No one is more of a master-of-all-trades than the superintendent/principal. These educators carry all the responsibilities of a site leader as well as those of a district leader.
One of the best of these is Kathleen Daugherty, superintendent/principal of Newcastle Elementary School District, ACSA’s 2009 Superintendent/Principal of the Year.
Located in Placer County, Newcastle ESD is a dual site that contains Newcastle Elementary and Charter schools. When Daugherty arrived at Newcastle in 2003, she collaborated with all local educational stakeholders in developing new mission and vision statements for the district.
These framed the work that led to improved API scores, rising from 794 to 861 by 2007. Finally, in 2008 Newcastle Elementary was named a California Distinguished School. Daugherty credits an improved focus for this.
“It’s been a lot of things, but mostly a lot of teamwork and picking a target that we were able to all aim for at the same time,” she said. “This is a great little school and school district, and it has tons of potential, but everyone was doing their own thing.”
The entire educational team held discussions about goals and what the state standards required. Then, once standards were addressed, they examined how their assessments moved them forward toward the goals that were set.
“One of the things that happens in a school district like this, where you have a strong student population to begin with, is that it becomes easy to just teach what you want because you know the kids are going to do OK,” Daugherty said. “But we had to create a situation where OK wasn’t good enough.
“It was a community effort. This is a big community participation school. So it was really asking everyone, ‘What do we want for our kids?’ and then making that happen.”
Daugherty said part of the credit also goes to ACSA and the California School Boards Association.
“My first year here we had for the first time a board goals workshop,” she said. “We brought ACSA and CSBA in to help us because I was a brand new superintendent, having just graduated from ACSA’s Superintendents Academy.
“I had my little checklist from (the academy) of things to get done,” Daugherty said. And setting board goals was one of the items. Being new, there was no way in the world I could do that on my own, so we brought in the help. If I had to cite a turning point, that would be it.”
As with many other small school districts, Daugherty has had to find ways to battle the issue of declining enrollment. After holding a number of meetings with parents, it was decided to open a charter school.
“We weren’t ready to become a full charter school,” Daugherty said. “So we checked it out with CDE’s charter division and with legal counsel and came up with a plan based on what the parents and staff wanted, which was to have the charter school and the elementary school be one and the same site, half and half.”
After much hard work and consultations with outside experts, a new visual and performing arts charter school was established within Newcastle Elementary’s site. Oddly enough, it has created a situation where even though the district enrollment is still declining, the charter enrollment is growing through transfers.
One way Daugherty is keeping some of the charter programs afloat in this age of massive budget cuts is by working with outside groups. In one example, she is working with a local theater group to trade facility usage for workshops put on by the group.
“It’s all about making deals in this day and age,” Daugherty said. “But it works for us because it keeps programs here that we want, and with our budget continually being cut there is no other way in the world we could do that. It’s worked for us, and our scores continue to go up.”
Daugherty is a big believer in the power of ACSA. A 30-year member, Daugherty currently is serving on the state Member Services Committee. In the past she has served on the state Middle Grades Council and as a charter president.
“ACSA has kind of been my guiding light,” Daugherty said. “Any time I’ve needed something I’ve turned to ACSA.
“I’ve been an ACSA member since I was a baby,” she joked. “There’s the camaraderie there and a skill set I get out of it because I’ve participated in many of the ACSA trainings.
“As an administrator, ACSA is great, because if I need something I know I can make a phone call and get it in a heartbeat. I know that if I ever got in trouble they’d be there for me. I’m very passionate about what the organization offers. I maintain my membership and my activity level is pretty high. I believe that any organization is as good as you make it.”
Just as Daugherty is proud of her ACSA membership, ACSA is proud to honor her for her accomplishments.
“I was shocked, absolutely shocked (when notified of the award). I reflect on it every once in awhile and I think that this is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me in my entire life. I immediately called up every single person I knew to tell them,” Daugherty joked.
“I was honored when it came from Placer County, and amazed when it came from our region. Then I was named at the state level and I kind of wondered why I got picked. I guess I don’t see myself as being different than what every other superintendent/principal is like. We are all in this because we love it. I love being with the kids and this community and school district. I have a lot of passion for it, and I think that every superintendent/principal loves what they do or they wouldn’t be there.”
Daugherty will be honored along with 18 other Administrator of the Year award recipients at the Leadership Summit, Nov. 5-7 in Sacramento. Click here to register online.