Dr. Allen Coles, superintendent of Richland One
Star Profile
By John Temple Ligon Temple@TheColumbiaStar.com

Dr. Allen Coles

Dr. Allen Coles began his duties as superintendent of Richland School District One July 1, 2005, and vacates his desk this June.

In district- wide school administration, three years is a short time frame to expect marked improvement, but Coles has commandeered a turnaround for positive change all the same.

Coles was born in Brooklyn, New York City. His father worked for the federal government, and his mother ran the house. His neighborhood was Bedford- Stuyvesant, where Jackie Gleason and Chris Rock grew up.

While he was in elementary school and after the birth of his younger sister, Coles's father moved the family to the Jamaica section of Queens, near JFK.

Coles's family lived in Hempstead in Nassau County, a close- in Long Island suburb of NYC where he attended Hempstead High School. He did well in intramural baseball as an outfielder, but his real love was music.

Coles's Hempstead music teacher taught him the bassoon and even arranged for a loaner bassoon. With his bassoon, he joined the school band for marching and performing concerts.

After high school, he enrolled at Hofstra College, now University where he majored in biology. Coles also took courses necessary for a teacher's certificate.

Graduating from Hofstra in 1967, he took his first teaching job at Long Island's Hicksville High School, where Billy Joel graduated the year before. After teaching biology two years at Hicksville, Coles left for his alma mater, Hempstead High School, for a few more years.

At Hempstead, he was asked by the district superintendent to reorganize the high school into a division of smaller schools still inside Hempstead High School.

While teaching at Hicksville and Hempstead, Coles commuted to the Washington Square campus of New York University for courses leading to a doctorate.

The University of Nebraska in Lincoln invited Coles to accept an internship and continue his doctoral studies there, allowing for the full transfer of his credits from N.Y.U.

Coles, his wife Gladys, and their daughter Celeste lived in Lincoln for two years. Then he took his doctorate to the job market in 1974.

Coles located with the schools administration of Clark County, Nevada (Las Vegas), and stayed until July 2005, when he took the job as superintendent in Columbia.

At Richland One, Coles oversaw the completion of $381 million of building construction. He championed the collaboration with the City of Columbia, better known as Together We Can, as thoroughly disclosed by Mayor Coble in his recent State of the City speech.

Coles also developed the reputation, reportedly, for even distribution of resources throughout the district, giving all schools fair access to funds for improvement.

Coles and his wife enjoy their walks through the Dreher neighborhood, and his walks over the golf course are progressively coming in with lower scores. The couple has danced the tango in Buenos Aires, and they plan to return in the future.