Q&A with CCSD Superintendent Robbie Hooker

On Friday, Nov. 4 BluePrints staff held a press conference with CCSD’s newly appointed superintendent Dr. Robbie Hooker. The questions and responses have been edited for length and clarity.

News Editor Ikeoluwa Ojo:  Can you give a brief explanation of the role the superintendent plays?

Superintendent Dr. Robbie Hooker:  The superintendent’s job is to oversee schools, supervise principals and ensure that students are learning. To work with the board, and to work with the public.

Co-Editor-in-Chief Melanie Frick: Prior to you taking on the role of superintendent, Clarke County has seen four different individuals fill the position since 2017. What do you want to say to parents, students, and faculty who are concerned that you may not stick around very long, or who worry that your tenure will end in drama like two previous superintendents?

RH: No, hopefully it won’t end in drama. I think what probably makes me different from the other individuals who served as superintendent in this district is I’ve worked here 15 years, two as a teacher at Coile Middle School when it opened in 1995. I served as a principal at BHL for five years, Clarke Central for eight, and lived here for 22 years. One of the reasons to return is I believe in this community. I believe that we can overcome what you see on social media. We get a bad rap. We have to do a better job of telling our story. I think too often we’re reactive and not proactive. We let social media tell us what schools are like, and half of the people who post stuff don’t even visit your schools. There are always two sides to a story and I look forward to being here for a while.

Co-Editor-in-Chief Megan Wise: How will your bachelor’s degree in psychology and past teaching experience affect how you view the students and how you plan to lead as superintendent?

RH: I think we have to flip the narrative. People need to understand that students are our customers. If we didn’t have the students, we wouldn’t have schools. One of the goals that I hope to accomplish within the next year or two is that each school has a student advisory council. I believe that each principal should meet with them either monthly or bimonthly because students tell you what’s really going on in your building If you want to get better, you have to have listened to student voices. They will give you insights as to what’s going on. 

Staff writer Sophie Meile: Cedar Shoals students have spotted you on multiple occasions visiting our school. Could you tell us the purpose of your recent visits to Cedar and what are you seeing in those visits? 

RH: You’ll see a lot of me and sometimes I may just sit in the class and just observe. One of the things I’m excited about, hopefully happening in January. I’m asking all district office personnel to shadow a student for a day at different grade levels. Put on your backpack. You can’t have your laptop with you. To sit and experience, actually what a student goes through in a day. I think that’ll make them change some of their perspectives as to what’s happening in our schools. So I’m looking forward to doing that as well.

Staff writer Maggie Gillan: You used to work at Social Circle, what made you decide to come back to CCSD?

RH: I believe in the Clarke County School District. I believe in public education. A lot of people have given up on public education. Think of some of the friends you have, who’ve left Clarke County for either homeschool or private schools in  neighboring counties. But when they come back they’ll see you get a great education here in Clarke County and we want to continue that tradition.

Managing Editor Tory Ratajczak: Some local residents, the NAACP in particular, had complaints when you were named the new superintendent, claiming that the process was not public enough, what was your reaction to that?

RH: I addressed those concerns. One of the first things I did after being permanently named superintendent I had my administrative assistant call those individuals and say let’s sit down and meet. I have a meeting with them in two weeks. So you hit it head on, you don’t back away from it. You know, it didn’t bother me. I’m used to people. If you get 100% of the people who like you, something’s wrong. So that challenge didn’t bother me at all.

Photography Co-Editor Isabella Morgan: What are some things that previous superintendents have done in the past that you’d like to improve upon?

RH: The thing that I think we can build upon is, I think what Dr. Thomas did by having a student advisory council in the high schools. I think we can build it down to even elementary and middle school. Some of the things that Dr. Means did with the work on equity. I thought it was important. We can follow through on that. People need to understand, everyone thinks equity means that you’re just dealing with certain rights, no equity deals with making sure all students get a high quality education, not just subgroups, but all students and that’s what we want to dwell on.

Broadcast reporter Genevive Bielli: Tell us more about upcoming town hall meetings. What do you plan to discuss and how were the locations chosen?

RH: Locations were chosen based on the past. When I was principal at Clarke Central, we had five public housing units that we served, not sure if they still have them. But we would always go into those public housing areas and meet with families because a lot of times those families did not feel comfortable in coming to meet with us or had bad experiences in coming to the schools. Of course, you’re going to do East Side, West Side, the two high schools and then we selected  public housing from each area.I did Clarke Central last Tuesday and that was a great event. A pretty good turnout there. I go to Rock Springs on the seventh. I’m looking forward to engaging those parents and sharing my vision as to what I would like to accomplish during my tenure as superintendent.

Staff writer Nolan Dennison: How has your experience working as principal at Clarke Central helped you as a superintendent so far? 

RH: That was probably the best experience I received as a leader. When I walked into Clarke Central in 2008 it was a Needs Improvement nine as far as academics is concerned. When I left there in 2016, we had won two national awards One from NASSP, we won that twice for closing the achievement gap. We won High School of the year in 2008. I was named Principal of the year 2013. It was tough work, it was long hours, it was tiring, but it was good work. You saw kids change and kids get the meaning of the importance of getting a good education and to dream big. I’m a person big on building relationships. I didn’t stay in my office much. I liked to be out in the hallways. I ate lunch with the kids a lot. 

Broadcast reporter Landon Neace: What are the biggest challenges to raise student achievement in CCSD?

RH: Making sure every student is engaged. I do think that when you walk into classrooms and teachers are lecturing for 30 minutes and don’t allow students to engage it doesn’t work, if you really want to learn something, you practice it. We don’t allow kids to practice within class. Why not just give them an assignment, put them in groups and say ‘can you figure it out?’ As opposed to standing up there for 30 or 45 minutes. Let kids be creative. I’m okay with controlled chaos. It can be loud in a classroom, but work can still take place. 

Broadcast reporter Genevieve Bielli: What were specific changes you made at Central by the time you left that you would like to see continue in the school? 

RH:  I don’t know if they continued it but we put a push on minority students being in AP classes. It was a program where we had UGA students who would come and mentor kids that were in our AP programs. We got some good results from that. I made an announcement last night that next year Cedar will be offering an AP African American Studies class. And the amazing thing about it is that only 60 schools across the nation were selected and Cedar was chosen. It was vetted by several 100 colleges and universities, including HBCUs. So if you get the appropriate score, your scores will be accepted into college. So we’re looking forward to seeing that happen. 

MAN OF THE HOUR: Co-Editor-in-Chief, Megan Wise and Managing Editor Tory Ratajczak led the press conference. Staff writer Maggie Gillan asked Hooker what he was most excited about being back at CCSD. “I’m excited about changing the trajectory for all students, ensuring that every student gets a high-quality education and has a high-quality teacher. That we have lessons that engage them and change the pride for all students within the district,” Hooker said. Photos by Isabella Morgan and Kylie Toney.

Features Editor Ruby Calkin: How do you think students were affected academically by virtual learning?

RH: Well, it hit us tremendously. If you think about it, you guys went out on March 13, 2020, then returned back to class in April 2021. It was a year and a month. I take for example, imagine if you were in kindergarten March of 2020 and you didn’t return back, now your second grader. When you learn how to read, a teacher speaks to you to explain how to form the letters, dictation, and all that. You can’t do that over a screen. So it caused a tremendous amount of problems for some students. Even some of you gifted students had problems. Who wants to learn from a computer all day? I’m not a computer person. I like to sit face to face. For most students, it was a challenge because you’re not disciplined in prioritizing your time.

Ruby Calkin: Like most school systems, CCSD received its fair share of federal funds to support students during the pandemic. What is being done with this money at this point?

RH: If you’re talking about the last part of the Cares Act, 20% of those funds should be used for some form of tutoring to make up for some of the learning loss. And that could be after school tutoring, offering different programs to assist with that, summer schools for instance. I’ll tell you what we did for Social Circle for summer school.Everything was stem, we did more hands-on stuff. So you got to do things differently, not the same. Looking at innovative stuff such as that.

Ruby Calkin: What do you think might be poor uses of these funds?

RH: If you’re just buying materials and not using them while you’re just buying programs, and they’re not making a difference. I think if you’re going to buy programs, you better monitor to see the effectiveness of it. “Is it right for our kids?” And if not stop using it, stop spending your money on that. So you have to monitor that. Some school systems brought various programs thinking that it’s going to help, but I don’t think programs help, I think good old fashioned teaching helps. If you’re going to use the computers, make sure that they are being used instructionally, not just to play games or something of that nature.

Melanie Frick: The CCSD middle schools are participating in I-Ready assignments and standardized tests. What is your opinion on this?

RH: I don’t believe we should be spending an enormous amount of time on these programs. I think if we’re doing the right work in the classroom, it will show up on standardized testing. We’re doing the right work. Good tier one instruction. Some kids may need the program, but I think you get tired or you get to a certain point that you just click to get through it, and that’s not helping.

Viewpoints Editor Marcus Welch: Right now across the nation, schools are facing issues with retaining teachers. The national average for teacher turnover is estimated at around 16%. What does teacher retention and turnover look like in CCSD?

RH: If I’m not mistaken 45% of the teaching force here in CCSD has zero to five years of experience. So that means you have a young teaching force. There could be many factors as to why people are not pleased with the education system we offer here. Some of them may be moving, I don’t know; I haven’t done an in-depth study as to what’s the reason for the turnover. 

Photography Co-Editor Delia McElhannon: Could you give any examples of any policies to aid teacher retention? Or is it more of a principal’s job?

RH: People stay in buildings if they feel supported by their leader. I can transfer and go to Oconee, and realize that they may not support me as well as the person that I left. A lot of teachers stay in the same building because they say “that principal who supported me, I know they cared about me and they’re going to do anything to make sure I’m successful.” If you talk to any teacher that left a lot of them would say “I would have stayed if I knew that principal would have supported me.” A lot of it is based on leadership.

Staff writer Luz Bazarte: How can CCSD ensure teachers feel more heard in the policy in the classroom, and do teachers get the chance to contribute to district wide policies? 

RH: I think it’s important that when we implement a policy or something, we get input from them. Now it doesn’t always mean that we’re going to put it verbatim the way they want to, but I believe that people know that they’ve got an input and they feel like a part of the process.

Art Co-Director Eva Lucero: What measures do you plan to help improve the school environment around both Central and Cedar so that all students come to school and feel safe to learn?

RH: I think all students should feel safe. But here’s the thing, when you talk about guns being brought in the school, I always say students should remember “See Something, Say Something” but we don’t. The other thing is that it is up to us as leaders within the building, our security, and others to be visible and to see what’s happening. Students have to learn how to mediate when you have beef or a disagreement with someone, instead of always fighting. 

Broadcast Editor Freddrell Green: CCSD is facing a shortage in bus drivers, this has left many students waiting for buses that either arrive late or in some cases never arrive at all. How do you plan to combat this shortage and retain the bus drivers we have right now?
RH: There are 136 slots for bus drivers, we only have 96 slots filled. If you look at every school district, you can go Walton County, Oconee County, you can look any place, they have a sign out front with “we pay $18 to $27 an hour.” Not too many people are picking up on that. First of all theyll tell you, sometimes we have difficulty with students on the bus so I don’t want to drive, second, driving a bus is difficult.