Dr. Sonia Stewart is the Executive Officer of Organizational Development at the Metro Nashville Public School System in Nashville, Tennessee. We spoke to her ahead of her scheduled February 19th visit to learn more about her and her educational background.
WTAQ: Tell me a little bit about your background as an educator.
Dr. Stewart: This is my 22nd year in education. I got my undergraduate from Viola in Los Angeles and got my teaching start at LA Unified at a high school in Compton. I have a Math degree and have spent most of my time in the classroom in a math classroom. I also taught world religions in a private school for a few years when my kids were very young.
I’ve been a classroom teacher, a dean of students, an assistant principal, an executive principal, and a district executive. I’ve been connected to education in Los Angeles, in Chicago, and Nashville. I also had a few years where I was outside of the school system in Chicago that was really focused on education reform.
WTAQ: What makes you the right person for this job in Green Bay?
Dr. Stewart: When I look at the district of Green Bay I notice the district has been changing demographically for a while and some of the priorities I think are shifting and I think some of the things I bring to the table help with those needs. All of my background has been in highly diverse settings where we’re dealing with students that have a whole variety of needs. We’re dealing with communities learning how to meet those needs collectively. I think I bring a lot to the table having done that from the principal’s seat as well as outside of the district and in my current role as an executive. I think I’m someone who can cast a clear and compelling vision, who comes alongside stakeholders on the ground to do the work collectively. I am a big believer that it is ‘we’, it takes a village to change outcomes for kids. So what I think makes me good for this role is an alignment with the strategic plan. I sense a city that is ready to do the work around equity and is ready to lean into the idea that all children are our children. I believe I can lead that work.
WTAQ: Why Green Bay in particular?
Dr. Stewart: One of the reason is size. All of the districts I’ve been connected to are much, much bigger than Green Bay. I think any time you’re in a school district, just the general bureaucracy of the work, and the complexities of bigger bureaucracies make work and change challenging. So in my work all across the nation I have asked questions often: what is the district size where you can move the work quickly? And this size has come up a lot.
I’m also interested in where you guys are in your transformation. What the student population is like as it’s seated, the diversity, not just racially and culturally, but economically as well. The growing English language learners that you have, the students with disabilities. It’s very much an urban context on a smaller scale.
I think, when I look at where the focus of your strategic plan is I feel you’re coming out of a season where there have been a lot of system wide structural improvements…I’m also intrigued by the educational; landscape in Wisconsin. As somebody who is not from Wisconsin, certainly Wisconsin has been in the news the past few years with regards to the unions and the budgets, so it’s just an interesting, complex system there.
WTAQ: What would you say is your greatest accomplishment as an educator?
Dr. Stewart: I would say certainly my time as executive principal at Pearl-Cohn will serve as a pivot. Pearl-Cohn was a historically under-performing school for many many years, 30 years. My team and I really took that school through a transformation, and it’s significant in our city and significant for our kids and families, but it’;s also significant because of the national exposure we got during that time. We won a lot of various different national awards. So I look at that as a pivot. It convinced me on what can be done within four walls of a school… I believe as a result of that work I’ve been able to get connected with broader networks across the nation…My work in the central office has really been to expand on what we were doing at Pearl-Cohn.
Dr. Stewart will be in Green Bay Wednesday, February 19th. Parents, staff, and community members will get an opportunity to meet her between 4:30 and 6:00 pm at the District Office Building, 200 S. Broadway, Room 331.
