Prior to being elected to the superintendency in 2020, you had more than 30 years of education experience with Santa Rosa County Public Schools including director of federal programs, principal, assistant principal and ESE teacher.
Of all the positions you have held in public education – which has been the most rewarding and why?
I truly believe every position I have held over the last 35 years has been rewarding and an important part of my preparation to be superintendent. My experience as the Director of Federal Programs for the past 12 years has truly enabled me to develop some of the skills necessary to be an effective superintendent, including knowledge of finance, program development and evaluation, and outreach to the community. This role also gave me the opportunity to develop our STEAM transformation, reading intervention program, and homeless education services. To have the opportunity to use federal funding to help our students be successful and to support our teachers has truly been rewarding.
Santa Rosa County Schools has been designated an academically high performing school district for the 2020-21 school year, one of only 16 county school districts out of 67 in the state. To what do you attribute this significant accomplishment?
Without hesitation, our teachers, staff, and administrators! They have truly been heroes through this pandemic. Knowing that the magic happens in the classroom with effective educators, we provide explicit professional development. Seven years ago, the district embarked on a K-12 transformation of every classroom at every school implementing Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics - STEAM. We incorporated the 4 Cs: Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity into our instruction, always focused on mastery of the Florida Standards. STEAM has enabled our teachers to engage our students in rigorous and relevant learning opportunities that connect to their lives, future careers, and the community. Our veteran teachers have observed that STEAM has reinvigorated their instruction and their careers. There is an increase in student engagement, especially for our students with special needs and our at-risk students. Our families and communities have connected with our classrooms and schools in ways that have never happened before. As we experienced the challenge of distance learning, due to quarantine or the remote learning option, the implementation of our STEAM teaching and learning approach enabled our students and teachers to be flexible, courageous, and resilient.
What led you to pursue becoming a public school superintendent?
First, lots of prayer. My faith and being a servant leader are truly at the core of who I am as an educator. My favorite scripture is Philippians 2:3-4 -- Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, rather humbly value others above yourself, not tending to your own interests, but each of you to the interest of the others. The day I took office on November 17, 2020, a plaque with this scripture went on my shelf. I want to remember every day that no matter the role I take, I am here to serve others. From classroom teacher to school principal, to director, to superintendent, the pond has continued to enlarge and the opportunity to serve others has continued to grow. I do not take this for granted. I want to strive each day to do my best, to learn from others, and to always focus on what is best for our students.
What do you feel is the most challenging barrier at this time in meeting the educational needs of students in your district?
The pandemic has had a cumulative effect emotionally and financially on school districts. Our teachers and students are so happy to be back in a stable learning environment and extremely grateful to not have the stress and fear of unnecessary quarantining; however, this 3-year ordeal has left many with anxiety over the unknown and it has taken its toll on the size of our workforce. Every employee category from teacher to paraprofessional, to bus driver, to custodians have had workforce shortages. Our employees have done their best to focus on creating stability for our students, but we are all working at full capacity. My job as superintendent is to remove non-essential requirements from employees and to provide obvious and real-time support to schools when workforce shortages occur. When substitute fill rates are low, we have developed a system to utilize district level administrators and teachers on special assignment to ensure continuity of instruction at the school level. We have ramped up our recruitment of subs and bus drivers through bonuses and incentive pay and we have leveraged our ESSER funding to provide financial relief to employees. ESSER I, II, and III are providing the district with resources to stabilize and support our workforce while funding long-term educational benefits for our students.
What do you feel is the most pressing issue facing public education as a whole?
Sadly, the current political climate in our nation has made educating our children a challenge. Hostile board meetings and the lack of faith some have for public education has many educators feeling attacked and unappreciated. I fear this negative climate may discourage good people from joining our profession and drive others into early retirement.
As superintendent, I feel it is my role to educate and share the good news about public education. This year, we hired our very first public information officer (PIO). Our PIO has great relationships with the media that have allowed us to tell the good news of the school district. Additionally, we started a monthly digital multi-media newsletter that employees, parents, and the community can receive. To “grow our own” we have teacher academies at our middle and high schools.
What is an innovative/impactful initiative in your school district that you are most proud of during your tenure as a superintendent?
For the past year, I have really focused on developing our principals and assistant principals as strong instructional leaders. Our monthly meetings are spent on professional learning and ensuring everything we do supports our mission of loving, educating and preparing students for a successful future. We started last December by studying the Wallace Foundation Study, How Principals Affect Students and Schools: A Systematic Synthesis of Two Decades of Research. I want our administrators to know we are investing in them. Their ability to lead their schools and support their teachers will be the deciding factor as to whether their students are successful or not. Their leadership is IMPORTANT and must be effective. This is a non-negotiable.
In the spring, every school level and district level administrator participated in Leadership Blueprint, a two-day training that includes a 360 analysis of leadership attributes. Each participant participated in their own leadership attribute analysis and they selected 5 colleagues or employees to provide them with this leadership analysis. Each participant received a report that identified their strengths and constraints to effective leadership and then developed their traction plan. Throughout the year, we are consciously working on our plan as it relates to our role as instructional leaders. I truly love hearing the conversations our administrators have with each other about the progress they are making on their constraints and how it is impacting them as instructional leaders.
Finally, this summer we began a district-wide administrator book study using Leverage Leadership by Paul Bambrick-Santoyo. It has been a game changer! Together, our administrators have made a commitment to being in classrooms more and growing in their role as instructional coaches. Starting with data driven instruction and coaching and feedback, administrators are all using the same language and finding creative ways of maximizing their time in classrooms to develop their teachers and themselves. We have just concluded our MTSS/Continuous Improvement meetings with each of our 35 schools and the level of discussion related to student data and needs is detailed and focused on improved student learning with action steps. Student growth from Test A to Test B using our progress monitoring tool has been significant and there is an optimism and excitement about the progress of our students. It feels so good to focus on teaching and learning and not on the pandemic!
During your tenure as a superintendent, is there an individual(s) that has served as a mentor to you and/or you admire for their positive impact on you?
Dr. Kam Patton has been my mentor and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate her! She has been so generous with her time and support. Over the past year, she and I have talked for hours on the phone and she has shared so many of the strategies that have been instrumental in making Collier County a great school district. I appreciate and admire her so much!
Outside of being a superintendent, what is something that your colleagues may not know about you that you would like to share.
I have a theater background and almost went to Broadway, but I wanted a family. My theater days have really enabled me to be an effective teacher and educator. My favorite role was Princess Winifred from “Once Upon a Mattress”.
Any additional comments & thoughts you would like to share?
I feel so blessed to be superintendent in Santa Rosa County. Each day is a challenge, but there is so much joy in the positive impact on children. FADSS has been such a great resource. I am grateful for the friendships and the advocacy that FADSS has given all superintendents in Florida.
