New superintendent of Petersburg Schools shares 100-day plan

PETERSBURG, Va. (WRIC) — The detailed 100-day entry plan for the new acting superintendent of Petersburg City Public Schools was revealed during a July 9 School Board meeting. Yolanda Brown shared her vision for the next 100 days with community members at the Wednesday night meeting.

Brown’s ascension to the position comes as the Petersburg school district has gone through three superintendents in less than a year. Acting superintendent Brown revealed a five-priority tiered plan, that when complete, she says will successfully lead Petersburg into “ A New Era of Visible Learning, and Accountability. ”

The first of Browns five extensive priorities is to “engage our stakeholders and build relationships and trust.”

“Nothing happens without trust,” Brown said. “The mission of Petersburg City public schools is to develop 21st century citizens able to effectively collaborate, communicate and innovate. That is the mission of our school division.”

Brown says after gaining the trust of the community and stakeholders, her second priority will be a “recommitment to teaching, learning, and performance.” She says it is key to know what’s going inside of the classroom.

“The core business of any school division is teaching and learning. Yes, we have operations. Yes, we have nutrition. Yes, we have all the great things. But none of it matters if it’s not in service to quality teaching and learning,” Brown said.

She says her third priority is to “assess district leadership capacity” and she plans on executing this priority by learning more about other leaders in the district by “administering leadership assessment inventories.” Brown said, “This is about evaluating, listening, learning to see what’s happening in our school division.”

Priority four is to “evaluate district finances, operations, and facilities.” Brown says it is critical that their operations and money align with board policies to deliver the best outcomes.

“So, here I’ll be taking a deep dive into our district finances, because that’s very, very important,” Brown said. “We get lots of different resources from different funds. We can never have enough funds. We know that. But are we using those properly? Are we maximizing them for kids?”

Brown’s final priory is to “analyze student and staff safety and wellbeing.“

“We know that the wellbeing of our kids has been impacted over the years, and so for me, it’s about analyzing how do our kids feel, what do we have in place so that we can help them with their social, emotional, mental health?” she asked.

Brown’s first day on the job began on July 9. She will stay on in the role until Oct. 31. It’s unclear what happens next for the role of superintendent after Browns’ term is complete.

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