Tar Heel Teachers on the Road: A Visit with Dr. Michelle White (Superintendent of Martin Co Schools)

Intro [Music] [Music] hello and welcome to Tar Hill teachers on the road I'm Marlo artist and I am in Martin County for for a special visit with Dr Michelle White superintendent of Martin County Schools Dr White thank you so much for having me thank you so much for being here we're honored to have you in Martin County I'm so happy to be here in Martin County and we're actually at the Innovation campus so Dr White tell us about the significance of the Innovation campus for Martin County Schools The Innovation campus is something that we are so proud of in Martin County um it took several years of of a lot of hard work on a lot of behalf of a lot of individuals to get this off and running but it is spectacular it's a state-of-the-art facility it's where we house all of our Career and Technical education classes for the district um we've also added an early college this year and that's housed here as well um we also have added some new programs this year with Odyssey of the mind and several other stem Focus initiatives that are housed out of this facility as well so it's become this all-encompassing building that ties our entire school system together um and it is just wonderful we have teachers here today working on pacing guides and plan for next year so it's become the Hub of our school system One Year Anniversary fantastic and when you have a space that's focused on Innovation you really can be intentional about that and we're going to really unpack some of those intentional things that you all are doing here in Martin County so last month you celebrated your Oney year anniversary with the school system yes one year at superintendent how's it going Dr White in the superintendent seat it is amazing I feel so blessed and so thankful to be able to do this work every day um it's something that I have looked forward to and aspired to and that so many people across my life and career have just supported me and helped me get here today so that I can support and pour into other people and it is a true blessing a true dream and I absolutely love the work that I get to do every single day working with teachers working with children and just working with the entire Community to make Martin County Schools the best it can be to pour into the lives of our children and our community and just support this public school system as we strive to help our community at Large be a great place absolutely and this community is very supportive of Education we want to talk about some of those things um including better today Path to Superintendent um Better Together Martin County Schools we'll talk about that um but before we kind of dig deep into some of the stuff um connected to Martin County Schools I do want to kind of unpack your um uh Pathway to get into the superintendency so before you arrived here in Martin County you were an award-winning teacher and principal recognized here in the Northeast so talk about and you also um earned your music education degree so talk about your path to becoming superintendent because it doesn't happen overnight it takes a long process I think sometimes people don't understand the steps that we take to end up eventually where we are yes and so um always say education is the calling it's not a job it's something you are called to do and I definitely have felt that calling on my life um since I was a young child uh I was very blessed to have one of those Powerhouse teachers um her name was Mara Smithwick and she was my band director wow and um I graduated from berte County school so I'm a product of nor eastern North Carolina and what a blessing it is to now serve the region that once served me um Miss Smithwick was my band director from fifth grade all the way through 12th grade wow so she is a testament to that Powerhouse teacher that teacher that just um really shaped me and supported me and helped me discover my musical talents and abilities but also um leadership ability she is just a an excellent teacher and really groomed leadership in her students and many of her students are now superintendents assistant superintendant um teacher leaders across the state so that could be a future interview for you because she was spectacular so I'm actually went to East Carolina on a full tuition and fees music scholarship and had a wonderful experience there ECU is such a Powerhouse of uh teacher preparation I just feel that they have such an amazing program and I felt um very equipped and empowered um through that program graduated from ECU with a bachelor of music education um at that time you had to choose a pathway so band Coral music General music um but I didn't want to choose a pathway if I was going to be licensed in all of that I wanted experience in all of that so I actually um petitioned the school and asked could I do multiple internships and so they allowed me to do that and now I think that has become a common practice there so I got to see different um elements of the job itself and decided uh that I wanted to try General music first so started my career after graduating from ECU with a bachelor of music education in perquimans county and wow what a tremendous blessing that was perquimans county is just this this true gy I was blessed with wonderful mentors uh taught General music there at a prek through second grade school uh actually became certified in art as well because the school could not afford both both a music and art teacher and so I was able to teach both those curriculums and it's there that I realized my passion for regular education I didn't just teach music I used music as an Avenue to teach the regular curriculum so we wrote musicals um that set the regular curriculum to rhyme and script and we choreographed those and so uh they became these major Productions that also taught children the regular a curriculum so just a wonderful experience we should have the integration we should have the integration and um I realized that children can learn anything through music and so that's when I kind of uh discovered my my passion for regular education and um added that license as well in k6 elementary um also added my first master's degree in instructional technology and I became the school's uh technology facilitator so in that role I had the opportunity to actually coach teachers and work with teachers on integrating technology into the classroom we know sometimes we get so focused on the the latest gadgets but that's not the point the point is to increase Student Success Through technology we use it when it betters our best and so I had the opportunity to do that was a part of the original impact model Grant at that time when um we were awarded over a million doll for technology at the school level and we were able to get smartboards and document cameras I'm telling my age because many of that is now Antiquated but it was a wonderful experience to be able to coach teachers and work with children on integrating that technology to maximize Student Success um from there each district was able to select U one person to complete a school leadership master's degree so um I was very blessed to be selected by perquimans County I went to Elizabeth City State and got a second master's degree in school leadership then went into a three in one role of Technology facilitator assistant principal and instructional coach um love that role very diverse got a lot of wonderful experience and really learning how to use data to drive instruction not as a buzzword but as in the trenches work because data are not numbers they represent children that's right and so what are we doing with that data to truly transform instruction and change how we're presenting information in order to help children grow and that was a wonderful experience exp erience from there I became principal of White Oak Elementary in Chan County so transition districts I was about I was in perquin for about 10 years and then um transferred over to choan County um again such a wonderful experience so many people in that District that just poured into me and and grew me and gave me the opportunity to pour into others and and from our family to our teachers and our community um White Oak slogan became the happy place in choan county and and I always say you can feel a school when you walk in the door and it was such a beautiful beautiful feeling at White we of course focused on literacy um really ensuring that every individual child got what they needed in order to be a reader to learn to read and to to grow um did a lot of things throughout that school um in the areas of literacy really increased our reading performance um worked with teachers on getting those skills necessary to be great reading teachers um went through some of the read and Recovery training and just really invested as we transitioned to the MCL class and all those things that we're currently using from there my superintendent asked me to go to a low performing school um and I was like absolutely I love school transformation I'm willing to go you know when I am called so from there I went to DF Walker Elementary also in Chan County and at that time the school was a DLo performance school but within two years we became a be high growth school um and within four years we were North Carolina's national title one distinguished school so um just again a team of people came together and and education is about belief and when you believe you can you will it's a self-fulfilling prophecy and so just creating that Vision with my team in that school of we can our kids can and we will and just not accepting anything less than successed so wonderful wonderful um opportunity there and just felt so blessed to be able to serve the children and the community from there my superintendent asked me to move again um to a middle school that was also in um a turnaround situation I said absolutely I go where I'm called um love the Middle School level um realize that those children are really not that different than Elementary children um so it was a blessing again to serve there again we um had some things to overcome um we worked hard we did decreased discipline at the school by about 80% within two months um we became a national middle school to watch within one year um just made some tremendous tremendous strides in um social emotional learning um student achievement and just whole school culture um after that I moved to the district office um had a a tremendous opportunity to serve as assistant superintendent of curriculum instruction in Herford County what a blessing that was some amazing people in Herford County we were able to implement new curriculums um systemic Data Systems a lot of teacher coaching and support and just people that were hungry to truly do what was right for children and that was a wonderful experience and then from there that brought me here to Martin County where I am currently just living my living my best life living my dream um I absolutely love it here have had a tremendous first year um it has been 24 hours a day of work but when you love it um it's a choice it it's not a job I wake up every day excited to come in and we've done some amazing things that I know we're going to um talk about today that I'm very excited about so so Turnaround Work much great work I'm recognized as Regional principal of the Year twice um in the Northeast because of of your work um Dr White talk about really your approach to turnaround work um because Martin County Schools is a low performing school system um and I know that you believe that you all can do great things and you all have done tremendous things just in this first year but talk about just the approach that is necessary when you're moving an underperforming school or District forward you know when uh I was placed in my first turn around school I immediately um began to think about the culture mhm if you want to change a school you have to change the culture sometimes we make that mistake of jumping straight to the instruction or straight to the data if you want to truly transform a school a school system an organization it's all about the culture that's right and so really listening to our people you know great schools are made because of great people and so my Approach is always meeting with my people listening to my people not just hearing them but truly listening to them hearing what they're giving back to me and then hearing what we're doing well to ensure that we continue doing those things hearing what's not going well what support do you need what is it that we need to do better with um and then giving them the opportunity to share just kind of Open Mic what else is it that we need in the school in the school system um and then doing something about it you know as school leaders is important to to listen to our people and to hear them but then to do something about it so as for example when I came to Martin County Schools I had insight for Dr White meetings with Community stakeholders parents teachers administrators and I just took meticulous notes and then I spent weeks combing over those and creating that to-do list of this is what everybody said and this is what we need to do so transforming that culture when people feel heard then they're ready to buy in that's right because you took what they said their voice mattered and you did something with it so I definitely feel that first and foremost you got to change the culture um when I was at my first turnaround school um people often came back and they said you know after we had transformed and we moved from that D be what did you do ple tell us what you did I'm like you know what did we do let me reflect on that and I realized that everything we did could be divided into culture data and instruction M no matter what it was that we changed within our organizational framework within how we did business it could all be placed into categories of culture data and instruction so that's my Approach now I always think of the work in those three Realms culture data and instruction start with the culture if you don't have data to drive what you're doing you don't know where you are you don't know where you're going and so then making sure we have that systemic process and an infrastructure for creating data that is accurate uh that people understand that they know how to use and then using that to change the instruction to better our best to really support teachers in knowing what to do with that data because again data aren't numbers they represent children these are our children so what gaps do our children have what successes do they have and how can we capitalize on that with instruction so my Approach is transforming the culture to create a systemic data system to then change the instruction and we do know what to do Martin Offers More but some people don't execute and that's what you've been doing you've been executing when we return we're going to talk about the great work that Dr White and her team what they're doing here in Martin County Schools we'll be right back Martin offers more isn't just something we say it's something Martin County Schools does every single day more face to-face instruction by more certified teachers more Hands-On learning for every student an Innovative Early College offering the associates degree or certificate of your choice a steam Innovative Middle School that offers a collaborative whole child experience more Career and Technical education opportunities creating Workforce ready citizens Stellar arts and athletic programs that focus on the whole students we offer an unmatched educational experience Martin offers more [Music] he [Music] [Music] [Music] What Has surprised Dr White we are back on Taro teachers on the road and we are continuing our conversation with Dr Michelle White superintendent of Martin County Schools um Dr White what has surprised you most about the superintendency has it been anything like I don't know I wasn't expecting to be just like this has any of that come up you know I would say it wasn't it it really hasn't been anything that surprised me other than the fact that um it hasn't surprised me what do I mean by that so I think the superintendency is what I expected you know I I was blessed in my career with so many wonderful people that invested in me and those people um I'm not going to start naming names because I don't want to leave anybody out but those people I feel like really invested in me and prepar me for this point um and again greater is he who is in me but no I have felt very prepared for this very blessed to be able to do this work every day um very thankful to be able to support the children to support the teachers to support the entire Community um I think I I've been surprised that I do feel very prepared and just very thankful to be able to do the work every day well you've had a lot Why Martin County of different experiences too that makes a lot I mean you had skipped any steps you really have worked very hard at each phase of your career so that you are ready um to serve in this particular role um which is very very exciting so many um exciting things happening here in Martin County um what was it about Martin County that made it a good fit for you a superintendent because I know you've thought about being a superintendent but how do you know Martin County was the right fit so I am from Northeastern North Carolina and just very passionate about serving in this region um and again you know I make no secret about my faith I stay in prayer and I go where God calls me to be and for about a year Martin County had been on my mind I'm actually from berte County which is only about 10 minutes away from here and um you know I just felt like God was putting into my heart into my spirit and I continued to pray about it um Martin County and I say over a year because they actually had an interim before they advertised for the position and so I just continued to pray about it and really felt like this is where God was calling me to be um I feel like this is the perfect fit for me I feel like through my career you know you look back and you reflect oh that's why that's why God wanted me to do that that's why he wanted me to be there that's why I went there that okay I see that experience and how it prepared me for this so I love school transformation um that is my passion that is my life's work and there are some areas in Martin County schools that we are working to better our best that I feel that my experience is the perfect fit for from you know creating a strong data infrastructure to transforming the culture from The Roots up from in when you walk in every school feeling that awesome school feeling when you can feel that this is a great place to work and learn that the teachers feeling supported and empowered and believed in and heard to the parents feeling supported and empowered and having a voice to uh you know creating great programs for children so I just really feel like my work has prepared me for Martin County and then felt called to be here um and then it's definitely lived up to that in this first year is that Accomplishments very exciting it's wonderful when we can have leaders who are really intentional about the assignments that they take and really feel that they have the skills to move the school system forward because we're we here we have to produce results for our children absolutely um we don't have a choice with that we have to make sure we're giving our children the very best that we have to get and you all have a lot to celebrate over this this year um launch the Innovative Early College yes yes um preparing to launch the Innovative Middle School yes um really in increase and uptick with the internships yes um Better Together Martin County Schools um I mean so many things to celebrate I mean um grants that you all are receiving the the um what is it the um stronger connections Grant the stronger connections Grant $67,000 I mean a lot of things have transpired over the course it one toone initi um talk about some of those things white cuz you all have really done a lot just in one year we have um you know and it all stemmed from listening to our stakeholders all of our stakeholders from Community to parents to teachers um really listening to what they felt like we were doing well and then hearing what they felt like we needed to improve on and then creating those action steps so um one of the things that I heard very readily was that we needed more Early College opportunities unfortunately there was not an early college program in Martin County schools and so you know what last summer I came aboard May 8th and by July 1 we had an early college program wow and today we have 126 students in the early college program and our first graduating class will be 2026 um we've had a tremendous first year and that's because of great people that were willing to to see the vision and just jump in and do the work um one of the highlights of my career was last summer when we launched this early college a team of people poured into it for months and we had selected our students and we got on a bus and the Early College coordinator the district office staff the school principls we all got on a bus for two days it was about 96 degrees and it was still so worth it and we traveled Martin County and we hand delivered yard signs that said Martin Innovative Early College to every single student that was accepted in this program and to see those tears from those families some of these families these are first generation college students and to see their faces and for them to feel the support and the love and the belief that we had and it was one of the highlights of my career in the most powerful moments um and it has proven to be a great year we've expanded our CTE program we have this wonderful Innovation campus um it is just become the Hub of our school system but it wasn't really being utilized effectively we had less than 100 students a day on this campus and so we really dug into the why behind that and there were there were a lot of wise um making sure that we communicate what the opportunities are at the Innovation campus to our families and to our children so that they can create those Pathways um based on the careers that they are are looking at and considering and so we did a lot of work behind the communication of our Innovation campus uh behind expanding our CTE Pathways to match what our student interests are um and proud to say that we've increased last year we had previously we had less than 100 students a day this year we have close to 600 students a day on this campus taking advantage of these Pathways um in addition to our early college so that has been wonderful um from there we are starting the Innovative Middle School which I'm so excited about just listening to our families and you know we are in a competitive Marketplace when it comes to schools in North Carolina and I'm committed to showing Martin County the state of North Carolina the United States that public schools are the foundation of what we do and public schools do and can offer the best when you invest in public schools you are giving to your community and so as we listened to the community and really heard what are parents looking for because we want them to choose us we want to be the school of choice for Martin County and so we have designed a whole new experience at the middle school level Focus focused on Steam science technology engineering arts and math we've added theater we're adding a Strings program we've added robotics had the first ever high school robotics team this year now filtering it into middle school next year we've added a career exploration lab where you go in and students are tiling walls they're flying drones I went in uh right before school got out and there was they were putting a cast on a leg they're doing all these things that expose them to these spectacular careers that then when they get to high school they're going to be able to come to our Innovation campus and pursue those Pathways so really excited about that our early college opened this year our Innovative Middle School will open next year um those have been two tremendous opportunities for our children um you did mention we did go one to one this year again amazing people jumped in Mark County Schools was not one to one but I was able to just build this amazing team of people and now we are one to one we have firmed up our um how we're monitoring technology in the classrooms how we're supporting teachers with that technology use in the classrooms we don't use it just to use it but we use it when it can better our best um and that has been a tremendous asset this year to equip teachers with that training with those devices um because that puts the world at their fingertips with instructional practice so it's been great so many great things to include expanding your summer learning opportunities as well I Summer Learning listened to um a board meeting when you first arrived and there was a preview on some of the things and it's been significant growth with the summer learning talk about that because that's so important to make sure we're closing opportunity gaps and reducing the summer slide so talk about that Dr AB absolutely so um one of the things that parents shared with me when they came when I first arrived in Martin County was that we just we didn't have summer school in Martin County and some people think of summer school as a negative but summer school is not a negative summer school is a positive it gives us the opportunity to stay engaged with our children to create fun Hands-On learning experiences for our children and it gives our children an opportunity to stay engaged you know many parents are working parents outside the home and they rely on us to support them with their children and so I'm proud to say that we are offering we've offered summer school for the first time this year had a very successful summer program you know initially anytime you start something new um there will be those well the children aren't going to come or there's going to be this obstacle or this obstacle but progress is impossible without change and um we had a tremendous turnout for our summer school um more than than ever anticipated and we were really able to close a lot of gaps we're also offering camp opportunities throughout the summer this week we hosted an AIG Camp our students were here um doing some coding they went they built made kites actually went to the beach and we're able to fly those next week we're hosting a steam camp at our Innovative middle school they're going to be traveling to ECU um and going to their STEM Center there uh lots of fun things planned we are having a another Camp focused on Athletics this summer for our middle school children we've got various CTE camps and so it's all about engagement our theme has become every child every opportunity we want every child to have the opportunity that fits their their goals their desires their interest because when you have opportunities that fit students interest you have engaged students and that's how we're able to reach those those great Heights with academic success and so I'm really excited about those summer opportunities I'm looking forward to having something for everybody this summer and da how are you all able to navigate that some of the um concerns that people have with offering Funding is funding you know funding is limited so how were you all able to really ramp up the summer learning in this climate that we're currently in so it had to be it was very strategically this wasn't just a last minute thing it was again when I arrived really listening to the stakeholders and then planning for an entire year to be able to fund certain initiatives of course we know we're in the ends of Sr funding and so that was um a a support for some of the camps but many of them were saving money throughout the year pockets of things that we could put together and offer this Camp you know it was really at the table of every discussion okay so these are the things we want to be able to do next summer and then as we're strategically planning with principal's meetings Senior Team meetings district office staff teachers throughout the year that was always the goal was to be able to offer these opportunities so funding comes from various um pots in addition to grant writing we've really tried to up our gain with writing grants and seeking opportunities for our children so we were able to get some Grant funds as well um and we're going to continue to better our best so we've increased opportunities this this summer and next summer we're looking for even more so exciting to watch that happen here in Northeast North Carolina because we know our students deserve it they High School Merger certainly do they also deserve a quality education so this year you have been really intentional about making sure educational quality um is in place you've had to make some hard decisions so you all have merged on the high schools um so Riverside and South Creek high schools have merged um and you did a midyear merger we did um talk about how you got to that point and what are some of the things that will be on the horizon for the students at Martin County High School yes so that goes all the way back to my first weeks here um when I arrived in Martin County I was blessed to be able to start in may which allowed me go into the schools and and see the classrooms in action with children um and one of the things that immediately emerged was the inequality between our two high schools um particularly we actually merged Athletics before we merged the two schools because this school had state championship tennis this school didn't get an opportunity to play this school had soccer this school couldn't have soccer because it didn't have enough students this school had softball and baseball this school did not get opportunity inequality is not okay where you live should not determine the opportunities that you were given the exposure and the experiences that come your way and so immediately we merged Athletics because Athletics it's the reason many of our children come to school every day and and we want them to have those opportunities that motivator to do well academically and so um that proved to be tremendously successful all of our children received an equitable quality athletic experience and so as we moved into the year we still had two separate high schools but we were playing Athletics as one um and we had a teacher shortage we had vacancies at one of our high schools that had been vacant long term um some for a year um as we moved into October and November and we were really trying to schedule for that next semester our counselors came to me and said Dr White we can't schedule the children they are going to be in substitute classrooms or all online we do not have classes for the children and so it became this pivotal moment you know I'd only been here about six months at that time but I'm called to do what's right for children and I could have let them be in those substitute classrooms and online classes but I had data to show me that that was not effective and so I went to the community I went to the board I believe in being very transparent and I showed them the data I showed them the holes in the schedule I showed them the reason behind the conversation and then I showed them what it could look like if we were one high school this was a temporary move when we merged in January because when you actually did the math and looked at the schedule at one of our schools we had more substitutes than teachers but when we came together every child got a certified teacher and so we were already working to better our best academically um and so the decision was made to merge the school's mid year uh was not easy I'm not saying everyone was on board with that but I will say a majority were because the why was presented and they understood that this is what my child will get here this is what my child will get here I want the best for my child as we went through the semester um we were not able to fill those vacancies at the school but also the children began to see a difference the children saw a difference in the quality of the overall educational experience once we were merged the children began to say you know I really like it here I'm learning more my grades are better I'm in more clubs we didn't we didn't have these opportunities at my other school and so the children began to say we want to stay and so as we continue to move forward and look at the budget as we got into budget season we realized that high schools was not sustainable for Martin County and this has been something that had been talked about for many years in Martin County but again I believe in being very transparent so we went back to the community and we were very transparent about this is what your children are getting example at at the other at the smaller school there was one full-time elective at a high school I know and then um when we merge we have 32 elective opportunities and so we went to the community we explained the why and the decision was made to closed the school and by this point because the children had been able to experience Athletics together they experienced the temporary marage they saw and felt the difference in their educational experience we held two Community meetings and we did not have anybody speak at either meeting against the closing of the school not because they wanted the school to close you know closing a school is never easy it's a Heritage it's a part of a community but the benefits to the children were so undeniable that we have been able to move forward with that we're currently in the midst of adopting a new mascot involving the community involving the community the entire Community got to vote for the mascot the children selected the finalist but the community got to vote can't tell you quite yet what we're going to be still top secret um now we're we're working through the color adoption for our new school um we've decided that the new school will be named to Martin County High School um and now Begins the work of I would love to build a new school I want a new high school where all of our children can go and experience a state-of-the-art yes facility in the absolute best because that's what we want for our kids so we're also moving forward and working with the County Commissioners and and going to be seeking some grant funding for that to to just give our children the absolute best so we did close a high school and we've merged into one high school and we were looking forward to making that the absolute best for the children of Martin County absolutely I know you're going to do that as your um with your team and really excited about Female Superintendents the new Martin County High School we'll be watching and celebrating and rooting you all on cheering you all on um here in the Northeast region um we have 11 superintendant um five are female five are female how does that um impact your work as a superintendent when you're in a region that has that level of diversity Equity of representation how does that impact your work well I can say that I feel very blessed to be um my passion is Northeastern North Carolina and there are some tremendous female superintendent in northeastern North Carolina that have just invested in me and have served as a mentor um you know again I hate to start naming names but um Dr Turner in perquimans County you know she is somebody that I worked with in choan county and is now currently leading that district and I know that I can pick up the phone and call her and she is a tremendous leader um there are several throughout our region so um very thankful for that U I am the first female superintendent for Martin County and so that is is a blessing to be able to um to walk that path and to have this opportunity that maybe some have not had before and I'm committed to to doing the work and being the absolute best that I can be um so it is wonderful to have that tribe because there are there are leadership differences and we need to acknowledge that you know um the way a man leads may be different than the way a woman leads and it's okay it doesn't mean that they are wrong right or wrong it just means that we're all different and so embracing those differences and learning those leadership styles and having a team that you can go to and get that advice and say well this is the way I would approach this or this is what I suggest to this is just truly powerful really really powerful really exciting um and you're leading well you are Advice for First Year Superintendent really leading well and you've had a great year what advice do you have for a first year superintendent because you've had a very successful year you have a lot of results you're really diligent about moving Martin County for what advice would you have for first year superintendent watching being successful is all about listening truly hearing and investing in your people success is built through meaningful purposeful relationships whether it's relationships with your students relationships with your teachers relationships with your district office staff really investing in your people building your people up encouraging them being that Mentor for them being that support for them um the reason we have been able to be successful this year is because of the people because of every single teacher in every single classroom putting in the work because of every single administrator coming in early and staying late because of every district office team member who was willing to sometimes 24 hours a day it seemed put in the work to make our school system better so the advice I would give is invest in your people understand the power of those relationships we often say that but meaningful purposeful relationships not always telling people what they want to hear but telling people what they need to hear and then supporting them and let them know that you believe in them that you are here for them that you will walk through fire to help them get where they want to be what are knowing their career goals whether it's your teachers your administrators whoever knowing their career goals and then investing in them to help them get where they need to be so definitely first year superintendence invest in your people the power of relationships and having those meaningful purposeful conversations absolutely and you walk that out each and every day Dr why after a successful first year what is your five-year dream for Martin County Schools I want Martin County Schools to be the school of choice for Martin County I want it to be the most sought after school in the state of North Carolina I want the the overall educational experience in Martin County Schools to simply be the best I want I've told people all year if we don't have it we will build it and if it's broken we will fix it and those aren't words I mean it with every fiber of who I am so I want us to f Foster a culture of Excellence to Foster academic Excellence to foster a feeling of belonging and inclusion and equality um in five years I want Martin County Schools to be one of the best performing school systems in the state of North Carolina and I truly believe that we can and we will be if we continue to invest in our people to support them and to build those relationships and we certainly will be watching thank you thank you so much much for your leadership and thank you so much for this conversation have learned so much have enjoyed it so much and really cheering you all on in the background thank you for being here thank you thank you like to thank our audience so very much for watching we'll see you soon [Music] [Music]