Vicksburg Warren School District Superintendent Chad Shealy was among 19 superintendents who participated in the Mississippi Department of Education’s first Superintendents’ Academy. The academy is an advanced leadership-training program to assist district leaders in their efforts to improve student outcomes.
Shealy said he was lucky to be selected and the experience was incredible.
“One of the things we were able to do was to visit New York, and we were able to visit multiple high schools and elementary schools there,” he said. “The thing that was awesome to see was one of the visits was a middle school in Harlem, and their facilities and their capacity to learn as far as resources — they didn’t have textbooks — there were a lot of the same familiar things that we hear about our schools.”
“The biggest difference I saw when I got in there is that New York has a different economic and priority base on education than we do here in the South. We’re more worried about who wins on Friday nights sometimes than we are on how many Ph.Ds. we’re cranking out,” Shealy said
Shealy said seeing things done differently was eye-opening for him.
“It was both a really important statement for me to hear and to see that with the right funding and the right appropriation from our state legislature and the right focus from our community on education, you can get results from some of the poorest children out there and that was incredible to see,” he said.
A little over a year ago Shealy and his family felt a calling to be a part of Vicksburg as he became the superintendent of the school district. As he likes to say “I’m all in.” Besides moving his family here, his wife decided to open a shop downtown as part of their continued support and commitment to the Vicksburg community.
As Shealy advances his career, he advances our community with him. Since his selection as head of the school district he has applied his theories on education to the way the district operates.
Change happens slowly, but Shealy seems to be on the fast track to success. We hope he stays a long time and drags our community’s education standards up with him.