1 of 5
Photo by Jon Anderson
210211_Bart_Reeves
Satsuma City Schools Superintendent Bart Reeves, at right, mingles with Hoover school officials following his interview for the Hoover school superintendent job on Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021. Speaking with him here are, from left, Riverchase Elementary Principal Alice Turney, Greystone Elementary Principal Stacey Stocks and Hoover Board of Education President Deanna Bamman.
2 of 5
Photo by Jon Anderson
210211_Bart_Reeves1
Satsuma City Schools Superintendent Bart Reeves interviews with the Hoover Board of Education for the Hoover school superintendent job on Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021.
3 of 5
Photo by Jon Anderson
210211_Bart_Reeves3
Satsuma City Schools Superintendent Bart Reeves, at left, interviews with the Hoover Board of Education for the Hoover school superintendent job on Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021.
4 of 5
Photo by Jon Anderson
210211_Bart_Reeves2
Satsuma City Schools Superintendent Bart Reeves interviews with the Hoover Board of Education for the Hoover school superintendent job on Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021.
5 of 5
Photo by Jon Anderson
210211_Bart_Reeves4
Satsuma City Schools Superintendent Bart Reeves is one of five finalists for superintendent for Hoover City Schools in Hoover, Alabama.
If Bart Reeves is chosen as Hoover’s next school superintendent, one of his immediate priorities will be to help students recover academically from the impact of the COVID-19 school disruptions, he told the Hoover school board in an interview Thursday.
Students were out of the classroom for two months at the end of the past school year and in and out of the classroom so much this school year, and that’s concerning, said Reeves, who currently is superintendent for Satsuma City Schools, just outside of Mobile.
“The potential learning loss is a major concern,” he said.
About 25% of students in Hoover City Schools come from low-income families, and “I can’t help but wonder — did those kids have the resources to catch up. Were their parents helping them? They may or may not,” Reeves said.
He thinks there needs to be some type of help provided this summer for kids who are struggling. “They need help, and they need help now,” he said.
A second immediate priority would be to develop a plan of how to keep kids in school next year, Reeves said. The COVID-19 pandemic likely will not be over by the time the next school year starts, but it’s important for kids to be in school four to five days a week, he said.
He would want to sit down and talk with principals about how things have worked or not worked in the current school year and develop contingency plans for issues that could arise if there is a new surge in cases, he said.
Longer-term priorities for the next six to eight months and “not-so-distant future” would be to help the Hoover school district get released from a federal court case involving desegregation and to stay on top of growth occurring in the city and school district.
Reeves said his experience is limited when it comes to federal desegregation court cases, but he thinks it’s important for Hoover to achieve “unitary status” — essentially proving the school district does not discriminate against minorities in the various aspects of providing children an education.
Reeves pointed to the official mission statement of Hoover City Schools, which is to “provide each student with opportunities to develop exemplary character and achieve personal excellence through a rigorous and relevant curriculum.”
“Each student means all,” Reeves said. It doesn’t matter their race, cultural heritage, primary language or family income, he said. “We need to make sure we empower all kids. We need to make sure that we communicate that everybody is important and that every child is important.”
As for dealing with growth and new residential developments, Reeves noted that Hoover schools actually lost 434 students this school year. He believes a lot of that was due to COVID-19, and he expects to see a lot of those children come back in August.
Hoover also needs to continue to carefully review the hot spots for growth in the city and plan for how to accommodate children from new homes being built, he said.
Reeves said he also noticed in recent surveys conducted that retaining talented employees was identified as one of the most important needs for a new superintendent to address. He doesn’t know if that means there is a problem with that now or if people just want to make sure it doesn’t become a problem, but that is an area where he would want to “dig deeper” to study, he said.
Reeves said he likes to think of himself as a principal’s superintendent and teacher’s superintendent and sees the role of the central office as being there to support teachers and provide them the resources they need to do their jobs and help students achieve.
He said there are four key questions that need to be asked: What do we want children to learn? Are they learning it? What do we do if they aren’t learning it? What do we do if they are learning it (how do we enrich them even further)?
He believes all children are capable of learning at high levels, and school officials need to track that learning and use data to help more children reach the benchmarks of where they need to be, he said.
Since becoming superintendent in Satsuma in 2018, he has reorganized the central office staff to allow his curriculum coordinator to focus even more on curriculum, made a leadership change at the school level and recruited a literacy specialist from a nearby school district to boost literacy skills.
Satsuma has 1,550 students spread over two schools: Robert E. Lee Elementary (pre-K-6th grade) and Satsuma High School (grades 7-12), 151 faculty and staff and a $15 million operating budget.
Hoover has 13,427 students in 16 schools (plus the Riverchase Career Connection Center and an alternative school program), 1,884 employees and a $211 million annual budget.
Reeves said he knows that Hoover pays for more than 300 of its teachers with local revenues and realizes the challenges that come with that, especially as the state mandates salary increases, but he would rather avoid cutting teaching positions.
“Local units — that’s what makes Hoover City Schools, Hoover City Schools,” he said. “Everybody knows that, even people who do not live here. Reducing local units could potentially impact the teacher-to-student ratio. Hoover takes great pride in having low teacher-to-student ratios in their classrooms.”
Reducing units also could mean eliminating courses, and Hoover does an exceptional job offering courses above the state minimum, Reeves said.
He said he would want to work closely with Hoover’s chief school financial officer and the board and get a good understanding of where the board wants to keep its reserve fund.
The Hoover school system has an impressive reserve fund (currently enough to cover 8.4 months worth of operating expenses), Reeves said. In Satsuma, board members would like to see anywhere from 1.5 to 5 months worth of reserves, and their reserve fund currently will cover 2.75 months of operating expenses, he said.
Reeves described himself as a strong and passionate leader.
“I love what I do, and I have a record of high expectations,” Reeves said. “I have a record of working well with people, as well as holding people accountable.”
Reeves said he has a strong record of communication with stakeholders and said, if chosen, he would lead Hoover City Schools with honor and integrity and work to create a school district where school is the best part of students’ days and where people enjoy coming to work.
Reeves is the second superintendent finalist to be interviewed. The board interviewed retired Pell City Schools Superintendent Michael Barber on Wednesday (Feb. 10) and plans to interview Bessemer Superintendent Autumm Jeter on Monday (Feb. 15), Haleyville Superintendent Holly Sutherland on Wednesday (Feb. 16) and Phenix City Superintendent Randy Wilkes on Thursday (Feb. 18).
All interviews are at 4 p.m. and are open to the public, and all interviews are being recorded and will be shared as online videos on the Hoover City Schools YouTube channel once the final interview is concluded, school board President Deanna Bamman said.
The school board ideally would like to make a decision by March 1 and have a new superintendent in place by April 1, but if it takes a little longer to ensure the district is getting the best candidate, that will be OK, she said.