LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – The Kentucky Board of Education has named Jason Glass, superintendent and chief learner for Jeffco Public Schools in Colorado, as the state’s new education commissioner Friday.
Glass, a native of Brandenburg, will fill a job that has been vacant since Dec. 12, when former Education Commissioner Wayne Lewis negotiated his resignation with the state education board days after Gov. Andy Beshear reorganized the body on his first day in office.
"I'm so incredibly grateful for this opportunity to serve the commonwealth, and I'm excited to embark on this effort to improve the future for all of Kentucky's children," Glass told board members after the announcement.
The board unanimously voted to start negotiating a contract with its commissioner pick after closed-door meetings and interviews with finalists Tuesday.
"Dr. Glass has extensive experience, including having served as chief state school officer in Iowa and as a school superintendent with urban, suburban and rural school communities along with a strategic vision and a track record for moving a school transformation agenda at the state policy level," said Lu Young, the board's chairwoman.
Lu Young, the board's chairwoman, said the panel will be asked to vote on a contract at a future special meeting. Details of the agreement were not disclosed Friday.
Glass, who began his teaching career as a high school social studies teacher at Hazard Independent Schools and served as director of education for the state of Iowa from 2010 until 2013, said in an interview with WDRB News Friday that his current contract requires a 60-day notice before he can leave.
"There's some work to do here in Jeffco to get them ready for the next school year," he said. "... I think over the next couple of months there will be some opportunities for me to get to Kentucky and do some work there."
Glass is taking over the Kentucky Department of Education as school districts grapple with how to safely reopen their buildings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A number of teachers have expressed their discomfort with returning to in-person instruction in a matter of weeks. A Jefferson County Teachers Association survey found about two-thirds of its nearly 4,000 respondents preferred starting the year with nontraditional instruction rather than resuming classes under the state's "Healthy at School" guidance.
Teachers unions in other large urban school districts have voiced similar concerns, according to Education Week.
Glass said he understood those concerns and supported keeping students and staff with health issues working from home rather than back in classes.
"I don't think we have any perfect options, and as we think about reopening in the fall, all of our options are really a risk-reward calculation," he said.
"Remaining in a remote setting, it has its own risks. We know that we had academic losses, developmental losses, social-emotional issues, and it contributed to the struggles that we had economically by remaining in that remote environment, so that's not risk-free either. As we think about transitioning to an in-person learning experience, we've got to make sure that we've got strong virus-mitigation steps in place."
Asked about recent statements from President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos threatening federal funding for schools that don't fully reopen in the fall, Glass said he didn't "get overly excited" at their musings.
"I think that what we need to do is try and depoliticize the issue, and having a political actor step into this, frankly, isn't helpful," Glass said. "We all want our kids in schools. We all want them learning, and we all want that to be as safe as we possibly can. Everybody needs to slow down and think about how can we do this in the right way."
His hiring also comes at a time when racial equity has been thrust into a national spotlight. Glass, who is white, was picked over two Black finalists for the job.
The Kentucky Board of Education passed a resolution Friday encouraging steps to address racial issues across the state and within their communities, such as engaging more with minority stakeholders, improving school counseling offerings and diversifying teaching ranks.
“We urge district leaders to think unconventionally and innovatively to serve all students because conventional methods clearly have not yielded the results we need, dismantle racism in our schools and ensure that educational equity becomes reality for every Kentucky learner in every Kentucky classroom,” the resolution reads.
The commissioner is also called “to continue and reinvigorate the work of the Kentucky Department of Education to foster a culture of anti-racism and further racial equality within our public schools” in the resolution.
Glass supported the board's resolution, saying the state's education leaders are "in a unique position to enact powerful change because our decisions have a direct impact on the future."
"As educators we're professionally committed to breaking down barriers and to creating opportunities for our students," he told the board. "... We have a moral obligation to expand the opportunities for every child."
Glass said he began working on anti-racist policies at Jeffco, such as implementing new trainings on implicit bias and systemic racism in the 2020-21 school year and evaluating current procedures that have led to inequitable outcomes.
"I think we've got to look long-range around what's an action plan? What are the steps that we'll put in place that will really make an impact on this over the long-term?" he said.
"This next couple of months as we enter this transition phase, I'll be reaching out and talking with a number of Kentuckians so that I understand the context in the state really well when I have my feet on the ground on the first day," he said.
Glass also said he hoped to initiative dialogue around the future of education of Kentucky's students.
Whether that future includes broader school choice options for families remains to be seen.
The General Assembly legalized charter schools in 2017, but lawmakers have failed to enact a permanent funding mechanism for them. A recent U.S. Supreme Court opinion that invalidated state constitutional bans against distributing public funds to parochial schools has given a boost to supporters of scholarship tax credits in Kentucky.
Glass said if Kentucky moves in that direction, policymakers need to "make a serious stand" around holding charter and private schools accountable in accepting every child rather than conducting selective admissions.
"We've got to be strong on if you take those public dollars, you really are serving every child so we don't create a defacto segregation issue for the state," he said.
While he has worked to support charter schools in his district, Glass doesn't believe school choice necessarily "leads to a systemic improvement in a state education system."
"I think we have to be cautious," he said. "Even though we can do things like this, we should be asking, 'Should we do that?'"
Beshear praised the selection after the board's announcement Friday, saying the new KDE leader was picked "not based on politics, but on his vision for improving our public schools."
"We welcome Dr. Jason Glass, our state’s new commissioner of education, back to Kentucky," the governor said in a statement. "Dr. Glass has deep roots in Kentucky education, and his years of public education experience in classrooms, as superintendent and state director of education will help ensure our children come first. Congratulations – now it’s time to get to work."
Kentucky Education Association President Eddie Campbell said Glass's experience in metropolitan and rural districts "makes him well suited to meet the needs of Kentucky's public school systems."
"Like the state associations in Iowa and Colorado have in the past, we look forward to working with Commissioner Glass and the entire board to create the highest quality public education system in the nation," Campbell said in a statement.
Brigitte Blom Ramsey, president of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, also praised the new commissioner's work experience and urged him to hire "a diverse leadership team" at KDE.
"Amid both the COVID-19 pandemic and a national awakening on systemic racism, we need a strong leader who can strengthen our education outcomes in this critical time in our history, and Dr. Glass appears to have all the right qualifications for this weighty task," she said in a statement.
"Kentucky’s schools have simply failed to deliver for students of color, and it is imperative that Dr. Glass owns this truth and uses all available tools to close belief gaps, opportunity gaps, academic achievement gaps, and excellence gaps."
Kevin Brown, general counsel for JCPS, has served as interim commissioner since Dec. 18.
The state board hired Greenwood/Asher & Associates to lead the search for a new education chief for nearly $150,000.
Greenwood/Asher made 211 contacts, received 49 nominations and reviewed 46 applications before narrowing the field to 11 candidates in June, according to a news release from KDE last week.
The field was later winnowed to four, with the final three accepting a second round of interviews, the release says.
Other finalists for the job were Julian Vasquez Heilig, dean of the University of Kentucky's College of Education, and Felicia Cumings Smith, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning at Jefferson County Public Schools.
Copyright 2020 WDRB Media. All rights reserved.
