September 10, 2025 • 19 mins
It was a job at the Canyons School District that first brought Dr. Molly Hart to Utah from Georgia’s education system.
Good thing.
After a month-long search, the Utah State Board of Education recently named Hart, former principal of Mount Jordan and Albion middle schools, the state’s new state superintendent of public instruction. She’s been on the job since July 1.
I would not be here if it weren't for my experience in Canyons,” Hart said in a recent interview with Connect Canyons about her new appointment. Education in every state is “very, very different,” she said.
Hart, a recent guest on the CSD podcast, says her Canyons colleagues certainly influenced the trajectory of her career.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Connect Canyons, a podcast sponsored by
Canyons School District.
This is a show about what weteach, how we teach and why we
get up close and personal withsome of the people who make our
schools great Students, teachers, principals, parents and more.
We meet national experts too.
Learning is about makingconnections, so connect with us.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of
Connect Canyons, a podcast aboutlearning and teaching in the
Canyons School District.
Today we have a very specialguest, dr Molly Hart, the newly
named State Superintendent ofPublic Instruction, who first
entered Utah's education systemin 2012 as a Canyons District
Principal at Mount Jordan MiddleSchool and then later Albion
(00:50):
Middle School.
She brings to the state'ssuperintendency more than 25
years of experience in education.
She's also served on the UtahState Board of Education for
nine years and as ExecutiveDirector of Utah's Summit
Academy, a K-12 charter schoolwith multiple campuses in Salt
Lake County.
She has been widely recognizedfor her contributions to
(01:11):
education, earning theVocational Teacher of the Year
Award, the Utah PTA OutstandingSchool Administrator Award and
also the Canyon SchoolDistrict's 2024 Elected Official
of the Year Apex Award.
District's 2024 ElectedOfficial of the Year Apex Award.
Dr Hart, thank you so much fortaking time from your busy
schedule to join us on ConnectCanyons today.
(01:32):
Glad to be here.
Dr Hart, could we start off,please, with you telling us
about your journey in education,how and where it started and
how you ended up as Utah's topeducation leader?
You're not a native to Utah, isthat correct?
That is correct.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
I grew up in Michigan and attended Michigan State
University and then left forGeorgia, actually, and that's
where I started my teachingcareer.
I actually couldn't become ateacher like I wanted to at
Michigan State because you hadto give up all your jobs in
(02:09):
order to be in the teacher edprogram because student teaching
and practicums their policy wasthat you had to spend so much
time doing those things youcouldn't have a side job, and I
put myself through school.
So what I did was became asocial worker first and then
graduated, got a job as a socialworker and promptly enrolled in
(02:32):
a teacher add-on teachercertification, master's add-on
and became a teacher that way,and I just was determined to
become a teacher.
After working in social workand then getting my teaching
license, I substituted becauseit was the middle of the year
and secured a spot as aparaprofessional as well.
(02:55):
And then, when an opening cameup, I was a fifth grade and
sixth grade teacher inelementary school.
When they changed sixth gradeto the middle school, I went
with the students and joined themiddle school, and that's where
I discovered my true love,which is middle school.
(03:17):
Oh, bless you.
So I was an elementaryprincipal for a little while
then a middle school principalfor a long time.
And then my husband and I wantedto see a different part of the
country and we wanted our kidsto see.
They had grown up in the Southand we wanted to move to another
(03:39):
region and my husband had anopportunity for a job out here
in Utah and we thought we'll trythe west for a while.
We got here, we thought we wereonly going to be here for four
years or so and we fell in lovewith it and we've been here ever
since.
Part of the reason we fell inlove with it is because I had a
(04:01):
job in Canyons and Mount JordanMiddle School and one of the
first things that we were taskedwith is rebuilding Mount Jordan
Middle School and that was theproject of my career.
Quite frankly, I loved thatproject to be able to have the
opportunity to reimagine middleschool and what it could be and
(04:26):
what a facility can offer acommunity, not just as a middle
school but as a building thatcould be repurposed for multiple
educational opportunities.
We were very intentional aboutthe build.
We were very intentional aboutthe build and we had a great
architect and builder thatunderstood the vision and I just
(04:50):
loved that project and then Imoved up to Albion Middle School
state and it was acollaborative effort between
(05:12):
parents, teachers, students,principals, and the arts is very
important to the Albioncommunity.
We did some innovative thingswith electives, so students were
very well-rounded and ourstudents performed well
academically.
We did a lot of work to makesure that when students were
(05:33):
showing signs that they werestruggling, we intervened very
quickly.
We built an amazing programthat parents, students and
teachers could be very proud of.
And then I jumped over to thecharter world.
I was spending quite a bit oftime working on the board.
At that time I went to theother end of the valley, down in
(05:53):
the summits, down in theBluffdale area mostly, but there
is a campus in Draper tooReally looked at increasing
choice opportunities forstudents and meeting the needs
of students in an environment.
We built a eSports arena.
We added dual immersionprograms One of the very few
(06:16):
German immersion programs is atSummit.
The state superintendent steppeddown and the day I decided that
maybe this was something Iwould consider was a Canyons
parent, I ran into them in arestaurant and I was eating
dinner with an employee of USBEand they were trying to convince
(06:42):
me that I should considerbecoming the next superintendent
.
Trying to convince me that Ishould consider becoming the
next superintendent and sheoffhandedly said I'm trying to
convince her to be the nextstate superintendent.
And the parent was go get themand you need to do this and you
need to try and so before thatit hadn't occurred to you no it
hadn't.
I was on the board I was moreworried about getting a search
committee together, and the moreI thought about it I realized
(07:06):
that there are so manyopportunities and I could bring
some of the experiences that Ihad to the superintendency and
it just really became more andmore exciting to me, and so I
said to my fellow board membersI'm going to be a candidate, so
I'm off the.
No more communication about thesearch committee, I'm jumping
(07:29):
over to the candidate pool.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
You took a step back.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
I did, I took a step back and cut those communication
streams so that it was a fairand good process, and clean
process, so you're also ethical.
Yes, that matters to me.
And now we're here.
What?
Speaker 2 (07:46):
role, would you say, did your time at Canyons have
into the superintendency?
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Oh, I would not be here if it weren't for my
experience in Canyons.
People don't realize howdifferent each state is and I
was accomplished and I had ledseveral turnarounds in my
previous district out of state.
But I got to Canyons and Utahhas a different way of educating
(08:16):
.
Every state is very different.
If I didn't have the colleaguesthat I had in the fellow middle
school principals, colleaguesthat I had in the fellow middle
school principals in theadministration at the time in
Canyons, and the staff at MountJordan, I would not be here.
I absolutely would not be here.
(08:36):
I wouldn't exchange my time inCanyons for anything.
What is built in Canyons isreally special and I carry and
use the lessons that I learnedwith me every day.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
You received Canyon District's Apex Award as Elected
Official of the Year.
I'm sure that was exciting,validating, also humbling.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
probably Tell us about that when, I felt like
Canyons was my home.
It had so many layers ofsatisfaction to it.
I was proud of the work inCanyons and I was proud that I
(09:35):
could contribute, not just aspart of Canyons, but as somebody
supporting Canyons.
When I decided to run and thenbecame school board member and
elected official, I did itbecause I wanted things to be
better and extraordinary for ourteachers, really and truly.
(09:56):
That's why I ran in the firstplace, and then to have that
recognized by Canyons was someaningful to me.
It just brought it full circle,because to me, I always wanted
people to know that the reason Idid it was for teachers, was
(10:16):
for schools.
It wasn't for me.
It wasn't because I lovepolitics, for heaven's sake.
It was because I wanted thingsto be better, and so it just
brought it full circle for me.
If I didn't think we were goingin a good direction, I probably
shouldn't be in my position,though.
So I think you have to have anunending sense of hope, and
(10:40):
that's a hallmark characteristicof an educator is to believe,
no matter what, that you canmake a difference, and I carry
that with me into thesuperintendency.
And because of my willingnessto have those conversations, I
am building those relationshipswith legislators, those
(11:01):
relationships with legislators.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
I've only been on the job since July 1st Maybe an
unfair question.
Your experience in education,you would know.
What do you think are the mainchallenges and opportunities in
education in Utah today?
Speaker 3 (11:15):
One of the biggest opportunities is to get
everybody rowing in the samedirection.
We all have been in multipleperson kayaks or canoes and
people are not rowing in thesame direction and the boat goes
nowhere.
And you're working even harderand you're going nowhere, or
(11:35):
somebody's not rowing at theright cadence and you end up
going in circles.
That's what education?
If you're not careful, that'swhat can happen in a state or an
organization, and so, as statesuperintendent, one of our
opportunities is an opportunityfor me to help get everybody
(11:56):
rowing in the same thing as theopportunity oh absolutely.
When.
Is it not just different sidesof the same coin?
The problem is, when we don'tcoordinate, or we're trying to
do too much, or the legislatureis trying to do too much.
(12:16):
You're always just trying tofind that sweet spot, and that's
what I'm looking for.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Utah's school children, actually throughout
the country are they grow up?
They're growing up in adifferent way than we are.
They're facing a lot of moreinteresting challenges.
There's a lot of homelessness.
There's a lot of need out there.
There's AI coming on board.
What's your take on all thesethings?
How do you help those kids dealwith all these new things that
(12:43):
most of us didn't grow up with?
Speaker 3 (12:45):
We have to be very careful and intentional about
jumping on any sort of bandwagon, first of all and second of all
, not forgetting what's our mainthing.
And our main thing is Everybodywants children to succeed.
Everybody wants our schoolchildren to be ready for
(13:08):
whatever their next step is,whether it's a second grade
being ready for third grade,whether it's a high school
student being ready for whatevertheir next step is.
We just want our students to bewell prepared.
We want our students to be ableto move with ease throughout
their life, whatever it may be.
Move with ease throughout theirlife, whatever it may be.
(13:30):
And so we need to look at allthose things.
Whether it's AI or it's someother challenge.
We need to think about what dowe want students to be able to
do or handle?
And then we think about thetools, or we think about the
barriers, or we have got to keepour North Star, and our North
(14:15):
Star is to make sure studentsare ready to learn.
A lot of energy lamenting therealities and how much the world
has changed, even in five yearssince the pandemic, but that's
not our job.
Our job is not to lament or tojump on bandwagons.
(14:36):
Our job is to figure out what'sbest for our children regarding
those things and make a planand move forward.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
You've got to keep that North Star.
You're in the superintendency.
You've also been in theclassroom.
How do you best help students?
Is it from the bottom up?
Is it from the top down?
Is it some mix in between?
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Yeah, first of all, the minute you leave the
classroom, you must acknowledgethat you are obsolete.
I don't care if you are thenational teacher of the year,
the international teacher of theyear, the most popular teacher
at the school you are at theminute you leave the classroom
(15:20):
you are obsolete.
You need to keep your ear tothe ground and talk to the
people who are actually teaching, because reality changes and so
that, remembering yourlimitation, my limitations I was
in the classroom a long timeago.
So, yes, I have that background, but I am not the expert.
(15:42):
But I am not the expert.
So, to answer your question,it's a mix.
You've got to make sure thatyou're not making assumptions.
People are not makingassumptions about things that
other people could speak on moreeloquently and with more detail
and nuance.
But, at the same time, ateacher's worldview is their
(16:06):
classroom and that's an N of one.
You also have to talk tosuperintendents and you have to
keep your ears wide open to theparent experience.
We have to make sure that we'relistening to people that have
varying perspectives theperspective of a community
(16:28):
organization or, let's say, anemployer.
They have a differentperspective on our education
system than our classroomteacher.
Both are equally as valid andwe need to hear from all of them
.
And then we need to makespecific plans, be transparent
(16:48):
about those plans and moveforward in making improvements.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Last question In its most basic, boiled down to its
pure essence form what is yourjob as Utah State Superintendent
for Public Instruction?
Speaker 3 (17:03):
My job is to bring those voices together, bring a
multiplicity of voices togetherand then serve all of them.
As an educational leader in thestate, my day includes meeting
with higher education, withparent groups, with internal
(17:29):
employees in the agency.
I lead USBE, the agency underthe direction of the board, and
the board is comprised ofelected citizens that lead
education and I then lead theirarmy in implementing and
(17:49):
executing their vision.
I also provide, along with ourstaff, provide information and
those resources to the board sothat they can make good
decisions and interface with thelegislature so they too can
(18:10):
make good decisions.
My job is varied.
The agency is the agency thatdistributes all funding for
schools.
So, whether it's federalfunding or state funding, it
comes through our agency and wehave a responsibility to
distribute that fairly andaccurately.
We also have a responsibilityto share data we collect from
(18:33):
the student information systemsand we have a duty to then share
that information up to thelegislature, out to the
communities and down throughoutour agency so that good
decisions can be made by allparties.
As state superintendent, therole is multifaceted it's
(18:56):
bringing people together, it'sexecuting the mission, it's
sharing information and it's thekeeper of that North Star.
My job is to keep the focus onthe children of Utah.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Great Thank you.
Thanks for your time today.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
It's been really fun for me.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Informative, thank you.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Thanks for listening to this episode of Connect
Canyons.
Connect with us on Twitter,facebook or Instagram at Canyons
District or on our website,canyonsdistrictorg.
Welcome to Connect Canyons, a podcast sponsored by
Canyons School District.
This is a show about what weteach, how we teach and why we
get up close and personal withsome of the people who make our
schools great Students, teachers, principals, parents and more.
We meet national experts too.
Learning is about makingconnections, so connect with us.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of
Connect Canyons, a podcast aboutlearning and teaching in the
Canyons School District.
Today we have a very specialguest, dr Molly Hart, the newly
named State Superintendent ofPublic Instruction, who first
entered Utah's education systemin 2012 as a Canyons District
Principal at Mount Jordan MiddleSchool and then later Albion
(00:50):
Middle School.
She brings to the state'ssuperintendency more than 25
years of experience in education.
She's also served on the UtahState Board of Education for
nine years and as ExecutiveDirector of Utah's Summit
Academy, a K-12 charter schoolwith multiple campuses in Salt
Lake County.
She has been widely recognizedfor her contributions to
(01:11):
education, earning theVocational Teacher of the Year
Award, the Utah PTA OutstandingSchool Administrator Award and
also the Canyon SchoolDistrict's 2024 Elected Official
of the Year Apex Award.
District's 2024 ElectedOfficial of the Year Apex Award.
Dr Hart, thank you so much fortaking time from your busy
schedule to join us on ConnectCanyons today.
(01:32):
Glad to be here.
Dr Hart, could we start off,please, with you telling us
about your journey in education,how and where it started and
how you ended up as Utah's topeducation leader?
You're not a native to Utah, isthat correct?
That is correct.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
I grew up in Michigan and attended Michigan State
University and then left forGeorgia, actually, and that's
where I started my teachingcareer.
I actually couldn't become ateacher like I wanted to at
Michigan State because you hadto give up all your jobs in
(02:09):
order to be in the teacher edprogram because student teaching
and practicums their policy wasthat you had to spend so much
time doing those things youcouldn't have a side job, and I
put myself through school.
So what I did was became asocial worker first and then
graduated, got a job as a socialworker and promptly enrolled in
(02:32):
a teacher add-on teachercertification, master's add-on
and became a teacher that way,and I just was determined to
become a teacher.
After working in social workand then getting my teaching
license, I substituted becauseit was the middle of the year
and secured a spot as aparaprofessional as well.
(02:55):
And then, when an opening cameup, I was a fifth grade and
sixth grade teacher inelementary school.
When they changed sixth gradeto the middle school, I went
with the students and joined themiddle school, and that's where
I discovered my true love,which is middle school.
(03:17):
Oh, bless you.
So I was an elementaryprincipal for a little while
then a middle school principalfor a long time.
And then my husband and I wantedto see a different part of the
country and we wanted our kidsto see.
They had grown up in the Southand we wanted to move to another
(03:39):
region and my husband had anopportunity for a job out here
in Utah and we thought we'll trythe west for a while.
We got here, we thought we wereonly going to be here for four
years or so and we fell in lovewith it and we've been here ever
since.
Part of the reason we fell inlove with it is because I had a
(04:01):
job in Canyons and Mount JordanMiddle School and one of the
first things that we were taskedwith is rebuilding Mount Jordan
Middle School and that was theproject of my career.
Quite frankly, I loved thatproject to be able to have the
opportunity to reimagine middleschool and what it could be and
(04:26):
what a facility can offer acommunity, not just as a middle
school but as a building thatcould be repurposed for multiple
educational opportunities.
We were very intentional aboutthe build.
We were very intentional aboutthe build and we had a great
architect and builder thatunderstood the vision and I just
(04:50):
loved that project and then Imoved up to Albion Middle School
state and it was acollaborative effort between
(05:12):
parents, teachers, students,principals, and the arts is very
important to the Albioncommunity.
We did some innovative thingswith electives, so students were
very well-rounded and ourstudents performed well
academically.
We did a lot of work to makesure that when students were
(05:33):
showing signs that they werestruggling, we intervened very
quickly.
We built an amazing programthat parents, students and
teachers could be very proud of.
And then I jumped over to thecharter world.
I was spending quite a bit oftime working on the board.
At that time I went to theother end of the valley, down in
(05:53):
the summits, down in theBluffdale area mostly, but there
is a campus in Draper tooReally looked at increasing
choice opportunities forstudents and meeting the needs
of students in an environment.
We built a eSports arena.
We added dual immersionprograms One of the very few
(06:16):
German immersion programs is atSummit.
The state superintendent steppeddown and the day I decided that
maybe this was something Iwould consider was a Canyons
parent, I ran into them in arestaurant and I was eating
dinner with an employee of USBEand they were trying to convince
(06:42):
me that I should considerbecoming the next superintendent
.
Trying to convince me that Ishould consider becoming the
next superintendent and sheoffhandedly said I'm trying to
convince her to be the nextstate superintendent.
And the parent was go get themand you need to do this and you
need to try and so before thatit hadn't occurred to you no it
hadn't.
I was on the board I was moreworried about getting a search
committee together, and the moreI thought about it I realized
(07:06):
that there are so manyopportunities and I could bring
some of the experiences that Ihad to the superintendency and
it just really became more andmore exciting to me, and so I
said to my fellow board membersI'm going to be a candidate, so
I'm off the.
No more communication about thesearch committee, I'm jumping
(07:29):
over to the candidate pool.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
You took a step back.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
I did, I took a step back and cut those communication
streams so that it was a fairand good process, and clean
process, so you're also ethical.
Yes, that matters to me.
And now we're here.
What?
Speaker 2 (07:46):
role, would you say, did your time at Canyons have
into the superintendency?
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Oh, I would not be here if it weren't for my
experience in Canyons.
People don't realize howdifferent each state is and I
was accomplished and I had ledseveral turnarounds in my
previous district out of state.
But I got to Canyons and Utahhas a different way of educating
(08:16):
.
Every state is very different.
If I didn't have the colleaguesthat I had in the fellow middle
school principals, colleaguesthat I had in the fellow middle
school principals in theadministration at the time in
Canyons, and the staff at MountJordan, I would not be here.
I absolutely would not be here.
(08:36):
I wouldn't exchange my time inCanyons for anything.
What is built in Canyons isreally special and I carry and
use the lessons that I learnedwith me every day.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
You received Canyon District's Apex Award as Elected
Official of the Year.
I'm sure that was exciting,validating, also humbling.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
probably Tell us about that when, I felt like
Canyons was my home.
It had so many layers ofsatisfaction to it.
I was proud of the work inCanyons and I was proud that I
(09:35):
could contribute, not just aspart of Canyons, but as somebody
supporting Canyons.
When I decided to run and thenbecame school board member and
elected official, I did itbecause I wanted things to be
better and extraordinary for ourteachers, really and truly.
(09:56):
That's why I ran in the firstplace, and then to have that
recognized by Canyons was someaningful to me.
It just brought it full circle,because to me, I always wanted
people to know that the reason Idid it was for teachers, was
(10:16):
for schools.
It wasn't for me.
It wasn't because I lovepolitics, for heaven's sake.
It was because I wanted thingsto be better, and so it just
brought it full circle for me.
If I didn't think we were goingin a good direction, I probably
shouldn't be in my position,though.
So I think you have to have anunending sense of hope, and
(10:40):
that's a hallmark characteristicof an educator is to believe,
no matter what, that you canmake a difference, and I carry
that with me into thesuperintendency.
And because of my willingnessto have those conversations, I
am building those relationshipswith legislators, those
(11:01):
relationships with legislators.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
I've only been on the job since July 1st Maybe an
unfair question.
Your experience in education,you would know.
What do you think are the mainchallenges and opportunities in
education in Utah today?
Speaker 3 (11:15):
One of the biggest opportunities is to get
everybody rowing in the samedirection.
We all have been in multipleperson kayaks or canoes and
people are not rowing in thesame direction and the boat goes
nowhere.
And you're working even harderand you're going nowhere, or
(11:35):
somebody's not rowing at theright cadence and you end up
going in circles.
That's what education?
If you're not careful, that'swhat can happen in a state or an
organization, and so, as statesuperintendent, one of our
opportunities is an opportunityfor me to help get everybody
(11:56):
rowing in the same thing as theopportunity oh absolutely.
When.
Is it not just different sidesof the same coin?
The problem is, when we don'tcoordinate, or we're trying to
do too much, or the legislatureis trying to do too much.
(12:16):
You're always just trying tofind that sweet spot, and that's
what I'm looking for.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Utah's school children, actually throughout
the country are they grow up?
They're growing up in adifferent way than we are.
They're facing a lot of moreinteresting challenges.
There's a lot of homelessness.
There's a lot of need out there.
There's AI coming on board.
What's your take on all thesethings?
How do you help those kids dealwith all these new things that
(12:43):
most of us didn't grow up with?
Speaker 3 (12:45):
We have to be very careful and intentional about
jumping on any sort of bandwagon, first of all and second of all
, not forgetting what's our mainthing.
And our main thing is Everybodywants children to succeed.
Everybody wants our schoolchildren to be ready for
(13:08):
whatever their next step is,whether it's a second grade
being ready for third grade,whether it's a high school
student being ready for whatevertheir next step is.
We just want our students to bewell prepared.
We want our students to be ableto move with ease throughout
their life, whatever it may be.
Move with ease throughout theirlife, whatever it may be.
(13:30):
And so we need to look at allthose things.
Whether it's AI or it's someother challenge.
We need to think about what dowe want students to be able to
do or handle?
And then we think about thetools, or we think about the
barriers, or we have got to keepour North Star, and our North
(14:15):
Star is to make sure studentsare ready to learn.
A lot of energy lamenting therealities and how much the world
has changed, even in five yearssince the pandemic, but that's
not our job.
Our job is not to lament or tojump on bandwagons.
(14:36):
Our job is to figure out what'sbest for our children regarding
those things and make a planand move forward.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
You've got to keep that North Star.
You're in the superintendency.
You've also been in theclassroom.
How do you best help students?
Is it from the bottom up?
Is it from the top down?
Is it some mix in between?
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Yeah, first of all, the minute you leave the
classroom, you must acknowledgethat you are obsolete.
I don't care if you are thenational teacher of the year,
the international teacher of theyear, the most popular teacher
at the school you are at theminute you leave the classroom
(15:20):
you are obsolete.
You need to keep your ear tothe ground and talk to the
people who are actually teaching, because reality changes and so
that, remembering yourlimitation, my limitations I was
in the classroom a long timeago.
So, yes, I have that background, but I am not the expert.
(15:42):
But I am not the expert.
So, to answer your question,it's a mix.
You've got to make sure thatyou're not making assumptions.
People are not makingassumptions about things that
other people could speak on moreeloquently and with more detail
and nuance.
But, at the same time, ateacher's worldview is their
(16:06):
classroom and that's an N of one.
You also have to talk tosuperintendents and you have to
keep your ears wide open to theparent experience.
We have to make sure that we'relistening to people that have
varying perspectives theperspective of a community
(16:28):
organization or, let's say, anemployer.
They have a differentperspective on our education
system than our classroomteacher.
Both are equally as valid andwe need to hear from all of them
.
And then we need to makespecific plans, be transparent
(16:48):
about those plans and moveforward in making improvements.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Last question In its most basic, boiled down to its
pure essence form what is yourjob as Utah State Superintendent
for Public Instruction?
Speaker 3 (17:03):
My job is to bring those voices together, bring a
multiplicity of voices togetherand then serve all of them.
As an educational leader in thestate, my day includes meeting
with higher education, withparent groups, with internal
(17:29):
employees in the agency.
I lead USBE, the agency underthe direction of the board, and
the board is comprised ofelected citizens that lead
education and I then lead theirarmy in implementing and
(17:49):
executing their vision.
I also provide, along with ourstaff, provide information and
those resources to the board sothat they can make good
decisions and interface with thelegislature so they too can
(18:10):
make good decisions.
My job is varied.
The agency is the agency thatdistributes all funding for
schools.
So, whether it's federalfunding or state funding, it
comes through our agency and wehave a responsibility to
distribute that fairly andaccurately.
We also have a responsibilityto share data we collect from
(18:33):
the student information systemsand we have a duty to then share
that information up to thelegislature, out to the
communities and down throughoutour agency so that good
decisions can be made by allparties.
As state superintendent, therole is multifaceted it's
(18:56):
bringing people together, it'sexecuting the mission, it's
sharing information and it's thekeeper of that North Star.
My job is to keep the focus onthe children of Utah.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Great Thank you.
Thanks for your time today.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
It's been really fun for me.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Informative, thank you.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Thanks for listening to this episode of Connect
Canyons.
Connect with us on Twitter,facebook or Instagram at Canyons
District or on our website,canyonsdistrictorg.
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