Education
BY BRITTANY ANDERSON & GRACE DICKENS
In the last year, four Austin metro school districts—Austin, Georgetown, Hutto and Pflugerville ISDs—hired new superintendents, a process that can be costly and time- consuming but necessary to the success of a district, according to school officials. PfISD’s search began in December 2023, following the resignation of Doug Killian, who served the district for six years. The PfISD board of trustees partnered with firm Thomas & Horton to conduct the search. Three focus groups were held in February to gauge the community’s thoughts throughout the process. The PfISD board of trustees hired Quintin Shepherd from Victoria ISD in April, and Shepherd is putting his vision for the district in motion with a listening and learning tour. PfISD leader outlines future
Zooming in
Shepherd has nearly two decades of super- intendent experience, most recently serving as superintendent in Victoria ISD for six years. He also worked as an elementary and high school principal, and as a pre-K-12 music teacher in both rural and urban communities. “Each of those experiences have taught me something,” Shepherd said. “I’ve learned some- thing [and] drawn something out from each of those communities ... in each of those school districts, and I see bits and pieces of everything in Pflugerville.” The cornerstone of Shepherd’s new role is his 100-day entry plan, Discovering Pflugerville, to listen and learn from community members, assess current systems and programs in place, and build a “community-centric culture.”
The plan Shepherd’s 100-day entry plan includes: An online thought exchange to
crowdsource the district’s strengths and challenges Visiting with faculty and staff at each campus
Hosting student focus groups
Holding town hall meetings with community members
Establishing the board of trustees as a cohesive leadership team
Looking ahead
Shepherd’s next steps September 2024: Community members will continue to participate in online thought exchange. October 2024: Listening and learning tour will culminate, and the strategic plan will begin to be built out.
Hiring Pflugerville ISD’s new superintendent
Part of Shepherd’s ongoing 100-day entry plan is an online thought exchange. Over 4,000 partici- pants had shared 2,300 thoughts on the exchange as of Aug. 19. Because participants can react to each other’s thoughts, the exchange has had over 61,000 points of interaction. Shepherd said the entry plan will wrap up this fall, which is when a community group will be formed to reflect on the exchange, put the results into groups of “findings” with a series of directions and then send the results to administrative teams who will begin to build out the strategic plan.
37
applicants
6
candidates interviewed
4 spent on the search $31.7K
community input opportunities
February 2025
Basic draft of strategic plan will be shared.
March 2025
SOURCE: PFLUGERVILLE ISD/COMMUNITY IMPACT
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