You began your 34-year educational career at Miami-Dade County Schools, ultimately rising to the role of Assistant Superintendent School Operations before taking the helm as Superintendent at Collier County Public Schools (CCPS) in June 2011. What was the impetus that drove you to move beyond district administration and pursue being a public school superintendent?
I had not really intended to leave Miami and move on to this position. However, I was encouraged by a former coworker who inspired me to take the next challenge. This coworker gave me a copy of the Lee Ann Womack song “I Hope You Dance” and told me to carefully consider the line “And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance…I hope you dance.” The dance, of course, was to be a Superintendent. I was still not sure about moving in that direction; but shortly thereafter, both Lee and Collier counties, two districts geographically close to Miami, had open Superintendent positions and I decided to take his advice. Eleven years later, I still thank him for his push.
You are in your 11th year as CCPS Superintendent and under your leadership CCPS has achieved many accomplishments including improving the district ranking to tie for 5th in the State from 33rd just nine years ago and experienced a 19.7 percentage point increase in graduation to 92.2% from 72.4% graduation rate. In addition, CCPS has earned a district grade of “A” for four consecutive years and is currently one of seven school districts to earn the “A” distinction for 2021. To what do you attribute these significant accomplishments?
As reflected in our District Strategic Plan our collective efforts are anchored on leadership, academics, and culture. We are committed to increasing the capacity of our school leaders, lifting student achievement, and nurturing positive school climates.
I believe the foundation for increasing the capacity of school leaders and the increases in student achievement come largely from a process we call Data Dialogues. Data Dialogues are structured conversations with school leadership teams, myself, and other district leaders. CCPS has created formative assessments which we administer three times per year. Data from these assessments, state exams, attendance, discipline, and many other data points are reviewed with protocols to guide the conversation. After local formative assessments or state testing, school leaders share their results with colleagues and district leaders. It is a venue to share areas that need improvement and celebrate successes. The resulting actions from Data Dialogues can include changes to instructional materials, professional learning, or other support. This school-centric approach is a way to empower school leaders to engage with student data and target gaps. This decade-long process has created a generation of teachers and school leaders who are data-wise and adaptive with instruction. We are proud that school districts from around the state have visited to observe this valuable process in action for consideration in their own districts.
CCPS is the 115th largest school district in the US covering 2,300 square miles, with 65% free and reduced lunch and 55% kids come from homes where English is not the first language. Given the diverse demographics of CCPS learners, what key initiatives has CCPS implemented to ensure that the learning needs of all CCPS students are met to ensure they are college, career and life ready?
CCPS has a strong commitment to equity. Across the district you will see beautiful, well-maintained facilities in every part of the county. You will see engineering and entrepreneurship in every middle and high school and Cambridge in every grade in every school. While this was not the case 11 years ago, we have made great strides to ensure every student has high-quality programs.
Additionally, CCPS makes targeted efforts to support specific subgroups. For example, CCPS has the largest number of migrant students in the state of Florida (over 3,200). CCPS provides extra programming including migrant family support staff, has created a Learning Express bus to go out into the community and serve migrant families, and provides special programming for migrant families. With this focused attention, the graduation rate for migrant students has improved from 54% in 2012 to 88.9% in 2020, an increase of 34.9 percentage points. I am also very proud of our support for Students With Disabilities (SWD) including a new home environment for learning, a wing in our future new high school specifically designed for programming, and an internal hiring initiative for students who age out of the program. The graduation rate for students with disabilities has improved from 48% in 2012 to 83.5% in 2020, an increase of 35.5 percentage points.
Finally, a new program called Connect for Success is designed to help students be college, career, and life ready. Connect for Success focuses on developing competencies including self-efficacy, grit, self-discipline, life readiness, organization, time management, and leadership of self through a dedicated time twice a week. Teachers utilize District-created lessons based on the Leader in Me (student version of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People) framework to strengthen a student’s sense of belonging and relationships between staff and students. Secondary students (6-8 and 9-12) will remain in cohorts with the same teacher throughout their years in that level/school to further strengthen relationships and community.
What do you feel is the most challenging barrier at this time in meeting the educational needs of students in your district?
CCPS spans a geographic area that is 2,300 square miles, which is bigger than the entire state of Delaware. For the last decade, the school district demographics have continuously changed. The Hispanic population has increased and when combined with the Black student population, makes CCPS a minority majority district. The number of students on free and reduced lunch has grown to 65% and the number of students coming from homes where English is not the first language has increased by 10 percentage points to 55 percent.
Students in Collier County speak a total of 96 different languages and dialects. With the highest number of migrant students and the third highest percentage of English Language Learners in Florida, meeting the needs of our diverse population of students is the biggest challenge. This was particularly true throughout the pandemic. While COVID was a challenge for all students, it was extremely challenging considering our demographics. That is why we focused on getting students back in school as soon as possible. In fact, last year we had 91% of students attend school in person by second semester. For the first time ever, CCPS students outperformed the state average on 21 of 21 state assessed areas. Throughout COVID, CCPS worked hard to provide academics and preserve the total student experience, finding ways to allow marching band, clubs, hands-on activities, and academic competitions to continue as safely as possible. We knew that being in school was the best chance for academic success. I am proud to share that CCPS is one of only 7 school districts to earn an A in Florida this year, continuing an “A” streak dating back to 2017.
What do you feel is the most pressing issue facing public education as a whole?
The most pressing issue facing public education today is the shortage of high-quality teachers. We know that across the nation, fewer students are going into education. In Florida, more than 50% of new teachers are coming through an alternatively certified path. These alternative certification teachers often have strong content knowledge, but need substantial training in pedagogy, classroom management, and student development. Like in other school districts, CCPS now must take on the task of training new teachers to deliver instruction with no additional funding or support. Recruiting and retaining teachers has become consistently more difficult. Expanding the teacher talent pool should become a national priority.
What is an innovative/impactful initiative in your school district that you are most proud of during your tenure as CCPS superintendent?
Over the years, CCPS has created pipelines to ensure equity for all students. Programs are introduced across the district and grade levels. Ten years ago, there was one engineering academy at one high school. If you did not happen to go to that school, you did not have access to engineering. Now, that program is offered in every high school (8) and every middle school (10). The same is now true for our innovative Entrepreneurship program. Every high school has numerous high-quality academies that provide career learning opportunities and a link between education and real-life applications for students. Additionally, all CCPS STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) initiatives have been implemented district-wide, adding a few new grades each year. Today, every grade has a district-wide STEAM event with aligned curriculum and competition opportunities.
The arts are a huge focus of the District. Every middle and high school has band, orchestra, choir, and fine arts. This year, the final arts inequity was improved by making theater available as a curricular course in every high school and as a club in every middle school. This focus on equity, increasing opportunities and decreasing barriers, has provided countless opportunities for our students. For that reason, I believe this focus on equity of programming is one of CCPS' most impactful initiatives.
For innovative programs, I am very excited about our new CCPS Alumni Program. We are reaching out to the tens of thousands of alumni who have attended CCPS to reconnect with them, in hopes of providing connections for our current students with internships, work-based learning opportunities and mentorships. This project is not only important to our school system but will be at the heart of our entire community.
You have received numerous awards and recognition including the 2021 Naples Daily News Outstanding Citizen of the Year, 50 Florida Influencers, Naples Top 100 Distinction, 2018 Lavan Dukes District Data Leader of the Year Award, the 2018 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Distinguished Leader Award, the 2018 Florida Music Education Association Superintendent of the Year Award, and received the prestigious honor of being the 2017 Star Superintendent Award from the Consortium of Florida Education Foundations to name a few. Of all the awards and accolades you have received – is there one that stands out as most meaningful and why?
I would have to say that the best award is the Outstanding Citizen of the Year by the Naples Daily News. This is Collier County’s oldest award and has been given out for more than 60 years. Their “rules” do not allow them to select a civil servant. However, contrary to their established processes, they gave this award to me and I saw it as “A Recognition for All”, as the headline in the front page of the newspaper stated.
I am so appreciative of this award as it is a direct reflection of the community’s support of the district, not of me as an individual. It demonstrates to all 7,000+ CCPS employees that the community supports them and thanks them for all they did through the pandemic to support students and families. It is truly a recognition for every facet of CCPS.
Outside of being a superintendent, what is something that your colleagues may not know about you that you would like to share.
Many people do not know that I moved to Florida from Pennsylvania after college because I was hired to work for Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees. Working for him and his family, I was able to go on a Bee Gees World Tour and even fly on the Concorde.
On a personal note, I LOVE to travel and, go on adventures, and take part in new experiences. Some of my highlights include sky diving, hot air ballooning, zip lining, scuba diving, dog sledding on a glacier, flying on a trapeze, and a week on a dude ranch. I always say….work hard, play hard.
I think people may also be surprised to know that I have taught college classes in the Bahamas for Nova Southeastern and was an interim professor at Columbia University in New York City.