{"id":3751,"date":"2024-01-28T10:46:39","date_gmt":"2024-01-28T15:46:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/?p=3751"},"modified":"2024-01-28T10:48:34","modified_gmt":"2024-01-28T15:48:34","slug":"former-chief-academic-officer-appointed-as-acting-superintendent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/former-chief-academic-officer-appointed-as-acting-superintendent\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Chief Academic Officer Appointed as Acting Superintendent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Sanjana Jain, Staff Writer <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On December 14, 2023, Mr. William J. Barnes was appointed as HCPSS Acting Superintendent by the Howard County Board of Education during a public meeting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His appointment followed the retirement of HCPSS\u2019 previous Superintendent, Dr. Michael J. Martirano, who served in this position for nearly the past seven years. While Dr. Martirano announced his retirement on November 17, 2023, it officially went into effect on January 10, 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Mr. Barnes is currently just the Acting Superintendent, he is prioritizing visiting all 78 HCPSS schools as early as possible. He explained that since \u201cthe most important work in this, or any school system, occurs in schools,\u201d he would \u201cprefer to hear from students, staff, and school leaders as to how I might best lead them in the coming months.\u201d He explained how \u201ceach HCPSS school has its own vibe, and I experience a great deal of joy when I see that \u2018vibe\u2019 in action.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Barnes is a longtime HCPSS educator. In 2008, he served as the Coordinator of Secondary Mathematics, where he was largely responsible for \u201cproviding curriculum resources, designing and leading professional learning, supporting school-day, beyond school-day, and beyond-school-year learning opportunities,\u201d among other things. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, he \u201c[led] the district through the adoption of the Common Core State Standards,\u201d which is a nationwide initiative to improve the United States\u2019 mathematics curriculum. Due to his nature, Mr. Barnes \u201cwould visit all secondary schools to work with teachers and to provide feedback on lessons.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 2017, Mr. Barnes served as the Chief Academic Officer, where he was responsible for \u201c[overseeing] the departments of Special Education, Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment, and Program Innovation and Student Well-Being,\u201d as stated in an article by HCPSS. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While discussing the purpose of his visiting each school, Mr. Barnes highlighted that \u201cthe strengths and needs of each school are different.\u201d Usually, no two schools are the same. Supporting the individualized needs of a school community is essential for its students and staff to be able to flourish without having to accommodate to a \u201cone size fits all\u201d educational and social model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understandingly, his commitment is not unusual. \u201cI have always been a hands-on leader,\u201d he stated<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it is currently undecided if Mr. Barnes will officially be appointed as the new Superintendent, he remains passionate about supporting the HCPSS community. In terms of the students, he is determined to ensure they \u201cleave each day, year, and then graduate with their dream intact.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To further emphasize his dedication, he clarified that although Superintendents are the executive officers of a school system, he \u201c[considers] the 57,000+ students of HCPSS [his] bosses,\u201d while clearly stating: \u201cI work for you.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As he begins his tenure, he faces a daunting obstacle – budget cuts. In collaboration with the Board of Education, \u201cI will also be working to lead a very difficult budget season,\u201d he said. But, Mr. Barnes expressed his commitment to \u201calways leading with dignity, compassion, and respect as we make the tough decision related to balancing the budget.\u201d Until now, the school system has decided to eliminate at least 348 positions across the county. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On January 12, Mr. Barnes visited River Hill. As it happened to be the beginning of 3rd period, Mr. Motley ushered Mr. Barnes onto HawkTalk – River Hill\u2019s own morning announcements radio show – to give a brief speech regarding his appointment. While he said he does not remember his exact words, \u201cI do remember sharing that I am humbled to serve students in this new role,\u201d he recalled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

River Hill students easily picked up on Mr. Barnes\u2019 enthusiasm. \u201cI thought it was a good step forward for Howard County administration and what they\u2019re looking to do in terms of connecting with the members of each school,\u201d said senior Sapna Joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an example of understanding each school\u2019s needs, Mr. Barnes and Mr. Motley \u201cspent some time brainstorming how we could work together to make sure school leaders receive the professional learning that they want and that we all need.\u201d The school leaders he referred to are \u201cPrincipals and Assistant Principals primarily.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Barnes spent the rest of his time visiting classrooms and interacting with students. He stopped by Dr. Demaree\u2019s Differential Equations class and \u201ctook some questions too after introducing himself,\u201d senior Grace Li said. \u201cI remember Athena asked about if AP exams would interfere with graduation dates,\u201d she elaborated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past year, there have been several administrative changes made across HCPSS. Similarly to Mr. Barnes, Mr. Motley – River Hill\u2019s current principal – found himself in a new position after dedicating years at Atholton High School. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unsurprisingly, the two educators have worked together on prior occasions. \u201cWhen I first met him, he was Principal at Patuxent Valley Middle before moving on to Atholton High,\u201d Mr. Barnes said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless, Mr. Barnes is keen to nurture their relationship. \u201cIt was important for me to get a real sense of the celebrations, innovations, and challenges students and staff are experiencing at RHHS,\u201d Mr. Barnes explained. \u201cMr. Motley is also the President of the Howard County Association of Supervisors and Administrators (HCASA). So, I wanted to learn about how I can partner with that association to best serve its members,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to his history as a mathematics teacher, Mr. Barnes has a long-standing relationship with River Hill. Several years later, he still holds his opinion that \u201cRHHS is a school community made up of amazingly talented students and incredibly dedicated teachers.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While River Hill was not the first school Mr. Barnes was scheduled to visit, he ended up doing so due to the \u201cweather-related school delays,\u201d which \u201cinterrupted my scheduled visits on the first two days of my tenure,\u201d he explained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The official search for HCPSS\u2019 new Superintendent will be conducted later this year \u201cby a search firm that the Board of Education contracted,\u201d Mr. Barnes explained. Until then, he will remain Acting Superintendent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sanjana Jain, Staff Writer  On December 14, 2023, Mr. William J. Barnes was appointed as HCPSS Acting Superintendent by the Howard County Board of Education during a public meeting.  His appointment followed the retirement of HCPSS\u2019 previous Superintendent, Dr. Michael J. Martirano, who served in this position for nearly the past seven years. While…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":3757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[877,876,325,286,292,281,269,211,285,875],"class_list":["post-3751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-academic-officer","tag-bill-barnes","tag-howard-county","tag-journalism","tag-new","tag-news","tag-rhhs","tag-river-hill","tag-river-hill-high-school","tag-superintendent"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/2024-01-03-Barnes-William-_56A0465-500x2601-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3751"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3755,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3751\/revisions\/3755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}