In his first few weeks on the job, new Kent School District Superintendent Edward Lee Vargas made it a point to tour all of the district\u2019s 40 schools, meeting the principals, visiting classrooms and even jumping in to help students with their homework.<\/p>\n
\u201cUp until the last day of school, I was in schools all day,\u201d Vargas said this past week from his new office. \u201cIt was important to get out and have that personal touch with each school.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vargas, who officially took over for the retired Barbara Grohe on July 1, said his visits helped \u201cjump start my transition\u201d and gave him the opportunity to \u201cfeel the pulse\u201d of his new district.<\/p>\n
He also had the chance to meet staff, question students and get a sense of the scale and scope of the Kent School district, which stretches across three cities. It also gave him a better understanding of what staff and students think about the district.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would be asking questions about how things were going,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cwe\u2019ve got some tremendous schools out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The school visits, some of which were accompanied by a member of the school board, some solo, were also an opportunity for Vargas to talk to his new staff unfiltered and introduce himself to the teachers and principals he\u2019ll be leading for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy whole transition is about listening and learning,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Vargas, 56, was hired earlier this year after a nationwide search to find a replacement for Grohe, who led Kent for 10 years before retiring. A University of Washington grad and former California superintendent of the year, Vargas came to Kent by way of the Stupski Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to social justice for children, where he was the superintendent in residence.<\/p>\n
He likes what he sees in Kent.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know we have many challenges,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s a great opportunity to serve a wonderful district.\u201d<\/p>\n
At every school, Vargas said he felt welcomed by the teachers and the students and is enjoying getting started as the new superintendent.<\/p>\n
The key, he said, will be building on the district\u2019s strengths, which he said not only include the staff and school board, but parental involvement and the local business community.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur people are our No. 1 strength,\u201d he said. \u201cYou leave inspired.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the district\u2019s growing diversity is not the only challenge facing the new superintendent in his first year. The district is grappling with a budget crunch brought on by an economic recession affecting not just Kent, but the state and nation.<\/p>\n
At the same time, however, another challenge facing the district is the current contract negotiations with the Kent Education Association, the union that represents teachers in the district.<\/p>\n
Vargas said it is important to collaborate with the union and be \u201copen, honest and respectful\u201d with them. He said it was important to make sure teacher salaries are competitive – the union\u2019s biggest complaint – with competing districts, but that it was also important to do it in a fiscally responsible way with a focus on the students and instruction.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re here,\u201d he said, adding that the district and the union need to focus on the commonalities of what they are both hoping to accomplish.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all want our kids to do better and our employees to be successful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
KEA President Lisa Brackin-Johnson said she has not had a chance to really get to know the new superintendent yet, having only met with him once for 45 minutes back in April. However, Brackin-Johnson said KEA members who met Vargas during his school visits had a generally favorable impression.<\/p>\n
Brackin-Johnson said there has not been a change in the district bargaining positions in the two sessions conducted since Vargas came on board, though the union hopes fresh eyes will help see a quick resolution.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re hopeful he will bring some new perspective,\u201d she said. \u201cWe look forward to working with him in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
So what will Vargas\u2019s district look like?<\/p>\n
Vargas laid out a series of 5 \u201cR\u2019s\u201d on which he would be focused as superintendent. At the top of his list was Rigor, making sure expectations and standards within the district were as high as they could be.<\/p>\n
Next, he cited Relevance, making sure that what they are teaching is actually relevant to the students lives as well as getting the students on to college or a career.<\/p>\n
The superintendent also said Respect was important and that teachers and staff need to model the behaviors they want to see in the students, which means treating everybody with respect.<\/p>\n
Vargas also said the district had to stay focused on results, making sure that all subgroups within the district\u2019s demographics have an opportunity to succeed and that the \u201cachievement gap\u201d between some of the groups is closed.<\/p>\n
Finally, the super said it was important to take Responsibility for the district and for staff to be held accountable to the community.<\/p>\n
Vargas said he is a proponent of a \u201csystems approach,\u201d in which everything is linked and everyone must be working together to accomplish the same goals.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to make sure not some or most, but all of our kids are meeting those standards,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
After touring the schools over the past month, Vargas said he promised each school that he would be back, something he is taking to heart.<\/p>\n
So farm the new superintendent has promised three teachers he would take a day as a substitute in their classroom to allow the teachers to observe a fellow teacher in another building.<\/p>\n
He also plans to make sure each member of the executive cabinet finds their way into a classroom situation next year as well. It will remind him, and his staff, to remain focused on the students, he said, as well as the day-to-day lives of the teachers who do the heavy lifting every day for Kent schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s important for us to remind ourselves where we came from and how tough our teachers work,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a good reminder of why we\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brackin-Johnson was pleased to hear of the super\u2019s plans and and said it would be good for members of the administration to see exactly how their decision impact the classroom every day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s great,\u201d she said. \u201cWe look forward to him being in the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In his first few weeks on the job, new Kent School District Superintendent Edward Lee Vargas made it a point to tour all of the district\u2019s 40 schools, meeting the principals, visiting classrooms and even jumping in to help students with their homework. \u201cUp until the last day of school, I was in schools all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":223,"featured_media":5289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-5288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5288"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/223"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5288"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=5288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}