A talk with outgoing superintendent of district 13

Dr. Constance Evelyn will step down from her position as superintendent of schools for the Valley Stream 13 Union Free School District on Jan. 14. The Herald talked with the outgoing superintendent to reflect back on the successes and challenges of her six-year tenure, the latter half of which faced unprecedented circumstances with the coronavirus pandemic.

Herald: How has diversity in hiring during your seven years changed?

Evelyn: We reviewed the hiring practices and created new hiring practices. We started over. One of the things we did was create a screening interview where all candidates are asked the same questions….questions that really got to the core of what we we’re looking for in an educator…I hired Gerard Antoine, the Superintendent for Business and Resources six months after I began my position…to work on the number one goal of the board: diversifying the staff.

H: The curriculum is ever-changing and always being updated. What’s new, and what could parents expect in the future?

E: We adopted Superkids and Wonders as our core curriculum in English and Math K6 and a new science and social studies curriculum. The 6-grade science curriculum is actually aligned with what’s happening in Central High School District…thanks to Dr. LaRocca’s leadership. We have adopted a STEM curriculum. We have 3D printers and kids spend time in these innovation labs. We adopted a formal social-emotional learning (SEL) curriculum that is integrated entitled: the RULER Program.

H: Can you explain what is social-emotional learning?

E: You had three sister elementary school districts all [keeping pace with the modern social and emotional programs happening at] the Central High School District, but unfortunately, District 13 students did not have this shared language around their social-emotional health. The heart of the RULER Program is that emotions matter. If kids cannot regulate, identify, and name [their emotions], they can’t access learning. Responsive Classroom has been a game-changer for us. I want to say 75 percent of our teachers have been trained in it.

H: Have you made the faculty proportionally representative to the students they teach?

E: I think that the public needs to understand that there is a finite opportunity to diversify the staff every year. The opportunity has to do with people who are leaving the district for whatever reasons…so that can sometimes be three teachers in one year or ten. In the last two hiring seasons, the diversity hiring has exceeded 40 and 50 percent, so we are well on our path to meeting the goal of having a proportionate representation of students to educators. At that time, we have hired a school psychologist that is East Asian that speaks Urdu fluently because in this district the second most spoken world language is Urdu, not Spanish.

H: What would make it proportional?

E: Eight out of ten teachers are white females in America, so I want you to know we are very proud of the fact that we’ve hired a lot of male teachers in the last four hiring seasons. Diversity means a lot of things. People are very focused on race, I get that, but it means diversity of language, gender, culture, etc. I think it would take another ten years to reach that goal of proportionate representation of families to educators.

H: What mark would you like to leave on the students?

E: That you were loved and valued here, and a lot of people have my cell phone number. Parents, teachers, educators, board members—they don’t call me unless they need me, but they know if they call me, that I’ll come running. No inquiry or request will go unanswered.

H: Do you have any wisdom for the incoming Superintendent Dr. LaRocca?

E: I have often said to her that being your true self is being your best self.