Buffalo School Superintendent James A. Williams hasn’t threatened to beat up any adversaries lately.

He hasn’t insulted black principals recently by suggesting they weren’t doing enough to help struggling minority students.

And he hasn’t run roughshod over a union contract to the point that teachers had to sue to get their health care options restored.

But the once-bombastic school boss deserves a contract extension anyway.

In fact, despite evidence that he has mellowed, I hope the old James Williams still lurks somewhere inside, like one of those Hollywood monsters that can rise up again despite having a stake driven through its heart.

As the Board of Education embarks on the bureaucratic dithering that accompanies any major decision around here, it needs to do what it should have done at last week’s meeting: sign Williams to a few more years.

Buffalo Niagara is a region teeming with tepid, buttoned-down “leaders” who measure every word and commission and poll before deciding where to have lunch. And what do we have to show for it?A same-old, same-old way of doing things that has left us with same-old, same-old results.

Exhibit A is the fact that it has taken more than 15 years and we have yet to build the first pylon for a new river crossing. It’s as if BP were in charge of the Peace Bridge expansion—and the entire Buffalo-area revitalization effort.

Against that backdrop of do-nothing, paralysis-by-analysis leadership, Williams came into staid, stagnant Buffalo like a breath of fresh air—if one can call a hurricane “fresh air.”

He mused aloud about beating up the teachers union president, called out black principals like only a black superintendent could, and tried—unsuccessfully— to save money by unilaterally implementing single-carrier health insurance.

Teachers filed lawsuits, principals filed grievances, and community leaders shook their heads.

But test scores are improving. Graduation rates are inching up. The number of troubled schools is declining. In other words, Williams got a calcified school system off the dime.

Sure, he had failures—big ones. I was among his harshest critics in the McKinley High School fiasco. But measure the mistakes against the greater good on behalf of kids who need help the most, and Williams has been a success.

Even the board’s desire to solicit public feedback before acting shouldn’t be problematic.

“When the superintendent came in, I was not a fan at all. . . . I had some real issues with his approach. He was not parent-friendly,” said Samuel Radford III.

Radford, vice president of the District Parent Coordinating Council, is now impressed. He said the district got parents actively involved at all schools, instituted parent facilitators and assigned a Cabinet-level administrator who meets regularly with parents.

“He has made a 180-degree turnaround,” Radford said.

So far, so good. I just hope the superintendent hasn’t turned too far.

This city still needs some of the old James Williams, the one who sees only the omelet and doesn’t care how many eggs get broken. While he has sometimes gone too far, the worst thing for the city would be if he were “Buffaloed” into becoming just another Stepford leader in a city desperate for a shake-up.

Showing that the old Williams is not dead, he had a reassuring response when asked recently whether there’s anything he wishes he had done differently: “Nope. I can’t pinpoint anything.”

There’s hope for him yet.