Renton is in spotlight, too, says Supt. Heuschel, in running for national honor

Published 11:38 am Friday, January 21, 2011

Dr. Mary Alice Heuschel, Renton School District superintendent, wants the public to keep one thing in mind about her recent recognition as 2011 state Superintendent of the Year and national finalist: she’s not the only one in the spotlight.

“I love the focus on the team – that everybody is doing this together,” she said. “And so, that’s always the danger with any sort of award recognition. It’s really recognizing Renton as a team for what we’re doing for our kids.”

As part of the program for 2011 National Superintendent of the Year, Heuschel traveled to Washington, D.C., to interview with three other finalists on Jan. 11. She spent two days there and enjoyed a hotel right outside the White House, dinner at the top of the Kennedy Center and the musical “South Pacific” at the center in seats next to the presidential box.

There was a National Press Club event, where the four finalists had a question they had to answer with five minutes to prepare and six minutes to respond, each to a different question. Then they had private interviews with a panel of representatives from professional education associations, business, other superintendents and officials from the American Association of School Administrators.

So, how does she think she did?

“You know, I can’t answer the question of ‘how did you do’ because they have a very structured process, a very set series of questions and I was just able to tell the Renton story, which was the most exciting part in the process,” Heuschel said.

She feels great about the experience and being recognized out of 14,000 districts in the country. She said they emphasized repeatedly in D.C. how difficult it was going to be to choose one of the four as 2011 National Superintendent of the Year. Heuschel already considers herself a winner, being among the top four finalists.

She said the secret to her success is hard work and the partnerships formed in Renton that support education. She knows Renton is a different place, based on her time spent in 296 districts when she was working for the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.

“Renton is very unique with the partnerships that we have with the city, the Chamber of Commerce, our business support, Valley Medical, Renton Technical College,” she said.

To her critics that say Renton schools, particularly elementary schools, are failing, she says not so.

“Well, let’s talk about failing. First of all I disagree with that word,” Heuschel said.

She believes that the state’s assessment is just one measure of judging achievement and not particularly telling, considering the number of English language learners who have to take the test in English. That’s not an excuse not to do the work to helps the kids get there, she said, and they are making progress.

Labels are put on schools based on that one measure of student achievement and the wrong conclusions are drawn, she said.

“We don’t have any failing schools in our district,” Heuschel said.

What lies on the horizon for the district?

“We need to continue our outreach to the community, ask for business support,” she said. “We have a great record of return on investment for the dollars that we receive and with our state crisis and budget, we’re going to need community support.”

The AASA will announce the 2011 National Superintendent of the Year on Feb. 17 at the National Conference on Education in Denver.