Ep 10 | Who is the Superintendent?

SPEAKER_00 0:00

But it takes being united, being joined together, coming on common ground that says public education is for all kids. And we want all kids to walk across that stage as a graduating senior with skills and knowledge to go on and be helpful and productive community members.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Welcome to the Voices United in Education podcast. Each week we showcase the teachers, administrators, and community members who go the extra mile to contribute to the success of every student in Escambi County. You'll meet the real people behind the titles and learn about the amazing resources to support every student's success. One of the goals of this podcast is to get to know the people behind the titles in the school district. Because it's hard to join hands with a stranger, but come together with our neighbors, that's something Pensacola does really well. When we can see each other as neighbors in the real world and not avatars in a virtual one, we'll be in a better position to come together for the success of every child in our community. So with that, I'm very happy to introduce you to my next guest. He's the superintendent of Escambi County Schools, but he's also a husband, a dad, and an outdoorsman. Today he's not only going to get to talk about the future of the district, but also who he is outside of work. Maryland to Florida, social studies to superintendent, the man behind the title and the tie, Dr. Tim Smith. Thanks for being here.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

Thank you. I'm glad to be here.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

So grew up in Maryland. Yes. Undergrad in Delaware, off to Florida State, worked in Central Florida. Now you live in Pensacola, Florida. I think the important question here is where do your football loyalties lie?

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Oh, that's a good question. I am a Tampa Bay Buccaneer fan.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

When I lived in Florida a few years, I decided I needed to make that switch and have been a supporter ever since. I am a big Florida State fan and a UCF fan as well.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

Oh wow. Well, okay. I'll I'll let those things slide. Actually, to be truthful, I'm not a big football person at all, but I'm sure some of our listeners are. So now they know where you stand with that.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

And your major at University of Delaware was business, but what made you decide to switch to education when you went to Florida State?

SPEAKER_00 2:31

Well, I I started working out in the business world and quickly realized that it really wasn't the match that I was looking for. And felt a tug to go into education, had thought about that earlier in my years and uh decided to go into business really to make sure I could get a job when I graduated from college and just wasn't sure what my future uh had in store. But once in the business world, I I quickly realized that education was was where I needed to go. So I looked uh into going back to school to get a master's and teacher certification at the same time, and Florida State could could do that. They could offer such a program. And lo and behold, I became a seminole.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

Lo and behold. Yes. Did you continue working while you got your master's degree?

SPEAKER_00 3:23

So I decided to go ahead and just go full-time and do it as fast as I could. So I started one summer, went the whole year, finished up in the summer, and was then teaching and working that that fall. So I was about really about 14 months the program.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

And diverging from business could lead you in a lot of different directions. Is there a specific reason that you felt the pull of education?

SPEAKER_00 3:53

I think for me, what it was is trying to make an impact on young people and uh taking taking the knowledge and skills that I had acquired through school and trying to share that and and impart that and and and work work with young people.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

That's amazing. Well, between Delaware and Florida State, you also backpacked to Europe. And that was before GPS and cell phone and couch surfing apps, right?

SPEAKER_00 4:23

I I did, yes.

SPEAKER_01 4:25

What made you decide to do that?

SPEAKER_00 4:27

Uh a friend of mine, he and I, we we were looking at our future and said, we ought to do this because we will never get the opportunity to do it again. And uh so upon graduation, we we worked as many hours as we could, saved up some money, and uh purchased a URL pass, and we traveled through trains, uh went through nine different countries on a backpacking trip. It was a great adventure, saw a lot of of neat, really neat places, unique cultures, different languages. It was a fantastic trip. Really glad we did that. And he he was uh rather uh fortuitous in his statement because he was right. We were it I never would have had that opportunity to do that again. And so it was it was really uh a wise thing when I look back that we did because we had the chance to do it and we did it.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

Any specific countries stand out in your memory from that trip?

SPEAKER_00 5:29

Oh, and a number of them. I I would say uh Switzerland stood out and and uh we we were in a town called Interlochen, one of the most scenic places I've ever been in in the world. Uh the the beaches in Portugal were incredible. Uh we were able to go through parts of Italy uh and and a bit off the the the path, the beaten path, so we saw some unique places there. It was it was spectacular.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

Oh, I can imagine. I think traveling gives people perspective that I'm really not convinced you can get anywhere else. Is there any specific um perspectives or life lessons that you remember taking away from what was it, seven weeks?

SPEAKER_00 6:17

Yes, yes. So it I think what I learned a lot in that in that travel was how people could come together and and interact. We met on on the trains, there was there were quite a number of travelers on the trains. And we met a number of people from all over Europe. And we we traveled a little bit with a a couple people from Holland, uh from Sweden, and and you just met all kinds of people. We s spent a lot of time in youth hostels because that was the most inexpensive way to have lodging. So we we took advantage of that. Uh and and and it was just this coming together of people from all around the world. So it was fascinating to see that and to interact with people of different cultures and and just see people too um unified and and uniting in a in a common uh notion of of traveling and seeing new places. It was really fantastic. I also noticed, too, that uh we in America live in a much newer place than uh some of these very, very old cities in Europe, and uh seeing the the difference in the geography and and how small towns operated and a lot of people walked because they could, and and just comparing that to our cultures and and it was it was fascinating to see that.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

It is amazing. Did you either of you speak any other languages other than English?

SPEAKER_00 8:03

Well, I knew a little Spanish enough to tell people that I didn't really know how to speak in Spanish.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

That's fair. That's important.

SPEAKER_00 8:13

And my my buddy knew a little Italian, about about the same same amount. So we were we were definitely uh exploring being in a land with language that we didn't understand.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

Being a foreigner is actually a really valuable perspective, I think, you know, um, because you learn when I learned um other languages, the first thing that I noticed is that I could say what I wanted to say with fewer words. And so I I realized that all the filler words that I wanted to communicate normally in English were not necessary. I also learned what it means to not belong to a group immediately. The uh the valuable experience of feeling awkward, you know, and an outsider, feeling like an outsider, all of those are really good things. So I'm glad that you that you got to do that.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

Yeah. And I was able to entertain some people. I remember bar br uh purchasing a loaf of bread, and I think I said um baguette, and the people behind the counter just started laughing. Oh no, because the way I said I I don't I was trying, but I don't know how I came across, but it was entertaining to them. So that was so laughing at yourself.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

This is also an important lesson.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

Absolutely, absolutely. And and I think that's another thing that I learned too is the appreciation for being able to communicate, to hear, to speak, to interact with people, where beforehand I just took that for granted. That just was a a reality that I never really thought about. But having that experience really garnered an appreciation within me of being able to uh enjoy that ability. I I never cherished my hearing or my ability to speak with with another person as much as I did on that that trip. We kind of ended our travel in England and Ireland. And so we could then freely speak because of the common language, and it was a noticeable difference and just how you interacted with people, it was much more seamless because you you didn't have to pull out your translation book or or whatever to to have a conversation with somebody. So gained a lot of appreciation for that.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Yeah, one that again you can only get when you go outside of your neighborhood for sure.

SPEAKER_00 10:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 10:45

So you schooled, you traveled, you schooled some more, found love. I think schooled even more after that for your PhD. There's a lot of schooling, raised some kiddos, and now you're here. Yes. So what does a superintendent do exactly?

SPEAKER_00 11:01

Well, it's a it's a fantastic opportunity uh to really lead a school district in in a community for the the future of kids. And one of the reasons I I went back to school, I went to the University of Central Florida late in my career. Um I was the oldest guy in the the doctoral cohort, and uh that w which was an experience in itself just being the old guy. But I did that because um my youngest child had left for college and uh I was a high school principal at the time, and I and I just wasn't gonna do that with my my kids at home because being a high school principal was busy enough. But when she went to off to college, um I said, Well, I'm gonna do this now or I'm not gonna do it. And really what what uh pushed me to do that is I had a couple of mentors who w wouldn't stop pinging me, saying, You you you need to do this, this is something you should do. And that kind of got me thinking, but but what really led me to do it was a a a tug, uh a calling that um it was time to look at leading on a larger scale where uh my my hope and my quest is to to do good work, to lead in a way that benefits more and more students and and have our young people embrace great opportunities because of the learning and the experience that they have in school in public school.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

Which is something you felt like you couldn't do at scale as a principal, only as a superintendent.

SPEAKER_00 12:55

I I I felt I could do that with in the school that I ran, but the the tug was to do that on a wider, wider scale.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

Aaron Powell What does that look like in your day-to-day activities then?

SPEAKER_00 13:07

Well, uh one of one of the things as a superintendent is you the mind is always looking at what's the best for our students. Uh and and we have a a significantly uh sized organization with over 5,000 employees and about 36,000 students. So decisions are important because they impact a lot of people. The key is making the right decisions, but in a framework, a a large framework that leads us into the right direction. So w w when I when I talk about that, that can look many different ways. So if you take learning, those decisions are that might impact instruction. So is that moving in the right direction that's going to impact the most most students? Um if you look in our our finances, are we making financial decisions that are sound, that are balanced, where we're not spending too much or we're not spending enough, but we're spending on the right things that make a difference. And if we're um renovating a building, how fast can we do that? How much money goes into that? How does that impact our community and our kids? Um our human resources. How can we do things that um are beneficial to our employees? How do we recruit and and attract emplo uh employees to our our profession, which I will tell you right now is our greatest challenge is the labor shortage. It really has impacted us. Um but fortunate for the people of Escambia County, we have an excellent human resource department who they just never stop. And we have principals and assistant principals who will think outside of the box and they'll they do what's necessary, and we have teachers who will do whatever it takes for their their kids. And then you have all the support employees who are right there chiming in. What can I do to help? How can I help? And then going to work and doing it. So we're very fortunate because what makes the district run are the people working in our our schools and our district uh departments every day.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

It sounds like you're the coach of the team, basically.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

It's good a good analogy. Yeah. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

Well, that's the only sports analogy I got. So I hope everyone enjoyed it because there won't be any more. That's all I can do. Malcolm Thomas was the superintendent before you since 2008. And then you uh were appointed in 2020, quite a year to take on that role. What existing things are you building on and what new things are you working to create?

SPEAKER_00 16:12

That's been one of the more challenging questions. Beginning this past school year, which was the 21-22 year, the the timing was right to really move forward with some initiatives. The timing suddenly wasn't right about the the first week in the school when we had a massive COVID spike.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

Oh, I forgot about that.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

Yes. And so that uh impacted us in in August and then into September to the point where we needed to close down access to schools. We canceled open house, we um restricted our volunteers from coming onto campus just to mitigate COVID spread. Uh what happens there is then our principals have to switch their modality from more of instructional leadership where they're working with teachers and department chairs on instruction and coaching, uh providing staff development for our teachers that they can continue to be on the cutting edge. Well what happened is we the principals, I had to have them back off of that work and switch into pure safety and management of COVID. So their contact tracing, you can imagine in a uh big high school, if a student has been identified as having COVID, then the students that sit around that that individual student have to do what we call contact tracing to see if they have any symptoms. Communication home. But that has to happen for that one student in all six seven classes, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:07

And what did you say, 36,000 students in Escambia County Public? And I mean, Pensacola, just city limits is what, 40,000? Well, there's not surrounding areas, but just Pensacola. So if you think about it, the kids of Escambia County Public could basically occupy city limits of Pensacola. I mean, that's really putting it to scale.

SPEAKER_00 18:29

It's a large, it's a large population of students. So so you you get your you have your principals and assistant principals and and and ever all hands on deck working that just because safety had to to be our number one priority. It's it's always our number one priority. And so when it is, that's what you do. And so that but they didn't have time to do the instructional piece or or or many of the other tasks. So we had to pull back on some initiatives. And and it goes to your your point of timing and when you move forward with that and when you have to to back off on that. Um and and so we in that case we had to back off on that. Uh then we got hit with another COVID spike in January. And in January, actually, I believe, because I would monitor the number of uh staff and students that we had out on COVID, and we had a tracker, a data tracker that we had uh plugged in on our website. And I remember in January seeing four percent one day of our district staff, all of our district staff, four percent, that's over 200, 200 employees out on a particular day. That I believe was the highest uh percentage I had seen. And you you think about it, that was January. That impacted instructional time tremendously because if you have a teacher out and a teacher uh has 120 students, let's say a day uh at a secondary school, that's a big impact. But then also the dynamic is you had students who were out as well. So a student might miss instructional time or come back and then their teacher might be out. Oh yeah. And then substitutes were hard to find because COVID didn't didn't escape them. And so it was it was quite a um tall task for our principals. But they do what they do, and that is they put one foot forward and they get the job done. And so I'm really proud of of our staff for going through that experience and doing what was needed for our our students to have stability and and to continue moving forward with learning, despite challenges that were so unique, we just never had really seen these types of challenges before COVID.

SPEAKER_01 21:08

Right. Yeah, absolutely. It's not like we could call up our great-great-grandparents of you know in 1918 and be like, so what did y'all do about this exactly? Um, and plus that wouldn't necessarily it wasn't apples to apples.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

So it's a great point.

SPEAKER_01 21:22

Dr. Smith, king of the pivot. We'll just add that to your resume.

SPEAKER_00 21:27

Well, I have to tip my hat to Malcolm Thomas because he had the hardest spot. He had the early phase of COVID and and when the district went to the remote platform where the whole state whole state did. And so thank you, Mr. Thomas, for navigating that because I know that was not easy. And he he did a great job with that. And uh he he he he was uh he was an outstanding leader in this district. And I I was for very fortunate the board uh gave me six weeks to Shadow him and just interact with him. And he he taught me so much. I'm really grateful to him for that time.

SPEAKER_01 22:07

Well, thank goodness. Thank goodness for all of that.

SPEAKER_00 22:09

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

Now, your two themes with the district right now are united and every child. Can you explain the significance of those two things? Of course, this podcast is voices united in education. So we're following right along that line. But I think it'd be great to hear from you.

SPEAKER_00 22:26

Well, thank you for bringing up those terms because they are near and dear to me. I think we live in a time now where the leadership needed from myself is all about unity. We live in some challenging times. There are a lot of dynamics, there are a lot of variables that have really surfaced over the last couple of years. And certainly our society has been impacted with this whole pandemic. And uh you have an economy now that's that's fluid, it's it's moving, we're not sure where it's gonna go. In fact, it seems like it's hard to really pinpoint and define the dynamic that is in place. So you you have labor shortage, you you have people who are looking at at just different ways of doing things that may have been very traditional in the past. And so through through it all, we we have um some some cultural pieces, I think, in our nation, where it it's really calling for coalescing, coming together, finding common ground as Americans and cherishing the freedom that we have, that people have fought for, that people serve. And we have so many good, talented people who have a great heart for our country and and they're serving. And you know, I look at our local delegation, just incredible people who just invest so many hours in in heart and soul into representing us. I look at our school board members who are so passionate about our our kids. Our school board members have just great hearts for kids. And and I I really am honored to work with them and and share that that drive for having our kids educated and and graduating with great opportunities. But but what's core to this is us coming together as as a community. And we have some heavy lifts as far as some to-dos. And and that gets into the every child piece, where we have an achievement gap that we we just have to close that gap because what that says is that we have some students who are doing very well in our district, and we have some students who are struggling in our district. Our district needs to be one where all of our kids are moving forward, learning and being successful, and they graduate and they're prepared to go forth and do great things. And so that's our charge is to close those gaps where all of our kids are being reached and connected to. Now, when I say that, that's easy to say, right? Let's close the gap. We we in the educational world have been saying that for years.

SPEAKER_01 25:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:41

Because this is not unique to a scambia. It is throughout the state of Florida, and my unscientific sampling uh indicates that it's nationwide. It's a it's a national education system uh um characteristic. And so then it becomes the question what do we need to do to close the achievement gap? And so and I really believe it is doable, but it takes being united, being joined together, coming on common ground that says public education is for all kids. And we want all kids to walk across that stage as a uh graduating senior with skills and knowledge to go on and be helpful and productive community members.

SPEAKER_01 26:33

I'm glad that you said you think that this, you really believe truly that it's achievable because as I thought more about the achievement gap and and how there hasn't been any school district that we know of that has achieved the closing of that gap. I don't know, inside it started to feel like world peace, you know, like is this possible? Is this a real goal? So are there are there certain milestones that we're measuring along the way for this goal?

SPEAKER_00 27:01

So that we we get those gaps every year. We we get the measurement on those gaps.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

And how do we measure them?

SPEAKER_00 27:09

Through the state testing.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

Okay, that's that's okay.

SPEAKER_00 27:12

So in our state testing, we get measures of who is on grade level or above and who is below grade level. And we call those proficiency scores. Um that's the language associated with our state testing uh metrics. And so the proficiency is a is a key, key measure. So you have some some dynamics there where what happens is as if you have a student who falls behind. How the the the the question then is how do we how do we provide resource and intervention to pull that student up? Now, one of the the huge challenges is that some of our students come in behind on the very first day of public education because there's a measure called kindergarten readiness. So our kindergarten readiness dropped six percent COVID. We we had a fewer, fewer pre-K uh students because it's it's voluntary, it's optional, and people were concerned about COVID, and a lot of people kept their kids home. So um so we're gonna see that kindergarten readiness drop as a result of that. But that's a key measure. And so when in our district, 42% of our kids this year were ready for kindergarten. So that's there's a there's an opportunity there of how can we push in the early years before kids even get here. And we have some incredible community leaders who have done great work for that. And I I would venture to say, I I don't have the measures, but I'd venture to say we have a whole lot more kids who are ready than probably 15 years ago because of what this community has done, what the our hospitals are doing, what what some of our community leaders are doing. Uh and and it's that kind of that that really reflects the unity that I speak of. It's when people come together for a a shared common cause that is most worthy. And and that's that's an integral part of us closing the achievement gap is that unity. And that's an example of it. But there are different points along the students' way that we need to provide more resource. We need to be aggressive in in coaching up our kids who are struggling because I haven't met many kids who enjoy being behind.

SPEAKER_01 29:49

No, no, and it's better to be ready than get ready. That's right. Yeah, yeah. Um how will we celebrate the milestones? I'm thinking a parade. You know, we love us a good parade in Pensacola.

SPEAKER_00 30:01

I would love a parade.

SPEAKER_01 30:02

I mean, I think that's a great idea. I'm not trying to, you know, make you make an announcement right now, but I think a uh, you know, kindergarten readiness parade sounds pretty good to me.

SPEAKER_00 30:12

With fireworks.

SPEAKER_01 30:13

Ooh, I like that next level. Okay, with fireworks. Well, finally, before as we uh wrap up, what what do you want people to know about Escambia County public schools?

SPEAKER_00 30:27

What comes to mind immediately is the incredible heart that our employees have. That's that just I I saw that firsthand with COVID. I I remember I was at uh Brentwood Elementary. I hadn't been in the position long, and I walked in the classroom and the teacher had, I think, three or four monitors. It it was like watching a symphony conductor because the the teacher is teaching students through the computer remotely, but then also has rows of students in the class teaching in person all simultaneously. And that I think is so indicative of the heart and the determination and the perseverance and the grit of our employees, where we'll have a teacher assistant who will go above and beyond to support that student, to be a uh a helpful voice for that parent who may be having a tough, tough day. Um, and and their student might be struggling, but that assistant is right there to help our custodial team, our food service team, our bus drivers. It's just amazing how well bus drivers, they drop off kids and they'll go back and do additional routes and additional routes and additional routes till till it's all all done. And so that's what sticks out. The other thing that sticks out too is our kids are amazing. And I I I'm I'm one of the I am the lucky guy. I get to be at every high school graduation and to shake the hand of our graduates. And it's a it's a it's a fantastic moment because you see kids culminating that K-12 experience, but then you also see them stepping up into a bright future. And that goes back to the original question of why did I go into education? And and that that moment resonates with me because you see just these incredibly excited, youthful people who are going to go on and do great things and and be huge uh contributors to our community, but to communities throughout the world.

SPEAKER_01 32:43

Absolutely. Thank you so much. This was incredible.

SPEAKER_00 32:47

You're welcome. Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity, and uh, I'm really um I'm honored to be the superintendent of this incredible school district in this incredible county. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 33:01

Voices United in Education is a production of Escambia County School District. Special thanks to Pine Forest High School for their recording studio facilities and hospitality.