Build Momentum for Education - K-12 Superintendent Series

S05E11 - A Lesson in Humble Leadership | Dr. Matthew Hicks, Northeastern Wayne Schools Indiana

• Season 5 • Episode 11

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In this episode of Build Momentum, we are joined by Dr. Matthew Hicks, Superintendent of Northeastern Wayne Schools in Indiana. He is also currently a lecturer at Purdue University and a dissertation chair at Indiana Wesleyan University. Earlier in his career, he served as a language arts classroom teacher and as a principal at the high school and middle school levels. He has volunteered as a Den Leader for Crossroads for America Council, Boy Scouts of America for the past eight years.

Some Questions We Ask:

  • Can you share more about yourself and your career as a superintendent? (01:46)
  • What is the most rewarding aspect of your career? (03:58)
  • Do you agree with the 2023 RAND study? And how do you cope with the stress your career brings? (06:56)
  • Has scrutiny of the superintendency changed over the years? (09:27)
  • In comparison with other administrators you interact with across the nation, do you believe your own personal experiences align with their experiences? (11:21)
  • How do you bring the community to see and share your vision so you can build it together? (13:07)
  • How do you communicate with the community and connect with educators and families through creative storytelling? (15:04)
  • What is your advice for other district leaders who are struggling with building a community? (16:50)
  • Why do you think it’s important to see superintendents as humans and not just robots? (19:16)
  • How can the community support and advocate for superintendents? (21:52)


In This Episode, You Will Learn:

  • About Dr. Matthew Hicks (01:56)
  • Rewarding aspects of being a superintendent (04:05)
  • Thoughts about the RAND study and coping with stress (07:31)
  • Scrutiny of the superintendency (09:34)
  • About his personal experiences in district leadership vs others’ (11:32)
  • Uniting a community around one vision (13:17)
  • Effective communication strategies (15:17)
  • Advice for district leaders (16:55)
  • Humanizing the role of superintendents (19:25)
  • How the community can advocate for superintendents (22:05)


Quotes:

“There are things in education that happen that are just very difficult to deal with. Losing a student is an absolute nightmare scenario for that family, for a school community—and it is one of those things that reverberates through time. You don't forget those moments because they hurt so bad. Those sorts of things will unfortunately be a part of the role.”

“And our [vision statement] is that we're a nurturing family where each Knight belongs, grows, and contributes. That's our whole vision. And so if I can't run something through the ‘belong, grow, or contribute’ filter, then we're not doing it. If it doesn't fit into that filter, that's not us. That's not what we're doing right now. And so it really has helped with the decision-making. It puts us in a position to give a quality ‘no’ for the things that don't fit in that vision and an enthusiastic ‘yes’ for the things that do fit within that vision.”


Stay in touch with Dr. Matthew Hicks:
Email: mhicks@nws.k12.in.us

Stay in touch with Sarah Williamson:
SWPR GROUP Website
LinkedIn

Stay in touch with Chad Bolser:
LinkedIn

About "The Secret to Transformational Leadership," which Sarah co-authored with Dr. Quintin Shepherd:
Transformational Leadership Secret website
Purchase the print or ebook

Sarah Williamson:

Hello and welcome to Build Momentum for Education, a Podcast where we explore thought leadership and education. I'm Sarah Williamson, the founder of SWPR Group, an agency that supports public relations, communication strategies and thought leadership support for school districts, education companies and nonprofit organizations.

Chad Bolser:

And I'm Chad Bolser, chancellor at Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana, this season, we explore a particularly unique perspective in K 12 thought leadership, humanizing the role of the superintendent.

Sarah Williamson:

Throughout the many conversations we continue to have with superintendents, a clear theme has emerged about the need to bring more humanity into the role of the superintendency. In this special series, we interview current and former superintendents and researchers to pursue the core question, how can we better see superintendents as real people navigating complex challenges to provide the best possible education for K 12 students?

Chad Bolser:

We dig deeper into how this important work can help build community, invite collaboration and increase widespread engagement.

Sarah Williamson:

We can't wait to get started. So let's dive in.

Chad Bolser:

We're thrilled here today on Build Momentum for Education to be joined by Dr. Matthew Hicks, superintendent of Northeastern Wayne County. So welcome to our podcast, Dr Hicks,

Dr. Matthew Hicks:

Thank you. It's great to be here with you both.

Chad Bolser:

Now, as we talked about in our pre recording, we were thinking about hosting this in Hilton Ed, but Sarah has not come through for that yet. So I'm sorry that we did not come through today for you, and frankly, for me, so as we're doing in this series talking to superintendents about this, tell us about your career as a superintendent and where you've led school districts, and a bit about your current role as superintendent of Northeastern Wayne Community Schools.

Dr. Matthew Hicks:

Well, I became superintendent here in 2020. I was a COVID battlefield promotion. Prior to that, I had been a language arts teacher and a building level administrator, and I originally came to Wayne County to be the high school principal at Northeastern High School. And in the spring of 2020, most of the administrative team found work in different school districts, and my predecessor, Dr Laura Blessing, great lady, took a job that was at least a salary upgrade and a larger district over in Ohio, and it was a fascinating time, because my choices were, leave like everybody else had, stay here and break in a new superintendent, or put to use the superintendent license and doctoral degree that I'd received from Ball State University. And so I met with the board, we had a very pleasant discussion wherein they believed that I was ready to be superintendent, and I had some reservations about my preparedness. You know, you spend all this time and money studying to be superintendent, but you know there will be plenty of things on the job that will not have been covered in your academic work. And so they really said, We'll support you, and we know that you'll be at least a serviceable superintendent, which is probably really the goal, if we're being honest. And so I became superintendent in the summer of 2020 and I remain in that same role, which statistically speaking, makes me a long in the tooth. Superintendent in the state of Indiana. Average tenure is 2.7 years. And so I think by that measure only, I'm a seasoned veteran.

Sarah Williamson:

And a humble one. I will add, I think the reason the tenure you just shared is one of the reasons we're having this conversation today. That's a pretty short tenure, and we want to get to the heart of some of those challenges. But first, would you mind sharing what you find to be the most rewarding aspects of serving in a district leadership role?

Dr. Matthew Hicks:

I will tell you when we, and I say we is a real we. I'm not a royal we, or I don't have a mouse in my pocket. I have an amazing administrative team, an amazing school board, amazing teaching core, wonderful students, wonderful families. And when we collectively sit down and try to put our attention to a problem, we have been able to find some really nice solutions. So one of the things I'm most proud of is we have a partnership with Hills pet from other parts of the country that don't know this the corridor along 70 from Richmond, Indiana, over toward Dayton, Ohio, is the pet food capital of the US. It's one of the hubs where your pet food comes from. And in Richmond, there are three pet food factories, Hills, which is our partner, Blue Buffalo, who is incredibly generous to us, and Purina, who is also incredibly generous to us, and right across the state line in Ohio is IMEs. And so we wanted our students to be able to get experience in that industry, because it's obviously one of those places you can get a job, and there's lots of jobs like that job in our area. And so we worked with Hills and with Ivy Tech and with in Mac, which is a subsidiary of Purdue University, and we created what is known as the Pet Academy. And students begin in their junior year learning the skills it will take to be a good employee at Hills, which is extrapolating to other pet food places, if need be. But they start visiting the plant. In their junior year, they start learning the amateur all machinery, and then by their senior year, second semester senior year, they are in a paid internship working alongside Hills employees to make pet food. So it really is a point of pride that we've worked from start to finish. We are in our official second year of that program, and we have students who this spring, are working half the day out at the facility. So really a testament to the team, finding solutions, transportation, scheduling, making sure everything flows so that a kid has a chance to try that career on. We use the jacket metaphor. When you're in middle school and high school, you should try on all the jackets you can to figure out which ones fit, and the pet food jacket, if it fits, it's a very lucrative career. And if it doesn't fit, you probably figured that out on day one, because there's a very specific olfactory layer to that onion. And so either you have a schnoz that can handle that or you cannot. And you know, getting kids out there to check it out and try it out and see the varied careers they could have with one of these manufacturers is a big deal.

Chad Bolser:

Yeah, that's super cool stuff for the area and in that sector, and I think it speaks to all the really good stuff that's going on in your district. And I think leads into this question about the superintendency itself. 2023 RAND study found that superintendents have one of the most stressful jobs in America, and that we've been asking superintendents who join us for this series their thoughts about these findings. Do you feel this rings true for you, and how have you been able to cope with the stress that the role of the superintendency brings?

Dr. Matthew Hicks:

I agree that is a very stressful job. It's the most stressful job that I've ever had in my life. And I tell new superintendents this story, and I'll share it here. My first year as superintendent, I started grinding my teeth like the you know, I would wake up in the morning and my jaw would hurt. The dentist finally said, you know, you're grinding your teeth in your sleep, and that was new for me. I've been an educator. This is my 25th year in education, and that year was really the only year that I was grinding my teeth, and it was the fear that the other shoe would drop. There are just so many things that you have to know to be successful as a superintendent, and frankly, it's impossible to know them all in the first year, and trying to catch all of the fly balls that were coming my way was really a stressful scenario, and the most instructive part of it is once you make it through that first year, you have a sense of the cycle of things and the rhythm of things and when and how to get those things done. But that first year really is an amazingly stressful time frame, and I try to make sure that new superintendents understand that it's not always that way. Once you transition into the second year, you'll still have things that are stressful. I mean, we educate children, and there are things in education that happen that are just very difficult to deal with. Losing a student is absolute nightmare scenario for that family, for a school community, and it is one of those things that reverberates through time. You don't forget those moments because they hurt so bad, those sorts of things will unfortunately be a part of the role, but that first year is just an exquisite stress that is hard to properly relay, especially now five years on, I it's different. Now the stress is.

Sarah Williamson:

Yeah, I'm curious. Dr Hicks, how do you think the scrutiny of the role has changed over the past few years?

Dr. Matthew Hicks:

I'm not sure that we are the only group being scrutinized to a higher degree than others, but I will give you a for instance, I have been delaying and closing school for five years, and I don't know what happened, but this year, no matter what I do, I am wrong in a way that I've never experienced. Some folks, for example, we delayed today. I got an email asking, How dare we come to school? And then I had other people asking why we delayed it all. And so it's such a fascinating feedback loop, and it mostly plays out on social media, which I actively avoid. I try really hard to remind myself what Dave Chappelle said, which is, Twitter is not a real place, and so you don't have to go there, and you don't have to let it unduly influence the way you live your life. I had a parent that I got on the phone and we're discussing the weather, and she said, I just want you to know there's a lot of people that feel like I do. And I said, that's fascinating, because they haven't called me and they're like, well, they're only saying it on Facebook. And I was smart enough, because I've developed the fire door emergency filter that drops down and saves my career, to not say that's fascinating, because, you know, Facebook's not a real place, so maybe you should spend less time there. I didn't give her that advice, but I really wanted to guys, I really did, felt like it could have changed your life for the better.

Sarah Williamson:

Maybe you should have.

Dr. Matthew Hicks:

I don't know. I've got a few more years to go,

Chad Bolser:

well, it could have changed that person's life or guys, yours. So, you know, those, those things are always, you know, the balancing act, yeah. So as you think, I know you have lots of connections around the state and around the region. You know around the United States. How representative do you think your own experiences are compared to other school administrators you know, locally, certainly, but a state you know across the country, as you meet up with those folks,

Dr. Matthew Hicks:

It is interesting, because I spent the bulk majority of my teaching career in suburban school districts. They were large, 14,000 16,000 20,000 kid districts. And so that was my perspective in the classroom. And so I've had that perspective. And then I came here to a two A school district, and I joined the National Rural Education Association in the Indiana small school and rural Association, and I found out that half of the students in the United States are educated in school districts just like Northeastern less than 2000 rural setting. Well, it was fascinating. So do I think that my experience is representative? I would say it's probably representative of about half of the superintendents in the in the country we serve in very localized school districts. And I know my families. I know my community. When I go to a Friday night basketball game, I look like I'm running for office, if you were to watch the security footage of being at a game. I work the entire crowd. I'm out in the hallway before the game and at halftime, and it's unofficial feedback, but I am in constant feedback loop mode. And if a superintendent wants to be successful, I think you have to have that relationship with the folks that you serve, especially when you're at a smaller place, think it's the only way to move forward.

Sarah Williamson:

Yeah, I love that. So what has been your strategy for bringing people together to help either see your vision for the district or working collaboratively to build that vision together?

Dr. Matthew Hicks:

It has been an amazing growth opportunity for us. When I was hired in 2020, I worked to meet the vision and strategic goals that were in place at the time, and we very quickly realized that those were pre pandemic strategic plan, pre pandemic mission and vision. And so the board came together in the summer of 21 and started redoing our vision, our mission and our strategic plan, and it has been the catalyst for the positive things that we're doing now. The board put together one of the very best visions that I've been a part of. Yes, I was in the room and they wrote it. So I'm super biased. However, I've been a lot of places and seen a lot of things, and they often get wordy. And ours is that we're a nurturing family where each night belongs, grows and contributes. That's our whole vision. And so if I can't run something through the belong, grow or contribute, filter, then we're not doing it. If it doesn't fit into that filter, that's not us. That's not what we're doing right now. And so it really has helped with the decision making. It puts us in a position to give a quality no for the things that don't fit in that vision, and an enthusiastic yes for the things that do fit within that vision. So that has been a great process, and we reinforce it every meeting we have, every board meeting, every large, large group opportunity we have, the kids say it every day at school. And so we try to be about that business on the daily.

Chad Bolser:

Like the other thing that we know about you and the district is you do a great job of communicating to your constituency and those around. For folks who are listening to this, what are creative ways that you go about communicating and storytelling to connect to educators and families and communities now in your current position or throughout your career?

Dr. Matthew Hicks:

I will tell you that's a growth area. You know, when you're in the classroom, they don't count on you to be out in the community doing that. And so is actually one of the areas that I've worked to grow in the most, because I didn't bear that responsibility as much as I probably should have. And so one of the first things I figured out is that I can tell a great story, but it's always better if it's a story about a kid that is a northeastern kid, and if I can get that kid to tell the story, it's even better. And so at every board meeting, we honor students of the month, like most places do, but we have the kids help us give that presentation. We let the board interact with them, and that's part of our social media campaign. We also, I try to make sure that if there is a change, that we telegraph it as much as possible. I think that's the one piece of advice that I would give to newer superintendents. Is if you are going to change the drinking fountains, or you're going to go and buy six electric busses, which is a third of your fleet, or if you're going to change the way that you communicate out about emergencies, going to a different platform, whatever it may be, you really want to be out in front of that messaging and repeat that messaging, because just like it was in your classroom, you've got to go over it about seven times before people it's going to stick. And so really trying to have some recursivity in that messaging is one of those areas that I've worked to develop and continue to work on.

Sarah Williamson:

What's your advice for other district leaders who may be struggling to build community?

Dr. Matthew Hicks:

I would say, if you're struggling to build community, then you need to figure out what rooms you need to be in. I was very, very fortunate that I had two years in this community as a high school principal before I became a superintendent, because I was invited into rooms as a high school principal that I had no business being in, and I could sit at the back and I could watch and I could learn. And then by the time I showed up as superintendent, I was known. My input was solicited, and I knew when and how to give input. Oftentimes, superintendents will be in a meeting, and because they're in the meeting, they feel like they need to share in that meeting. And I'm guilty of that sometimes, but one of the growth areas for me has been, if this isn't my meeting, I need to honor my place in this room, in this meeting, doing what this room is about. How can we contribute to that? Instead of coming in and saying, Hey, I'm Dr Hicks, Northeastern, we belong, grow and contribute, I would love for all of you to consider belonging, growing and contributing immediately, right now in this meeting. That's not fair to those folks. So the more you are in those meetings being a part of what those groups are trying to accomplish, the more likely they are to come back to you for your thing, whatever that may be. And so I would say, find your local conveners, your galvanizers in your community, and do your best to see how you can help them. Don't go with your handout. Don't go with your vision statement and say, This is what I need to accomplish. Go and say, How can we be a genuine partner in this community, and I promise it will flow back to you when the time is right and after you have made those relationships solid.

Sarah Williamson:

That's good advice. And Dr Hicks, one of the reasons we wanted to host this podcast series came about because we are interviewing leaders for a book on the superintendency and the state of the superintendency and understanding the challenges leaders are facing. And one of the things that kept coming up is we continue to hear superintendents say over and over, people don't think I'm a human. They think we're robots. We are just here for people to bash we're punching bags. Do you think it's important for your community to look at you as a human being, and how can that benefit your role as a leader and their relationship with you?

Dr. Matthew Hicks:

Gosh, I think it's critical, especially in the phase of life I've been in. You know, my oldest is a junior in high school, and my youngest as an eighth grader, and they were five years younger when I started this journey. I don't want to get emotional about this, but it's the part of the job that I didn't anticipate being this difficult, the fact that my kids would bear responsibility for the decisions that their knuckleheaded dad makes. Like I don't mind being a knucklehead on my own and whenever I need to eat shoe leather, that's on me. I'll do it. You know, eating crow is part of growth, and I I've had the opportunity to grow quite a bit, so, which is fine for me, but my kid having to have a second helping of the shoe leather is hard. That part I didn't anticipate. It wasn't like, we had a family meeting in the summer of 20 and my kids were like, We vote you in also. We think this will be great for all of us. No, they had no say in that process. And last night, my kids are getting texted, you know, hey, what are we doing tomorrow? What's the deal? And the criticism that I get and ignore is criticism that they don't have the luxury of ignoring. And we've had to work out sort of, you know, my dad makes the decision. He doesn't ask me. We live in the same house. I find out the same time. You do. You know, we've had to work out our scripts for my kids and my wife, who also didn't really sign up to be a public figure. You know, she's a lovely lady. She runs a swimming pool for a university. She doesn't want to be on the cutting edge of what do you think about tax reform? That's, you know, she didn't remember that, you know. So, yeah, those are the parts of humanity that I wish people would remember is don't have your kid go and ask my kid about stuff, and don't treat my kids differently because their dad happens to be in charge of the school district. That's super unfair, just to put a fine point on him.

Chad Bolser:

Well, I think one of the things that we've enjoyed about doing this series and talking to educational leaders from all over the country is that we are continual fans of the folks that go into this leadership role and I think we, Sarah and I agree that we are more and more supporters of K 12 education and just the work that you do. So the question for you is, how can we as people who want to be supporting community members or parents or better support mechanisms for our leaders that run our school districts. How can we do that?

Dr. Matthew Hicks:

I think, like most school districts, Northeastern has avenues for parents to become deeply involved with the success of our students. For example, we have PTO at the elementary we have band boosters at the high school. We have all of these opportunities wherein a parent can take even a passive role in these organizations and help lift kids up. You know, we we live in a place where approximately half of our kids are growing up below the poverty line, and when we have parents step up and say, Yes, I will scholarship a kid to go on the Washington DC trip, because I believe it's important that our community, our future community, is informed by the power of that trip. I'm willing to serve as PTO president, because I want to see the teachers be supported, and I want the students as a byproduct of that support to feel that love as well. I think we have all of these avenues that are probably conventional, right? People take it for granted, but I can tell you, it is a small amount of people that are participating in those and if we saw a marginal bump in that participation, it would have an exponential benefit for our students and our community.

Chad Bolser:

Well, for the folks who are listening to this podcast, how can they learn more about you and your work and connect with you directly?

Dr. Matthew Hicks:

Well, if they would like to find out about all of my endeavors, they can go to my LinkedIn page, Dr Matthew Hicks, if they would like to reach out to me here at Northeastern Wayne schools, my email address is mhicks@nws.k12.in.us or if you're one of our parents, you can just message me directly in parents where, and I'll respond within 48 hours.

Sarah Williamson:

I love it. Oh, thank you. Dr Hicks, it's always so nice to see you.

Dr. Matthew Hicks:

You guys, too. Thanks for the work that you're doing. You both carry such an outsized role in the success of so many people. I'm grateful to know you both. I'm grateful to support your work, and I appreciate the fact that when we get bloodied and bruised, and go back to the corner you're over there with the ice pack and the words of encouragement.

Sarah Williamson:

Absolutely, absolutely. Thanks again.

Dr. Matthew Hicks:

Thank you.

Chad Bolser:

Thanks for tuning into the Build Momentum for Education podcast. If you enjoyed listening today, we would love to hear your feedback, and we'd be grateful if you could leave us a review.

Sarah Williamson:

This helps us to share these powerful stories with even more people. If you liked what you heard, we'd be honored if you could share this episode with someone in your network. We look forward to seeing you next time on. Build Momentum for Education.