I am Janene Fitzpatrick, and I am a Write-In Candidate for Superintendent. You will not see my name on the ballot. Instead, you will see a line with a bubble under Ronnie Gray on the ballot. To vote for me, simply bubble the bubble next to the line and write FITZPATRICK on the line. Spelling does not have to be perfect. I changed my party affiliation too close to registering to run. If you have questions about my status, I’m happy to discuss it with you. Call me at (386) 205-9258. Thank you for your consideration! I look forward to serving the people of Suwannee County.
Question 1) In light of recent events, what steps would you take to ensure the safety of students and staff within the schools?
Answer - School safety seems like a new concept, but it has been the number one concern of school administration, faculty, and staff for the entire 30+ years that I have been working in education. Every interview committee I served on, we always asked, “What are your priorities as a teacher?” The answer we were always looking for included keeping kids safe above everything else.
The things we now must keep students safe from have changed. We have gone from tornado and fire drills to armed assailant on campus drills – what a difference! But it is about practice and awareness, making sure teachers and students know what to do in a crisis is essential.
Many aspects of the Suwannee County School District’s safety plan are deliberately not published to keep the safety of the students and staff. But now, we have programs in place to respond to the ultimate threat. From student/staff protocols to school guardian/School Resource Office protocols, to relocation/reunification protocols, our district can be depended upon to keep students safe.
The school guardian program is something that I am not only proud to have in place in our schools, but I am also proud to have been trained and participated in. I would continue to support and improve this program in collaboration with the local law enforcement and our county sheriff. The best defense against the ultimate threat is having prepared people on campus that can immediately respond. Lessons learned have shown that response time makes all the difference.
One thing that I can say I would like to talk about with our team, as the next superintendent, is a more balanced approach between preparing for a “response to crisis” and “prevention of crisis” in our schools. When you look at school districts across the nation, it seems that most either focus on one or the other. I believe we need to effectively work on both.
Also, the ultimate threat gets the most attention, but there are many facets to safety. We need to work on safety in classrooms, in hallways, on sports fields, on school buses, in lunchrooms, and anywhere that accidents or threats can present themselves for students, faculty, staff and community.
Question 2) What strategies do you plan on implementing to attract and retain high-quality teachers who will stay long term?
Answer – When attracting high-quality teachers, recruiting is key, and we need an attractive package to offer a new teacher. It’s very competitive these days, and new college graduates often like to live near the cities or beaches. We must recruit new teachers that are not in culture shock when they come to Suwannee, or they definitely will not stay. The best way to recruit teachers with long term potential is to participate in programs to “Grow Your Own” teachers, which is working on our teacher academy to encourage our high school students to go into the teaching field. Partnering with colleges that have grants to help paraprofessionals earn teaching degrees is also a popular and available option. I do some part-time work for St. Leo University working on one of those grants now, and it’s very underutilized.
To retain the teachers, we need to continually work on ways to make the working environment better for teachers and show appreciation for ALL teachers, not just new teachers that the state has been focusing on lately with setting starting teacher pay. Districts have been left hanging to figure out how to fairly compensate the loyal, high-quality teachers that have been part of the system for years.
Some competitive edges we have currently been working on; Suwannee has been working on improving health insurance and health services to ultimately make it more affordable for our employees. We have incentives for Suwannee students to return to work as a teacher in Suwannee. And, we have incentives for teachers to stay and work over 20 years in our district.
I think we have a great start, we just need to continue to brainstorm, keep an eye on surrounding districts that are competing with us for human resources, and make sure that all employees feel valued by their school-based administrators and district level administrators, as well.
Question 3) What will you do differently to improve unity and morale among board members, teachers, staff and students?
Answer - I believe that unity and morale can be improved by building community within our system. We are all working toward the same obtainable goal – student success for Suwannee County students. Helping each group understand their role and helping them to know and value the role of others can go a long way. It’s easy to get locked into the feeling that “nobody cares or knows what I do and how hard I work.” It requires a deliberate effort to make sure that all parts of the organization understand and appreciate the contributions made by others. The whole team is needed to get the students to the finish line. As the successes of students increase, pride in our schools increases. Everyone needs to share in those successes – all departments play a part! When a team rallies around success, unity and morale increase!
Political advertisement paid for and approved by Janene Fitzpatrick, write-in candidate, for Suwannee County Superintendent of Schools.