Grocery magnate Charles Butt tries to tap into his natural optimism when thinking about the future of public schools and Texas’ children.

But he can’t help seeing stumbling blocks: weak curriculum, undersupported teachers and not nearly enough strong leaders.

“I don’t like that,” the 78-year-old said. “I’m an optimist at heart— for my business, for my friends and for people. But do I see an educated America for the future? It’s hard to say. Believe me, I obsess about this.”

That’s why Butt, the quiet billionaire and head of H-E-B stores, has spent much of his life — and family fortune — focusing on public education. He’s now upping the ante with a $100 million investment to create a new institute dedicated to training school principals and superintendents.

The Holdsworth Center will work with educators across the state in an intense five-year program that focuses on leadership styles, using data to boost student performance and talent development. It’s named after his mother, Mary Elizabeth Holdsworth Butt, a one-time school teacher who spent much of her life advocating for children and those with mental illnesses.

Mary Elizabeth Holdsworth Butt spent most of her life advocating for children and those with mental illnesses. (The Holdsworth Center handout)

“It’s not for my mom, but for the kids. And she was for the kids,” said Butt, who lives in San Antonio. “She was focused on other people about as much as anyone I’ve ever known. That inspired me.”

Butt, who has been involved in education efforts for decades, wants principals who can inspire and support teachers so Texas kids get only the best.

Research repeatedly shows that second to an effective teacher, principals have the most direct impact on student achievement.

“Sometimes leadership in a school is fabulous — a great principal or a great superintendent,” Butt said. “We can point those out across the state. We know where they are from their results. But there’s not enough of that.”

Training new leaders

Schools need principals who are innovative, compassionate, competitive and unafraid to take calculated risks, said Grand Prairie Superintendent Susan Hull.

“They need to see a vision that might not be fully developed yet because the world is changing so quickly,” Hull said. “Leaders of today have to be able to build relationships across the board and communicate well with our parents.”

Hull was one of two superintendents involved in the center's development, providing insight into what schools need most. Grand Prairie already has educators going through Holdsworth training as part of a pilot program.

She said the goal is to create widespread inspiration.

"This is an effort to make a tremendous impact across the state by developing sustainable leadership for public schools," Hull said.

Educators who train at Holdsworth will work with national experts on leadership skills and will even travel internationally to successful schools.

In October, Butt sponsored a group of Texas education leaders to Singapore after he visited himself. While Texas has different challenges, Butt said the state can learn a lot from nations that place a much higher value on educators.

“They know who the head of education is going to be in Singapore 10 years from now,” Butt said. “That’s the kind of planning a company does to know who the leadership of the company will be out in the future. We don’t have anything like that” in Texas education.

About 20 districts were invited to apply for the Holdsworth Center. Six will be chosen for the first group that begins its work in June. The program will then be open to districts statewide.

Until the center has a permanent facility, it will meet at conference centers near the selected districts.

For now, the center is not affiliated with a specific college or university. Butt said that’s because he wanted to ensure a rigorous program. He didn’t have complete confidence a Texas college or university could provide that.

He was concerned that more and more colleges and universities are treating education programs as “cash cows,” admitting as many students as they can without ensuring they leave fully prepared to teach children.

H-E-B chairman and CEO Charles Butt stands on stage during the 2015 H-E-B Excellence in Education Awards. (Darren Abate / Darren Abate Media LLC)

“We’re not satisfied with what’s coming out of the higher ed institutions now,” Butt said. “And we’re not satisfied with the fact that they do not have a robust relationship with the schools. So we don’t have any continuation or continuum of activity that starts with the school of education and goes right down to the district.”

Butt said that some schools — such as Southern Methodist University — are doing it right by not only focusing on rigor but also building more involved partnerships with school districts to know exactly what their needs are. He’s tapped Shari Albright, education chair at Trinity University who works on principal training in San Antonio, to shape the center’s curriculum.

And Holdsworth’s board has a range of higher education heavyweights including Robert Gates, the former CIA director who is now chancellor of the College of William and Mary; Michael Sorrell, president of Paul Quinn College; and Diana Natalicio, president of the University of Texas at El Paso. Chairing the board is Ruth Simmons, a former president of both Smith College and Brown University.

'No shortcut'

Butt doesn’t like to be in the spotlight for his education efforts, though his impact can be seen across Texas.

Both he and his San Antonio-based company — which is expanding its presence in North Texas —have poured millions into scholarships, advocacy groups and the annual Excellence in Education awards that honors the state's best teachers and principals.

The new center furthers Butt’s efforts for better school leaders in particular.

Raise Your Hand Texas, a nonprofit advocacy group founded by Butt, has sponsored nearly 1,000 educators from across the state to attend a six-week principal training program at Harvard University. That group has also provided significant funding to similar efforts, such as the nonprofit Teaching Trust that trains educators in the Dallas area on leadership.

H-E-B, originally founded by Butt’s grandmother in 1905, has donated 5 percent of the company’s pretax profits toward charity. That was a practice started by Butt’s parents.

Butt started bagging groceries when he was 8. He went on to earn his bachelor’s from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and his master’s from Harvard University.

H-E-B Chairman and CEO Charles Butt pictured here during a 2002 preview party for Central Market. (The Dallas Morning News archives)

In 1971, he became the company’s president. Butt focused much of the company’s charity efforts — and his own — on public schools after extensive reading about the history of education in the United States.

He sat in classrooms, and the more he learned about Texas education, he realized a teacher’s job is so much harder than it looks. And the state wasn’t doing nearly enough to help prepare or support them.

Butt’s business mantra: a good head for business, a great heart for people and a focus on results.

However, he concedes there is no one way to measure results, in grocery stores or in classrooms.

“In supermarket, you have cashiers who can check you out so fast you hardly knew you were there. Zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom zoom,” he said. “And we have some cashiers who are extremely popular with the customers who wait until they are available. How do you measure which one is most important to loyalty to the store? It’s not easy. So when you talk about measuring teachers and their impact on students’ education, it takes all kinds.”

Behind the scenes, Butt is a political powerhouse supporting candidates deemed friendly to public education and pushing for policy changes on a range of issues from pre-K to career pathways.

He’s been critical of relaxed teacher certification requirements, thin curriculum standards and never-ending school finance battles, urging state leaders to focus on rigor and funnel more money to traditional public schools.

“Mr. Butt believes in Texas public schools and the 5.3 million children across the state — many of whom live in poverty — who are going to be the answer to any problem Texas has in the future,” Hull said.

Still, not everyone is happy with his heavy involvement.

Matt Prewett, founder of the Texas Parents Union, says Butt’s political sway has blocked school choice efforts in the state. The grocer has been one of the most prominent opponents of vouchers and related efforts that would use public money to help children attend private schools. This legislative session is shaping up to be one of the most critical battles over voucher-like efforts.

“That’s been harmful to education,” Prewett said. “Sometimes our traditional school districts need healthy competition. I don’t think a monopoly serves children very well. Charles Butt thinks he’s protecting traditional school districts — and maybe he is — but I don’t think that necessarily helps our public schools improve.”

Butt downplays his influence. He notes that the Legislature has never done what he sees is one of the most critical pieces to improving education: full-day pre-K for all eligible children. He said he’s proud of the work his groups have done to support public schools.

Better results remains his focus. That means strengthening curriculum across the board, making it harder to become a teacher so only the best can do it and ignoring “gimmicks” that distract the state from improving public schools, he said.

“There’s no shortcut here,” Butt said. “This is not a shortcut game. ... I don’t necessarily predict another good century for this nation unless we improve education.”

Twitter: @EvaMarieAyala