Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / A Conversation with Dr. Sara Dail: Updates from Sterling Public Schools

Transcript

A Conversation with Dr. Sara Dail: Updates from Sterling Public Schools · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

0:00
Speaker 1: And now we turn our attention to the talk line
0:02
Speaker 1: portion of our show, where I am joined by our
0:05
Speaker 1: good friends from Sterling Public Schools. Today I have the
0:09
Speaker 1: pleasure of speaking with Assistant Superintendent doctor Sarah Dale. Sarah,
0:13
Speaker 1: how are you?
0:14
Speaker 2: I am great, I'm excited to be here.
0:16
Speaker 1: I'm excited to have you. I've had the pleasure of
0:19
Speaker 1: speaking with Sarah during my time with Shaw Reporting and
0:22
Speaker 1: now on the other side of formats. It's great to
0:27
Speaker 1: bring you in the booth and bring a voice to
0:30
Speaker 1: all the stories that I let people read about, because
0:33
Speaker 1: you guys just always have so much going on over
0:35
Speaker 1: in Sterling Schools. There's always so much improvement, new programs,
0:39
Speaker 1: and here soon new leadership with you transitioning from assistant
0:45
Speaker 1: to superintendent here in a bit right, Yes.
0:48
Speaker 3: Correct, I'm really excited for it. I've actually been in
0:51
Speaker 3: Sterling Public Schools my whole career. So I was hired
0:53
Speaker 3: right out of college to teach kindergarten oh wow, and
0:56
Speaker 3: just decided it was a place I wanted to stay.
0:58
Speaker 3: And soever it has two years left and then I've
1:02
Speaker 3: already have a contract to move into the superintendent role
1:06
Speaker 3: when he retires.
1:07
Speaker 2: But it's big shoes to fill, as you know.
1:10
Speaker 1: Yes, Now I want to know when you started all
1:13
Speaker 1: those years ago, because you started as a kindergarten teacher, correct,
1:16
Speaker 1: did you imagine you were going to do superintendent one
1:20
Speaker 1: day or.
1:21
Speaker 3: Were you just no, absolutely not. I actually wanted to
1:24
Speaker 3: just teach my whole career. I loved being in the classroom.
1:28
Speaker 3: And really it truly was doctor Everett and a few
1:31
Speaker 3: of my principals throughout my career who said, hey, you
1:35
Speaker 3: should think about getting an administrative degree, or hey, you
1:37
Speaker 3: should think about applying for this job. And I guess
1:40
Speaker 3: they just saw some potential in me, and I was,
1:43
Speaker 3: you know, ecstatic to take the next steps. And but no,
1:47
Speaker 3: I was just going to teach my whole career. And
1:49
Speaker 3: so it definitely is exciting and challenging, and so I'm
1:55
Speaker 3: looking forward to it.
1:56
Speaker 1: No, I absolutely love hearing that. Now, did you did
1:59
Speaker 1: you teach a range of grades during your teaching time?
2:03
Speaker 2: I did so.
2:03
Speaker 3: I taught kindergarten and then apparently I got smarter and.
2:07
Speaker 2: Moved up to fifth grade.
2:09
Speaker 3: Then I moved into kind of a teacher leadership role
2:12
Speaker 3: as a literacy coach, and so I would get professional
2:15
Speaker 3: development and I would come back and I would teach
2:16
Speaker 3: the teachers different strategies and things like that. When I
2:21
Speaker 3: got my administrative degree, Kathy Howard was actually my principal
2:25
Speaker 3: at the time, and she didn't become a principal until
2:27
Speaker 3: she was in her sixties and seventies, and so she's like,
2:29
Speaker 3: you might as well get a master's in leadership, and
2:32
Speaker 3: so I said, okay, got that and then moved into
2:36
Speaker 3: director of student services in the district office. Decided I
2:40
Speaker 3: didn't have principal experience yet, so after three years, I
2:43
Speaker 3: moved into the principal role at Jefferson Elementary and it
2:47
Speaker 3: was kind of neat because that's where I started teaching.
2:49
Speaker 3: So I started teaching there and then was able to
2:51
Speaker 3: be principal later and then this is my ninth or
2:54
Speaker 3: tenth years assistant superintendent.
2:57
Speaker 1: That's absolutely amazing. I love hearing those stories where somebody
3:00
Speaker 1: comes along and tells you, you know, I think you
3:03
Speaker 1: could be doing this, and you never you don't have
3:05
Speaker 1: it on your radar, but it's you hear it, and really,
3:09
Speaker 1: you think I could do that, and I mean, here
3:11
Speaker 1: you are.
3:12
Speaker 2: Yeah.
3:13
Speaker 3: I actually even met my husband in my kindergarten classroom, so.
3:16
Speaker 2: Really this is just was meant to be. It's a
3:18
Speaker 2: place for me.
3:20
Speaker 1: That is awesome. That's great. Well, I mean they're absolutely
3:24
Speaker 1: lucky to have you at Sterling. I know Tad's always
3:27
Speaker 1: spoken super highly of you, So Sterling's in good hands.
3:31
Speaker 2: Thank you. I appreciate that.
3:34
Speaker 1: Again, knowing so much that you've got over there, You've
3:36
Speaker 1: had some rating news the Board.
3:40
Speaker 2: Of Education, Yes, so on.
3:42
Speaker 3: The state releases their report cards every year, and we
3:47
Speaker 3: are happy to announce that all six of our buildings
3:49
Speaker 3: got a commendable rating.
3:51
Speaker 2: Which is excellent. We're really excited about that. Absolutely, we've you.
3:55
Speaker 3: Know, have some great highlights. Or graduation rate is as
3:58
Speaker 3: high as it's ever been. It is ninety let's see,
4:03
Speaker 3: graduated ninety one percent, and so we're excited for that.
4:07
Speaker 1: That's that's amazing. Now, you know there there are still
4:10
Speaker 1: a lot of schools struggling with that, especially post COVID.
4:13
Speaker 1: What do you think you guys are doing over at
4:15
Speaker 1: Sterling that's made your graduation rate so successful.
4:20
Speaker 3: I think we're really good at finding individual student strengths,
4:25
Speaker 3: whether they're going college bound or whether they're going career bound,
4:30
Speaker 3: and just helping them get engaged academically or in trades
4:35
Speaker 3: as well as fine arts athletically. I think we really
4:38
Speaker 3: work hard at getting our students involved, which makes them
4:40
Speaker 3: feel like part of our community and they want to
4:42
Speaker 3: stay and they want to finish.
4:44
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, are there? What do you what have been
4:47
Speaker 1: the biggest areas of improvement in terms of these ratings
4:51
Speaker 1: and what have you guys been doing to kind of
4:52
Speaker 1: lead into that?
4:54
Speaker 3: Sure, So pre COVID, we actually had a few buildings.
4:58
Speaker 3: We had some of our buildings as commendable and then
5:00
Speaker 3: a few of our buildings is targeted and that was
5:02
Speaker 3: kind of an eye opener for us, like, Hey, we
5:04
Speaker 3: have this great district, great facilities, great programs, awesome things
5:09
Speaker 3: happening for kids, but our academics aren't necessarily matching up
5:12
Speaker 3: our scores on this one test, right, aren't matching up
5:15
Speaker 3: to how great we are. So we implemented new curriculum.
5:19
Speaker 2: We have a new.
5:21
Speaker 3: School improvement process. We're really getting the students involved in
5:25
Speaker 3: their learning. Like we're talking about learning intentions and success criteria.
5:28
Speaker 2: Do our kids know.
5:29
Speaker 3: What they're learning every day and why they're learning it?
5:32
Speaker 3: So we're trying to get our students really more involved
5:34
Speaker 3: in the curriculum and what they're actually doing every day,
5:37
Speaker 3: and we've seen good things from that.
5:39
Speaker 2: Our principles are working really hard.
5:40
Speaker 3: We have scoreboards academically that we're updating that students can see,
5:45
Speaker 3: and so we're really kind of putting that academic focus
5:49
Speaker 3: in front of the students and it's really making a
5:51
Speaker 3: big difference.
5:52
Speaker 1: That's wonderful to hear. I know, I had was kind
5:55
Speaker 1: of really just enamored in the different currica that you
6:00
Speaker 1: guys were developing during my time reporting on there, because
6:03
Speaker 1: it was always the joke when I first came over
6:06
Speaker 1: there reporting was, oh, it's always sports and facilities, sports
6:09
Speaker 1: and facilities. Nobody ever comes over to report on the programs,
6:13
Speaker 1: And I was like, wow, well, we're really missing out
6:15
Speaker 1: because you guys just have so much You're you're always
6:19
Speaker 1: doing here. The're trying to improve something, bringing in a
6:21
Speaker 1: new program. And one of the things I really enjoyed
6:24
Speaker 1: about reporting on those things was that I don't think
6:27
Speaker 1: a lot of parents know just how much there is
6:30
Speaker 1: available to their kids in terms of classes, right they
6:34
Speaker 1: think math, science, history, but sternly, I mean, my god,
6:38
Speaker 1: the sock sent me for my photography class to your
6:42
Speaker 1: guys's school to work with the equipment and the teacher
6:46
Speaker 1: in your building.
6:47
Speaker 3: Sure, yeah, I think sports and facilities are what people
6:50
Speaker 3: can see, right, But you're right in the fact, it
6:53
Speaker 3: was great having you at our meetings and involved because
6:55
Speaker 3: you were able to see some more depth of what
6:58
Speaker 3: we have to offer, including like our agmet lab where
7:01
Speaker 3: students can use a table and dissect actually dissect things
7:06
Speaker 3: for our pre med students who want to be doctors
7:08
Speaker 3: or nurses, and so the opportunities are amazing. And actually
7:12
Speaker 3: I have a freshman this year, and so I'm learning
7:14
Speaker 3: more about all the opportunities that I didn't even know
7:17
Speaker 3: in my role by having a son there, and so
7:19
Speaker 3: it's really it's really neat to see what our kids can.
7:22
Speaker 2: Do on a daily basis.
7:23
Speaker 1: Absolutely, you guys have been again, whether it's the facilities,
7:28
Speaker 1: the curriculum, you guys are always improving and you're doing
7:31
Speaker 1: that with safety and security as well, right we are.
7:34
Speaker 3: I am really excited about this. We are the first
7:36
Speaker 3: state in the first school district in the state of Illinois.
7:40
Speaker 3: There's only one one in Iowa and then one another
7:44
Speaker 3: another state who have implemented corridor. We're still in the
7:47
Speaker 3: early phases. But we're really excited about it because, first
7:52
Speaker 3: of all, in you know, an emergency situation.
7:56
Speaker 2: It applies to all emergency situations.
7:58
Speaker 3: But in particular, it will really help our response if
8:02
Speaker 3: there were to be a dangerous event or an active
8:05
Speaker 3: shooter situation.
8:07
Speaker 2: The AI in our cameras.
8:09
Speaker 3: Will be able to detect weapons and so if the
8:12
Speaker 3: cameras see a weapon, it will notify us and the
8:15
Speaker 3: police immediately. The Sterling Police Department has been amazing to
8:19
Speaker 3: work with As we're starting to implement this. The thing
8:22
Speaker 3: that really helps me to sleep better at night is
8:26
Speaker 3: because our students are going to have the option also
8:28
Speaker 3: to either download the app or have a wearable that
8:32
Speaker 3: they can wear, and so when an alert is sent
8:35
Speaker 3: out and only when an alert is sent out, their
8:38
Speaker 3: tracking devices will turn on, so live we can see
8:41
Speaker 3: where students are. The system can also integrate with our
8:45
Speaker 3: exit signs and it will make our exit signs green
8:48
Speaker 3: if that's a safe exit for them to go out
8:50
Speaker 3: of and read if it's not a safe exit based
8:52
Speaker 3: on the tracking of that intruder.
8:55
Speaker 2: And so we're really excited about that.
8:57
Speaker 3: It can integrate with like a tee if we have
8:59
Speaker 3: a tea be in a classroom or the student's MacBooks
9:03
Speaker 3: or iPads. We can send messages to these particular rooms
9:07
Speaker 3: that say lock down in those rooms. These rooms we
9:10
Speaker 3: can say exit out of this door. And so it's
9:13
Speaker 3: it's we have a lot of work to do, but
9:15
Speaker 3: our hope is to implement this in August.
9:18
Speaker 1: That is absolutely amazing. I had no idea that the
9:23
Speaker 1: technology had created to that point in this kind of
9:27
Speaker 1: forward proactive thinking. But I'm not surprised Sterling Schools is
9:32
Speaker 1: ahead of the curve with this. But it sounds like
9:34
Speaker 1: something out of a movie.
9:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, it actually was.
9:38
Speaker 3: Used overseas first, and the individual who developed it decided
9:43
Speaker 3: that he wanted to move into the school safety realm
9:46
Speaker 3: and so has adapted it for us. And they're great
9:50
Speaker 3: to work with. They are they're like, Okay, what other
9:52
Speaker 3: programs for safety do you have and how can we
9:54
Speaker 3: integrate this into us so that we just have one
9:57
Speaker 3: program And so they're kind of.
9:58
Speaker 2: Helping us to.
10:00
Speaker 3: We're helping them to kind of develop what we need
10:04
Speaker 3: and so we're we're excited. We still have a lot
10:05
Speaker 3: of you know, pr to do in terms of educating
10:09
Speaker 3: the community and parents about what it is, you know,
10:12
Speaker 3: The last thing we want is for parents to think
10:14
Speaker 3: that we're tracking kids right because we're not. It only
10:17
Speaker 3: turns on that feature when an alert goes off, and
10:21
Speaker 3: so we've got some work to do ahead of us,
10:23
Speaker 3: but it's hopefully going to be great.
10:25
Speaker 1: But as a parent, that would make me feel a
10:27
Speaker 1: lot better. I could understand where that's coming from. I mean,
10:31
Speaker 1: and they're supposed to be in school anyway, so to
10:33
Speaker 1: know where they are at that moment. The interactive with
10:36
Speaker 1: the exit.
10:36
Speaker 3: Signs, you as a parent can actually log in and
10:39
Speaker 3: see where your student is during an alert.
10:42
Speaker 1: Now see, I think that would make all parents feel better. Sure,
10:44
Speaker 1: I mean, if you have any concerns, I'm sure you can.
10:48
Speaker 1: You can reach out to doctor Dale. But this is
10:51
Speaker 1: when it comes to saving lives in these kind of things,
10:54
Speaker 1: absolutely amazing. Other saug Valley schools, If you've not heard
10:58
Speaker 1: of this, like me, don't feel feel bad, but maybe
11:01
Speaker 1: you should reach out and have a conversation with Sterling,
11:03
Speaker 1: because I think this belongs in every Souck Valley school.
11:06
Speaker 2: And you're the first to know. This is really the first.
11:11
Speaker 1: I love that.
11:12
Speaker 3: Besides, our Board of Education has been great supporting it,
11:14
Speaker 3: and Board meetings. But other than that, this is the
11:17
Speaker 3: first we're really kind of talking about it.
11:18
Speaker 1: Well, this is tickling my fancy too much. I could
11:20
Speaker 1: spend too much of the rest of the time we
11:22
Speaker 1: have going on. And you've got more to talk about
11:24
Speaker 1: because you've also been improving facilities based on what the
11:28
Speaker 1: students are telling you.
11:29
Speaker 2: Yeah.
11:30
Speaker 3: So our Board of Education, along with doctor Reverett, have
11:32
Speaker 3: really been big on student voice, like we want to
11:35
Speaker 3: improve our schools and the way that our students want.
11:39
Speaker 3: And so doctor Revert has been meeting with student groups
11:42
Speaker 3: for the last two years and something that came out
11:45
Speaker 3: of that was that they especially are our athletes, but
11:49
Speaker 3: as well as our marching band and other our cheerleaders, palms,
11:53
Speaker 3: our activities, they're getting home so late because of practice
11:57
Speaker 3: times and homework and and so I.
12:00
Speaker 1: Know this one as a parent, Oh my gosh, I do.
12:03
Speaker 3: And so you know that's what we were hearing over
12:05
Speaker 3: and over again from our students. And so doctor Everertt
12:08
Speaker 3: took that to our Board of Education and they we
12:10
Speaker 3: all worked together and so that you probably have seen
12:14
Speaker 3: online is our new recreation center.
12:17
Speaker 1: Yes, one of my last stories before I moved into
12:20
Speaker 1: this role, I have to do on that year.
12:22
Speaker 2: Yes, and so it's really just a practice facility.
12:24
Speaker 3: But what that will allow is that, you know, it's
12:27
Speaker 3: basketball season, girls basketball and boys basketball can practice at
12:30
Speaker 3: the same time right after school, as opposed to one
12:33
Speaker 3: having to practice after school and the other not starting
12:35
Speaker 3: until five or five thirty. And that gets kids home earlier.
12:39
Speaker 3: They can have more family time, they can have more
12:41
Speaker 3: homework time. You know, our marching band can practice on
12:45
Speaker 3: the football field. We're just we're excited about the more
12:48
Speaker 3: the extra space in order to get kids home with
12:51
Speaker 3: their families earlier.
12:53
Speaker 1: I completely understand that flip flopping of schedule between like
12:57
Speaker 1: we can't have we don't have room for both the
13:00
Speaker 1: to practice. So you know, maybe half the week one's
13:03
Speaker 1: doing the later In the other end, when they're doing
13:04
Speaker 1: the later ones, they're not you know, at least from
13:07
Speaker 1: my experience, they're not getting home till close to like
13:10
Speaker 1: eight somewhere, eight nine o'clock at night. You know, they've
13:13
Speaker 1: still got to eat supper, wind down, if there's any
13:15
Speaker 1: homework to do, forget seeing it. But I'm up so early,
13:18
Speaker 1: I'm going to be off to that at that point, right,
13:21
Speaker 1: So that's absolutely incredible.
13:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, this being a parent of a high schooler really
13:25
Speaker 3: is ruining my bedtime something.
13:28
Speaker 2: New for me.
13:30
Speaker 1: One side to this role. I knew my bedtime was
13:33
Speaker 1: rowing from then on that. Oh my goodness. I also
13:37
Speaker 1: want you to talk. I know we've only got a
13:39
Speaker 1: little bit of time and you're very humble, but tell
13:41
Speaker 1: folks about SPS University.
13:43
Speaker 2: Oh, I'm so excited about SPS University.
13:46
Speaker 3: You know, my part of my job is recruiting, and
13:49
Speaker 3: we are coming getting to a point where we had
13:50
Speaker 3: one or two applicants for every opening. But we have
13:53
Speaker 3: so many great people already working in our school district
13:55
Speaker 3: who just don't have teaching degrees yet. And so it
13:58
Speaker 3: worked through the board of EDGE and they were ecstatic
14:01
Speaker 3: to support this goal. And so I am able to
14:05
Speaker 3: spend fifty thousand dollars each school year to help our employees,
14:09
Speaker 3: usually our support personnel or para professionals, to hook up
14:14
Speaker 3: at the program that's right for them and pay for
14:17
Speaker 3: the majority of their teaching degree and in exchange, they
14:20
Speaker 3: once they get their degree, they come and they work
14:23
Speaker 3: for us.
14:24
Speaker 2: And so we have had.
14:27
Speaker 3: Ten that we've hired already after a year, and we
14:31
Speaker 3: have about thirteen in the program right now, and so
14:34
Speaker 3: every year I'm what I've been doing is pre hiring,
14:37
Speaker 3: so as they graduate, I'm hiring them even if I
14:39
Speaker 3: don't have an opening yet. And then as I have
14:42
Speaker 3: resignations or retirements, We're slotting them in positions. And these
14:46
Speaker 3: are community people who want to raise their already raising
14:49
Speaker 3: their family here, and so it's been great for our retention.
14:53
Speaker 3: We're having half as many resignations as we have in
14:57
Speaker 3: the past, and it's and they feel good that we're
15:01
Speaker 3: investing in them, and so they're they're coming and they're
15:04
Speaker 3: doing a great job in our classrooms.
15:06
Speaker 2: This is your baby, yes, this is this is this
15:09
Speaker 2: is my.
15:12
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I I would say, you know, our
15:14
Speaker 3: Board of Education has been talking about it for a while.
15:17
Speaker 3: Board Member Ray has had this idea when I was
15:19
Speaker 3: in the district office the first time, but now as
15:22
Speaker 3: assistant superintendent and in charge of it, I was able
15:24
Speaker 3: to get that permission and just kind of run with it.
15:27
Speaker 2: And so we open up applications.
15:29
Speaker 3: Every spring, we do interviews and we hit the ground running,
15:33
Speaker 3: and so we have some with no educational college education
15:37
Speaker 3: that get their bachelors, some with an associates that get
15:39
Speaker 3: their bachelors and some that have a bachelor's and something
15:41
Speaker 3: else that just need their teaching degree.
15:43
Speaker 2: So it's been great.
15:45
Speaker 1: I've loved this since the first moment I heard about
15:48
Speaker 1: it because the teacher shortage is everywhere, and while everyone's
15:52
Speaker 1: looking and searching for answers, y'all created one.
15:56
Speaker 3: I was actually overstaffed by two this year, but I
15:58
Speaker 3: you know, I don't say.
15:59
Speaker 1: That out loud very often, but that's the problem you
16:01
Speaker 1: want to have.
16:01
Speaker 2: It's been great.
16:02
Speaker 3: They've done all of our maternity leaves and we've got
16:04
Speaker 3: positions for them to slot into for next year. So
16:07
Speaker 3: I've had other districts say, hey, if you're overstaffed, can
16:10
Speaker 3: I just borrow them for a year.
16:11
Speaker 2: No, no, there are.
16:14
Speaker 1: I'm all about sharing, but I absolutely love it. Unfortunately,
16:18
Speaker 1: we're out of time, but this isn't going to be
16:20
Speaker 1: the last time that you're in my booth. I want
16:21
Speaker 1: you back in here giving me regular updates and all
16:24
Speaker 1: the wonderful things you're doing. Doctor Sarah Dale, thank you
16:26
Speaker 1: so much for visiting.
16:27
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me