‘She Loves What She Does’

Profile: NOREEN BUSH

A positive attitude is Noreen Bush’s trademark. Through a series of professional and personal crises over the past year — a global pandemic, a deadly derecho and her own cancer diagnosis — the superintendent in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has maintained her sunny disposition. It’s contributed to a hard-charging focus on student growth and her own recovery.

“I actually think hope has become a tremendous strategy because if you think about kids and when they get really passionate about something … they start seeing some results from that passion,” says Bush, the 2021 superintendent recipient of AASA’s Women in School Leadership Award.

She is starting her third year as superintendent in Cedar Rapids and fifth in the district, but she’s no stranger to the community. It’s where she graduated high school and overlapped in school with her predecessor in the top district role.

“She loves what she does, and you can tell that every time she’s before folks. She truly loves this district,” says Nancy Humbles, the school board president, who describes Bush as “uplifting” and “full of energy.”

Those qualities were put to the test in April 2020 when Bush was diagnosed with stage 4 cervical cancer. Through rounds of chemotherapy and immunotherapy, she worked vigorously to serve the 16,300-student district — even when situated in a chemo chair. That was one favor the pandemic delivered: the chance to work from home with the support of her family.

“The hope I talked about earlier is maybe the essence of what’s kind of my soul,” she says. “Cancer doesn’t define me at all, and it’s something I have to deal with.”

Bush was hesitant to share the story of her personal health battle at first “because I want the spotlight to be on our children and what they need, not what I need.”

During her recovery last August, a derecho bringing wind speeds of 140 mph damaged all 31 of Cedar Rapids’ schools, leading to loss of infrastructure and destroying many families’ homes. School reopenings were delayed as the school district concentrated on attending to basic needs, particularly getting meals to students’ families.

Bush often rallies through a call and response, acknowledging the district’s motto, “Every learner, future ready.” The children and adults, she says, need to believe they all can achieve.

“None of that changes because of a crisis,” Bush says. “We had to get creative on how to make it continue to happen.” By September 2020, the district was able to open all elementary schools and three of six middle schools for in-person learning.

What’s clear to everyone who works with Bush is her hopeful leadership and passion for doing what’s right for the students in Cedar Rapids.

“It doesn’t take you long to understand that you’re working with someone really incredible when you work with Noreen, and I’ve been really lucky to work with her in three capacities, and she’s been equally dynamite in all those three endeavors,” says John Speer, chief administrator of the Grant Wood Area Education Agency in Cedar Rapids.

In her board role, Humbles says she and Bush regularly bounce questions and ideas off each other.

“We can agree to disagree too, but we are respectful of each other, and that is what I appreciate about Noreen too,” she adds.

Bush says it’s important to bring voices to the table. She wants to be a model for making a difference: “You don’t have to wait for a position to lead, you don’t have to wait for a title,” she says. “Do it now. Your voice matters now.”