By Megan Sayles
AFRO Staff Writer
[email protected]
Prince George’s County Executive Aisha Braveboy selected veteran educator Shawn Joseph to become the district’s interim superintendent on June 13. Joseph most recently served as an assistant professor for Howard University and was previously Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) deputy superintendent for teaching and learning from 2014 to 2016.
His appointment follows the resignation of Millard House II, who reached an agreement with the school board to step down from the post after receiving a vote of no confidence from the county’s teachers union. A major source of Joseph’s excitement about the role is his strong belief in the county’s newly elected leadership, including Braveboy and Prince Geoerge’s County Council Chair Edward Burroughs and the PGCPS’ school board.
“I saw this as a moment in Prince George’s County where all of the powers that be are aligned and willing and committed to working together,” said Joseph. “To be a part of that team at this moment was an opportunity I just couldn’t deny.”
The AFRO recently connected with Joseph to discuss his first 100-days plan and his vision for the future of PGCPS.
AFRO: What are your top priorities in your first 100 days as interim superintendent?
Shawn Joseph: I’ve identified six areas that we’re going to focus on: strategic alignment, talent, academics, the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, community engagement and operations. The work is complex. It starts with the board and I being clear about what we want to do first, second, third and so on and what success would look like in the areas we want to tackle this year.
As it relates to talent development, we have to ensure that we have great people in our buildings. No organization can exceed the capacity of its people. We have to recruit and retain good people and understand the places in which that has been difficult.
We also have to get clear about our academics. We have to question whether our students are making adequate growth. We have to study where they’re not growing and where they’re excelling. Being clear about where our students are helps us target our resources.
We are blessed to be in Maryland because we have the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, and our state has made significant, historic investments in education. We see that as an opportunity to be creative, dream big for our kids and put resources in the right place to accelerate outcomes. Understanding where Prince George’s County is in relationship to the goals of the blueprint is really important for us right now.
Most importantly, we have to re-engage the community. Nine years ago when I was here, I think there was one ingredient that was missing, and that’s parents actively being partners with the district. There’s a lot to be said about school systems needing to be held accountable, but I think communities need to be held accountable too. We can’t do it alone.
In regard to operations, we are one of the largest districts in the country and the second largest district in Maryland. We have a lot of buildings and moving parts. If we’re not on top of our operations, it will kill us. We have to make sure that our over 1,000 bus drivers are ready to go, our buildings are safe and clean and our people get paid on time.
AFRO: From your perspective, what are the biggest challenges facing PGCPS?
SJ: Staffing is one. We’re large and complex. We have to make sure that our compensation keeps pace with not only the regional market, but the national market. It goes beyond teachers for me. It includes food service workers, bus drivers, building service workers and secretaries. We have to be competitive in all of those domains.
Beyond salaries, we also have to respect people and make them feel valued. We have to have people inspired to come to work each day because they understand that we have an awesome responsibility to help children achieve their wildest dreams. Finding talent in a place with 130,000 children and more than 200 schools is not easy.
We also cannot underestimate the need to actively ensure safety in a big district like this, and we have to improve academically. We have to be realistic about what can be accomplished with the resources we have because any organization that has more vision than capacity will fail. As we get capacity, we can continue to push to have greater vision.
In Prince George’s County, we don’t tell our story as well as we can. When I was here nine years ago, for example, I knew for a fact that African-American children did better than Black children across the state and across the nation in many academic areas. But, that story doesn’t really get out.
AFRO: What’s your vision for college and career readiness for Prince George’s County students?
SJ: We have to help children become productive citizens in this world. Some are going to go to college and do it. Some are going to graduate, go into service and do it. Some are going to graduate and go directly into work. We just have to make sure that when they come out, they’re prepared to actively engage. That means we have to teach them how to be critical consumers of knowledge and information because we’re in a knowledge economy now.
For me, it’s expanding internship and apprenticeship opportunities and increasing the amount of kids getting access to dual enrollment and college credits early. College is the thing that everybody talks about— it’s supposed to offer you a better life. We need to demystify it and help students learn that they can be successful in college.
We also have to celebrate and encourage people to serve. In our country, there are many people who have changed the circumstances of their life through service, becoming firefighters, police officers or joining the military.
