Petersburg City Schools acting superintendent in the hot seat for interview with panel

PETERSBURG, Va. (WRIC) — Petersburg City Public Schools’ acting superintendent Yolonda Brown took the hot seat for an interview by a panel Monday evening.

In the interview on Monday, Sept. 23, Brown answered a variety of questions on topics ranging from chronic absenteeism to workforce development, teaching engagement and more.

The interview was conducted by a panel of made up of seven people from a volunteer community group.

Freda Curtis, a volunteer on the panel, asked Brown regarding communication between the school system and its community, and how it could be improved.

“What are the steps you would take to encourage greater transparency and trust between the school system and the community,” Curtis asked.

“Giving our community, which is our parents, our stakeholders, our partners — information on what our goals are what our plan is to get there and what’s happening as we are tackling that particular plan,” Brown said.

Curtis also inquired as to how teachers can best assist students.

“How do you intend to address the lack of teacher preparation and ongoing targeted professional development to ensure educators are equipped to meet the diverse needs of students,” Curtis asked.

“The plan is to institute a structured professional learning program that’s targeted to the needs of the teachers based on what category you fall in,” Brown said.

When asked what she thought her biggest challenge would be in the role, Brown said that though there may be resistance, the school community will need to adapt to and accept necessary changes.

“I hear from people all the time is that, ‘We hope you stay, but we don’t think you’re going to be able to do what you need to do to make this work.’ A challenge will be that people will have to step back and allow the processes to be put in place for us to move forward,” Brown said. “And so, that means doing things differently. That means changing behaviors. That means changing expectations, and that means it looking different than it’s ever looked in 20 years and being okay with it.”

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