Search for superintendent: Dr. Cathy Townsend
The search for the next superintendent of Wicomico County Public Schools is moving ahead.
The Board of Education announced the three finalists who will each have their “Day in the District” starting on Monday, which include tours of schools and panel talks with administrators and students.
Dr. Cathy Townsend, who currently serves as Assistant Superintendent for Administrative Services for Wicomico County Public Schools, toured West Salisbury Elementary School early Monday morning. Despite not having gone there as a child, she called it a walk down memory lane.
“I went to Glen Avenue and when I was a child when it was a brand new school,” recalls Dr. Townsend, “So West Salisbury brings back memories because it looks just like the elementary I attended.”
The Salisbury native is one of three finalists for Superintendent once Dr. John Fredericksen resigns at the end of June.
One specific issue Dr. Townsend says she’d like to open more dialogue on is standardized testing.
A joint bill up for discussion in this year’s Maryland General Assembly would limit mandated testing to two percent of instruction time.
“When testing produces data that we really can use, I think it’s important to have it, but there is the question of how much testing is too much?” She says. “If you’re getting the data from two or three of four different tests, then two or three of those is not necessary.”
An issue more specific to home: discipline. A recent survey released by the Wicomico County Education Association polled nearly 900 public school employees.
According to the survey, 54 percent said the climate of student discipline has been “much worse” than previous years and only one percent say it’s improved.
Dr. Townsend tells 47 ABC one of the first things she would do as Superintendent is form a focus group to talk about discipline. It would include a broad mix, possibly with parents and teachers.
“Every teacher has the right to teach and every student has the right to learn so when there are discipline situations, I think that we need to address them head-on and to ensure that it’s a safe learning environment so that our students and our teachers can be in that environment that’s conducive to learning.” Explains Dr. Townsend.
Two more finalists have their days in the district this week, including Dr. Lorenzo Hughes on Tuesday and Dr. Donna Hanlin on Wednesday.
