- April 25, 2024
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Four finalists for the school district's superintendent position presented their case to the Flagler County School Board March 5.
The four — Vernon Orndorff, Cathy Mittelstadt, Earl Johnson and Janet Womack — each had an hour and a half before the board to answer a series of questions posed by each board member.
The individual who is selected will replace Superintendent James Tager, who is retiring at the end of his contract on June 30, 2020.
Two of the applicants — Orndorff and Johnson — have existing connections to Flagler.
Orndorff, currently a superintendent of a 250-student school district in Texas, was formerly a Flagler Schools assistant superintendent. Earl Johnson is the district's executive director of leadership development.
Cathy Mittelstadt is a deputy superintendent in St. Johns County — consistently one of the highest-performing districts in the state — and Janet Womack is an educational consultant in Texas and former superintendent of a district in Alabama.
The School Board will make its final selection in a special meeting at 1 p.m. Tuesday, March 10, in the third floor training room of the Government Services Building at 1769 E. Moody Blvd., in Bunnell.
Orndorff said his experience with Florida and Flagler has helped prepare him for tasks like building a strategic plan for the district.
But, he said, "I’m not going to come in here with a predetermined plan." His plan, he said, is to "work with everybody in the community and the school district to develop that vision, and then put teams together in moving that vision forward," using data on student achievement.
Of the district's nine traditional schools, he noted, two got A ratings. "How do we get all nine to be an A school, so that we’re pushing that A and not running from the B?" he said.
Board members asked Orndorff how his experience in a small district of 250 students would prepare him to lead Flagler's 13,000-student district.
"My 12 years in Flagler prepared me for my position as superintendent," he said, while this position as superintendent, even in a small district, prepared him for a like role in a larger district like Flagler.
"I’m not running from anything; I’m in a very good situation," he said. "That is a great community that has a passion for their students." And, he added, in a small rural district, “You’re under the microscope. Whatever happens, everybody knows.”
Asked about he fact that his district in Texas had received an F rating the year Texas introduced letter grades for schools, Orndorff said that the rating system change involved "targets that our district was not aware of, that we totally missed."
"I went in there, established a culture and climate," he said. "We started changing the culture and climate and mindset of students achieving in the classroom."
Referring repeatedly to her seven years as a superintendent in Alabama, Womack told the School Board that she's "an Energizer bunny" of a leader who is instruction-focused and values innovation and risk taking in the leaders she works with.
"I absolutely believe that how you set yourself apart in a district and in schools is by innovating," she said. "When it’s your passion, it’s not work; it’s a labor of love, and that’s what I expect from our leaders as well. But I also expect our leaders to be firm and strong." Of principals, she said, "I want them to be a risk taker. You don’t get to the top by being status quo. Average is replaceable."
In Alabama, she said, she helped turn around the school district's graduation rate, reducing dropouts from 124 in a year to 14. But now, she said, "I’m kind of picky at this point in my career. I'm looking for a district that is already excelling in so many ways, and not to come in and make big massive changes."
She said school districts often underutilize faith-based organizations that could be brought in to help improve students' lives.
Asked about priorities for Flagler, she mentioned the district's strategic plan —which, she said, could use more specificity — and the need to reduce the achievement gap between the overall student population and certain subpopulations, including ESE students and African American students.
Coming from a high-achieving district that has had an influx of about 1,500 students each year, Cathy Mittelstadt said she'd bring a student-centered approach to the district if she's selected, and that as someone who has served as both a middle school and high school principal, she has a good grasp of day-to-day operational issues.
Asked about priorities, she noted that the district's strategic plan is in its final year, and also that the district will need to renew its half-cent sales tax initiative. Selling the half-penny tax to the community, she said, could be an opportunity to get community members involved through citizen committees.
"I would hope that you’re starting to put together some committees, some task forces," she said "You're a small district; you absolutely need that source of revenue."
Like Womack, she mentioned the potential benefits of getting faith-based organizations involved, and said the St. Johns County school district has had success with doing so — helping students find meaningful after-school activities that keep them from having downtime in the afternoons, and thereby keeping them out of trouble. That effort also helped the district grow its parent-teacher organization, she said.
Asked about her knowledge of education law, she gave an example: The district had received a complaint about access for disabled people at one of its older schools, which had been built before current regulations were in place, and was therefore grandfathered in. But the district investigated, and ultimately ended up renovating the school entrance to ease access for people who use a wheelchair.
Of developing educational leaders, Mittelstadt said she looks for people who have presence in the classroom and step forward for leadership roles.
"My philosophy in growing future leaders is first observing them in their interactions with students and their interactions with their peers," she said.
With all stakeholders, she said, "You’ve got to establish trust. I’m a firm believer in relationships, and I’m a firm believer in first impressions."
The only applicant who is a current employee of Flagler Schools, Earl Johnson said that he believed his most powerful strength is passion.
He'd first entered education as a way to get into college-level football coaching, he said: He'd played football for the New Orleans Saints and the Denver Broncos before knee injuries ended his NFL career. But by the time a college-level coaching position did present itself, he said, "I turned that down because of the passion that I have for education."
"I’ve had mentors in my life coming up was a student athlete, so I saw the impact I was having on the students," he said.
He proposed two priorities for the district: Extending the district's half-day VPK program into a full-day one, and improving performance for students with disabilities — only 17% of whom are currently meeting standards, he said.
Johnson listed rapport-building as one of his strengths.
"At every level that I’ve been on, whether it was elementary, middle, high school, I’ve had the ability to develop rapport with all stakeholders," he said. At each of the three schools at which he's served as a principal, he said, he's improved the culture.
Board member Andy Dance asked him a followup question, noting that there have been concerns about the culture in Flagler Schools, including about staff incidents with students and allegations of sexual harassment of staff. He asked Johnson how he'd determine if there is a culture problem, and work to address it.
Johnson said that surveys can be a valuable tool for measuring culture. And if he becomes superintendent, he said, "I will have listening sessions for parents, students, business partners, community members, teachers, staff. I will have those listening sessions to learn: What is the culture? What things are working? What are the challenges? And what direction they wold like to see this district go into."
The results would inform how he leads, he said.
He also said he'd be willing to hold a meeting with the district's ESE Parent Advisory Council — which had criticized him publicly, prompting him to send its leadership, through a lawyer, a letter threatening litigation — "because I want to make sure that we have a shared vision on the direction that we're going to go into as as district to close that achievement gap and make sure that all our kids will be successful."
