This year, the highest position at the school corporation is assumed by a different leader – Dr. Markay Winston. Now over two months into her new role, Dr. Winston said, “My primary responsibility is making sure that the students in our corporation are safe. I oversee all operations of the school corporation ensuring that our teachers and principals are doing what they need to do. And just making sure that we are delivering quality education to our students each and every day. I have every responsibility that a superintendent with the full title would have.”
Having worked at MCCSC for almost 8 years prior as Assistant and Deputy Superintendent, she said one of the biggest changes with her new job is that, “I don’t have as much control over my schedule. It presents new challenges but it has been a good transition.”
Dr. Winston said, “I think one of the biggest areas of responsibility that is taking a lot more time that I initially anticipated is facilities and management, making sure that repairs are happening.”
With the oversight of over 20 schools and 10,000 students, she stated, “I did not know exactly what to expect but one of the things I worked hardest on was just getting the right team around me. I didn’t necessarily aspire to be a superintendent, so to be in this seat now and to see the potential of how I can make really good decisions for our students, there’s nothing like it. I feel very blessed to have been asked to serve in this role.”
One of the most important jobs for Dr. Winston is to create a good sense of community with the seven-member Board of School Trustees (Brandon Shurr, Ross Grimes, Erin Cooperman, Cathy Fuentes-Rohwer, Ashley Pirani, April Hennessey, and Erin Wyatt). She said, “Beginning to establish a working relationship that’s going to allow us to communicate and collaborate well together to work on behalf of the students. I have seven bosses. That’s a change for me, to have seven individuals that collectively are my boss.”
Further, maintaining a transparent relationship with the students is very important to her. “The Student Voice Advisory group will be beginning soon. We’ll be giving students an opportunity to meet with me every 2-3 months to share their thoughts on how we’re succeeding and what we could do differently from a student’s perspective.” She continued, “I think the way you build trust is by allowing your words and actions to match, listening with respect, and being consistent and focused.”
Dr. Winston said, “I went into the new role with [the mentality of] I know a lot about the corporation, but what can we do to improve… And right now, everything I’m doing feels exciting, and partially because it’s new to me in this role. I’ve always been tasked with handling different projects, but I would say that the opportunity at being able to succeed in a meticulous manner with a robust engagement process in place, there’s excitement about having the opportunity to do everything well.”
Finally, she said, “Students who feel included, welcomed, loved, and appreciated, that’s the measure for me. If we have happy students who are ready the Monday after high school graduation, I think we’ve done our job.”
