Student learning, unified efforts are focus of new administrators

From left to right, Gary Verslues, Jefferson City Public Schools' assistant to the superintendent of
secondary education; Lorie Rost, assistant to the superintendent of elementary
education; and Brian Shindorf, chief of learning.
From left to right, Gary Verslues, Jefferson City Public Schools' assistant to the superintendent of secondary education; Lorie Rost, assistant to the superintendent of elementary education; and Brian Shindorf, chief of learning.

Recent retirements, resignations and position re-shufflings at the central office of Jefferson City Public Schools created the openings for Brian Shindorf to become the district's chief of learning, Lorie Rost, to have Shindorf's previous job of assistant to the superintendent of elementary education and Gary Verslues to be the district's assistant to the superintendent of secondary education, among other new administrative hires.

In their positions, the three will be part of conversations at district Board of Education meetings, so it seemed timely to ask them to remind people of what they do and what they're looking forward to in their new positions as the school year approaches.

"At the elementary level, I will be supervising the 11 elementaries and the preschool program, principals, be looking at the instructional program in each one of those buildings, working on improvement of instruction, improvement of student behaviors, attacking that, and then student attendance," Rost explained.

"Improvement of student learning's going to be our number one goal," she added.

She came to the job after being principal at Cedar Hill Elementary for 13 years, and she taught at Thorpe Gordon Elementary prior to that for 10 years.

Rost said her time as a principal definitely helped her prepare for the job as associate to the superintendent, and she'll be working with many of the same administrators.

"Being able to bring some of those experiences to the new job and share some of those ideas - and glean other ideas from our principals, working together collaboratively - it's what we've been working toward in our building for years, and now we want to do that as an elementary division at all of our buildings."

Verslues' purview will be the district's schools and academic programs from the middle school level on up through high school, including the district's adult education program.

He said the head activities and athletics director in the district will also report to his position now.

He also reiterated improvement of student learning is the most important goal.

"Going to find out," he answered of what that will mean for his job on a day-to-day level. "For right now, for me, having been on the job since July 5, it's just learning people, places and programs, platforms on the systems that the district uses for many different things, whether it's personnel, accounting - lots to learn."

Verslues had been with the Blair Oaks R-2 district for 11 years and was the principal of Blair Oaks High School until he took the job with JCPS. He did work for JCPS in the past, as a math teacher at Simonsen from 1997-98.

"We make a lot of decisions in what we do in this profession, and it's hard to replace experience. So I think no matter how big or small the district, where the rubber meets the road in the classroom, effective classroom instruction and engaged student learning looks the same, no matter where you are. And I think that's where we've really got to maintain a focus," he said of how his previous job prepared him.

He's looking forward to getting into each building as the school starts, getting a feel for them adding his own "leadership DNA" into the good he sees at each one, to get more efficient and better outcomes.

"I can't put a price on what this past year has offered me in terms of being a member of the central office staff and overseeing the programs that Lorie now oversees," Shindorf said of how his previous job prepared him through having conversations about things which have expanded in scope with his new job - assessment, technology, human resources and curriculum instruction.

"They don't need me overseeing their work," he said of those "large and capable" departments. "What I want to do is work to bring all the work that's happening in those departments under one umbrella so we can ensure that (in) the work we're doing, we have a laser-focus on 'are we doing things in unison, as opposed to in silos,'" he said of ensuring the district's progress is in one unified direction.

His role now as chief of learning means he will be supervising the support structure for teaching and learning for the entire K-12 system.

Rost said she's looking forward to the implementation of new curriculum and using assessment data "to make plans accordingly at each of our buildings so that we can reach all of our kids."

"I think we have tremendous leadership (from) teachers in our classrooms," Verslues said, and he's hoping to tap into that potential more.

"That'll be our role, to help our principals develop those teacher leaders in this district, because they're there," Rost added.

"I believe that we're on the right track," Shindorf said of where and how the district is headed.