Starting Off on Good Footing

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When Hollis Milton arrived at Louisiana’s West Feliciana Parish Schools in June 2010, he had big shoes to fill. The district’s longtime, beloved superintendent had passed away unexpectedly, and the community was seeking someone to move the rural 2,200-student system forward.

This was Milton’s first superintendency, and the district’s village concept spoke to him. “It’s a community that believes that if we all band together, if everyone is helping each other, we can accomplish anything,” he says.

Milton was eager to relocate his family of four to the small parish located 30 miles northwest of Baton Rouge, where he had been serving for four years as a middle school principal.

West Feliciana’s school board president, Kevin Beauchamp, acknowledges Milton faced considerable pressure coming into the district when he did. But, adds Beauchamp, “he outperformed our expectations by leaps and bounds. Hiring him was the best decision I’ve made in my 16 years as a board member.”

Now ranked as the state’s highest-performing local system on the basis of standardized test scores, graduation cohort rates and industry-based certificates, West Feliciana has maintained the A grade it first received from the state in 2011. Milton credits the move up from a B to the district’s universal prekindergarten program, which he believes sets the bar high early on.

“If we can start off on good footing with parents, we can help students emotionally, socially and academically,” he explains. “We see dividends all the way through high school.” The district’s graduation rate has increased by 13 percent since Milton’s arrival.

In 2016, Milton and his team established the West Feliciana Leadership Academy, an aspiring superintendents academy open to all 200 district educators. “Even if you’re not going to be an administrator, a teacher is still a leader who can help improve our school district,” he says.

The academy offers job shadowing opportunities, learning walks through the district’s four schools and a group book study of Stephen Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

As president of the Louisiana Association of School Superintendents, Milton is eager to build leadership capacity statewide. He proudly notes that three academy products already have become superintendents.

Leadership skill development extends to the students in West Feliciana as well, with schoolwide programs such as “The Leader in Me,” an initiative to teach students how to de-fine a vision, be proactive and set and monitor goals.

“It makes our students more well-rounded in all parts of life,” Milton says.

Milton applied his own leadership skills to address a serious fiscal challenge four years ago, which required the closing of an elementary school and a reduction in staffing. He considers these the most difficult decisions he’s had to make, yet he credits a supportive board, strategic alignment to the core mission and consensus building throughout the small community for the turnaround that has led the district to its best financial shape in 10 years.

“We couldn’t control state cuts or a downturn in the local economy, but we could control how we strategically aligned our resources,” Milton says.

As a veteran board member, Beauchamp said he credits the district’s excellent standing to the superintendent’s vision. “Like everything, education is ever-changing. Hollis is always thinking ahead about how to keep improving. He never rests on his laurels,” he says.