Beth Mattey was named president of the National Association of School Nurses in June. Mattey is the school nurse at Mt. Pleasant High School, part of Brandywine School District in Delaware. In her remarks at the group’s annual conference in June, Mattey said that school nursing is the foundation of healthy schools.
“Every day brings new healthcare issues and school nurses provide student-centered care,” she said. “School nurses collaborate with students, the school community, families, the healthcare community, the community at large, and government agencies so that children are in school, healthy, safe and ready to learn.”
Chuck Tompkins, a veteran Oklahoma City Public Schools administrator, will lead the district’s new student discipline and compliance office. Tompkins, most recently director of human resources, will lead a new effort to better use data to monitor and analyze discipline issues.
He will also oversee implementation of a new student code of conduct and teacher training to intervene when students become disruptive. The initiatives are part of a districtwide effort to reduce out-of-school suspensions.
Tom Trigg became superintendent of Highland Park ISD in Dallas in August. He is credited with strengthening the Center for Advanced Professional Studies, which he created in 2009 when he was superintendent of Blue Valley School District in Kansas.
The program introduces students to careers in law, bioscience, engineering and other fields. High school students spent a portion of their day taking classes in these subjects. This year, the program at Blue Valley grew to about 850 students.
Cami Anderson, superintendent of Newark Public Schools in New Jersey, resigned in June, eight months before her contract was to expire. Anderson had been hounded for over a year by students, parents and local leaders protesting her efforts in education reform.
In a statement, Anderson said that she was “extremely proud” of her accomplishments in the district, citing a new teacher contract and a graduation rate increase from 56 percent in 2011 to 70 percent this year. Anderson’s state-appointed replacement is Chris Cerf, who served as the state’s education commissioner from 2011-14 and began the superintendent job in July.
In June, Desmond Blackburn was named superintendent of Brevard County Public Schools in Florida. He was formerly the chief of school performance and accountability in Broward County Schools, where he had also been a teacher, principal and area superintendent.
He told local media outlets that, in Brevard County, he plans to emphasize community engagement, spend conservatively, expand student extracurricular engagement and improve teacher access to healthcare.
