NEWTON COUNTY – Following the retirement of former superintendent Samantha Fuhrey, the Newton County Board of Education appointed Benjamin Roundtree as interim superintendent of Newton County Schools on June 20, 2023.

Roundtree’s educational experience is vast, holding various positions such as an English teacher, school-level administrator, Title I School Improvement Specialist, Federal Programs Director, Director of Assessment and Accountability and Director of Elementary Schools. 

Despite assuming the role of interim superintendent, Roundtree will continue to maintain his most recent title of Chief Academic Officer for Newton County, which he has served for the past four years.

Roundtree obtained his undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of Georgia before going on to complete his master’s in education from Fort Valley State University and an educational specialist’s degree from Georgia College & State University. To further his knowledge in the field, Roundtree received an endorsement in gifted education and certification in education administration and supervision.

As the 2023-2024 school year is about to be in full swing, Roundtree sat down with The Covington News to provide insight on his approach within his new role.

What sparked your interest in education?

BR: I think in my heart, I always wanted to be a teacher and that’s really how far I wanted to go. I had no desire to go into any form of administration. I enjoy teaching. In my other life, I was also a professional actor, but I still wanted something a little more solid to land on.

I never worked a day after I graduated in the field of journalism. Because I never worked in education and it was still in my heart, I started working in education for a federal program called Upward Bound and it was for students who would become first generation college students. We did all kinds of prep things for them for college. We accepted them in ninth grade and they went all the way through with us. From doing school visits because we have to do school visits as part of my work as an education specialist, I just enjoyed sitting in the classes and watching the teachers and watching the children. One of the counties that we served had an opening for a teacher. I was not certified. I had not taken any classes, any of that. But they hired me on a provisional certificate and I started teaching and the rest is history.

What has kept you driven in the education field to advance from being a teacher to fulfilling roles at the board level? 

BR: People saw things in me that I wasn’t necessarily paying attention to. I was happy in my classroom teaching gifted English all day long. But I worked with principals at every school where I’ve worked, who would give me leadership opportunities in buildings, whether it was to serve as the department chair or the chair of some event or some initiative in the building. Both my master’s and my specialist’s are not in administration. They both are in teaching. They’re both in middle grades education. I just had the opportunity from people recognizing things in me and using my innate leadership ability, to put me strategically in places. I’ve always been like a sponge who wants to learn and know everything. So, as I started with the opportunities in leadership, I just started reading and practicing and decided that I would go back to college and get an add on in administration.

How do you think your previous experience has prepared you for this role of interim superintendent?

BR: I always go back to my days as a school improvement specialist for the federal Title I program and then ultimately a Title I coordinator and then a federal programs director. In that, I’ve been able to still have my hand in education as it relates to teaching children because I was a school improvement specialist, so I would go into schools, assess what was going on, provide feedback, model if need be, but then the administrative part of being a federal programs director has taken me eons higher than it I probably would have gone, as it relates to understanding things pretty quickly, because there are a bunch of federal rules and regulations and laws that you have to follow. There is no wiggle room, so I learned the respect for rules and regulations particularly in the area of finance. I learned the various function and object codes, as it relates to budgeting. I learned a whole plethora of things and applied a whole plethora of skills and those skills have catapulted me to success in other roles beyond being a federal programs director.

What’s your overarching goal for this upcoming school year? 

BR: It is to keep the calm. I realize that I am only serving as interim superintendent. I did not apply for the permanent position. Change is hard, whether we realize it consciously or not, it is. Mrs. Fuhrey was the superintendent for 10 years. I can’t speak for everyone, but I know just for me personally, that has done something to my psyche. I’m not one to come in and make a whole bunch of changes or do this thing or do that thing. Now there are some things I’m going to have to address and I will, but generally speaking, it is to just keep everything as steady and as calm as I can as we prepare to greet and welcome our new leader. 

What are some more specific things that you’re looking to target and improve? Why? 

BR: I want to begin with safety first. We have a very tight safety plan across the district and it’s on par with the academic achievement, because we must keep the children and all of the other stakeholders who work in the district safe. That’s priority. We have a lot of different initiatives that we’re implementing. One of them, of course, is putting school officers in all of our elementary schools. That’s a big, big deal. 

I’ll spend the bulk of my time with academic achievement, because that is very important to me. We are preparing students to be well rounded for the future. We have a series of adjectives that we use to describe what we want a graduate from our school district to look like when he or she leaves us. We have to make sure that students are academically prepared. You still have to have some academic foundation no matter what you decide to do. To beef up our academic offerings and then our approach to teachers teaching and children learning is paramount to me. I have done a very, very, very deep dive into the data, because we now have trends and not all of those trends are positive trends. We do have a lot of positive trends, but in the data, I also see some trends that continue to present challenges for us. There are some areas where we should perform better. 

Part of that is the Milestones, and I know that’s very unpopular because so much hinges on that one test. But that is what the accountability paradigm is basically built on for the most part and so we have to change our thinking about the test. [It] has all kinds of ramifications for us as a district, for our students, for our teachers, for our administrators [and] even the district office staff. So I want us to change the narrative as it relates to success. No, it’s not the end all be all. But it is extremely important, because the state’s accountability paradigm with federal approval rests largely on that test. We had children finishing testing in 10, 15, 20 minutes. It bothers me because I know the children weren’t able in that length of time to show what they really knew. Our children are bright, bright children. All the greatness in them, I want that to come out, and it doesn’t come out if you’re not taking the test seriously.

And again, I want to say this over and over, I don’t agree about how much rides on it but I’m also a realist and I have to deal with the cards for which we have to play. So, I’m trying to just change the thought about what the test means alongside the other things that we look for as we look to the portrait of a graduate. I think there needs to be balance. It’s stressful on them and that’s why we tell the teachers, ‘Don’t focus so much on the test or tell them to, but do other things that will get them ready without them even knowing that you’re preparing for the test.’ We have a higher percentage of levels three and four than what we’ll be reporting in the next few days by our state department. Did our children show that? No, but I don’t think they didn’t show it because they didn’t know. It’s frustrating. It’s a long test. So no, it’s not the best option in the world for anybody. But again, it’s the set of cards that we have right now.

Your research interests include sociocultural factors in education, Title I, Part A policy and efficacy and the identification of underserved populations in gifted education. How do you plan on utilizing these interests as well as your student-centered approach within your tenure? 

BR: I think the operative word in all of those things, even though I only said this word with one of the things, efficacy. Efficacy measures, ‘Did we get the desired outcome for our implementation?’ We have a lot of different things that we offer to children. I’m amazed at all of the nuances that are part of that Ag and and and STEM and Robotics and all those things. I’m also amazed at our athletics and I’m amazed at our fine arts and the various programs that we put in the schools as it relates to a lot of our technology based programs purchased with their federal dollars. But are we getting the desired effect from those things? I am going to be looking. That’s one of the things that the boat will probably be rocked a little bit because I am, as I’m going through the data, looking at what have we done to mitigate what the data says. If we have programs in place to mitigate those things, have those programs been effective in raising the student’s performance bar? I want to marry all of those things and look at efficacy and the effect of the implementation of what we did.

What do you think sets the Newton County School System apart from surrounding counties?

BR: I say this all the time. Newton County sits in a very unique location. We are still continuing to tap into this, but it’s the diversity in the community. I think it’s just a rich community with diverse thoughts. A lot of times when people talk about diversity, we think they’re talking about ethnicities and things of that nature, but I’m talking about diversity in thought and diversity in approach. The passion that people have for the community here, the passion that the leaders have for the community here is second to none. The support that these same people have for the school system. I’ve worked in a lot of different places. You don’t get that everywhere. There’s a tug of war between your education system and other entities, but I don’t see that here. And I think that’s a great positive for this community.

Is there anything you would like to say to teachers, students, parents, anyone? How are you feeling? 

BR: I am very excited for this school year. Every year, it’s a new beginning. No matter what happened behaviorally, academically, [or] socially this past year, it’s all in the past. You have a brand new slate. I encourage everyone to just have a good year. That looks different to everyone, but seize the opportunities that we provide in the school district, because we provide a lot of dynamic opportunities for everyone, for all of our stakeholders, parents, teachers, students. I will leave with my quote that I always use from Aristotle. He said, ‘We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, it’s a habit.’ So, I just encourage people to make excellence your habit.