What José Oliva remembers most about Mo Green, when he was Superintendent of Guilford County Schools a decade ago, is that he was patient.
Oliva, then 15, had recently arrived from Guatemala, when he was invited to be on Greenâs student advisory council. The group of mostly valedictorians and student body presidents would gather in a school library.
âThen there was me,â Oliva recalled. âWho did not speak English, who had to use a translator.â
Oliva was chosen to be on the council as a representative of Guilford Countyâs school for recent immigrants. At the time, he knew only a few words in English.
Olivaâs mom had bought him a pocket translator the size of a calculator. He could type translations from Spanish, threading together his thoughts word by word. Green would wait as long as it took for Oliva to craft his question.
âHe was always willing to just listen,â Oliva recalled. âHe actually cares, and he wanted to hear what students had to say â including me.â
This was the beginning of a long friendship between Oliva and Green, who went on to become his mentor and friend.
Oliva said itâs true to character that Green, 57, is starting off his term as State Superintendent of Public Instruction â where he is the first African American to ever hold the office, and the first Democrat to do so in eight years â with a listening tour around the state. Itâs billed as the âMo Wants to Knowâ tour, a phrase Green has long used for his town halls with students and parents.
âMany people do something similar," Oliva said. "The unique part is that, you know, Mo actually wants to know."
Oliva said this openness to criticism goes well with another of Greenâs favorite catchphrases: âfeedback is a gift.â
"And, you know, he believes that,â Oliva said.
Mo Green reveres teachers, because he revered his mother
Green's friends describe him as a quiet leader and a defender of public schools, educators and students.
One of Greenâs toughest critics, and a guiding force in his life, was his mother.
As a child, he was equally interested in baseball as in academics. Greenâs mother, Gwendolyn Green, would make him sit out a season if he didnât bring home enough Aâs on his report card. When Green and his brother did their math homework, she would look over it for cleanliness and detail.
âShe would make us redo the work if she said, âThis doesn't look neat,ââ Green recalled. âEven if the answer is correct â and she had perhaps no idea whether the answer was correct.â
Above all, she instilled in him a respect for educators.
âAs a child of hers, the first thing she would talk about is, number one, you have to respect your teachers,â Green said.
Greenâs mother was born on St. Thomas, one of the U.S. Virgin Islands, and grew up very poor.
âIn fact, she would say, 'dirt poor,'â Green said. âThere were parts of her home that the floor was actually dirt.â
She dreamed of becoming a teacher. She moved to New York, and instead became a nurse, married and had two sons.
âIt was after my father passed away when I was 10 years old that she decided at that point to go back to college and become a teacher,â Green said. âShe became a special education teacher, graduating from college the same year that my brother graduated from a two-year college, and I graduated from high school.â
His mother spent her career in Georgia, helping students with disabilities receive an education. An after-school program she worked for was later named for her.
âHe reveres teachers because he reveres his mother,â said Greenâs long-time friend and colleague Alan Duncan, who serves as vice chair of the State Board of Education.
On the campaign trail, Green would often say that he âreveres educatorsâ and that this would be a platform issue for his administration. This wasnât a phrase Green adopted just for the campaign, Duncan said.
âHe has said that for two decades at least,â Duncan said.
From young attorney to public school administrator
Duncan first met Green when he was a promising young lawyer. Duncan was a partner at the firm where Green began his career.
âHe had great critical thinking skills and still has them,â Duncan said. âOne of the things law school really imbues in you is the notion that you must be a good critical thinker, and I think he fully took that to heart.â
One of Greenâs clients was Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. After representing the school system as its attorney, a new superintendent invited Green to serve as his chief operating officer. Before long, most of the departments were reporting to Green.
Duncan was a longtime school board member at Guilford County Schools, and he watched Greenâs rise into public school administration with interest. When Guilford County Schools was searching for a superintendent in 2008, Duncan and others encouraged Green to apply.
The school board chose Green in a 7-to-4 vote.
âMo sort of had a caution, âI'm not sure if I should take this job. If there's that much of a division about whether people want me to serve in this position,â" Duncan recalled. âI quickly told him our previous superintendent was elected by 6-to-5 votes, so he was actually a landslide at 7-to-4.â
The board included Democrats and Republicans, but rather than being focused on politics for a school appointment, some board members were simply concerned that Green had never been an educator himself.
âAll of them, within two months, had apologized to him for not voting for him,â Duncan recalled. âThey were impressed almost immediately with the way he handled things, in the way he did things on behalf of teachers and students.â
Duncan said the board was impressed with Greenâs character.
One example: Green was hired in 2008, just before the Great Recession. When it hit, public school budgets were frozen, including annual raises for teachers and staff. But the superintendentâs contract Green signed just before the stock market crash meant the school board was legally obligated to offer him an annual raise.
âMo, on principle, refused to ever take a penny of the 3% increase he was entitled to, every year, the entire time he was here,â Duncan said. âIf his educators and his employees weren't going to get paid and weren't going to get a raise, then he was not going to take a raise.â
Green led Guilford County Schools through tough financial times, when public schools saw state funding slashed to make up for a deficit in tax revenue. Many schools were required to return money to the state coffers.
Despite those struggles, under Greenâs leadership, Guilford County Schools graduation rates rose significantly, as did the number of students passing college level courses, and the district implemented a character-driven education initiative that cost very little.
After eight years leading Guilford County Schools, Green left to lead the , a nonprofit that funds many education initiatives around the state. Seven years later, Green announced his retirement.
Green said he was âabsolutelyâ set on a full retirement from public service.
âI was 110% convinced that I had done all I intended to do in my professional career, and I was enjoying retirement,â Green said.
Then came a call from Governor Roy Cooperâs office.
The road to State Superintendent
Green broke the news to his friends José Oliva and former Charlotte-Mecklenburg Superintendent Pete Gorman at a Charlotte FC soccer game.
âAt some point, Mo says âI have to tell you all something.â And we're like, âThey're about to score a goal, can it wait?â Oliva said. âHe said, âI'm running for state superintendent.â And we look at him like, âWhat?â He said, âYeah, the governor called me and asked me if I would consider it.ââ
Oliva said heâs been encouraging Green to run for public office â maybe even president â since Oliva was in high school. Green admits his own mentors have been making the same suggestion since he was in high school, but heâd never considered a campaign until Cooper called.
âI was in shock, because if all it took was to get Roy Cooper to call him, I would have done that a long time ago,â Oliva said with a grin.
Green quickly became the anticipated frontrunner in the Democratic primary, and he expected to challenge Republican incumbent Catherine Truitt in the general election. She had establishment chops, a long-range vision for education reform, and a reputation for bipartisanship â even hiring a Democrat who had run against her into her administration at the Department of Public Instruction.
The tenor of the race changed abruptly when Truitt was defeated in the Republican primary by Michele Morrow, a homeschool teacher and ardent Trump supporter who attended protests outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and promoted a Moms-For-Liberty-style platform. Morrow often called public schools âindoctrination centersâ and worried aloud that some teachers are âgroomers.â
At campaign events last year, Green began saying, âThe very soul of public education is on the ballot, and it will take champions of public education to meet this moment.â
Oliva believed Green was the right champion for the moment, but Oliva worried that his friend didnât have the pizazz of a politician. It isnât in Greenâs nature to be in the limelight. Oliva calls him an introvert.
âHe and I had a talk about, you know, you got to be out there, you got to bring passion into the room to communicate your message,â Oliva recalled.
Green took Olivaâs feedback. He started to tell his own story more, and the story of his mother. He began to rally supporters at campaign events to cheer, âWe are champions of public education.â
Green held his branded âMo Wants To Knowâ sessions as meet-and-greets for educators across the state. These werenât high dollar fundraisers (although Green also outraised Morrow 8-to-1), but a chance to maybe even win over Republican-voting teachers.
Oliva believes Green did win the support of Republicans who knew him as a county superintendent. Oliva recalls volunteering as a poll greeter, handing out pamphlets for Green at a voting site in Guilford County, when he met a Republican volunteer handing out literature for President Donald Trump.
âShe finally came up to me and said, âWho are you here for? Who are you passing literature for?â And I said, âFor Mo Green.â And she said, âI love Mo. He was a great superintendent! Give me some,ââ Oliva recalled.
To many observers' surprise, Green beat Morrow. It was one of the tight races of election night, with Green winning 51 percent of the votes.
Looking ahead to a challenging term
Green will face many challenges over the next four years. After years of billion-dollar surpluses, the state is once the Republican-led legislatureâs latest tax cuts take effect.
Just as he faced when he became superintendent of Guilford County Schools, Green takes on his new role in what is likely to be an era of financial austerity.
Green campaigned on raises for educators that will be hard to come by. Heâll have less power with the General Assembly than his predecessor Truitt, who often saw her own initiatives go unfunded.
With an attorneyâs eye, Green said heâll advocate for the resources he believes North Carolinaâs public school students need.
âSometimes that advocacy can be done in quiet ways,â Green said. âSometimes you do have to stand in front of folks and advocate strenuously for what you believe is right.â
Green said he doesnât care about his legacy â he just wants to use his time in office well.
âWhat I care about is each child getting what they need educationally,â Green said. âWhat we'll be driving forward towards is for us to be the very best school system in the entire country. If we don't get the money that we need, the goal is not changing.â
