Boyd touts Santa Fe gains in Nashville interview

SFPS superintendent seeks similar job in Tenn.

Increased graduation rates and creating relationships that develop into productive collaborations were among the things Santa Fe Public Schools Superintendent Joel Boyd highlighted Thursday during his first interview with the Metro Nashville Public Schools’ school board.

Boyd said Santa Fe schools had a reputation as “dropout factories” before he arrived and touted rising graduation rates under his tenure, but also conceded that he’s no “Superman.”

Boyd, who is completing his fourth year as schools chief in Santa Fe, is one of six finalists for the job of schools director, the equivalent of superintendent, in Tennessee’s state capital.

During a day of back-to-back interviews, each candidate was given an opportunity to speak for a few minutes about themselves and why they were interested in the job in Nashville. They then were asked the same five core questions before individual board members asked their own questions. Boyd’s stint before the board lasted about 70 minutes and, like all the others, was shown online by The Tennesseean, a Nashville newspaper.

Wearing a blue suit coat with a white handkerchief protruding from the left breast pocket, a white shirt and red tie, Boyd greeted each board member individually with a handshake and a smile as he went around the table.

After settling into his seat, he played to his Music City audience by saying he and his wife had to give up tickets to see country singer Chris Stapleton perform in Albuquerque in order to be there. He followed that with a quip about how it was that the superintendent from New Mexico found himself in Nashville on Cinco de Mayo.

The interview quickly took on a more serious tone as Boyd Santa Fe Public Schools Superintendent Joel Boyd makes a point during his interview with the Nashville school board Thursday.

described his background. He said that, oftentimes, people may look at a person’s résumé and make assumptions, perhaps alluding to his Harvard education. In his case, “generally, the opposite is true.”

He told the story of his boyhood that people in Santa Fe are already familiar with. His family struggled, they didn’t have a lot of money, he wasn’t a dedicated student, and that it took his high school wrestling coach to get him to reconnect with academics. His mother was a school teacher and a huge influence, too, so when it came time to choose a career, “education was an obvious choice,” he said.

He went on to outline his career, which includes stints in Miami and Philadelphia, as a teacher, principal and assistant superintendent.

Getting around to Santa Fe, he said he chose to go to a small community because he wanted “to have an opportunity to make a difference.” He said serving as Santa Fe superintendent has been “a great experience and a blessing,” and noted accomplishments since his arrival. He said that Santa Fe has moved from one of the lowest performing school districts in the state to the most rapidly improving. He pointed to an improvement of more than 10 percentage points in Santa Fe’s graduation rate in the past five years. The rate has improved by 5 percentage points, up to 66.8 percent, during Boyd’s four years.

He noted that he set up and serves as self-appointed principal of a school for dropouts, Engage Santa Fe, which he said counts against graduation numbers. But he said he felt the school district had a moral obligation to attempt to recapture kids who otherwise have the odds stacked against them.

Most diplomas ever

He boasted that, this month, he will hand out more diplomas than for any year in the history of SFPS.

Asked about his human resources philosophy, Boyd said three things were important to any employee: they want a competitive wage, they want their voices to be heard and they want to be successful. He has tried to create that environment in Santa Fe, he said, adding that SFPS was one of the most improved districts in the state because of its teachers and principals.

Boyd talked throughout the interview about the importance of communication and building relationships with people. “I try every day to put the super in superintendent,” he said. “Frankly, I’m no superman and no one else is either.”

That’s why, he said, coalitions have to be built around change. He talked about creating parent academies in Santa Fe, where parents can learn computer skills or improve their own reading ability, and consequently are more involved in their child’s education. He told how every effort is made to try to involve parents and the community in conversations and the decision-making process.

“The process of changing a school system is a process that involves a multigenerational approach,” he said. Asked about competition from private schools, he said in part, “Marketing is only effective if you have the results to market.”

Boyd told the board a balance must be struck regarding standardized testing.

Testing can be an extremely useful tool, he said, providing information to teachers about what they need to be teaching. But, “It really is a balancing act,” he said, adding that he believes the balance has tipped too far toward testing. “There’s value in the information and also value in the time teachers have to teach.”

When asked what his first few months as superintendent in Nashville would be like if he were selected, Boyd said he would likely duplicate what he did in Santa Fe, creating a transition team to make assessments and recommendations as to what most needs to be addressed.

He said gathering data was important, but knowing what to do with it was even more critical. He took the opportunity to paraphrase the lyrics from a song called “In Color” by another country music singer, Jamey Johnson, to illustrate his point. A picture is worth a thousand words, Johnson sings, but to see through the shades of gray, it needs to be seen in color.

Boyd went into detail about the system of “differential autonomy” that’s been installed in Santa Fe, allowing principals in successful schools to have more say in running their schools and shepherding change with schools that have historically struggled.

He mentioned controversy over an initial plan for a private company to run Engage Santa Fe, which serves about 90 students and is slated to produce its third graduate this spring. “My job is not a popularity contest,” Boyd said. “I stand on what I believe and sometimes I stand alone. That hasn’t happened much in Santa Fe.” He also said the news media has been supportive “because we communicated.”

Handouts

Boyd came prepared. On three occasions, he distributed handouts to the panel to help clarify his points.

Given an opportunity to ask questions at the end of the interview, Boyd wanted to know what they wanted the legacy of their next superintendent to be. Various board members said they wanted someone who would move the needle for improving Nashville schools and do it quickly, that the Metro Nashville school district would become the fastest-growing urban district in the country and that a new culture of high expectations is needed.

Before one more round of handshakes as he left the interview, Boyd said, “Thank you for the opportunity to celebrate the work in Santa Fe.”

If Boyd, who still has one more year left on a contract that pays him $180,000 per year, were hired in Nashville, he would go from a school district with approximately 13,000 students and a $102 million operating budget to a district with about 83,000 students and a budget of $790 million.