At least for now, many teachers, parents and leaders in Chesilhurst, a community of about 1,500 along the White Horse Pike in the Pinelands, are putting their hopes in Gass, a humble, earnest man who regularly works 12-hour days.

When Gass gets away from the office at night, the getaway is not far. He lives two houses from the school with his wife, Nimo, and sons, Issaq, 11, and Guleid, 4. He previously served on the school board for four years and as the district's business administrator.

"I believe he is the only one able to bring us out of this failing mode," Board President Mary Ellen Tillmon said. "I have no doubt he will do it."

Gass has received preliminary scores from the state's new standardized fourth-grade test for the 2002-03 school year, and the overall news was not good.

While 50 percent of the students were proficient in math - nearly twice the percentage of the year before - only 30 percent were proficient in language arts, down from 37 percent the year before, Gass said.

Both figures fell short of the state standards - 53 percent for math and 68 percent for language arts.

Too much effort was placed on improving math scores, Gass said. This year, teachers will seek to strike a balance.

Gass said he believed parental and community involvement was also needed. The marquee outside the one-story brick school reads: "It takes a village to raise a child."

Many have already responded. Police serve as mentors and regularly eat lunch with students. Grant A.M.E. Church in Chesilhurst began operating an after-school tutoring program last month.

Although small, the racially diverse district - enrollment is about 60 percent black and 40 percent white - suffers from problems found in larger, urban school systems. Six out of 10 students are economically disadvantaged.

"There's no question that this is a big challenge," said former interim Superintendent Win Tillery, Gass' mentor.

Since starting the $85,000-a-year job, Gass has made sweeping changes - bringing in curriculum experts, offering a summer program, extending the school day by 30 minutes, transferring teachers, and beefing up discipline.

On a recent morning, third-grade teacher Sylvia Covington used a cooperative-learning approach to divide her class into small groups to solve math problems together.

At a computer station, two 8-year-old boys reacted gleefully when they clicked on the correct answer. "High five!" said Anthony Reed, slapping hands with partner Israel French.

Students also now spend three hours every morning studying math and language arts. Two 20-minute periods are set aside daily for silent reading and journal writing.

"Every day, we know what we have to do - whatever it takes," Gass said. "We can do this."

For Gass, that means raking the schoolyard, picking up trash, and mopping a hallway if needed. "It doesn't bother me. I'm proud of it," he said.

Gass traces his gritty determination to his childhood in Somaliland in East Africa. He dropped out of school in the eighth grade to work as a typesetter to support his sister and widowed mother.

In what he said had been his biggest hurdle so far, Gass came to the United States when he was 17 and settled in Glassboro.

"The challenge was learning English so I could survive in this country," he recalled. "It was frustrating, but I was determined to learn."

After earning a GED, Gas received a bachelor's degree in accounting from the City University of New York and a master's of business administration from Rutgers University-Camden. He is pursuing a doctorate in education administration at Wilmington College in Delaware.

Gass, a certified public accountant, has audited municipalities and school districts. He also has been an administrator in the Camden and Willingboro school systems.

Gass puts his financial background to use by executing his program like a business plan with goals and deadlines. He has set modest goals for now: to increase the number of students who achieve proficiency by between 10 and 15 percentage points.

Throughout the school, positive messages are posted in hallways and in classrooms. One reads: "Believe in yourself... . All things are possible."

Said Gass: "You know what motivates me? I don't want to fail."
 

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