College Community School District begins administrative additions

The College Community School District is adding more than students.

The school system, which has seen its enrollment rise by 11 percent since the 2008-09 academic year, has created two administrative positions in part to respond to the uptick in learners.

Superintendent John Speer named Jamie Coquyt, who hails from the Ballard Community School District where Speer was formerly superintendent, director of human resources on April 22. On May 2, Speer named Todd Martin director of elementary education and innovation. Pending approval of the district's school board, both Coquyt and Martin will earn annual salaries of $107,500 and begin their new roles on Monday, July 1.

“We've always operated pretty lean on administration,” said Randy Bauer, president of the College Community school board. “As you grow, some of these administrative positions are necessary to ensure quality education for our students.”

Enrollment in the district grew to 4,568 students from 4,116 in the last half decade. More students means more staff, and as Bauer said the district needed someone to focus on hiring employees and screening applicants.

“We probably should've added it years ago,” said Bauer, who has been on the school board for 13 years, of the human resources director. “Hiring teachers is important to us. Quite frankly, when building administrators are out on the hiring process, it takes them away from schools for things like professional development and being educational leaders.”

Speer envisions that Martin and his eventual counterpart – the goal is to add a parallel secondary director of curriculum and innovation so the district will have 12 central office administrators by the 2014-15 school year – will also handle those professional development duties.

“The two people will work in tandem on professional learning and goals and direction but they'll also branch off and take a real specific look at the education levels we have in College Community,” the superintendent said. “They'll really run curriculum and instruction in the district.”

The secondary-level position will be similar to the role former Prairie High School Principal Mark Gronemeyer holds as the secondary curriculum specialist, Speer said.

The district has adopted a number of new programming initiatives in recent years, including flipped instruction, 1:1 (in which every ninth- through 12th-grade student receives district-furnished laptop) and the Global Generation project-based learning program.

Speer is unsure of what other potential curriculum innovations lay ahead. He maintained that he isn't planning a specific shift, rather, eventually adding two administrators to focus on programming is more about providing adequate instructional support.

“Students won't necessarily see the effect of more administrators,” Speer said. “We'll be able to help teachers continually get better.”

Speer pointed to the changing role of schools and instruction, particularly the push away from the 1950s “sort, order and rank” model. Now all students are expected to graduate high school with skills that will allow them to succeed upon entering the workforce.

“We teach students to learn, to think, to work collaboratively. We teach more 21st century skills,” he said. “The teacher becomes more of a facilitator … teaching is becoming more complex.”

Bauer said he plans to vote in support of both the forthcoming district-level administrative hires, but it isn't a move away from the commitment to remain lean in the district office.

“I really don't see a shift in our philosophy just because we're adding administrators,” he said. “It's a recognition that our student population is growing. It's a recognition that our student population is more diverse than it was.”