Constant delivers self-evaluation to board
Jun. 24—Owensboro Public Schools Superintendent Matthew Constant presented Board of Education members with his annual end-of-year capstone presentation during Thursday's meeting.
"Every year when I get ready to do the capstone, I try to think of a quote that really strikes me, and the quote that has really rang true this year has been a Mother Teresa quote — 'A life not lived for others is not a life'," Constant said during his presentation.
"I would like to try to explain how I have seen that play out for us, especially this past year, but definitely in the past few school years," Constant said.
There are seven standards Constant will be evaluated in by the Board of Education as they review his performance during the previous academic year. These include: Strategic Leadership, Instructional Leadership, Cultural Leadership, Human Resources Leadership, Managerial Leadership and Collaborative Leadership.
Constant told board members that after navigating through the turmoil of the COVID-19 pandemic, the summer of 2021 brought better health data, and district officials were hopeful for a normal 2021-2022 school-year.
"All of us quickly found out what really this pandemic has done to everyone, not just our school kids, but our school staff, the human race, so we had some adjustments to do," he said. "So, as we begin looking for whatever the new normal is going to be, I don't think we are quite there yet; we took care of our kids and that is what I am most proud of during all the tumultuous times including this past school year, was how we took care of our kids."
Constant, who has been superintendent of OPS since 2020 after serving as interim superintendent following the departure of Nick Brake in January 2020, said he gives himself a self-evaluation for his capstone each year.
Superintendent performance is ranked as: Growth Required, Developing, Accomplished and Exemplary.
"I looked back at last year's self assessment, and I did feel like I grew in many areas and I hope to evidence that for you tonight through each of these standards."
Constant said that while he believes he has moved up in his self-assessment in some area over last year, he gave himself a "Developing" in the area of Cultural Leadership. The self assessment put him at an "Accomplished" rating in the remaining six categories.
"As I tell the principals when they do their own self assessment, I never feel developing is a bad thing, because that is just where we are," Constant said. "We are developing that skill, we are developing that talent, we are trying to cultivate that standard."
"On the other ones, I feel that a lot of the developing ones from last year have now moved up to accomplished because we have just done so much together and I have such a wonderful team around me."
Board members will now review Constant's presentation and provide their own assessment of his performance.
