An Interview with Dr. Cavness

An Interview with Dr. Cavness

For the leadership interview, I spoke to Dr. Rodney Cavness, Superintendent of Port Neches-Groves Independent School District.  One thing that has stood out to me since working for Dr. Cavness is that he is very knowledgeable of the state legislature and how their dealings will affect our schools.  One of the questions that I asked him was “What would you recommend an aspiring administrator to be reading to keep up with updates from the legislature?”  He recommended that I read Texas ISD everyday to stay current.  Also he said that TASBO puts out a legislative update that is very good.  Dr. Cavness said that he spends a good portion of his time in the office reading to stay current.  When I asked him his definition of leadership he defined it as “knowing how to organize people and resources to see a vision become a reality.”  With this he stressed that you must build capacity.  I really liked his answer when I asked him about the positive aspects of being in a leadership position, like superintendent.  He told me that he gets to make decisions that will impact 4800 kids and sets of parents.  He stressed that by helping the schools you are also helping the community and can see a positive result by people moving into your district because of the quality of education.  When asked about the attributes of a good superintendent, Dr Cavness said you need to be tough, knowledgeable, visionary, people person, and non-complacent.  After talking briefly about Superintendent Competency #5, I asked Dr. Cavness “how do you accomplish such wide ranging strategic planning?”  He said that you have to look at the district’s vision and compare it to the needs assessment, and from there you make a strategic plan.  One aspect that he stressed was that you have to be willing to turn some of the decision making loose to the experts in the field.  Being that I have a minimal amount of knowledge on budget, I asked him how he got to know a lot about this area.  He stressed again that you have to surround yourself with experts who know about budget because you will deal with it every day.  His approach has been to have a balanced budget where kids won’t suffer from lack of resources.  He also talked about learning the budget template that changes every couple of years.  I definitely gained some knowledge and personal insight into my boss through this interview.

My Vita

Scott A. Ryan

648 Birchwood, Port Neches, TX 77651

(W) (409) 722-5924; (H) (409) 540-1750; sryan@pngisd.org

Education/Certification

Ed.D. – (in progress) Educational Leadership, Lamar University, Beaumont, TX 77651

M.Ed. – Educational Leadership, Lamar University, Beaumont, TX, 2002

BS – Interdisciplinary Studies, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 1999

Principal Certificate – Texas

Teacher Certificate – Secondary Mathematics (6-12); Elementary Mathematics (1-8); Elementary Reading (1-6); Elementary Self-Contained (1-8)

Special Education Certificate – (PK-12)

ESL Certificate – (PK-12)

Administrative and Leadership Experience

Director, Alternative Education Center, Port Neches-Groves ISD, Port Neches, TX 2010-present

·         Administered the district alternative school students in grades 6-12

·         Served as the district expulsion officer

·         Acted as the district trainer for the Crisis Prevention Institute

·         Was instrumental in the district attendance committee recommendations

·         Started the Alternative Education Center community service projects

Assistant Principal, Port Neches Middle School, Port Neches, TX 2006-2010

·         TASSP 2009 Region 5 Middle School Assistant Principal of the Year

·         Implemented the discipline plan for a campus of 550 students in grades 6-8

·         Evaluated and provided guidance for many of the teachers

·         Formulated a campus attendance plan that saw an increase in overall attendance

·         Streamlined many policies, such as dress code, to make them reasonable and enforceable

Director of Student Ministries, United Methodist Temple, Port Arthur, TX 2007-present

·         Oversaw the youth ministries for students in 6^th through college for a church of 450

·         Implemented a new Sunday School curriculum

·         Served as camp director for various work weekends

Area Director, Young Life, Port Neches, TX, 1999-2006

·         Served as a volunteer leader for the first two years of Young Life in Port Neches

·         On staff as the area director for 5 years where we saw tremendous growth to 80+ kids

·         Planned summer camp program that traveled to Colorado, Georgia, and Canada

Head Cross Country Coach, Edison Middle School, Port Arthur, TX, 2000

·         Coached the boys cross country team that won the district championship

Teaching Experience

Middle School Math Teacher – Groves Middle School, Groves, TX, 2002-2006

·         Taught 7^th and 8^th grade math, including 7^th grade advanced

·         Piloted a TAKS math study hall that had 19 out of 20 students pass the state exam

·         Revised and updated the 8^th grade math curriculum for Port Neches-Groves ISD

High School Math Teacher – Thomas Jefferson High School, Port Arthur, TX, 2001-2002

·         Taught Algebra II and Geometry at a large urban high school

·         Sponsored the Tobacco Free Teens club that participated in the region event

·         Represented the math department on the Campus Improvement Committee

Middle School Math Teacher – Edison Middle School, Port Arthur, TX, 1999-2001

·         Taught 7^th and 8^th grade remedial math

·         Was the HOSTS math coordinator, Helping One Student To Succeed

Coaching Experience

Head Cross Country Coach, Edison Middle School, Port Arthur, TX, 2000

·         Coached the boys cross country team that won the district championship

Football Coach, Edison Middle School, Port Arthur, TX, 1999-2001

·         Offensive and defensive line coach for the 7^th grade boys football team

Track Coach, Edison Middle School, Port Arthur, TX, 1999-2001

·         Long jump and triple jump coach for the district champion track team

Additional Training/Professional Development

“Nonviolent Crisis Intervention Training Program,” Crisis Prevention Institute, Milwaukee, WI,

“Autism Spectrum Disorders Training Program,” Crisis Prevention Institute, Milwaukee, WI

Presentations

Allen, S., Basinger, B., Jones, K., Thomas, J., & Ryan, S. (2013, February).  An equity audit comparison of discretionary student placement in disciplinary alternative education programs within Two South East Texas School Districts. Presentation at the Southwest Educational Research Association Conference, New Orleans, LA.

Professional Affiliations

Texas Association for Secondary School Principals, 2006–present

Southwest Educational Research Association, 2011–present

References

References will be included on the following page, if requested.

Using Blogs

Blogs can be very useful in the field of education.  Communication is such a huge part of what we do.  I can see how it would be beneficial for the leader of a district to have a blog to inform the communities of upcoming events, dates, and other information or sometime just to brag on the students and teachers.  I am looking forward to getting more proficient at using blogging as a way of communicating. 

Action Research

Action research is a type of research that uses quantitative and qualitative methods to solve an immediate problem for an entity such as a school district.  This is probably the most practical and most used form of research.  If a school or district had an issue at hand, such as improving student attendance, the researchers or problem solvers would not be too worried about seminal works or theory.  They would want to use current research to come up with a plan that works for their school or schools.  In this scenario, the leaders would probably take a mixed methods approach by first looking at the data for their district and then comparing their data to other similar districts.  When they find other districts that are of interest to them they may just make a phone call to the campus principals or someone in charge of attendance to find out what is working for that district.  Also, they would want to look at the board policies and compare them to their own.  They would weight these against state/federal policies to be sure that they are in line.  Finally, they would take all of this information to come up with an action plan that is specific to their district.  I can see how this form of research is very useful for a school superintendent and am looking forward to being part of action research for my campus or district in the future.   

First blog post

This is my first post on a blog.  Hopefully I can use this blog to share about many things, mostly school issues and sports.