In the second-largest school district in West Virginia, Superintendent Ryan Saxe leads one of the minority of school districts nationwide that is growing its student population in a post-pandemic era of K12 education. His community-driven approach to leadership and commitment to academic excellence make it a place where families want to enroll their kids.
Berkeley County Schools has gained just over 500 students this year, bringing its enrollment to more than 20,000, says Saxe. It also has the largest non-English-speaking student population in the state.
Leveraging community engagement to drive learning
This is the first year at Berkeley County for Saxe, who was recently named West Virginia’s 2024 Superintendent of the Year. This school year, he has prioritized strengthening community engagement and upholding the district’s standard for academic excellence.
“When we think about relationships with stakeholders, our teachers, administrators, students and, most importantly, our families, it can’t be underscored enough as to the impact those relationships have on the student learning experience,” Saxe explains.
Part of that commitment to engagement involves a promise to create safe and secure schools for students, which Saxe consistently communicates to his families.
“It’s important for our parents to know that when they drop their students off they’re in a safe place and if an emergency should occur, they are equipped with the knowledge, experience and skills necessary to respond in a way that keeps everybody safe,” says Saxe.
Second to safety is setting high-caliber expectations for student academics by ensuring instructional resources and teacher professional development are aligned with the district’s strategic plan. Saxe says there’s high-quality communication between his teachers and school administration fueling this mission.
“That sort of comes back to relationships,” he says. “We have to have relationships built on trust to identify what’s working and where we need to improve to make sure the expectations for student achievement can be accomplished.”
One of the challenges he faces in this area stems from the district’s rapidly growing student population. Many of his schools are over capacity and he and his team are working on solutions to relieve their class sizes for teachers.
“We’re building new schools,” says Saxe. “We’re doing some planning based on where our growth is occurring where we need to add schools, where we need to add classrooms so that we can take some of the pressure off of overcrowding off of our elementary, middle and high schools.
Staying innovative
Many of these decisions are grounded on several networking opportunities that Saxe relies on to “sharpen the saw,” as he describes. When he encounters an issue, he often resorts to his colleagues in AASA, The School Superintendents Association for guidance.
“I have a group of people that I can reach out to and say, ‘This is what’s going on. Have you encountered it, and how have you addressed the challenge,'” he says. “To stay current with innovation, it’s about not only networking with those individuals but being very active in the school superintendents association.
“I have found that the AASA is just a wonderful organization that not only unites school district leaders, but it is very informative and provides great professional development around what is innovation and the direction we’re going when it comes to public education.”
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