Down on the Farm and Up in the School

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GROWING UP on a small family farm in central Illinois, Jeff Butts got an early start in the family business. As a fourth-generation standardbred horse trainer, Butts figures he started working as soon as he could walk. But instead of seeking glory in competition, Butts found he was more inclined to help earlier in the training.

“My favorite part of working with horses was taking our yearlings and teaching them how to behave, how to lead, how to wear a harness, getting them hooked up to a sulky and getting them to the track,” Butts says. “It was actually teaching them all of those basic things they had to know.”

That early inclination toward teaching the young ones is partly what led Butts to a professional life in K-12 education. He serves as superintendent of Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township in Indianapolis, Ind. Earlier this year, he was honored as one of four finalists for the 2019 AASA Superintendent of the Year® award.

Public school work wasn’t an illogical choice. He’s part of a family of educators, including a father who, at age 75, still teaches, and an uncle who spent more than 20 years as a superintendent.

“I saw the excitement that my uncle experienced in his job each day and the awesome impact he was able to make on his district and community,” Butts says. “It was through that example and knowing the role of the superintendent was critical to the success of others that I knew I wanted to be a superintendent.”

Butts has been with the 16,900-student Wayne Township district for 13 years, the last eight as its superintendent. His time there has not been without its challenges, but he prefers to consider them opportunities instead.

After he became assistant superintendent in 2006, the graduation rate of the largest comprehensive high school in the district was 67 percent. Butts introduced more rigorous curriculum and support, which trickled down to lower grades. As a result, the school’s graduation rate increased by 27 percent in eight years and has stayed above 90 percent every year since.

When Indiana switched to tying job evaluation to teacher compensation, Butts introduced multiple performance measures to give teachers more authority and autonomy over the process.

“We can either bemoan and complain about the circumstances that are being put before us or we can look at them as challenges and opportunities that we can tackle to improve what we do,” Butts says.

That thoughtfulness and commitment to equality is what amazes Tom Edington, superintendent of Wawasee Community School Corporation and Butts’ successor as president of the Indiana Association of Public School Superintendents.

“He has a strong sense of fairness, whether it’s for his students or with state funding, looking at all 289 of our Indiana school districts. He is one who will keep ringing that bell for fairness in public schools,” Edington says.

Butts maintains an active presence in the community by attending extracurricular events, community meetings and church to keep tabs on what his district needs.

“There’s no other way for me to truly know what’s going on in our district, with our students and in our community if I’m not active in it,” Butts says. “Really, my goal is to help people understand that I’m just another guy. I may have this title and I may have an awesome responsibility to be a superintendent, but my mother still calls me Jeffrey, so I’m no different than they are.”