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With the St. Vrain Valley schools鈥� rapidly increasing needs鈥攖he Longmont, Colo., district has grown by 700 to 800 students a year for the past several years, with rising poverty districtwide鈥攐ne might expect Superintendent Don Haddad to approach his near-constant meetings with business and community groups with hat in hand.
Yet the support Mr. Haddad looks for鈥攁nd successfully leverages鈥攊s rarely financial. Instead, he persuades such outside partners to share training, expertise, and even political acumen with his teachers, staff members, and students.

鈥淲hat I鈥檝e seen over the last 30 years is educators and the business community [leaders] don鈥檛 really communicate. Sometimes schools go out with their hands out [for grants], but they don鈥檛 really have a plan,鈥� Mr. Haddad said. 鈥淲e had a pretty extensive plan, and thought that where business could really help us was with their expertise.鈥�

Engineering a Vision

Mr. Haddad leads the 32,000-student district 35 miles north of Denver by ensuring that everyone understands a problem and by empowering them all to generate and try out solutions.

If that sounds like an engineering approach to the superintendency, it鈥檚 not far off: Mr. Haddad has helped usher in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics initiatives throughout the district.

In 2010, he held a summit for educators, business leaders, and elected officials to discuss the effects of poverty on student learning and to plan how to ameliorate the challenges faced by the roughly 30 percent of the district鈥檚 students who qualify for free and reduced-price meals.

Those discussions led, among other things, to a partnership with International Business Machines Corp., which has offices in Longmont. IBM began providing online mentoring to district teachers. The company鈥檚 engineers and St. Vrain teachers developed and implemented a science-related summer academy and introduced a STEM curriculum and career tracks at Skyline High School, which has the most concentrated poverty of all secondary schools in St. Vrain. The teachers and IBM engineers launched an 鈥渋nnovation center鈥� in which student inventors can develop and learn to manufacture and market their own creations, with advice from engineers and business people.

In 2013, the partnership also opened the 鈥攖he first science, technology, engineering, and mathematics preschool in Colorado. Engineers from IBM and other firms helped devise age-appropriate experiments and activities to introduce STEM concepts to young children, and employees from the firms help demonstrate them in the preschool鈥檚 classrooms.

鈥楻ight Balance鈥�

鈥淲e just inundate our community with everything we are doing,鈥� Mr. Haddad said. 鈥淵ou have to be visible 24/7; they have to know you so they can trust you.鈥�

Trust is a big issue for Mr. Haddad, 53, who started as a principal in the district nearly 15 years ago, when St. Vrain was $14 million in debt and roiled by controversy over financial mismanagement. One of his first achievements when he became superintendent in 2009 was leading the charge to pass the first bond override in the district鈥檚 history, to generate additional taxes.

鈥淵ou see him not just at school events but community events, so the businesses understand why to invest in our schools,鈥� said Sarah M. Elahi, the president of , a parent- and community-advocacy group. 鈥淭hat is a really key thing when you are in survival mode.鈥�

Mr. Haddad reorganized the district, which previously arranged professional development and curricular discussions within elementary, middle, and high schools.

Now, school principals and teachers within a feeder system plan together to ensure the curriculum is aligned and 鈥渟tudents are learning in the same way as they progress from elementary to middle to high school,鈥� said Robert J. Smith, St. Vrain鈥檚 school board president.

鈥淲ith roughly 50 different schools, you want independent, dynamic, creative leaders in those buildings on the one hand, and on the other, you want them to be in alignment,鈥� Mr. Smith said. 鈥淲hen [Mr. Haddad] came in, St. Vrain was a district of schools, not a school district, and now we are a school district; he has the right balance of district leadership and support and autonomy at the local schools.鈥�

Mr. Haddad does walk-throughs of every school at least 10 times a year, meets with each school鈥檚 staff twice a year, and meets teacher-leaders from each school once a month.

He also overhauled the district鈥檚 budget process to ensure expenses lined up with the goals he was pitching to the staff and community. 鈥淵ou have to internally get everybody on the same page and make a commitment to be true to that mission,鈥� Mr. Haddad said. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 say your mission is this and then fund all these other things.鈥�

And while the district under Mr. Haddad didn鈥檛 initially seek outside money, new funding for its initiatives has come. The district won nearly $16.6 million in , as well as $3.6 million in one of the 鈥攂oth supporting parts of the STEM initiatives.

鈥淲e were already deep into the STEM initiative and the technology initiative鈥� when the district decided to apply for Race to the Top, Mr. Haddad said. 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛, 鈥楲et鈥檚 get this money and then figure out what to do with it.鈥� We do not want money unless it ties directly to our mission and our vision.鈥�

Between the school reorganization and the influx of corporate input, the superintendent enacted a lot of change in a few years鈥攅nough to easily cause a backlash.

That鈥檚 why Mr. Haddad said he launched 91直播 St. Vrain, a six-month boot camp for anyone who wants to understand the district, from parents to business leaders and local lawmakers. Representatives from different parts of the community, including seniors and taxpayers without children in the system, also are recruited.

Cadre of Leaders

One Friday a month for eight months, the group meets for a 2 陆 -hour session to study and discuss different aspects of the district, including school structure, demographics, and history; budget development; curriculum and assessments design; school safety; building operations and maintenance; and upcoming education-related federal and state laws.

Ms. Elahi, who was in one of the first cohorts to go through the leadership academy, said it changed her view of the district.

鈥淚t鈥檚 really enlightening because it seems so simple before you go through this course and you find out how many levels [administrators] have to go through when they make decisions,鈥� Ms. Elahi said.

The grassroots organization 91直播 St. Vrain has evolved from those early classes, she said, and now regularly helps get the community involved in district projects and advocates in the state capital.

鈥淗e totally encourages parent engagement,鈥� she said of Mr. Haddad. 鈥淥ther districts can鈥檛 seem to get on the same page. You wouldn鈥檛 be able to have any of the advocacy groups around the district if the leadership wasn鈥檛 on board with that.鈥�

For example, St. Vrain volunteered to be a pilot district for Colorado鈥檚 SB 191 law, which laid out a new teacher- and principal-evaluation system, 鈥渂ecause we wanted to help shape it,鈥� Mr. Smith said. 鈥淩ather than react to things, [Mr. Haddad] makes sure the district is involved鈥� in planning, Mr. Smith said.