The keyword as students head back to school in Alaska’s Mat-Su Borough School District is “STAR.” Actually, it’s an acronym—but not one of the really dull ones.
“We want folks to start singing with students, talking with students, asking students questions and reading whenever they can,” Superintendent Randy Trani told Alaska’s News Source. “These aren’t just people in the school—we mean everybody in the Mat-Su community.”
Among Trani’s biggest concerns is transportation and whether his district, which has one of the largest transportation budgets in the region, will have enough bus drivers as it contends with stagnant funding levels. But that is hardly an uncommon challenge as the nation’s first wave of districts go back to school. Here’s a video-heavy sample of what superintendents—many of whom are in the Southern U.S.—are telling their communities in their back-to-school messages as classes start for 2023-24.
Technology, safety and behavior
Helping students detach from their devices will be a 2023-24 priority at Bryan ISD in Texas, Superintendent Ginger Carrabine told KBTX.com. She intends to work more closely with parents to encourage students to participate in athletics, the arts, leadership programs and other extracurricular activities.
“More than ever with technology, we have to compete with that,” Carrabine told the station. “Our goal is to engage our students. We’ve go to find something for them to connect to, to be involved in.”
Student safety is, of course, another top concern as mass shootings have become a fact of life in and outside school buildings. Clayton County Public Schools outside Atlanta has installed weapon detection systems and bulked up perimeter security while educators will put renewed focus on student behavior, with different approaches for each grade level, Superintendent Anthony W. Smith told 11Alive.
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For example, high school and middle school students could be assigned to virtual learning as a punishment. “We’re taking a strong stance against disciplinary issues, disruptions and violence,” he said. “We’re going to be a tough-love school system.”
Broken Arrow Public Schools in Oklahoma has expanded its safety team to 16, allowing its members to expand their patrols to the district’s elementary schools, Superintendent Chuck Perry told News 9. “We’ve gotten a lot of great feedback from our staff—they feel better and safer,” he explained.
Back-to-school staffing concerns
Not surprisingly, teachers—both the ones districts have and the ones they need—have been a big focus this summer and will continue to be as the year gets underway. Broken Arrow is dealing with shortages in special education and upper-level high school math. Fewer students are graduating college with special education degrees, forcing districts to poach SPED staff from each other.
“Nothing concerns me more than the teacher shortage we see not improving over the next three to five years,” Perry told the station. “A great teacher in the classroom—of anything you do, that’s the most important thing.”
VIDEO: Superintendent Patrick Martin details five goals for Trussville City Schools in Alabama.
On the other hand, some superintendents are feeling less anxious about vacancies. Superintendent Sally Sugg says Shelby County Public Schools in Kentucky only has a few holes left to fill. Her district is better off than some of the more rural systems in the state because it’s located near a large, metropolitan area, she told WHAS11in this video interview. On the other hand, the highest-paying district in the state is also right next door.
In Florida, every classroom will have a teacher when students return to the School District of Indian River County on Aug. 10, Superintendent David Moore told WPBF.com. The district has about a dozen vacancies right now, compared to about 35 at the beginning of 2022-23. “We’re a school system, one of four in the state of Florida that are actually in a better place academically today than we were pre-pandemic,” Moore pointed out in the interview with WPBF.com. “We have not seen a level of decreasing, but ultimately increasing—so continuing to build upon that momentum.”
As vacancies are being filled at Huntsville City Schools in Alabama, administrators are also laser-focused on retention, Superintendent Dr. Clarence Sutton told WHNT.com. The district has about 20 open positions remaining after losing about 200 teachers and staff at the end of last school year. “The main thing is our teachers want support,” said Sutton, who took the helm in Huntsville this summer. “We really worked this summer as a leadership team and as a community— we said, ‘Let’s make it simple for them. Let’s get back to the basics.'”
