When he was in the fifth grade, he dreamed of becoming a veterinarian. Come 9th grade, he aspired to be an attorney. But like many others who have chosen to pursue a career in K12, public education took a hold of him by his senior year of high school. Now, he’s in his 15th year as a superintendent, pouring back into the profession he fell in love with.
Dr. Mark Penny, superintendent of Lincoln County R-III in Troy, Missouri, describes himself as a “champion of the underdog.” At a time when education is at its seemingly most fragile point, largely due to the pandemic, his goal is to ensure every child, no matter the circumstance, meets their academic potential.
“All means all,” he says. “All students can reach their fullest potential, and that’s not a cliché. My oldest child is special needs. She got to go to school until she was 21. Public education was the best thing that ever happened to her. It really helped her to be successful in what she’s doing today.”
“I have 7,000 students, and I look at each of them as my own child. If it’s good enough for my own child, it’s good enough for all of our children.”
As schools across the country continue to tread onward in what’s been labeled the first year of “normalcy” since the pandemic, Penny says he’s proud of the work they’ve done over the past few years to allow them to come out on top.
“It has been unbelievably successful,” he says regarding his district’s first year back since the pandemic. “I feel like some distractions have been eliminated to allow us to do what we do best, and that’s educate children.”
The distractions, he explains, related to the necessary mandates given by the CDC during the height of the pandemic. Things like masking, contact tracing, and tracking the number of positive cases and exposures made it difficult for teachers and administrators to do what they were hired to do.
“We became public health officials overnight,” he says. “It was really tough, but we wanted to protect all of our people. Our students, our staff, everybody.”
“But as a result of that, last year we grew 417 kids at the beginning of the school year,” he adds. “Some of that, I think, is COVID-related maybe because of how other districts handled the pandemic.”
And the credit, he says, must be given to his incredible staff.
“I think our staff, our teachers, our administrators, our support staff, bus drivers, custodians, we all stuck through the tough times,” he says with certainty. “The new ‘normal’ feels right. The last two years were a challenge, but I think we came out stronger. I think COVID taught us resilience. It also shared with us that a team is there for a reason, and you can rely on each other and share ideas.”
For the remainder of 2023, Penny outlines his priorities for his district. Unsurprisingly, they’re all student-focused. His goal is to become a top 10 school district in the state of Missouri.
“We’re working very hard with our teachers around literacy and numeracy with our mathematics program,” he says. “All means all. That is a priority for us. We have almost 1,100 students with an individualized education plan. We’re seeing a growing number of our students with special needs, and so we embrace that. We are working very hard to meet all of their needs as a district.”
In addition to providing equitable education for all, he’s paying a great deal of attention to career and technical education, an area that has gained significant traction over the past several years.
“We want to be recognized as a leader in that field,” he says. “We’ve partnered with Ranken Technical College out of St. Louis, Missouri. I believe that every child should graduate from high school with college-like skills, but I don’t believe every child should necessarily go to college. Students can excel in the trades, students can excel in the military, in the workforce, those types of things.”
Like many districts around the country, Lincoln Country R-III is working to combat the persistent teacher shortage through “grow your own” initiatives and pouring into young people by showing them just how special a career in education is.
“I think we’ve got to look within first, recruit our young people second, and then work with universities in higher education on how we can increase that exposure of the career that I’ve been able to enjoy and share that with young people.”
For example, the district has partnered with Missouri State University in what’s called the “Pathway for Paras” program. They’re taking their paraprofessionals who aren’t quite certified and helping them become certified special education teachers.
“We’re doing coursework with them on Wednesday afternoons and early release professional development and helping them obtain college credits to become certified special education teachers.”
But in order to expand the teacher pipeline as a whole, Penny argues, we have to treat it as a long-term issue and implement creative solutions aimed at inspiring young ones. For Penny, he believes in giving students real-world experience.
“We hire our juniors and seniors to be instructional teaching assistants for summer school,” he says. “We had 11 of those last year. We’re looking to double that this year. It basically gives high school kids an immersion experience to work with our teachers who serve as mentors and role models for our young people. My daughter was one of those 11, and it confirmed her belief that she wants to serve elementary education when she gets out of college.”
However, there are still some barriers that must be taken care of at the state level, he mentions, in order to ensure teachers and staff are satisfied and happy where they’re at.
“Now, pay is an issue, right? We have one of the lowest beginning teacher pay in the U.S., I think we’re 49th,” he says. “So we’ve got to flip that narrative and work together with our lawmakers to glorify the profession.”
But as for those who currently serve the district, they’re there for the right reasons, and he couldn’t be more thankful. If you were to ask Penny what makes his district so special, he would tell you with confidence, the people.
“It starts at the top,” he says. “Our board of education, they are elected by the people. They are volunteers. It’s an unpaid position. And they are dedicated to our students, our teachers, our administrators, and our entire team. I’ve been very fortunate for the last 12 years to work with a dedicated board of education.”
“But where the rubber meets the road is the classroom teacher,” he adds. “There is no one more important in a school district than the classroom teacher because they are the catalyst for student learning. When I hire new teachers I tell them, ‘We are not going to pay you to teach. We are paying you to cause students to learn.’ The days of ‘I taught it and they just didn’t learn it’ are long gone. We are about causing students to learn.”
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