Evolution of an Educator: LBUSD Supe Sherine Smith Talks About Her New Gig (First of Two Parts)

Editor's Note: This is the first of a two-part interview with Superintendent Sherine Smith. Next week she will talk about bullying and when teacher salaries go public.

 Laguna Beach Unified Schools Superintendent Sherine Smith knew she wanted to be an educator at an unusually young age.

"I was so excited; I couldn't wait to go to kindergarten, and once I got into kindergarten, I thought I'd be a kindergarten teacher," Smith says.

As Smith got older, her career aspirations changed slightly. When she was in first grade, she wanted to be a first-grade teacher. When Smith completed high school, of course she decided she wanted to teach high school.

That path reached its ultimate destination in July, when the 52-year-old educator was selected superintendent of the

Smith brings to the district a lengthy and local education background. She started as a middle school English teacher in the 1980s and became school activities director at Dana Hills High School in Dana Point, going on to become vice principal of Dana Hills. At Aliso Viejo Middle School, Smith was hired as principal and later became principal at Mission Viejo's Capistrano Valley High. Smith worked within the Capistrano Unified School District until 2009 as a deputy superintendent of education. She left to become an administrator in the Fullerton School District, until the LBUSD's superintendent job opened up.

As leader of a small district composed of just four schools and 3,000 students, Smith says she considers herself fortunate to be leading the district. She also feels welcome and supported by the community.

"It's almost like coming home. I grew up in a small town. They welcomed me in with open arms, and it's been refreshing."

Laguna Beach Patch: What are some challenges you face as a district?

Sherine Smith: We are fortunate, because in the state, it's a very bad time fiscally for schools. School districts have been through excruciating budget cuts. However, this district is considered to be "basic aid," and we're partly community-funded, so we don't face the same kind of dire situation as other districts. Our instructional, extracurricular, athletic and drama programs are still flourishing at high levels because we're so fortunate to have the kind of structure that we do.

Our challenge is to keep up the momentum, to keep the students achieving at high levels, and keep offering them a wide array of extracurricular programs and develop as human beings. And to make sure they have the skills to be prepared and succeed in college.

Laguna Beach Patch: What kind of plan have you come up with to address the challenge of student preparedness and keep them learning at high levels?

Smith: We went through a process of setting goals. Our school board had two workshops, and we had an educational consultant come, and we went through a process of identifying our core values and defining our vision and our mission. We specifically identified five strategic goals, the umbrella goals. For example, in the area of academic achievement, we have goals that each principal will set for their school and each director will set for their department. They'll do that in the areas that pertain to them. We'll monitor those goals throughout the school year, we'll do board presentations throughout the year, and then at the end of the year we'll do a progress report.

Laguna Beach Patch: What are those five goals?

Smith: Strategic achievement—all students will demonstrate academic growth across content areas. School culture—each student will strengthen connections to the school, the community and the world by engaging in activities that build skills and responsibility. Learning environment—safe, attractive, clean and well-equipped learning environments will be provided for each student. Staffing—the district will recruit, hire, train and retain high performing staff. And fiscal responsibility—the district will maintain fiscal solvency and transparency to ensure support of student learning.

Laguna Beach Patch: Have those goals changed? Is there a direction you're taking the district?

Smith: The district has worked hard over the past few years on moving academic achievement forward and getting the systems in place. That includes being able to have the technology that teachers and administrators can use to analyze data and can use data to make instructional decisions. We're maintaining that. We're taking it to the next step because what we have in place is really strong and effective. We want to avoid random acts of improvement, and we want to have very thoughtful sustained improvement over time. The research says that you need to have a few specific goals over a number of years in order to have sustained growth. I have seen in my previous districts that that really is the recipe for success.

Laguna Beach Patch: Are there any particular things that you can change about the district?

Smith: My plans are to build on what's here. I hope to continue to work with administrators and the teachers on the research-based best practices. It means we need to align our resources and our time to ensure that we can meet our goals.

Laguna Beach Patch: What does the small district size enable you to do?

Smith: It enables us to allow a more personalized and intimate education experience for our students and families. In a small school district and in small classrooms, you get to know people as individuals and parents are able to know the teachers well and know the district staff well. They are members of the community and have had their children go through the schools. It's a very tightly knit and close community that is supportive and devotes a lot of funding. We have a couple of school organizations—SchoolPower and the SchoolPower Endowment—that raise amazing amounts of money for the district. They do a phenomenal job, and I think it's indicative of the confidence that community has in our school system.

Laguna Beach Patch: Why are the parents so involved in raising money for the district through SchoolPower and the endowment?

Smith: The community is distinct, fairly educated and affluent. You'll see lots of charity-type events. Because people choose to live here, the schools include people who live in their community. We have board members committed to providing a specific experience to our students.

In some districts, people use the school board as a political steppingstone, as a means to an end rather than an end itself. Not that every school board has people who want to be politicians, but our board is really focused on education.