Shawn Joseph, the new interim head of the Prince George’s County Public School system, might only have the job for the next year, but he’s promising things that aren’t working in the county’s schools are going to change fast as he begins his 100-day plan for the upcoming school year.
He plans to put a large emphasis on engaging with families from around the county. That means monthly meetings in every school board district, reaching out to union leaders, the parent-teacher associations and other groups that help parents engage with their kids’ schools.
Joseph also said in the weeks and months ahead he’ll be reviewing academic programs and assessing what is and what isn’t working.
“We won’t be offended by you telling us we got to improve something,” he said. “We’re going to work to improve it.”
He’s not the first new superintendent who’s promised to push ahead with changes inside a school system that has struggled — sometimes mightily. But Joseph said his interim label allows him to do things his way.
“You know what the blessing of being interim is? I can do the work without a lot of the politics, because at the end of the day, if I’m not selected, I got a job,” he said. “So I’m here to really focus … but what I know about Prince George’s County is we’ve got so many great people here.”
“I’ve been doing this for 30 years, and I wouldn’t come into a job that I thought was ‘Mission Impossible,’” he added. “This is actually ‘Mission Possible’ and I believe that the time is now.”
Helping him in that regard will be the fact he has support from other leaders in the county — something Joseph’s predecessors, including Millard House II, the former superintendent that was pushed out earlier this month, didn’t always have.
“We are united,” said new County Executive Aisha Braveboy. “That’s one thing that I think is so important right now. We have not been as united as a county as we are right now, and we’re going to stay that way, because our constituents are counting on us. Our children are counting on us.”
Joseph feels that will allow him a chance to execute the moves he deems necessary heading into the new school year.
“When we can hold ourselves accountable and align our budgets to our vision,” he argued. “Any organization that has more vision than capacity fails, right?”
“We’ll continuously recalibrate and focus so if somebody’s not willing to work, they should quit, because they’ll probably get fired. I mean, we’re in this moment right now where we’ve just got to get things done,” he added. “Our kids deserve it. Our community deserves it.”
But does that mean he doesn’t want the full-time job? He didn’t say yes, but after having served as deputy superintendent in the county from 2014 to 2016, he didn’t say no either.
“If you focus on your mission, you’ll always have a job. If you focus on your job, you might miss your mission,” he said. “I’m just focused on this job as interim superintendent … when we get to the second semester, we’ll see how everybody’s feeling.”
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