As of today, Hudson City School District has a new superintendent. Todd Hilgendorff comes to the role after serving in the administration of Greenville Central School District, where he helped lead the school out of a Targeted Support and Improvement designation. He’ll face the same challenge in Hudson, which also has a TSI designation – meaning the state has identified areas of student performance as subpar. As Hilgendorff recently told WAMC, his philosophy as an administrator is rooted in his previous experience as a science teacher.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
Hilgendorff: I try to stay grounded in what that feels like to be a teacher and the challenges that come with it. So at Greenville, I had teachers that knew, like, "Hey, Mr. H likes to come in and do the squid dissection."
Dingman: Talk to me about the squid dissection. What do you like about being involved in in something like that?
Hilgendorff: Yeah. So when you go into a fourth grade classroom and have squids on a tray that are laying there, immediately kids come in and there is a level of excitement and curiosity, which I think is important in science education, too. Like, oh, what what is this about? What are we doing with this?
Dingman: I'm curious if you can help me make a connection between that, and I know one of the - I mean, we could probably talk about your time at Greenville all day long, but I know one of the more significant parts of that was that the school was on a Targeted Support and Improvement designation. You were instrumental in in leading the school out of that designation. The reason I'm interested in this is because you have been speaking about the experiential components of being both a teacher and an administrator, and appreciating what that's like from a student's perspective. At Greenville, you had this situation that is a little bit more top down. How do you balance those things? What was your approach, and and what did you learn from it?
Hilgendorff: We took it from a global perspective of looking at the whole system of our district and how do we put a continuous school improvement process in place that would work for the entire district, not just for the designation, but long term. So, fast forward now. Currently at Greenville, there's a continuous school improvement calendar. So every year, the board adopts a calendar that then is enacted by the superintendent and the administration throughout the year. In this month, here's what's happening. So for example, in July, there is work that's done across the district that's shared decision making. Teachers, faculty, staff, students, parents, administrators come together for a two-day workshop that looks at the data for the year and then develops the plans that are going to be the areas of focus for the coming school year. And then throughout the year, in each month, there's something that happens in that month to continue that process and continue that cycle.
Sam Dingman: So part of the reason I want to ask you about this is because, as I'm sure you know, one of the things that gets talked about a lot when it comes to Hudson City School District is test scores, particularly in math and science. As a self-professed science nerd, what are your thoughts on how to address what some people see as shortcomings in those test scores?
Hilgendorff: One of the things that I worked on was it's called a data profile. It's compiled at the district level, so it has academic data and also has perception data, which is another key piece that I would look to work on here at Hudson. Some type of culture/climate survey. Parents, families, community groups, students, faculty, what they value about the school. Do they feel welcomed? Do they feel like their students are being challenged? I mean, it's a whole host of questions that get at that perception of each stakeholder group. The piece of test scores going down - obviously there is an area of concern there with the identification of a TSI school. There's a connection to those two things, but I think the other piece of that is: Are people aware of the great things that are happening at Hudson? Because great things happen every single day, but they don't always necessarily get put on a list for, like, "Here's the great list of all the wonderful things that happen in this district!" Those are all the stories that, unless we tell them as a district, and unless we create a way to share those stories, the community doesn't know about those. Especially if it's somebody that doesn't have students in the district.
Dingman: I spoke to a couple parents just to ask, you know, what they would want to know if they were sitting here with a microphone, having the opportunity to talk to you. One is: parents of queer and trans kids feel like, because of the broader political climate, their kids are particularly vulnerable and particularly susceptible to not just bullying but a sense of hopelessness, a fear about being who they really are. How do you support those kids?
Hilgendorff: So, similar answer to start. The perception piece is again a key piece here of getting perception data from students. If you can pull out a subgroup and see, oh, this group of students is describing school as feeling unsafe or unwelcomed or irrelevant, whatever it might be, to look through some of that.
On a personal level: I am a queer person, right? My husband and I live not too far from here, about a half hour, so we are in a way part of the community. I would hope for those students just seeing an out, proud man leading the school district would be a positive thing for them. This is a question that makes me emotional. Actually, not too long ago, it was actually when put up the posting on my own personal Facebook page about getting this position here at Hudson, I had a previous student reach out to me and send me a nice message, about [how] it's so great to see somebody that's out and proud and doing great work in education. I remember you as a teacher being that way, and it helped me accept me for who I am.
I share that because I would hope that those students, in seeing somebody like myself, gives them a little bit of of pride for themselves and a place. Eventually, as I'm here and students get to know me - hey, come talk to me. You have an issue or you have a concern or you want to tell me your story? I'm here to listen.
Dingman: Todd Hilgendorff, newly-minted superintendent of the Hudson City School District. Thank you for this conversation.
Hildgendorff: Thank you. Appreciate the time. Truly.
