Accountability is a necessity in educational leadership. Sometimes, in order to improve, an outside source must be brought in to look at your district’s efficiency from an honest third-party perspective. Such measures have proven instrumental for Utah’s 2024 Superintendent of the Year.
Sevier County School District Superintendent Cade Douglas grew up in the district. In fact, he now leads several educators who once taught him when he was a student. Now in his 12th year of leadership, he has the honor of being recognized as the state’s top superintendent.
“I actually get a little emotional talking about it,” says Douglas, reflecting on what it means to receive such a prestigious award. “We have such good people. It’s not me or anything I’m doing. I actually feel like I’ve got the easiest job. My job is just to get out and coordinate the effort and keep everyone focused on the vision and provide the resources they need.”
Addressing areas of need
When Douglas and his team discuss the importance of student-teacher relationships, they remind themselves of one of the greatest realities for K12 leaders: “We’re hired to ensure that students learn. We’re not hired just to teach,” he explains.
Sevier Schools has worked extensively with author, speaker, and child psychologist Jody Carrington, who wrote Kids These Days: A Game Plan For (Re)Connecting With Those We Teach, Lead, and Love.
“One of her famous quotes is, ‘Kids are not attention-seeking, they are connection-seeking,'” says Douglas. “We trained every employee, from bus drivers up to every principal and board member, on reconnecting with students and helping them get back to a good place if they’re feeling unlike themselves.”
The district has brought in other experts to propel Sevier’s strategic initiatives, including investing in administrators. It’s easy to forget those in charge need support, too.
“Seven or eight years ago, we started realizing that we weren’t investing enough in our administrators,” says Douglas. The district hired Jimmy Casas, author of the book Culturize: Every Student. Every Day. Whatever it Takes, to come and deliver a keynote to district staff members.
“And then we kept him,” Douglas adds. “Over the course of five years, he would come and visit our district about five or six times a year for about a week at a time and coach our principals and mentor our instructional coaches.”
The district bought into Casas’ framework for improving school culture, which looks something like this:
- Being a champion for students
- Expecting excellence
- Carrying the banner
- Always being a merchant of hope
Strong school culture equals strong retention
Investing in your leadership team is crucial, and success will become evident through staff feedback and retention rates. The Sevier School District is not immune to turnover and related challenges but is weathering the storm, Douglas says.
“We do what we call ‘stay interviews’ where we interview every teacher at years two, four and six to gather feedback to make sure we’re meeting their needs.”
Since his first year as a superintendent, he has met with the local union president each month and attends the monthly meetings of his teachers association.
“It can be painful. They’re going to tell me what they’re frustrated with,” he says. “But it’s a real blessing because it gives us the opportunity to be open and transparent. Generally, our negotiation process is pretty seamless because we put that time in throughout the year.”
In terms of his leadership retention, Douglas hasn’t hired a principal from outside the district in more than 30 years. Douglas would tell you he has the best 12 principals in the country.
“We’re big PLC adopters,” he says. “Twelve years ago, as a superintendent, that was the first thing I did was load all our principals into a car and drive down to the PLC conference in Las Vegas, Nevada and we’ve gone every year since.”
“My firmest belief is that people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care,” Douglas adds. “It’s all about relationships and culture. That’s why I’m a teacher.”
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