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MIDDLETOWN CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT
Staff photo by Nick Daggy
Middletown City Schools Superintendent Steve Price’s last day on the job is Friday, July 31.
Q&A with outgoing superintendent Steve Price
Job leading a school district is a ‘lifestyle’
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By Meagan Engle,
Staff Writer
2:03 AM Sunday, July 26, 2009
MIDDLETOWN — Outgoing Middletown City Schools Superintendent Steve Price didn’t expect his career here to end after seven years.
As he sat in the office he’s mostly cleaned out since mutually agreeing with the school board to part ways, Price said he came to Middletown intending to stay until retirement.
Still, he understood the challenges of urban schools — where superintendents stay an average 3.7 years, according to the Ohio School Boards Association.
“In the beginning, people thought I was just coming to build my resume to move onto the next position,” said Price, whose last day is Friday, July 31. “That was my promise when I came to Middletown, to be totally committed to this community. To be fully integrated into the community. To bring a family that wanted to stay here and do everything we could on behalf of kids.
“And I feel like I’ve done that. I feel like I can look myself in the mirror and say I’ve done that every day.”
Price’s vision for Middletown saw almost immediate success, passing levies on the first try and getting approval on a bond issue for elementary schools that had previously failed.
“We got them out of Academic Watch, we built new buildings and we had some success in reducing the achievement gap,” he said.
But as the economy began to sink and many AK Steel employees were without work for a year, discontent among some grew as improvement didn’t come fast enough for the community, or for Price .
“ The community demands and wants more, and they should always do that, and so should boards ,” he said.
Price’s work allowed him to grow into an advocate for equity and addressing underlying issues by examining individuals, not creating new programs.
His work earned him a prestigious award, and even still has him making presentations, including one Aug. 1 at the National Superintendents Roundtable meeting in Cincinnati.
“I’ve never had to work a day in my life, because I love what I’m doing. ... It’s the most rewarding profession there is; it really is,” he said.
Job leading a school district is a ‘lifestyle’
Middletown City Schools Superintendent Steve Price will leave the district after seven years Friday, July 31. The Journal sat down with the outgoing superintendent to reflect on his tenure with the district.
Q: How has working at Middletown City Schools impacted you?
A: When I first came here, and the board asked me to address issues of diversity and the building issues and achievement gap, I looked at this as a professional endeavor, and it really never dawned on me that it was going to become kind of a life-changing thing too. ... It had an impact on just how I raise my family, how I interact in the community, how I interact with people in my life, how I see the world. ... I know that not everybody agrees with the leadership that I provided, but for me personally, I appreciate what Middletown has offered me. The opportunities, the people that I’ve had a chance to meet and work with, have helped shape who I’ve become as a leader and as a person. ... I feel like there have been people around that have really helped me grow, from my board right through to community members to professionals that I’ve work with in the area to the people that I’ve met on a national level, because this job has afforded me that opportunity.
I feel blessed; I really do. Things right now, even though I’m leaving the district on mutually agreeable terms, as far as me as a person, I couldn’t have asked for better opportunities in development than I’ve gotten here.
Q: Do you think you accomplished the priorities set for you?
A: I’m obviously very happy with the building project, because that was something they said couldn’t be done. ... The survey results were telling us that the bond issue didn’t have a chance to pass. And because of the work of some and the grass-roots movement of some really, really dedicated people in this community who believed in that vision, we got it done. ...
And then we passed two operating levies on the first ballot. ... Those were exciting times of support, anticipation, hope, excitement. ...
And then when the economy started turning and AK Steel had their lockout, people got very, very upset with asking for more money. That was extremely painful to see what we had to do to this school district. That’s not why I got into the business. I didn’t get into the business, one to be a fundraiser to try to pass tax issues all the time. I didn’t get into the business to cut services to kids and hurt kids. And so that was really one of the most painful and difficult things in my career to recommend those cuts and have the board act on those.
But it was also when we had our performance index score go up to 84.5 and moved (from a Academic Watch on the state report card) into Continuous Improvement. ... We’re hoping our performance index scores will go back up this year and that we’ll continue that trend of moving up, but we don’t know yet. ...
Two years ago, when we look at all the reading and math scores that were measured on the state test, we were able to raise scores of white students, raise scores of African-American students and reduce the gap in seven or eight of those 14 categories. So that was exciting, too.
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