'Product of poverty'
Berea Independent's pick for incoming superintendent credits education with moving him past childhood hardships
BEREA — The board of Berea Independent Schools has announced its pick to lead the district, a first-time superintendent who cites education as the lever of betterment in his life.
During the Board’s regularly scheduled April meeting, it was announced that Ryan Neaves, Ed.D, will become superintendent of the District in July. Of 22 candidates that were screened, five were eventually interviewed before Neaves was confirmed by the School Board in a 4 to 1 vote. Board member Tom McCay voted against Neaves.
After being introduced by Board Chair John “J” Morgan, Neaves told the audience he has a lot to learn before assuming charge of the District.
“The first step in this process is learning. I’ve got a lot to learn about you, about this community and all the stakeholders of what Berea is and what it represents,” he said.
Neaves also said he previously taught 8th grade English in Erlanger, Kentucky before returning to Grant County where he grew up, first becoming the assistant principal at the Williamstown Independent School District there before being promoted to sole principal of the entire K-12 school.
“It’s very similar in size and structure of Berea,” he said of his former district.
What drew Neaves to this district, he said, was the public response to the news that three dozen teachers would be cut as a result of a 1.3 million dollar budget shortfall.
“Seeing a packed auditorium, seeing people that were advocating for public record and transparency of board meetings — some of the first exposure I had of Berea was from Ashley’s [Hammond, a Community School parent] Facebook of some livestreams, and I saw a lot of positive things,” Neaves said. “And the response thing is huge, because as a superintendent, you want to be able to engage with your community. You want to have people that are equally invested in the ambition you are trying to accomplish.”
Neaves also described himself as the “product of poverty” who leaned on higher education to better his station in life.
“Both of my parents only have an eighth grade education, so I grew up in pretty extreme poverty as a result of that,” Neaves told The Edge in an interview after the meeting.
“They divorced in my childhood,” he continued. “Dad moved to Chicago, Mom stayed in Grant County, and I grew up in a pretty dilapidated trailer, and education was my outlet, education was my solace. It was an escape from the cycle of poverty.”
Calling himself a life-long learner, Neaves said in the interview that he entered Northern Kentucky University at age 17 and completed his doctorate in education administration at the University of the Cumberlands when he was 27. His doctoral thesis equated the digital competencies of teachers with the subsequent level of their students’ achievements.
Other stops along Neaves’ path to superintendent, as listed on his LinkedIn page, include working as a social studies teacher at a middle school in Independence, Kentucky, and as a full-time operations analyst for DHL in Erlanger.
His first goal as superintendent, Neaves told The Edge, is to restore integrity to the District. “Restore the relationship between the teachers and the community. The sooner we can accomplish that trusting relationship, the sooner we progress can be made,” he said.
McCay told The Edge in an interview that he voted against Neaves because he could not abide Neaves’ request to live out of district for up to a year before committing to moving his family here from their current home in Northern Kentucky.
“With other superintendents, it’s normally been six months, but he wants a year. I couldn’t agree to that,” McCay said.
Neaves said he looks forward to living in the District but that his priority in the first six months of his tenure here would be his job and restoring broken relationships in the District, “Not trying to find housing.”
The father of three children who are in the 6th, 4th, and 2nd grades at a school in Northern Kentucky, Neaves said that he is reluctant to disrupt them at this time. Whether his children will eventually enroll in Community School will be up to them, he said.
“They are really in love with the school where they are, and so I’m not going to uproot them immediately,” he said. “I’m big on choice, whether for myself or for my kids, so ultimately, it’s going to be their decision.”
If his children nix Community School, Neaves said he and his wife will maintain a split household, with him living locally, while his family remains in Northern Kentucky, where he will commute on weekends.
Morgan told The Edge that he and his family also once maintained a similar split household arrangement for eight years before it became untenable. “I understand the pressures of kids versus career,” Morgan said. “I will never knock someone for choosing their kids. It’s the right thing to do.”