Clover Park Schools Chief Anticipates "Wonderful Things" In the Coming Year

One way of looking at it is that Debbie LeBeau is now one day into her senior year in the Clover Park School District.

Not that she’s planning to graduate anytime soon.

LeBeau began her fourth year as superintendent in July, which means she has been in her role as long as the Class of 2012 has been in high
school.

“I’m anticipating wonderful things happening this year,” she said.

Among those things are the construction of a new Hudtloff Middle School, a new reading curriculum that gives K-5 teachers new materials and training and the addition of online elementary assessments. The latter has resulted in the district purchasing wireless laptops to deploy to classrooms so students can take the test and maximize time.

“This year, we’re going to see the results of a number of years of planning and saving,” she said. “It’s all coming together, and our teachers are very excited.”

LeBeau said that last year was challenging from a personnel standpoint. Two administrators passed away within the same month, and another veteran principal was out on medical leave.

“That really took a toll on the administrators and the staff who aligned closely with those members,” she said. “That was tough, but I think that the fact is that we came through that and are stronger, and we’ve added new people to the team.

“We made it through – and helped some students do some learning along the way.”

LeBeau is no stranger to change, though. She said that with the retirements of Bev Eastman from Custer Elementary and Kevin Brooks from Dower Elementary, there are no principals left from when she started in CPSD 15 years ago as the district’s special-education supervisor.

“Over time, it really has changed,” she said. “People have moved on or retired, and it does make you stop and think about carefully planning things out so it’s not (just) about the people, but about putting systems into place.

“Years ago, principals were just managers, but it’s a really different world now. It’s a little more stressful for everyone – the teachers and the world – and the job has lots of close scrutiny. I’m not saying there shouldn’t be, but it’s not as warm and fuzzy as it might have been at one time.”

Still, LeBeau said, it is heartening to know that people “still have a heart for the job.”

One of the biggest challenges LeBeau has faced as superintendent was replacing the principal and about half the staff at Southgate Elementary, which was in Step 5 of the School Improvement Plan. That meant that the school had failed to make Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) for several years.

“It was really hard,” LeBeau said. “Even in a district with 17 elementary schools, it’s really hard to disburse staff. I don’t think we could even do it one more time.”

Two years of hard work paid off, though, as Southgate’s students tallied “wonderful” test results this year.

“The principal and staff are walking around with smiles on their faces,” she said. “We’re really excited. They have lots of challenges there between languages and student preparedness, and they’re sticking with it. If Southgate can do it, you can do it – that’s how I’m highlighting it.”

Tillicum Elementary also moved off the School Improvement list, “so we have some celebrations this year.”

LeBeau said that she expects the largest obstacles to overcome this year are things that are out of her hands: changing legislation and declining budget revenues. CPSD’s operating budget for 2011-12 is $144 million, which reflects a revenue loss of $5.6 million in state and federal funding.

“We’re still doing pretty good, but you have to wonder how long we can keep this up and still do a good job of educating students.”

She also said it is a challenge to deal with the district’s high rate of mobility and moving students forward while personalizing the educational experience for each child.

“Part of that has to do with budget, and part of it has to do with human resources and training,” she said. “It’s tough work, and not for everybody – but absolutely, it is for me.

“The day to day, the teachers and the administrators are the ones doing it. I’m just trying to make sure that they have the tools.”

LeBeau, who previously worked at a small school district north of Spokane, hoped to get experience in a larger system so she could eventually become a superintendent – but she didn’t necessarily expect to be running CPSD.

“My favorite thing is being able to make things happen,” she said. “I’m sure everybody could say this, but when you work in an organization and you think you know the right thing to do, but you can’t make it happen because you’re not in the right position … Now, I’m not sure I’m making the right decisions, but I like being in the position.

“Sometimes you don’t know if you’re making a difference or if things are moving forward, but it’s nice to show the teachers the outcomes.”

Those are the kinds of things that keep LeBeau going.

“On a day-to-day basis, you’re not sure if what you did is going to matter, but for a school like Southgate, look at the progress we made,” she said. “It took two years, but getting to be involved in it is very rewarding.”