{"id":3948,"date":"2022-04-29T18:27:37","date_gmt":"2022-04-29T18:27:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/?p=3948"},"modified":"2025-02-05T13:58:49","modified_gmt":"2025-02-05T18:58:49","slug":"dr-kelly-griffith-marylands-superintendent-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/2022\/04\/29\/dr-kelly-griffith-marylands-superintendent-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Kelly Griffith: Maryland\u2019s Superintendent of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.kadence-column3948_7995a8-f5 > .kt-inside-inner-col{padding-right:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-bottom:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-left:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);}.kadence-column3948_7995a8-f5 > .kt-inside-inner-col,.kadence-column3948_7995a8-f5 > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{border-top-left-radius:0px;border-top-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-left-radius:0px;}.kadence-column3948_7995a8-f5 > .kt-inside-inner-col{column-gap:var(--global-kb-gap-sm, 1rem);}.kadence-column3948_7995a8-f5 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;}.kadence-column3948_7995a8-f5 > .kt-inside-inner-col > .aligncenter{width:100%;}.kadence-column3948_7995a8-f5 > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{opacity:0.3;}.kadence-column3948_7995a8-f5{position:relative;}@media all and (max-width: 1024px){.kadence-column3948_7995a8-f5 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}@media all and (max-width: 991px){.kadence-column3948_7995a8-f5 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}<\/style>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-column kadence-column3948_7995a8-f5 dynamic-main-col\"><div class=\"kt-inside-inner-col\">\n<p>Steering the massive ship of a school system through the heaving seas of the last few years, including the pandemic, has required a number of unique skills and abilities that only come from years of experience and training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For&nbsp;Dr. Kelly Griffith, Wil-mington University alumna and superintendent of Talbot County&nbsp;&nbsp;Schools on Maryland\u2019s Mid Shore, this has meant using every ounce of experience gained over 38 years as an educator and leader to keep her ship upright and sailing true, despite teacher and staff shortages, the sudden change to virtual learning, addressing technology gaps and limits, and more.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, it certainly came as a happy surprise to learn the county\u2019s Board of Education members and her colleagues nominated her late last year as Maryland Superintendent of the Year, awarded through the Public&nbsp;School Superintendents\u2019 Association of Maryland. As the winner for Maryland, which has 25 school&nbsp;districts, she is set to represent the state in the National Superintendent of the&nbsp;Year competition in spring of 2022.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Griffith has been superintendent for nine years. She started as a teacher in the county in 1988, and continued to move up in leadership positions, first as a teacher and later as an administrator. Her career planning meant earning a doctorate, so she chose WilmU\u2019s Educational Leadership and Innovation education program. She also holds a master\u2019s in Educational Administration and a bachelor\u2019s degree from Salisbury University, where she\u2019s an adjunct instructor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But even holding the top leadership position in the public school district in recent years has not meant leaving her passion behind. Her priorities are still focused on doing what\u2019s best for students and how professionals can best serve them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s all about relationships and paying attention to each individual child,\u201d she explains. \u201cWhat are their needs?\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Looking for ways to meet those needs means making changes. For example, Dr. Griffith notes a possible need for greater flexibility in delivering instruction for students who might need to work during the day and learn at night.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cGuess what?\u201d she says. \u201cWe can make that work.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The public school system needs&nbsp;to explore changing some practices, she says. \u201cWe need to change with the changing times, and that doesn\u2019t always happen in public education.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With so many urgent needs vying for her attention, Dr. Griffith says retention of high school students \u2014 specifically reducing dropout rates in her district and increasing college readiness \u2014 are high on her list of action items.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen I got the job as superintendent, we started strategic planning, and our graduation rate was about 85%, and our dropout rate was 10%,\u201d she explains. But with several changes, \u201cNow our graduation rate is 96%, and our dropout rate is less than 2%.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These actions largely stem from&nbsp;results gathered during Dr. Griffith\u2019s dissertation, a qualitative study&nbsp;on students\u2019 perspectives of their readiness for college. For her research, she interviewed students after they had graduated and had not taken a dual enrollment or an AP course, but who had gone on to two- or four-year colleges. She then interviewed them after their freshman years.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Working on the dissertation was \u201cthe highlight of the whole program,\u201d she says. \u201cThe courses were great. I loved my cohort, but when you really sit down and talk with students, and you love education as much as I do, and in making a difference, that to me was really a powerful qualitative study.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Her goal with the study, Dr. Griffith says, \u201cwas to find out a bit more about how the public school system could have helped them transition and why they didn\u2019t take college courses.\u201d The reasons were varied. \u201cA lot of students&nbsp;would say that people didn\u2019t see them as college material, so they weren\u2019t encouraged,\u201d she adds. \u201cOthers said&nbsp;they found a mentor in the building, and that mentor helped.\u201d So, using the data, \u201cWe\u2019ve tightened up our counseling&nbsp;and our transitioning since then, and did institute some mentorships of our seniors since that study,\u201d she adds.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the last year-and-a-half during COVID-19 disruptions, Dr. Griffith says the school system made it through those changes in better shape than others elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before the restrictions, the school system had a one-to-one computing initiative, with students receiving laptops to complete schoolwork.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe had a device for students from&nbsp;first grade to 12, and our secondary students from sixth grade through 12th grade took their devices home every night. Elementary had one in the classroom,\u201d Dr. Griffith says.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Now our graduation rate is 96%, and our dropout rate is less than 2%.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>That was a massive hurdle that many school systems couldn\u2019t jump. \u201cWe were able to use some of the funds that we got from the federal government to buy devices for kindergarten and pre-K,\u201d she says. \u201cOne of the biggest hurdles was connectivity.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some families couldn\u2019t afford it, but other challenges were related to the rural nature of the county and its large digital voids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe quickly got together with our local cable companies, and we wrote a grant to get some hotspots so we could get those in place,\u201d she says. The local utility company provided a discount to families, and the district picked up the cable costs.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI know we shut down March 13, 2020, and we were only going to be closed a week, then two weeks, then three weeks. But we were able to really, truly pivot quickly when it came to getting our kids set up with getting the devices out, making sure hotspots were getting in the hands of kids, getting people connected.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Connectivity remains a problem, whether it\u2019s cost or connection. Once the new school year began, the district planned for virtual and in-person learning.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe found out a third of our students wanted to be virtual,\u201d she says. \u201cWe decided the best way to do that for elementary and middle school was to have virtual teachers as opposed to concurrent teaching. We decided which teachers would be virtual teachers and which would be in person.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This succeeded quite well. \u201cWe actually had our students in more days than most counties in the state. And I think it was because we did a lot of planning \u2014 very intentional planning with a lot of feedback from the community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Griffith emphasizes that planning is an essential part of the job. A five-year strategic plan has just ended, but a new one called Strive for 25 addresses issues like the teacher shortage, new curriculum, expanding career and technology programs, and other needs.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cA big part of&nbsp;&nbsp;\u201cStrive for 25\u201d is going&nbsp;to be thinking differently about how we provide education and opportu-nities for students,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of her favorite activities is visiting schools and walking the halls, checking in with teachers and substitutes to ask about their day. One day, a little boy asked her, \u201cDr. Griffith, what is your job? We see you all the time.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Griffith replied, \u201cJust like the school principal is in charge of making sure all teachers have what they need and that the buses run on time, just to make sure it runs smoothly, that\u2019s what I do for the whole district. The student looked at me and said, \u2018Wow, you must be a millionaire.\u2019 And I said, no, not quite. Then he said, \u2018That\u2019s amazing.\u2019 I said, yeah, it is. But it\u2019s also very rewarding because I get to talk to kids like you and find out how you\u2019re doing.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>by Janice Colvin<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Steering the massive ship of a school system through the heaving seas of the last few years, including the pandemic, has required a number of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":3949,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[145,135],"tags":[383],"class_list":["post-3948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-news","category-magazine","tag-magazine-spring-2022"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":145,"label":"ALUMNI NEWS"},{"value":135,"label":"MAGAZINE"}],"post_tag":[{"value":383,"label":"Magazine Spring 2022"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Spring22_Kelly-480x480.jpg",480,480,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Rachel Marchione","author_link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/author\/rachel\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":145,"name":"ALUMNI NEWS","slug":"alumni-news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":702,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":113,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":145,"category_count":113,"category_description":"","cat_name":"ALUMNI NEWS","category_nicename":"alumni-news","category_parent":0},{"term_id":135,"name":"MAGAZINE","slug":"magazine","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":692,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":431,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":135,"category_count":431,"category_description":"","cat_name":"MAGAZINE","category_nicename":"magazine","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":383,"name":"Magazine Spring 2022","slug":"magazine-spring-2022","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":940,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":22,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3948"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14292,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3948\/revisions\/14292"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}