More graduates, better facilities will be outgoing Prince William County School Superintendent’s legacy

More graduates, better facilities legacy of outgoing Prince William County School Superintendent

For the first time in 16 years, Dr. Steven L. Walts is not the Prince William County Schools Superintendent.

It’s his first day of retirement and incoming Superintendent LaTayna McDade‘s first day on the job. She comes to the county from Chicago, where she worked as chief of the city’s public school system.

For the outgoing Walts, his tenure has been like no other that came before him. The county’s population exploded under his watch, adding some 107,000 new residents during his tenure. Many were parents and children looking to make a life in the comfortable Washington, D.C., suburbs.

f his last year, he led the state’s second-largest school division through the coronavirus pandemic. Forced to shutter school buildings and put all classes online, with the expectation of special education classes, Walts had the only School Board in Northern Virginia that consistently pushed him to reopen school buildings for children.

The division started to return students to buildings in December 2020, nine months after Gov. Ralph Northam ordered them shut. However, some jurisdictions, like neighboring Manassas, didn’t return students and teachers until March.

Walts’ relationship with the School Board, at times, has been rocky. He’s currently being sued by the former School Board Chairman Ryan Sawyers, who claims Walts slandered him in a video posted to Twitter and is seeking $2.3 million in damages. Walts denies the claim, saying the suit is politically motivated.

Sawyers abruptly resigned from his post on the School Board in 2018.

But with all of the bad blood and legal maneuvering aside, Walts retires as one of the longest-serving public school superintendents in the U.S. I caught up with him at a farewell reception the School Board held for him in June at the schools’ headquarters at Independent Hill.

PLN

During your tenure, you saw the opening of more than 20 new schools. That’s unprecedented growth for any school superintendent. Looking back, how far has Prince William County come as a school division?

Walts

So it was really exciting to see those changes. And we did a lot of program changes that were accommodated by different changes in the building. And of course, you know, everybody likes the windows and all of that, but it’s the programs that are so important. And we added a lot of CTE and some specialty programs. So it’s been very exciting.

PLN

Please describe the state in which you found this school division when you came to work here, compared to how you’re leaving it.

Walts

It was a very solid school system. I wish I could take credit for the specialty programs in place. I’ve added several added a number of JROTC programs. So all of those, I think, has provided more and more opportunities for our students. But it was absolutely a solid system when I got here, and hopefully, working with the school board and the community, we made it even better.

PLN

It would be easy to say “COVID,” so taking the virus out of the mix, what was the biggest challenge you faced during your time in Prince William County?

Walts

Well, I think, you know, wanting to have more students to be successful. Getting that graduation rate up [from 83 to 93% in the past 10 years] was a really big, gargantuan challenge that took the teachers and the kids, and the parents.

PLN

How did you raise graduation scores?

Walts

Well, trying to make sure we’re providing the optimal professional development, professional learning for our teaching staff and not just the teaching staff, but for the support staff and the administration to try to see what the research is saying about how best to improve kids.

And certainly, standards-based learning and standards-based grading have made a big impact. You know, it used to be you take a test, and you get what you got on it. And in this day and age, we now look at those students and say, OK, well, we need to do a better job of making sure they learn the content.

And so we give them re-teaching opportunities and credit recovery and things that will enable them to be successful, even if it might take just a little bit longer.

PLN

Knowing the debate is raging over critical race theory, and the use of gender pronouns in neighboring Loudoun County, and knowing that incoming Superintendent LaTayna McDade says she will put a big emphasis on equity, what’s your best advice for the incoming superintendent?

Walts

Well, you know, my view of equity is that’s got to be something you live and breathe with your decision-making each and every day. And although it wasn’t talked about near as much, I had a background in an urban district for almost two decades in Wichita, Kansas, where I was a teacher and a principal.

And so, you know, we learn to use an equity lens all the time. So we have many things in our school division that have already attended to those things, and we can continue to improve upon them. But we have, you know, funding for students that are on free and reduced lunch that follows students regardless of what school they go to.

[In Prince William County], we certainly tried to renovate older facilities. And so I feel that’s been very much a part of my work, even though it hasn’t been talked about, so to speak, for years. We’ve talked about equity among equality among the facilities here.

PLN

Your wife works in Fairfax County. She’s not retiring. So that means you’ll probably stay here in the area, too.

Walts

Yes.

PLN

So, what’s next for you?

Walts

Well, I’m so excited about the fact our daughter just graduated from college and graduate. And so the next phase is to just make sure she gets a good adjustment into college. She’s going to be going to UVA.

And quite frankly, I’ve got a lot of home projects that have piled up over the years. So, for the time being, I’m just going to rest and relax and focus on getting our daughter into college.