. "She got the chance to prove herself."

It was during her time in the State House when the latest round of debate erupted over the state's epic Abbott vs. Burke school funding rulings. The state Supreme Court decisions have led to billions of dollars in additional aid to the state's neediest schools, but now the funding is being revisited by the Corzine administration.

David Sciarra, director of the Newark-based advocacy group that led the Abbott vs. Burke suit on behalf of the needy districts, said Davy will have a lot of work ahead in reforming a department that has depleted resources and increased responsibilities.

"The governor himself has conceded that the department has dropped the ball over the last few years in terms of Abbott accountability," said Sciarra. "The commissioner has a heavy lift to get that department in shape."

Davy has built a good relationship with the state's dominant school associations, including the teachers union and the school boards association. Her relationship is a little cooler with local school leaders, who've had five commissioners in the last 10 years.

She's had to defend five years of virtually no additional state aid to a majority of districts, on top of new spending limits. Then, this summer, she chastised suburban superintendents at a breakfast meeting for the perks in their contracts.

Some said the criticism was unfair and was meant only as a distraction from the state's funding freeze.

Davy recently made no apologies.

"That's the way I am; I'm not going to say anything I don't mean," she said. "I'm the first person to support educators, and I think the education profession is a very high calling. ... But, that said, we need to be considerate of the world we live in."

She's not one to criticize and run. After slapping Englewood's school district this spring for its slow pace in implementing required desegregation efforts, Davy spoke at the district's baccalaureate ceremony in June.

With continued troubles in Camden schools amid accusations of cheating on state tests, Davy nevertheless showed up at the district's school board meeting this month to talk with administrators and trustees.

By many accounts, that openness has helped her in a department not accustomed to inclusiveness. And in the end, Davy said, she hopes to be remembered for that.

"I think people think of me as a straight shooter but also one who is going to listen to them," she said.

Education chief is now free to see her goals through

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