chris hurst, superintendent

Michael Littleton Richmond Promise Board Chair, Former Senior Vice President of Finance, Gu Energy Labs. I am excited to get to work in West Contra Costa Unified and about working together to provide a world-class educational experience for students that prepares them to be globally competent and allows them to compete and participate in our diverse and global society, Hurst said. total compensation and benefits last year, reopen campuses for hybrid instruction on Monday, Harriette Cole: My friend's mom didn't recognize me at my job, and she was very rude. I think those are the big pieces that Im really focusing on coming back for fall. He said he was also drawn by the district and school boards passion for equity and mission statement to bring students a quality education so that they can better their community while being global citizens. c***@dcdsb.ca. I really believe that especially urban systems are fundamentally broken and are failing Black and brown students across the United States. In Oceanside, Dr. Hurst collaborated with ConnectEd California, implementing Linked Learning to establish K-12 industry-aligned pathways to prepare students to succeed in college and career. We hired a leader who will lead WCCUSD teachers, administrators, and staff with a united vision, transparency, and accountability. He also implemented Othellos K-12 pathway, the Districts Social-Emotional Learning Standards. Chief Master Sgt. Rumors circulated in late 2019 that the school board might consider firing Duffy, but multiple trustees publicly stood by the superintendent, EdSource reported at the time. Subscribe to Richmond Confidential to get the latest news sent straight to your inbox. Ive been looking over the trend data over the past several years and Ive seen that, especially our Black students and our Latinx students have struggled in especially mathematics and English language arts, but also a number of suspensions, expulsions; we have a high chronic absenteeism rate. Kenneth Chris Hurst Sr. is the new leader of the West Contra Costa Unified School District,replacing Matthew Duffy, who led WCCUSD for five years. This is not a warm-body job.. That is not to say unions are bad, quite the contrary they just need to focus more on helping protect employees, especially the most vulnerable not raising salaries. I believe that every person, including you, has a big vision in store for them, and what I believe is that its my responsibility to give people the tools to unlock, like what is that vision, what is my purpose in life, what was I designed to do. He will have a three-year contract still pending final approval by the board with a starting salary of $270,000 per year (and 2% increases each year). After a nearly six-month search, the West Contra Costa Unified School District has hired a new superintendent. The District also gathered more than 6,000 responses from the community on the next Superintendents qualities and qualifications. In a release, a district spokesman detailed Hursts accomplishments at Othello School District in Othello, Washington, including implementing social-emotional learning standards, which train students to manage their emotions and relationships. Please look for Dr. Hurst's e. The district was able to close a very large deficit this year, but at the cost of eliminating positions, reining in expenses and borrowing from reserves. I believe that the new Superintendent will bring a nurturing environment to WCCUSD students with a focus on leadership, empowerment, and direction to the WCCUSD, Board Trustee Otheree Christian said. West Contra Costa Unified school board members unanimously approve a three-year superintendent contract for Kenneth Chris Hurst, shown with his wife Crystal in the center of the bottom row. He became assistant principal in Poway Unified just north of San Diego, where he helped open Westview High School in 2002. So professional learning is going to be a very big key here in Richmond and across the United States. Christopher Hurst, 99th Security Forces Squadron superintendent, Chief Master Sgt. So when our students came back in January, what I saw was a disconnect, like our students werent talking a lot, they werent engaging a lot. So it really boils down to our teaching force and really preparing them to be culturally responsive to our students. He started his educational career in Poway Unified as a math and computer programming and computer science teacher. During his five years at Othello, graduation rates increased from 71% to 87%, and absences declined by 33%, he said. There are some other pieces that are priorities for me but I would say those are the top two priorities. And I think, as I shared before, we overall are not serving our Latinx kids and our Black kids well in our district on a number of different fronts. Dr. Kenneth "Chris" Hurst, Superintendent Jamela Smith-Folds, Trustee Area 1 Demetrio Gonzalez Hoy, Trustee Area 4 Otheree Christian, Trustee Area 2 Leslie Reckler, Trustee Area 5 Mister Phillips, Trustee Area 3 Thomas Leung, Student Trustee Navi Emiliano, Student Trustee Its really a focus on safety and COVID safety and having mitigation strategies in place. Copyright 2002-2023 Blackboard, Inc. All rights reserved. The district plans to reopen campuses for hybrid instruction on Mondayafter more than a year of distance learning. 1003 On June 30, 2021, the OSD Board of Directors approved a three year contract naming Pete Perez the district's superintendent. Ive been to Japan, Ive been to Okinawa, Ive been to South Korea, a lot of different places. Students will return to campuses for instructional hubs for several hours a day. West Contra Costa Unified has had two African American interim superintendents in the past. Hurst works non-stop and is very dedicated to his job. Hurst is not just qualified to support our district through these very challenging times, but he has also gone through a successful school reopening in his previous district.. This is in addition to sending a letter of demands to the superintendent and being present for public comment at the school board meeting. A lengthy search process involved 50 listening sessions with staff and families, and the district fielded over 6,000 comments from the community, according to the release. I was a drill instructor and I was a communications instructor as well. And their whole theory of action is, if we can really transform the central office, like people that work up here with me, and if we put the right people in place to have the right tools, then we could better go down to the school sites and support them and build capacity with the leaders. So there has to be a big investment in preschool to make sure that we close that early literacy gap. Dr. Hurst becomes WCCUSDs 10th permanent superintendent and its first permanent African American superintendent. Dr. With my wife. We went back to Germany. We request that commenters consistently use the same login name. Two-thirds of the students qualify for free and reduced price meals. I'm excited about this partnership.. He needs to review what happened with those vacancies, like the Janitor, or clerk I reported that were hidden from the databases in the subsystem as permanent employees in the same position for years and not posting vacancies, having unequal numbers of subs whom could be temporary contracts if there are equal number of employees out. WCCUSD received nearly 30 applications for the position from throughout the country. Before his career in education, Dr. Hurst served 12 years in the Marines. Please check your e-mail for a link to activate your account. He also boosted the districts linked learning programs, which integrate academics with real-world work experiences. He earned a master of arts in educational administration in 2008 and a. So how do we really present curriculum in a way that really entices the student and engages the student. Kenneth Chris Hurst, 60, who served as a superintendent at a school district in Washington state, will be West Contra Costa Unifieds first permanent Black superintendent. Previously, Chris was an Assistant Principal at Camino High School. What are your plans for a successful reopening in the fall? Categorical Instructional Support Services (CISS), Early Learning Pre-K to Adult Educational Operations, Office of African American Student Achievement (OAASA), Teacher Support and Assistance Program (TSAP), Community Budget Advisory Committee (CBAC), Research, Assessment, Accountability & Data (RAAD), West Contra Costa Unified School District, Blackboard Web Community Manager Privacy Policy (Updated). Privacy Policy They are as follows: . All rights reserved. If your browser is out of date, try updating it. Among the strategies that he points to are restorative justice alternatives to traditional school discipline, promoting rigorous, engaging and culturally relevant curriculum as well as project-based learning, and aligning curriculum with career pathways and industry occupational sectors. Cmon, folks lets stop expecting out of the box miracles in the face of head in the sand funding. The main reason he took the job, though, was to be a part of the work happening there to improve student success. Then you have whats called the summer slide, so they get even further behind because of the three months that theyre off during the summer. Education | General | Kennedy High School | community. Diablo Unified, Kyla Johnson-Trammell of Oakland Unified, Vincent Matthews of San Francisco Unified and Harry Doc Ervin of Bakersfield City School District. My long-term goal is to really transform our system so that we are ensuring that a high number of our students are prepared for college and career. Paris le-de-France CCI is a source of proposals, informs debates on key issues and plays an active role in the growth of local companies and the economy in its territory. Tell me about yourself and how did you came to be involved in education? When you engage students, whether its K through 12 or college students, in processes like design thinking, or problem-based learning, or project-based learning, or learning by doing, then that changes everything. We also are partnering with a number of organizations that have reached out to me. And as I look at large, urban systems like San Diego or LA or Oakland or Long Beach and even, West Contra Costa Unified School District, these are large systems which for the most part are failing are Black and brown kids. Hurst succeeds outgoing Superintendent Matthew Duffy, who announced last year he would not seek re-appointment when his contract ended after the current school year. So right now were looking at support even at the central office level to make sure that we have the right support in place so we can better support principals and school sites, so that principals can better support the teachers and the teachers can better support the students. They focus a lot on design thinking, a process which is out of Stanford as well, which is a problem-solving approach. Dr. Hurst has served as the Superintendent of the Othello District in Othello, Washington, since 2016. as well as their lower graduation rates and higher rates of expulsions and suspensions. Were coming back to in person, so I want to make sure that our students are safe, and so were doing everything in our power to make sure we have mitigation strategies in place. Hurst got his start in the education field in San Diego County, after serving 12 years in the Marines; he served combat duty in Desert Storm and was a drill instructor, communications specialist and maintenance supervisor at Camp Pendleton. Sylvester Greenwood andDr. Cynthia LeBlanc each served one-year terms as interim superintendents. Othello School Board Vice President Jenn Stevenson said Hurst was known for thinking outside of the box and welcoming new ideas; he also brought new views and a focus on equity to the district, as well as focusing on equity and justice. Dr. Hurst has 23 years of experience teaching and leading equity in urban, suburban, and rural K-12 districts. And whether thats either drug abuse, or some other sort of trauma that students are experiencing, we want to make sure that we partner with those agencies so that they can really check in either individually or with groups, those students. The staff at Richmond High School are backing student demands and uplifting them to engage the whole community. So how do we check in with them during the school day? And the research says once kids are behind, they typically stay behind. In Othello, Dr. Hurst led a District with a student population that is 91 percent Latinx, 32 percent English Language Learners, and 75 percent free and reduced-price lunch through the transition to Distance Learning at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and from Distance Learning to a hybrid model this year. Hurst also led the districts transition to distance learning at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and to a hybrid model this school year in which students get part of their instruction via distance learning, and some in-person. The finalists are Camas School District Superintendent Jeff Snell, right, and Kenneth (Chris) Hurst, superintendent of the Othello School District in Adams County. He said his drawn to central Washington in part because of the beautiful countryside his parents had lived in Yakima, and he and his wife always dreamed of living there. Dr. Hurst joins WCCUSD after spending the past five years as the Superintendent of the Othello District in Othello, Washington where he significantly increased graduation rates and decreased chronic absenteeism rates for students. He knows how to be a superintendent because hes been doing the work. He needs to acknowledge or review the abuse of the lowest performing students not given lunches, substitutes and other such things I witnessed myself. Hurst is only one of a tiny number of Black superintendents among the states 1,000-plus school districts. Dr. Hurst earned his Doctorate in Education, K-12 Leadership (Magna Cum Laude), at the University of Southern California in 2011, and his Master of Arts Degree in Educational Administration (Magna Cum Laude) in 2008, and his Bachelor of Science, a degree in Mathematics in 1997 at California State University, San Marcos. Dear Abby: I have a great life, so why have I fallen into this shameful behavior? West Contra Costa Unified includes Richmond, El Cerrito and several other East Bay communities. Chris Hurst is a Superintendent of Education - Ajax at Durham Catholic District School Board based in Oshawa, Ontario. They are Adam Clark of Mt. Shes an amazing person and shes the wisest person that I know. Before leading the Othello School District, Dr. Hurst served as Associate Superintendent of Educational Services in Oceanside Unified School District, a 19,000 student district 35 minutes northwest of San Diego. Dr. Hurst also tripled the number of children enrolled in preschool and increased the percent of preschool students prepared for kindergarten from 30 percent to more than 98 percent. Comments from the same user posted under multiple aliases may be deleted. In the 2019-20 school year at West Contra Costa Unified, about 56% of its students were Latino, 31% were English learners, and 66% qualified for free and reduced-price lunch. Vancouver Public Schools has. So shes going to be working for California School for the Blind in Fremont, and shes going to be working in the tech department, and helping students with technology. Were not going to let anyone hosannah you in and crucify you out, Smith-Folds told Hurst at the meeting, said, alluding to an often typical pattern of welcoming incoming superintendents as a savior for all the districts problems, before disillusionment sets in, and they are forced out. Watching superintendents fail in LCFF-funded districts in high-cost counties has become routine. Dr. Hurst succeeds Matthew Duffy, who announced in November that he would not seek an extension to his contract. Not having position control forms on these people, and many other intentional policy and procedural actions in HR that ultimately masks the budget. While serving as the Associate Superintendent of Educational Services, he supervised the Oceanside Promises implementation to ensure all Oceanside students graduated ready for college and career and established the Oceanside Promise Foundation, a 501(c)(3). But also, theres an issue with the learning loss that has happened as well with the COVID back in March of 2020, and making sure we have the right data in front of our teachers so that we can really assess our students and where they are to meet their needs. What the research says is that most of the growth that were going to see over the next several years is going to be from students coming from Spanish-speaking populations, and from Mandarin-speaking populations. Superintendent Dr. Kenneth "Chris" Hurst, Sr. is WCCUSD's 10th permanent superintendent. I knew there were resources out there but I didnt have anyone to point me into the right direction. If you continue to be blocked, please send an email to secruxurity@sizetedistrict.cVmwom with: https://richmondstandard.com/community/education/2021/04/15/wccusd-selects-charles-hurst-as-new-superintendent/, Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 15_3_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/15.3 Mobile/15E148 Safari/604.1, A summary of what you were doing and why you need access to this site. Email. I look forward to working with him, and I have confidence in the experience and ability that he is bringing to this table.. Dr. Hurst also tripled the number of children enrolled in preschool and increased the percent of preschool students prepared for kindergarten from 30 percent to more than 98 percent. So I sort of felt disenfranchised as a youth. So I would say COVID safety and overall safety is a big component. To read more, click the Meet Dr. Hurst headline. The Vancouver Public Schools board of directors narrowed the selection for superintendent to two candidates after meeting in executive session on Tue., Feb. 23. Its going to take a community effort, to take all of us working together as one for a shared vision.. Bill aims to boost salaries 50% by 2030, Future of state housing is at stake in UC ruling, governor says. Californias Community Colleges: At a Crossroads, Adjuncts gig economy at CA community colleges, College And Covid: Freshman Year Disrupted, Education during Covid: California families struggle to learn, Tainted Taps: Lead puts California Students at Risk, Full Circle: California Schools Work To Transform Discipline, Californias Homeless Students: Undercounted, Underfunded And Growing, Eyes on the Early Years Newsletter Archive, California Association for African American Superintendents and Administrators, funded in part by millions of dollars in grants, mostly from the Gates foundation, West Contra Costa Unified School District, Click here for EdSource's Comments Policy. Having engaging, culturally relevant curriculum is also important to keeping students on track, he said. He earned a master of arts in educational administration in 2008 and a Doctorate in Education in K-12 Leadership, at the University of Southern California in 2011. And if we can build capacity with the leaders so that they are expert observers of instruction, especially culturally responsive teaching, then they can better support the teachers and build their capacity. Richmond Confidential is an online news service produced by the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism for, and about, the people of Richmond, California. I really believe in investing in building teacher capacity and building leadership capacity, and thats what it really comes down to when we talk about BIPOC and racism and implicit biases as well. I have seen him on the phone, while emailing someone and texting yet another about a different issue, Stevenson said via email. One unfortunate issue he has to face is for funding was the unions driven zealous raising of salaries that hurt the district. WCCUSD's Board of Education hired Dr. Hurst on April 14, 2021,making him the first permanent African American superintendent. What she really loves doing is to teach those technology skills to students who are visually impaired. Prior to his long career in education, he served 12 years in the U.S. Marine Corps. College and Covid: Freshman Year Disrupted, Education During Covid: Families Struggle to Learn. He spent 6 years as a principal and assistant principal in Oceanside, including the turnaround principal for Jefferson Middle and Oceanside High schools. Do you have any plan to address any trauma that may have occurred in the household during the pandemic? How do you like to spend your leisure time? Ive learned to work within the constraints of a budget; its not an excuse to exclude students from these types of experiences, Hurst said. I think its really dependent upon our students I think its individual success and individually defined. Since I was in desperate need of a car due to the nature of my new job, I resorted to making online research on how I could restore my credit to a minimum of 650 to enable me to qualify, after a few months of searching, I bumped into a blog and found positive reviews about, I am excited to get to work in West Contra Costa Unified and about working together to provide a world-class educational experience for students that prepares them to be globally competent and allows them to compete and participate in our diverse and global society, Hurst said. Chief Business Official: Robert McEntire Interim Associate Superintendent / Chief Business Officer (510) 231-1170 robert.mcentire@wccusd.net. As Superintendent of the 4,500 student District located about 3 hours southeast of Seattle, Dr. Hurst increased graduation rates by 16 percent from 71 percent to 87 percent and reduced absences by 33 percent. I am honored and excited to be the new Superintendent of West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD), and to partner with students, educators, families, community, and business partners to ensure we are meeting the districts mission to prepare students for post-secondary education and to be responsible, thinking, contributing members of our global society. Hurst is the districts 10th leader and its first non-interim African American superintendent. Its an unhealthy system. Why are students starting their own businesses right out of high school? Well involve students also into this conversation because we want to hear from them about what they want to have when they graduate. Teachers, principals, and district administrators need to learn the notes of high quality instruction before they can play jazz. Improvement in a very few aligned professional practices will go a long way in improving student academic achievement. Want to improve the achievement gap? I think ethnic studies is certainly a great way to start. Ask Amy: I put a security camera in my room, and what I saw was creepy, Ask Amy: My fiancee's family says I'm not invited, and she's going without me, The dad whose wife and child were among 5 killed by a neighbor in Texas describes how the massacre unfolded, 'Total dominance': Steph Curry breaks NBA Game 7 record, leads Warriors over Kings, Dear Abby: The reason her fiance hid his phone was something she never guessed, Mortgage fees to rise for buyers with high credit scores, fall for those with lower scores, Kurtenbach: Steph Curry built the Warriors dynasty. He also facilitated instructional rounds for the Oceanside high school network and the LCAP development. Duffy saw the district through a difficult financial stretch. She has a lot of Braille technology in our home, so she has devices that read books to her, that can download a book from this software. The patient needs a very limited and focused diet for improvement. I had a couple of few role models in my life. So we really want to do both. Kenneth Chris Hurst Sr., Ed.D | Superintendent | West Contra Costa Unified School District | (510) 231-1101 CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This electronic mail transmission may contain privileged. new leader of the West Contra Costa Unified School District, not serving our Latinx kids and our Black kids well, Richmond expands job opportunities year-round for city youth, Smoky Chevron flare alarms residents, spews sulfur dioxide into air, Richmonds Black population declining: You cant really locate a solid African American community. Hurst is apparently just another neoliberal, protecting the wealthy by betraying his students and their families, when he asserts that his out of the box ideas (in fact, common buzzwords for years now) can change change educational outcomes without addressing wealth inequality. Copyright 2002-2023 Blackboard, Inc. All rights reserved. At Oceanside High School, Dr. Hurst led double-digit growth in the schools academic growth performance. And its not been happening, especially with our Black and our Latinx students, so thats a big concern as well. Best to relabel it the Professional Practices Gap. Contact. Vancouver Public Schools superintendent candidates, from left, Dr. Karen Cheser, Dr. Kenneth "Chris" Hurst, Dr. Hector Rico and Dr. Jeff Snell (Provided photos) Educators, students and. Our goal is to produce professional and engaging journalism that is useful for the citizens of the city. That can involve, for example, a few teachers participating in a training session on restorative practices; they then teach their colleagues what they learned. File photo Finalists for superintendent are: Dr. Kenneth (Chris) Hurst, superintendent, Othello School District, Othello, WA Dr. Hurst also served as an administrator in the San Diego Unified and Poway Unified school districts. We hired 20 counselors, additional counselors, so the case loads were at 750 per counselor but now weve reduced that down to 350. He refused to let it end in Game 7, Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. Next, he worked as a principal under former San Diego Unified Superintendent Alan, Bersin. Some students may define their success as going into a career field of their choice, or some may define success, another different way. We have to look at our training for our principals, because our principals have responsibility of going into the classrooms and being able to identify what are the elements of culturally responsive teaching, what does great teaching look like, and ensuring that theyre providing really good authentic feedback to those teachers as well, thats going to build their capacity. At Oceanside High School, Dr. Hurst led double-digit growth in the schools academic growth performance. The West Contra Costa Unified School District's Board of Trustees named Othello School District Superintendent Dr. Kenneth "Chris" Hurst, Sr. as the District's next superintendent.

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