Introducing Superintendent Suzanne Cusick
Suzanne Cusick, Ph.D., was named as superintendent as of July 1, 2008, coming from the 20,000-student Hillsboro, Ore. School District where she served as Assistant Superintendent for School Improvement for eight years. In that position she was responsible curriculum, instruction, and assessment, for special education, information services, English as a Second Language/Migrant, Title programs, and 33 principals and staff members. There, she provided leadership for three key instructional initiatives--data-driven decision making, identifying essential standards, and effective teaching strategies in the district.
Prior to serving as assistant superintendent, she worked in Hillsboro as Executive Director of high school operations and formerly as principal of Glencoe High School.
Earlier in her career, she served as assistant principal at South Medford High School in Medford, Ore. and as strategic planning and director of music education in the Ashland, Ore.
She began her career as an elementary and middle school music teacher and served as a teacher both in California and Oregon.
Suzanne grew up in a small South Dakota farming town and received her bachelor's of arts and master's of fine arts degrees from the University of South Dakota and her doctorate from the University of Oregon. She and Tim, her husband of 43 years, have four grown children and three granddaughters. The Cusicks reside in Longview.
Suzanne's belief statements
- We have a moral obligation to ensure all children in Longview Public Schools achieve to their highest potential.
- It is the actions of adults that make the difference; no child is more responsible for his or her learning than the adults in schools and in the district office.
- It is impossible to make decisions that please everyone. Decisions should be based on good data rather than opinions and should be made through a participatory decision-making process whenever possible.
- Trust is improved over time by making fair, consistent decisions and by following through with commitments.
- Our success is not measured by the number of tasks completed, but by the quality and outcome of those tasks. Our outcomes are defined by the Gateway Skills:
- All students will have readiness skills in literacy and numeracy prior to entering kindergarten
- All students will be fluent readers by the end of second grade
- All students will be algebra ready by the end of eighth grade
- All students will graduate on time
- We must ensure that community is aware of the quality of our work. Community awareness must be systematic and on-going.
- We are creating the future today.
|
