Stepping In: A Q&A with DSISD’s Interim Superintendent, Brett Springston

Editor’s note: DSISD Interim Superintendent Brett Springston spoke with the DSCN over the phone to answer questions about his new role with the district.

DSCN: Tell me a little bit about your background. Have you always been in education?

Springston: 36 years--stretches all the way back from East Texas, me being a student at Kilgore Jr. College and I was actually a student assistant at the same time. That’s where I learned my love for working with people. I had a great mentor at that time--Coach Carter. He instilled in me ways that you work with people outside the realm of being authoritarian. You can convince people to do things in other ways and other means and still get a positive outcome. I never forgot that.

I ended up going to the University of Texas at Tyler. I also worked as a student assistant at Tyler Jr. College. and became a teacher at B.F. Terry High School in Lamar Consolidated Independent School District in Rosenberg for 17 years. I was there as a teacher for 5 (years), then assistant principal and then principal, and would eventually come into Spring Woods High School in Houston. I was there for several years, very good years. The school district was very diverse--probably 16 different languages (were) spoken on that campus. It was a poor neighborhood, a poor area, but they did very well, excelled in all of their state testing. The kids, they were just fantastic and that ended up taking me to San Antonio as the Judson (High School) principal.

Then I went to Brownsville as assistant superintendent for area schools and actually assistant superintendent over operations and then to interim superintendent, then superintendent. Then, I was at the retirement time, and ended up going to Bartlett because it was closer to my home in Waco and my mother. I stayed there in Bartlett for five years and then I became what they call a move about. Where can I go? What can I help you at? I do that with some different law firms and if they need somebody at a certain place, I’m the guy that likes to fix things.

I’ve been to Damon ISD. [It’s] very small, maybe 400 kids at the most, Pre-K through 8th. That was very challenging because they were also broke and they had just been deemed low performing, so the state was hitting them with sanctions. Things needed to be put back into place. I was there for five or six months. We got it back in order and as of today, I heard from a person who was hired there, they scored a 90 on their FIRST rating and they were pretty excited about that. They got some money in the budget, got back on track, so I ended up going to Decatur for five or six months in North Texas and that was interesting.

Every district has its own unique shape and it has its own unique bounds of problems. There’s a lot of positive things, but also sets of problems that need to be addressed. So, we addressed them and the superintendent they have is still there and he is moving on.

This job came available. I saw it. I didn’t respond to it right off the bat. I started doing some studying and I saw that it was a fast growth district and there had been some bonds and there was some contention with the bonds I would say. The bonds are moving forward. You’ve got a high school that is just about complete (with renovations). You’ve got the new Walnut Springs, you’ve got the new elementary school #5, all up and growing.

It’s a matter of getting things and knowing people, hitting the ground running, meeting with groups, meeting with everyone I can, so I can get a feel for where the strengths and weaknesses are and then address the weaknesses and move forward.

DSCN: How is it going so far? How was your first week?

Springston: Fast and furious. There’s a lot to catch up on. I met with the TIRZ board, a very nice group of people. Of course, you’re talking about the city wanting to have some type of agreement with the district on this property, that I’m speaking from now. So, I’m picking up information on that. I’m meeting with board members on that, that’s part of the TIRZ board, and I’m just getting myself up to date on everything and at the same time, I’m meeting with my immediate cabinet members to plan on strengths and weaknesses of the district. I’ve had my staff members, who have been going out into the district to look at the different stresses that are coming about because of the unforeseen things that are happening with COVID and what can we do to relieve those stresses. So, we’re just in the planning stages for all of that.

DSCN: What is it like from your perspective in dealing with the challenges that COVID-19 presents?

Springston: Well, it’s scary in one thought, in one way. You definitely don’t want to have an outbreak and so you have to keep people safe. I say that first and foremost for the teachers. If teachers are getting sick, then you don’t have certified teachers teaching students and that’s scary. So, we’re trying to mitigate all these different situations by looking at the laws, looking at the CDC guidelines. The kids that are online and those kids that are asynchronous. It’s causing a lot of stress in the planning of what teachers are doing. It’s three times the amount, sometimes four times the amount of planning just to have a class that day. So, we’re trying to figure out ways we can take some of that stress away and at the same time, be able to address the needs of the kids.

DSCN: What are your top priorities for the district moving forward?

Springston: Number one is with the bonds, making sure that we’re on track to finish and complete everything that we need to complete, so that elementary school #5 is up and ready and operational for the ‘21 school year. We want to make sure that we’re up and running and so, that way, there’s a smooth transition which means that attendance/boundary zones, administration of that building, all of that needs to take place soon. (That’s) so that everything can be brought out to the parents, where our zones are, what we’re looking at, have parent communication on this, have some leeway on this. There’s a lot of things that we just have to look at on that far eastern side of the county. What I’m learning is that we are almost 200 square miles. That’s huge and if you look at our demography, it shows in the next several years, that you could possibly be up to 11,000 or 12,000 students and you’re almost at 8,000 now. Well, that’s a huge growth factor and so, whoever is stepping into this position in the long term, be it May, June, then I need to make sure I’ve got them prepared for all of this stuff that is fixing to take place in this transition. That’s what I need to do.

DSCN: Is there anything else that you would want folks to know about yourself and/or your work with DSISD?

Springston: I’m very open. If you want to talk to me, call me. If you want to make an appointment with me, make an appointment with me. We can sit down and talk about anything to do with education and the future of how we can help kids. I’m always good with that. I’m not in the business of always making people happy because I’m not. I make the hard calls. I make the hard decisions. I’m not afraid to do those things because we don’t live in a “yes world” anymore. But, I do believe that we can build a relationship whether or not we agree or disagree and develop perspective.