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Fuller looks to the future in State of the Schools address

by

Erica Techo

Erica Techo

Erica Techo

Erica Techo

Erica Techo

Erica Techo

At his final State of the Schools address as Shelby County Schools superintendent, Randy Fuller looked toward the future of the school system.

Fuller, who announced in January that he would retire as superintendent at the end of his term, spoke to the South Shelby Chamber of Commerce at its April 5 luncheon where focused on the school system’s successes as well as its processes.

Shelby County, Fuller said, benefits from a spirit of collaboration between all levels of the county — from cities to county commissioners to the school system.

“[Shelby County], it’s special because we all work together. Everybody works with the interest of the whole county in mind,” Fuller said.

Shelby County Schools has worked to continually improve, Fuller said, and sees the benefits of that dedication. Even as the school system grows, he said, graduation rates remain higher than the state average, with all schools having graduation rates over 90 percent.

“When you have an organization, you must have a plan to make good things happen,” Fuller said. “You have a vision, a mission and beliefs. … We spent a lot of time looking at who we are, what we believe and where we’re going.”

To reach the system’s vision of becoming a model of excellence in education, Fuller said they have worked to implement goals, strategic plans, leadership development and instructional assessments to work toward that vision. One important step, he said, was implementing Leader in Me in schools.

“This is our initiative for the coming years — inspiring a generation,” Fuller said. “And we have them for 12 years, really 13 years, but that 13th year is when they’ll be making decisions, and we want to prepare a toolkit for them so that when they walk into that school in their senior year, they’re ready to take on the world.”

Leader in Me is a school-wide model that encourages skills for preparedness, decision making and leadership skills, and it was first introduced in Shelby County Schools in 2009. A principal approached Fuller about bringing it to her school, Fuller said, and they have since seen improvements in student engagement and attention as well as staff morale, in addition to a decrease in conflict, needs for discipline and suspensions.

“It is amazing to see the change in our students,” Fuller said.  

Students will lead their own parent-teacher conferences from a young age, noting both their accomplishments and areas that could be improved. This continues throughout school, and Fuller gave the example of how ninth grade students will enter their new high school and actively think of where they want to be in the next four years. Those steps, he said, encourage students to take an active role in their lives and education.

“If we do this for kindergarten through 12th [grade], then a whole generation of students can move forward with what we’re doing,” Fuller said.

While between 2009 and 2016, five elementary schools entered the Leader in Me process through local school or federal funds, but upon seeing success indicators, Fuller said the school system is set to assume the cost of the process. In 2017, three more schools became Leader in Me schools, four are projected to do so in 2018, and in three to five years, Fuller said, all 28 schools will implement the process.

The chamber also recognized this year’s scholarship recipients. All of the scholarship recipients received a $1,000 scholarship. Recipients included:

“Congratulations to all of our recipients,” said acting director Keyla Handley. “We wish each of you the very best in the next chapter of your life.”

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