Want to play a game, like the superintendent candidates did on Tuesday night?
It’s called Twenty Questions.
We’ll lob them at you politely. No sweating or long pauses, please. But we’ll be happy to repeat them, should you lose track.
It’s been a long day — but you’re used to that, aren’t you? You’re used to being bombarded by students and staff and parents and people who don’t even have children.
Fifty minutes to go, and explain how you’ll save us from the system. How you’ll deal with a Legislature that underfunds education, a scarcity of qualified teachers, students with different modalities, bullying, trust issues, options programs, the arts, national benchmarks, burnout. Are you ready?
The nationwide search for a new superintendent commenced last November, after Superintendent Faith Chapel announced she would be retiring at the end of the current school year. Four finalist candidates were announced last month, and they arrived on the island this week for interviews, tours and meetings with stakeholder groups. A four-hour community forum on Tuesday gave the public the opportunity to meet the candidates, ask them questions and provide written feedback to district officials, who hope to make a decision within a few days.
Steve Matthews
The only full superintendent of the bunch leads with humor: a joke about his receding hairline.
He has a lot to show, though, for the hair loss: Novi Community School District, he says, is the third highest achieving in Michigan state. With 6,400 students on the roster, it’s a bit larger than Bainbridge, but structurally, the districts are very similar, which is one of the reasons Matthews applied for the job in the first place.
That, and he’s on a quest to find a state that’s “perhaps more welcoming of education.”
Michigan, he explains, “has a history of sabotaging public education” — reducing funding and hammering teachers with an ineffective evaluation system.
There’s also the matter of roots: his wife’s family lives nearby, and he himself is a former Husky.
For his first query, about how the district might look in 10 years, Matthews talks technology, the importance of integrating it in the classroom. In 200 minutes, he’s the only candidate to mention technology, but, to be fair, nobody else is asked about the future so directly.
Other ways the father to three boys stands out is in his support for clustering (pro) and attitude toward bullying.
“There have been problematic incidents aimed at Jewish students over the last few years,” the official question asker, an Atlantic Research Partner consultant, says, reading off an audience-sourced index card. “What would be your role in handling these incidents if they happened while you were here?”
Matthews acknowledges the horror of such incidents, that every student should feel safe, then flashes a card from his pocket with clip art of a pillared monument.
One of the pillars stands for social justice, he explains, “this idea that everybody has a voice in our district.” The former youth pastor is a fan of dialogue, facilitating “uncomfortable conversations” between aggrieved and aggressor, “so that the person that’s injured has an opportunity to explain.”
Regarding trust — low in the district, a card suggests — Matthews’ strategy is to be as visible as possible. In Novi, he holds office hours at the public library, where he meets with up to 35 parents every month. He also gives out his cell phone number and invites parents to contact him directly, although he says he tells them that concerns at the building level should be dealt with accordingly.
Michael Tolley
Seattle Public School District Associate Superintendent Michael Tolley is a teacher first.
He says it twice, to make sure you understand: “The work between teachers and students is the most important work that happens in our buildings.”
His emphasis is on the whole person. “I’ve worked hard to help students understand they need to have a life; they need to be able to see that there’s more than just mastering content and demonstrating knowledge.”
Although he’s the first to admit that he’s not the best example of balance. Since he moved to Bainbridge nine years ago — his wife is a music teacher for Commodore and Sakai — he’s spent three hours every day commuting. In an ideal world, however, he’d be hiking or playing “roadie” in the family band more regularly.
On benchmarking the district, Tolley cares less about measures and more about equal opportunity.
There are learning gaps on Bainbridge, he says, as he references the Smarter Balanced testing results for one elementary school, where less than 60 percent of third-graders met the standard.
“That shouldn’t happen,” Tolley said. “I have to question what are the opportunity gaps that we are creating, how are we preventing some of our students from being successful.”
Part of the solution is providing teachers with professional development so that they understand how to accommodate different learning styles, Tolley said.
“We have to desegregate the data,” he added, and consider the needs of “each and every student” rather than the whole.
As for what his critics say about him, Tolley gave a jumbled response about how they miss that he’s part of a larger organization and that, in many cases, he lacks the ability to make the final decision. Eventually, he came full circle, though, conceding that it’s OK if he has to take the blame. It’s a key component of trust: doing what you say you’re going to do and working transparently.
On the problem of state funding, Tolley said it’s critical that superintendents band together to get the message across. (Stevens, in contrast, believes advocacy is most effective when it comes from parents.) When cuts are necessary, Tolley said he looks to the community for input. “There’s not enough funding to do everything we want to do… but we have choices. It’s a collaborative effort.”
Peter Bang-Knudsen
The message from hometown boy Peter Bang-Knudsen was overwhelmingly positive as he praised the work of Chapel and other colleagues.
“I’m really proud of our schools,” the associate superintendent for administrative services said in his introduction. “What I’d like to do is work with you and collaborate with you as a community and talk about how we can expand these excellent practices.”
Mostly, he spoke of policies already in place: the success of the district’s choice programs, a solid relationship with the Bainbridge Schools Foundation, advanced math experiences for highly capable kids.
But Bang-Knudsen also offered ideas to entice and retain new teachers in an increasingly competitive market: welcome bags to help new hires feel connected and informal affordable housing arrangements to ensure it’s easy to move, then stay.
The point is to get creative, he said.
“I see this as an opportunity to come in with fresh eyes,” said the associate superintendent, who joined the district in 2010.
If selected for the promotion, he plans to commence a listening tour with staff and students.
As a critic told him, while he was principal of Bellevue International School: “You really need to understand what is before launching forward.”
Student well-being is the end game, he said, over test scores and other benchmarks. Or in chant form: All kids should “feel supported, challenged and inspired.” (Now say that four times like he did.)
“I feel like we’re really doing a better job of meeting kids where they’re at,” Bang-Knudsen added.
Results from a recent Healthy Youth survey concern him, though. While overwhelmingly, Bainbridge students feel safe, they aren’t necessarily happy, data showed. The impetus is on staff, he said, to figure out why that is, “what we can do differently.”
On the funding dilemma, Bang-Knudsen iterated the importance of spending money wisely. He referenced a Seattle Times article about Massachusetts schools as evidence and highlighted how the quality of a teacher versus the size of a classroom can often be a more impactful investment.
The current superintendent doesn’t get enough credit, he said, in response to a question about what he would do differently.
He rattled off a list of Chapel’s accomplishments, then answered the question for her: “If you were to ask Faith what she’d want to do differently, I think she’d say she wanted to be in schools more.” Bang-Knudsen agrees.
Molly Evans
Molly Evans’ handicap is her lack of a high school. The assistant superintendent for Litchfield Elementary School District juggles nearly 12,000 students, but only from preschool to eighth grade.
“There are certain technicalities of the high school system I will have to learn, but I’m a quick study,” she said.
She has some personal experience, anyway — two teenage daughters. And in her opinion, it doesn’t really matter the age of kids: “You know a good learning environment the minute you walk in.”
You also know a good island when you see it. Evans first discovered Bainbridge Island last June. She’s been back four times in the last nine months, stuck on the “great quality of life,” the parks, the options for kids. She’s not the national search type, but she would love to move here.
Like Tolley, Evans placed great emphasis on the “whole child” concept. “Before kids can feel capable of taking risks, they need to feel that they are in a safe place, with someone who cares about them,” she said.
To prevent burnout, you work to make sure students’ individual needs are being met. To ensure no student falls through the cracks, you regularly consult the data for each one, focusing on growth rather than proficiency.
On benchmarks, Evans said the key is to pay attention.
“Educators are the best thieves,” she added. “What it really comes down to is making sure we’re staying abreast of what other successful districts are doing.”
She’s especially proud of her Arizona district’s 40 special education programs, all of which she oversees.
“Our philosophy is that our kids in our neighborhoods need to be in our schools,” she said.
As much as appropriate, kids with special needs engage with their peers.
“It’s kind of an area of passion for me – kids working with other kids,” she said.
Evans didn’t bat an eye when it came to a question about low funding; she has the same problem in her own district.
“Teachers can do incredible things with limited resources,” she said. “My team continues to raise test scores and achievement while the government figures out their miss.”
