EUREKA, Mo. — Tensions have long been growing in the Rockwood School District over race, curriculum, even uniform policy and how teachers communicate with students — and now they've spilled into the national spotlight, with moments from last week's forum on race in curriculum going viral.
Outgoing superintendent Dr. Mark Miles spoke exclusively on camera to 5 On Your Side for the first time since announcing his retirement from the district.
(The below conversation with Abby Llorico has been lightly edited for clarity and flow.)
"It has been quite an emotional journey, and it still remains quite emotional for me," Miles said. "So I will tell you, I've been hesitant to do some interviews because of the emotion behind my retirement.
"I know I'm going to miss serving our children, staff, parents and community each and every day, something that has been a calling for me. And I hope that I have served the communities in which I've been a teacher, principal, district office administrator and superintendent. I hope I have served them well."
So you were not at the meeting last Friday, but have you heard about the parents forum that went a little viral around the country?
I was aware of the meeting but was not specifically invited to the meeting.
How do you feel about Rockwood going viral for the reasons it has, which is all these parents coming together and the divisiveness, and people around the country now looking at Rockwood School District in Missouri and saying it's full of racists?
Well, it is disappointing for the reasons that you just described, that Rockwood is in the national news. The Rockwood School District has a strong reputation for academic excellence. And we certainly want to continue that reputation. At last night's board meeting, we recognized hundreds of students and staff members for excellence in academics, arts and athletics. I believe that that strength will continue. We have some work to do in the days and months and years ahead of us with that reputation. Without a doubt, I still believe that it remains strong.
I hope this is an opportunity where we can, as a community, come together to learn and to partner with each other. I think part of the opportunity that we have as a nation, as a community, is to truly demonstrate a willingness to understand and take the perspective of another human being. I think there needs to be enhanced communication. I think there needs to be enhanced listening and understanding. I think those will be very key elements in our trajectory forward as we continue with our successes, as we continue with our strategic plan, in the days and months ahead.
You mentioned a commitment to diversity and being there for all Rockwood students: that's not ending just because your tenure as the superintendent may be coming to a close shortly. There are certain aspects of what's happening now that you believe are going to continue?
Correct. So, you know, our goal has always been to create an environment that is inclusive for every single one of our students. That is a primary goal established within our strategic plan, "The Way Forward," that defined our entire community. Feedback was gathered prior to my arrival as superintendent, and that was specified as an element that our community wanted. We want our students to think globally. We want our students to be creative and to be able to collaborate and cooperate with others who may be similar or different from them. Having to work with a variety of people with differing ideas and being able to collaborate is so, so important. And our work with diversity, equity and inclusion shall continue.
[Thursday] evening, our interim superintendent, Dr. Tim Ricker, was named, and we're so excited for him to join the Rockwood team. He was actually one of the first individuals that reached out to me working with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. He reached out early to me in my work here in Rockwood. He will be a great advocate for our children, a great advocate for our parents and a great collaborator with our staff members.
You’re saying it is not the case that parents ran off the superintendent who is in support of this type of curriculum and you're now being replaced with a superintendent who might waffle on that type of curriculum. You're saying it's sticking around?
I know it's sticking around. Without a doubt. Our work with diversity, equity, inclusion shall continue. It's outlined within our strategic plan. We have staff members who are dedicated every day to that work to create an inclusive environment for every single one of our children. So I know that that was on the minds of board members as they conducted interviews for the interim superintendent. And it is my belief, I wasn't part of the interview process, but I believe Dr. Ricker is a strong advocate of diversity, equity and inclusion.
In terms of the question about people running me off: This is a bittersweet transition for me. I've been serving children and communities in education for 26 years now, and the role of superintendent is a challenging one without a doubt. Even without a global pandemic occurring. My decision was based upon the elements of my own health, my ability to be a good husband and father. And I also have a new opportunity that awaits me this summer in the private sector that I am finalizing as well. So while I know I will miss serving children each and every day, I'm excited about the new opportunity that awaits me as well.
It sounds like it's safe to say that Dr. Ricker has your endorsement.
I know Dr. Ricker personally and professionally, and I know that Rockwood will be in great hands.
As a leader of a school district — a big public school district — how do you weigh what parents have to say about a curriculum versus what you know and your staff knows about education?
Well, you know, I'm an educator and I'm also a parent myself. And so our parents should have input upon our curricular practices and our approach to what we're teaching in our classrooms every single day. We should be open to the feedback provided by our parents about what is being taught and how it's being taught. And we need to work in partnership with each other in order to accomplish that.
We've gotten some confirmation from the district that extra security has had to be hired. Can you tell us anything more about the nastier side of things over the past few months for you?
Well, I know that as a superintendent, one expects that there's going to be some level of criticism with every decision. In this realm of COVID-19, I think that decision-making and then the criticism around the decision-making has been heightened quite a bit, especially within social media. I've not read all of the social media criticism that's been out there, but I know that there has been a significant amount. I'm a human being: that weighs upon me, that weighs upon my family. I have three children of my own, and they see the criticism that is out there as well. I have tried with every decision that I have made to make the best decision for the health, safety and academic performance of our children to be able to sustain that.
We were one of the districts that started our transition back to in-person learning in late September. We are proud of that decision. I'm so proud of our staff members, our courageous staff members who have been working not only in-person, but in some cases remotely with our students throughout the entire year. That's taken an extraordinary level of dedication for them to accomplish that. So the enhanced criticism and the role of superintendent, that was one of many factors that played into my decision to retire as an educator after 26 years.
Have there been any points over the last year, especially over the last few months, in which you did not feel safe in your role as Rockwood superintendent?
As superintendent, I have always felt safe. I know that some have reported that I have received death threats. I'm not aware of any death threats toward me. We have had to provide some protection to some of our staff members that have been threatened. But for me, I have always felt safe in our community and outside our community as superintendent of schools.
We can only go to meetings and gatherings and see what's happening on social media. But, of course, that's different from the classroom and in the hallways. How has the environment been within schools right now amid all this division among parents?
Well, Abby, I see the joy of our students learning each and every day. Second semester, I started my systematic visits to schools. Once again, of course, we're wearing masks and utilizing all of our mitigation strategies. I have seen joy in teacher's eyes, I have seen smiles behind the masks of students as they engage with each other and they continue learning. So the joy that I have had in visiting our classrooms and talking with our staff members, I think they're all thankful for the opportunity to have had the option of being back in school. That has been a true joy this semester.
What have the highs and the lows been for you in the last year?
Well, the low has been the significant challenge of making decisions and the right decisions for children and parents and the impact upon them in this land of COVID. There's no guidebook for this. And the environment evolved extremely quickly as we were trying to make decisions as a team to make sure that our students had access to academics. And I think that presented a significant challenge for us. And I think probably all organizations faced similar challenges of trying to do what is best for their constituents and their staff members.
As I think about the highs during this process, I remain so proud of our students. We had students at our board meeting last night and I was able to converse with some of them. And we have such extraordinary students and again, I remain so proud of them and they're what I will call grit and determination. Their persistence through this global pandemic has been absolutely inspirational. And we have staff members that have been serving them on a daily basis. They've made sacrifices. Our teachers, our nurses, our school social workers, our administrators have been working daily to support our students in whatever way possible. So the high has been the pride that I have felt as superintendent of the Rockwood School District in seeing the successes that have been sustained during this challenging time.