After 30 years in the district, former Neuqua Principal Kathy Birkett became the new superintendent on July 1st. Rising from a teacher to having a lake named after her, Dr. Birkett has come a long way. She earned her Master of Education as well as her doctorate of Educational Administration from Northern Illinois University Starting in 1979 as a gym teacher at Waubonsie, she became the assistant principal in 1987.
Dr. Birkett said, “When I started we would have a week in the fall or a week in the spring where we would have low attendance because of the farming” adding, “these were all farmers here”. Serving as the Assistant Principal for 5 years, she became the principal of Steck Elementary School before opening Neuqua as the principal in 1996, a job that she has said is her greatest accomplishment in the district. Over her career, Dr. Birkett has seen the growth of the district. Dr. Birkett said, “It’s just so much bigger, its 35 buildings, when I started here it was 4.” She served at Neuqua until 2004, before moving up to Assistant superintendent of secondary education. While under that position, Dr. Birkett was instrumental in creating the Frontier program which has become a huge success.
Dr. Birkett said, “I was at the original meeting with Howie Krause, the superintendent at that time, where the idea was proposed.” In 2007, Dr. Birkett moved even higher up in the district, becoming the Deputy Superintendent, where she was instrumental in the staffing and creating of Metea Valley and Fischer Middle School, what use to be the Waubonsie Gold campus. Then on July 1st she became the newest superintendent. Early in her career, Dr. Birkett never thought that she would end up being an administrator, let alone superintendent. She said that she felt comfortable being a teacher, and just thought her master’s degree would help her become a better teacher and leader for her classroom.
Now that she has become the superintendent she has many goals for the district. She said, “The most important goal is student achievement,” adding, “we went on an average ACT score from 23.4 to 23.8. While some of our neighboring districts took a dip, we did not”. While that is her most important issue she will also be evaluating professional development Wednesdays, to see if it will help improve test scores. She also discussed the possibility of developing a partnership with ACT, saying, “We are trying to develop a partnership with ACT to drive our curriculum so that it is in line with what ACT focuses on.” With 30 years of experience behind her, Dr. Birkett has a clear vision for our district for years to come.
Thomas Rowland, Staff Writer
