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Hard to believe it, but it's back to school time and that means some big changes at one of the largest school districts in the city's.

The first full week of August means the start of the new school year in the Rock Island Milan School District.

There will be a lot of fresh faces this year.

Not only kindergartner starting their elementary school careers, and new teachers and students arrivin for their first day of classes, but also a new school superintendent who officially took over right now.

We talked with doctor Sharon Williams about her new job at the Rock Island Milan Schools.

Her philosophy of education.

The first controversial move in her tenure, and her plan to keep kids in the classroom until they graduate.

Well, first off, welcome to the Rock Island Milan School District, and it's the start of a new school year.

Is very exciting.

Tell me what that's like.

I mean, every beginning of a school year has got to be somewhat special.

Yes.

So our school district holds a back to school bash.

It was held yesterday.

Thankfully, the rain held off for us.

We had all of our schools represente many of our community partners.

we had our cheer cheerleaders there.

It was just an exciting time to get back in the mood for school ending.

our summer intersessio and ready to get back to school.

And we start August 5th.

What's it like to start a new school year?

Because, I mean, it' all possibilities at that point.

Yes.

So definitely a brand new start.

We have many new school leaders who are joining the district or moving to different schools within the district.

Very exciting.

about that.

We also have some new district office leaders, and we're working as a team, a leadership team, to get our schools ready.

Had just had a conversation with our, maintenance and operations director about making sure that our schools were spruced up and clean and ready for our students and staff on the first day.

You're not really used to school starting this early.

The first full week of August.

I am not.

So most of my experiences we've started mid August or around Labor Day.

Right.

And that gives students, staff, families, kind of a longer summer break.

but we have had a balanced calendar for many years, and I believe it really benefits our students and staff, our scholars and staff, because we have some intercessions that kind of break up the school year.

So that does cause for shorter summer, intersession.

However, we're ready to go on August 5th.

There's always this this fear of of an educational lag or a drop off between one school year and the next.

Do you think in some ways, this puts Rock Island a little bit of a step ahead?

Because it's a little bit of a shortened time.

You can get the kids bac into the classroom.

Absolutely.

So that was one of the impetus for balanced calendars across our country.

And the Rock Island Island School District has practice that over many years.

the shorter breaks do help with, learning loss that can occur during summer, summer school.

We do have enrichment activities that help bridge some of that gap in our inner sessions during the school year, but also in the summertime, so that scholars have something to do and look forward to.

learning and playing, during the summer to get ready for the next school year.

Let's talk about you in particular.

You were supposed to start July 1st.

You got moved back to June 1st, but in many ways you started May 1st.

Yes.

So you pretty much have ramped up for the school year as well?

Yes.

So I had a wonderful opportunity.

The Board of Education reall wanted me to have a good start.

So they, approved a pre learning entry plan that really brought me into the district, starting in February of this year.

I was able to visit the district 2 or 3 days, per month, February, March and April, then in May 1st, to have some transition time with a third interim superintendent.

I was actually the incoming superintendent for the month of May and then started full time.

June 1st.

And June 1st was a very special day because that was our commencement exercises.

So that was my first full day as the superintendent.

So tell me what it's like to have ramped up into this position, but also it gives you a different perspective because you were abl to almost fly over the district, at least for a few months before actually getting down.

Get your hands dirty on a day to day operations.

Yes, it was an invaluable time.

I was able to meet with, all of our school leaders.

I visite every single one of our schools, and it's so valuable to see our scholars learning.

before you start as the leader of a school district.

So I was able to see, most of the spring semester, 1 or 2 days at a time, and then was able to be here every day during May, during the final month of school.

And that was just so very important for me to be able to see principals and school leaders in their element, understand how our central office worked better, also connecting wit many of our community members.

We had a meet and greets, i various parts of our community.

So it was very invaluable for me to meet families community members and partners during that time so that I didn't feel behind starting as a new superintendent, new, community member July 1st.

So administratively, what perspective did it give you?

I mean, when you were looking at the structure of the district?

Yes.

Did it did it form some opinion in your mind early on?

Well, one of my, goals during that time was to learn more about the district.

So I asked school leaders.

I asked many parents and family members.

I set up ten minute meetings where anyone in the district could come talk to me.

And I had four guiding questions.

what do you want me to know about our community?

What do you want us to know about our schools?

is there anything that you would improve in the schools?

And you know what?

Celebrate it in the schools.

And I learned a lot during that time.

I learned that we have a very cohesive and, wonderful staff who works very hard.

I also learned about some gaps in organization and support for schools that, I felt very strongly needed to be addressed very quickly.

so those one on one conversations, conversations, especially with school principals and leaders and our district team, really helped me understand better, how we could organize ourselves to better support schools.

Is that where your idea of the need for a deputy superintendent came from?

That was definitely an impetus for this position.

So what I've experienced in my, educational leadership, journey to Rock Island and School District is that there's often a disconnect between our district and strategic goals and how those are implemented in schools.

And one of the key drivers is someone who can be that conduit between the central office and the school, someone who's able to coach and wor with, school leaders day to day, who can support them in implementing new policies and practices that are really governed by our board of Education and then our district office leaders, down to the schools.

So that person, is really a conduit, as I mentioned, between the district office and school leaders, so that we can fully, implement the Board of Education policies, procedures, etc., with a high level of, high level of fidelity.

So often, schools are out by themselves and on islands.

We have many school leaders who are the only leader in their building, and it can be a very isolating experience to lead, within a school district.

so one of the ways I like to think about it, and I coined this phrase when I was meeting with the team one day.

There are no islands in the Rock Island School District.

And by having, this position, but also helping our central office leaders understand that their main rol is to be in school, supporting school leaders and teachers is, highly valuable to me.

And, will impact, I believe, the overall organization.

There was a little controversy among the public in regards t the creation of this position.

And were you surprised a bit by that type of backlash?

I was surprised a bit but I understand that any change is hard in a community and in a school district.

I feel very strongly that and I did research around, districts about our same size.

for instance, the Moline Coal Valley School District does have a deputy superintendent.

They have approximately 900 t 1000 more scholars than we do.

but other school districts in the state of Illinois with our same population also have, a deputy superintendent or multiple other assistant superintendent of various divisions.

So I was a bit surprised, but not, but not totally throw off, because I know that change is hard in a, in a schoo district, in a, in a community.

And I've tried hard to explain what that person will do so that they can understand the value of having someone to bridge that gap betwee the district office and schools.

Repeatedly, you have referred to students as scholars rather than students, and I know that you do that on purpose.

So explain to me why that's important to you.

I think it's important.

well, one of the most important reasons for me is that, school is an experience that prepares our children for their next lives, post-secondary.

And I think it's so important for us to raise the rigor and standard of how we look at the children who attend our schools, and by offering the ter scholars to our school district.

I am doing that to raise the rigor and expectations for each child that attends our schools every day.

I really believe that we can push our school district to new heights in terms of academic achievement, and by renaming the children who come to us in our care scholars.

I think that brings it to another higher level of expectation.

The diversity of the Rock Island while in school district is amazing.

The number of languages spoken, is surprising to me.

Of course.

Yes.

First off, was it surprising to you?

And then of course, as a school district, you want to embrace it.

But.

But how do you embrace it and improve upon it?

Well, it wasn't surprisin because I did a lot of research before I applied fo the position of superintendent.

That was that somewhat making it more appealing?

Absolutely, absolutely.

So in many of my experiences leading up to the superintendency here, I worked in very diverse school districts with multiple languages, lots of language, diversity, ethnicity, diversity, etc.

and that really drew me to the district.

as well as being a, you know, a large district in Illinois and a pre-K through 12th grade district, leveraging the language diversity in our school distric is a challenge and a blessing.

We have students from all over the world, and their families have relocated to the Rock Island Island community to seek a better life and a better education.

And I believe that that is one of our first priorities.

we started to talk within the communications team around how to strengthen our, ability to engage our families who may have some language diversity.

So I think that's important for us to do, besides being the law, in orde to make sure that all families understand the rights and responsibilities of their scholars, it's certainly an opportunity for u to really embrace the diversity and have our students, be multilingual scholars who can go out from Rock Island Violence Schoo District and impact the world.

I really want to spend a little time talking about retention of students and getting them through graduation.

And the school distric just approved another contract with the center for High School Success.

Yes.

Let's talk about this.

Yes.

The whole point of ninth grade on graduation rates.

tell me why you think that this system that you're going into is really a good system to keep kids in schools?

Yes.

So I just took a pee at our data, our long range data for ninth grade on track.

That is one of the metrics for the Illinois, school report card.

And that element really hones in on the importance of keeping students on track.

So we know from the researc that if students are failing one or more classes in the ninth grade, they are less likely to graduate on time.

So the center for High School Success is going to have, us look at our data more frequently around that area.

That includes all of our grades for our ninth grade scholars, it looks at behavio and performance and discipline, as you know.

And I think back to my entry into ninth grade, that can be a scary time for students.

They're going from a very sheltered environment.

And the junior high schools, in our case, to a 1715, scholar building.

It can be overwhelming.

and what we've done at Rock Island High School is create a ninth grade academy that helps our, our scholars to be more sheltered, so that they can, receive more support.

And it's so important for us to keep track of their grades because scholars can sli very easily in the ninth grade.

it can be challenging to move to seven, up to seven classes a day and be able to be organized around that.

And so our, impetus for bringing the center for High School Success o is to help coach our leadership team, to help coach are the lead of the ninth grade academy, and then eventually coach our ninth grade teachers around strategie to keep ninth graders involved.

And on track in school.

we started with a ninth grade on track, graduation on track to graduation rat of about 80 something percent.

In 2019 and 2020.

We know what happened and since that time we have had low 70s, percentages in terms of ninth grade on track.

And we feel like we have all of the structures in place to improve that.

We just need a little coaching and boost in that area.

so that, contract with the center for High School Success will start this fall.

And again, supporting our school leaders to create those systems and data systems for us to and protocols for us to look at to make sure all of our scholars are on track.

It really does seem to aim because as reading through, the promises or th agendas that that they propose, that is really very studen oriented and individual student oriented.

Yes.

so that's not so much getting lost in the classroom.

Yes.

So very personalized.

as I mentioned, it' just it's a hard transition for, a very young adolescent to go from a sheltered 400 or so, scholar school to 1715.

And it's a very, complex time for students.

because the rigor of classes becomes harder as well, and they can become lost.

So that's why we chose the ninth grade academy structure so that they won't get lost in the 1700.

Get it early, as you're saying.

It's interesting too, is that a far as education is concerned, you're seeing people have more of a pushback against four year schools in a way.

and that graduating from, college isn't as important as it used to be.

That's not necessarily the case for high school students.

Is that not correct?

Because that high school diploma is still so critically important.

It is critically important to the vitality of any community, any, city and, what I like to say is that, we know that all scholars won't choose a two year or four year college when they leave our school system, but we want them to be prepared in the case that they do.

so that high school diploma really is that link between, a high paying, high demand job or next step after high school.

And it's so very important.

And graduating in four years is important as well.

As, you know, once scholars, get behind in the ninth grade, in the 10th grade, it's so much harder to catch up and to be with their peers to graduate on time.

so that's why that ninth grade on track to graduatio and the academy is so important, but it's also important for us to take care of our scholars all the all along the way, because it is, again, so important to obtain that high school diploma.

Our district is currently in the mid 70 range for high school graduation rates, which is, about ten points, at least ten points below the state average for graduation rates and any business or industr who's looking at the Rock Island Midland School community to come in wants to know that we have a strong school system that's going to graduate, scholars who can go right into the world of work, go into our 2 or 4 year, universities and college and give back to the community.

I really did want to spend the majority of time talking about you and the students, but let's talk about infrastructure as well, because bricks and mortar are very important to us.

District.

there has been a great investment because of the 1% sales tax, and that it's been used for a number of ways to improve the school buildings, each and every single one of them.

How important has it been to update the infrastructure of Rock Island schools, an where do you see the need now?

Yes.

So we are in the middle of a short and long term facilities management planning process.

that 1% sales tax has been invaluable to the infrastructure of the school district.

We have, over the years.

At the last board meeting, we kind of looked at the 2014 pla and how we have improved schools since that time.

Right.

They spent a lot of that money working on secured entries for all of our schools for working, things like locks on classroom doors, roofs, floors, you know, making sure that our schools, have what they need in terms of heating and air conditioning and air conditioning as well.

It's been a big project.

We have very, historic buildings within our school district.

That's one way to look at it.

Yes, and it's about $64 million in renovations since 2017.

Absolutely.

So we're finishing up this summer the last of the Hvac projects.

we do still have room to grow in certain of our schools in terms of, our, roofs and as I mentioned, it's an aging infrastructure.

So looking at some of our plumbing systems, because technology has really improved the way we're teaching and learning in schools, many of those upgrades have to do with that as well.

We've also made many security, upgrades as well.

I mentioned the secured entries at each of our locations.

but that includes, adding keyfob door, fobs for doors, instead of keys, surveillance systems and improving security in other ways.

And that's going to be added on even now with a new weapons detection system that to be introduced to some schools this year.

Yes.

So we have the evolve systems that will be installed at the high schoo and the two junior high schools.

they're set for delivery today.

our staff is going to be trained on those systems.

during this week in the lead up to our start of school.

this is just another layer of security for us.

as I mentioned, we have the new secured entryways at each of our buildings, to keep our students and staff safe.

and this is just another layer to help us ensure that we keep our, our buildings safe.

How will this impact students and visitors from this step forward?

What would be the chang that people would notice?

Yes.

So the evolved systems are very user friendly and in other words, people can get through them very quickly.

they have a very high level of sensitivity, sensitivity to items that, are weapons so that our staff can quickl identify anyone with a weapon, can identify on them where that weapon is on their body, and then, you know, take them to another locatio to further deal with the issue.

the throughput is very quick with these systems, so we're anticipating that it will be a learning process over the first couple of days of school in terms of making sure everybody can go through the weapons detectors, upon entry to school.

but we're working no to start practicing with systems this week to make sure that we can keep everybody on time and moving.

As we start this new school year.

What is your message to parents and to students?

2024, 2025?

But it's a big school year for these, incoming seniors.

Yes.

And for these incoming kindergartners and for their parents.

Absolutely.

So we are really going to focus in on our scholar achievement this year.

even more than, in years past, we have our staff coming back on August 1st.

We have a district in-service day.

We have a very special keynote speaker on that day, Doctor Lorene Radish, who wrote a book, culture, leading a Culture of Reading.

And I feel it's s very important for us to focus in on our readin skills of our scholars to get, our students reading more our teachers talking to students about what they're reading and books, and to get excited about it.

And many of the, conversation I've had with our staff members, what they've pointed out to me is that we have good schools.

We can be great if we improve our reading ability of our students.

And so that's going to be one of our focus, for this school year.

And we're going to kick that off on August 1st.

Again school starts on August 5th.

That is early for this area.

So we want to emphasize the start date.

We want to see scholars and families excited to come back on August 5th and really improve.

our attendance on the first day of school, to get everybody in and ready to go.

A great year ahead for Rocky.

Absolutely.

we have a wonderful leadership team at, Rock Island High School.

Our athletics department is working hard as always, to make sure that our teams are ready and competitive.

again, the ninth grade on track initiative there, and we're looking forward to a safe, warm, inviting school year.

Our thanks to Rock Island Island School superintendent doctor Sharon Williams, musicians Rebecca Cassar and Allen Morrison say they cover different music styles over the past five decades but they all have a bit of spin.

They joined us at the Black Box Theater to play one of those originals that were written by Rebecca.

Here's every day of the year.

Never dream, never play.

Here.

I'll let you look in your eye and everyone it'll land where you will be.

My.

But despite all the poking and prodding and pretending the other rainy day.

I still find myself next to you every day.

The.

I watch the ligh as you come through my window.

And watch it sparkle across your head.

And know that must be 1 in 1,000,000.

But discovering someone brand new and teaching myself.

How do I still find myself next to you every day?

Be.

And you know.

We fight sometimes I know we'll make it through.

But still wake up every day.

Seem to always come through you I find myself next to you.

Rebecca Casady and Allen Morrison.

With every day of the year on the air, on the radio, on the web, on your mobile devic and streaming on your computer.

Thanks for taking some time to join us.

As we talk about the issues on the city's.

At IHMVCU we've always been here for you.

You are and always will be our top priority.

We care about you financial health and we are here IHMVCU is a proud supporter of Wqpt.

The future.

That's where our minds ar at Western Illinois University, Quad Cities.

We are innovators searching for something new outside of the textbooks dog loving, leadership driven, world changing.

Whether you choose to study on campus or online, your future is designed on your terms.

Start your future at wiu.edu/qc.

Public Affairs programing on Wqpt is brought to yo by The Singh Group at Merrill, serving the wealth management needs of clients in the region for over 35 years.