Wasatch Native Champions His Hometown

Profile: PAUL A. SWEAT

When Paul Sweat interviewed for the position of Wasatch County superintendent six years ago, he brought along a gold trophy with two curved handles and plopped it down in front of the five school board members doing the hiring.

That audacious entrance carried a thoughtful purpose. “I told them, ‘If you choose me, this trophy is a symbol of Wasatch being the very best of the best. I’m not talking about athletics anymore. I’m talking about academics … This trophy symbolizes us being the very best we can be. We can be No. 1,’” he recalls, now six years after the board picked him to run what at the time was a district serving 6,605 students.

The trophy is a relic from Sweat’s past in the district, recognition from the Deseret News as the school district in the Salt Lake City region with the year’s best-performing athletics.

Sweat’s eyes light up when he talks about this trophy, his time as a student in Wasatch and a member of the high school wrestling team, which won the state title his sophomore and junior years. A lifelong Wasatch resident, he has worked over 33 years as a math teacher, athletic director and principal in various Wasatch schools.

The district’s impressive athletics record was not usually matched by its academic standing, so Sweat’s competitive spirit was put into play. Sweat has seen his district’s literacy, math and science scores rise by almost 30 percentage points in some cases since his superintendency began.

Tom Hansen, a school board member during most of Sweat’s superintendency, believes Sweat’s lifelong experiences in Wasatch inform his belief system and leadership style.

“He appreciates the past,” Hansen says. “But he also understands the importance of staying ahead of the trends and being relevant in what matters most to students and educators.”

Seven years ago, the district ranked academically in the middle of Utah’s 41 public school districts. Under Sweat’s leadership, the district last year ranked 1st for language arts, 3rd in math and 7th in science last year.

“I said, ‘We’ve got to learn the lessons from the culture of the wrestling team. When I step on the mat, I expect to win. We need to pull that into biology. And take that culture and winning attitude … in math and chemistry and 3rd-grade reading,’” Sweat says.

The district’s achievement, he says, results from teamwork. Everything in Wasatch is done through professional learning communities — the principals have a group, district administrators have a group and each school is considered a PLC. Teachers are assigned to teams through which they can work together.

Sweat also invests in ongoing professional development and training for staff, plus out-of-town retreats for administrative staff in the summer during which they revisit their goals and reestablish aspirations for the year ahead. In 2024, the team visited Washington, D.C., meeting with elected officials from Utah. Earlier trips studied high-performing schools and districts.

“It’s something that’s been really powerful for us,” Sweat says. “We revisit how we did and how we want to do next year.”

Owing to its 28 percent enrollment growth since he took office, Wasatch is applying that work now to the building of a new high school opening in fall 2026 that will share space with a technical college offering certificates in more than 30 trades.

Sweat embraces the heavy lifting behind the work of the schools where he, his father and grandfather competed in school sports and where his own children attended school.

“I don’t have any secrets,” he says. “I’m so proud of what we’re doing, and I think our district is awesome.”

Jacqueline Hyman is assistant editor of School Administrator magazine.