Our Hopewell Valley community and Board of Education collectively beamed with pride when Superintendent Thomas Smith was named Mercer County Superintendent of the Year by the Administrators Association.
In their press release, the MCASA shares the work that Dr. Smith initiated throughout the county including the Mercer County Day of Dialogue promoting equity and respect, as well as the recent “Call to Action” promoting suicide awareness and improved mental and emotional health.
Dr. Smith’s recognition in the county represents a microcosm of his larger achievements throughout our district. He is the longest serving HVRSD superintendent since the position has been nontenured.
Although he had no experience as a superintendent, the board in 2009 recognized his potential and selected him to run our district. He capitalized on his youth and humble local roots and often enlisted self-deprecating humor about growing up in neighboring Ewing.
His unassuming nature made for a friendly first year on the job and he quickly gained the support of teachers and administrators alike. Those early relationships are the foundation for the mutual respect that persists today.
Unfortunately, Dr. Smith’s honeymoon period ended rather abruptly in 2010 when Gov. Chris Christie cut our district’s state funding by over 80 percent and encouraged communities to vote down their budgets. As mayhem ensued throughout state educational communities, and neighboring districts sounded a siren that propagated fear, Dr. Smith guided our district with a slow, steady hand. His reassurance steadied the landing as local municipal leaders cut a million dollars from our district’s budget.
At the time, I began calling him “The Captain,” and quipped that I heard his calming voice address our school community: “This is your captain speaking. I am sorry to report that our district is experiencing slight turbulence, but it’s nothing to worry about…”
To this day, when our captain expects the district to navigate a contentious matter, he will advise his charges to strap in. Throughout his tenure, we have had many opportunities to heed that advice. Fortunately, we have always experienced a smooth landing.
The Board of Education encourages our superintendent to take bold action in order to maximize student achievement while being sensitive to budgetary impact. He began by partnering with outside organizations who donated a million dollars in cash and in-kind services. Years of hard work resulted in our now beloved Ackerson Field.
Completing this project helped season Dr. Smith for many additional wins and we focused heavily on transforming our academic offerings to promote success by carefully attending to social-emotional needs.
Our superintendent led committees made up of parents, teachers, and community members to address significant issues such as declining enrollment, future planning, aftercare options, homework, and most recently diversity and cultural competence.
Hopewell Valley was the first Mercer County district to tackle homework through groundbreaking policy employing strategies that have been emulated in Princeton and West Windsor.
Hopewell Valley was the first Mercer County district to use magnet schools and is the only interdistrict choice district. Last year, Dr. Smith guided the school district to the successful passing of a 35-million-dollar bond referendum that will update the district’s schools and prepare them for the next generation of Hopewell Valley students.
Hopewell Valley has always prided ourselves in being a high performing school district that attends to whole child needs by encouraging well rounded, global interests and by reducing the academic competitive pressures often felt in other high performing districts.
As such our current initiatives include easing the transition to middle school, high school, and college and actively promoting equity and opportunities for all students. We employ mindfulness, kindness, respect, inclusive behaviors and cultural competency.
Fortunately, Dr. Smith leads by example, and those traits that resulted in him being recognized as Superintendent of the Year will carry him into his second decade with our district.
Lisa Wolff is vice president of the Hopewell Valley Regional School District Board of Education.
from the schools,
