‘Attracting attention in a good way.’ Superintendent finalist champions social justice
Editor’s Note: The Herald-Leader has been profiling all 5 candidates in the running to become the next Fayette County Public Schools superintendent. This is the final profile in that series.
With a year left on Superintendent Melvin Brown’s contract, the Reynoldsburg, Ohio, City Schools board decided to negotiate a new agreement early in case another district tried to lure him away.
“He’s been attracting attention in a good way and there’s bound to be some interest from other (districts),” school board member Neil Whitman told the Columbus Dispatch in 2019.
This week, Brown will visit Lexington as one of five finalists for Superintendent of Fayette County Public Schools.
In a Fayette virtual forum, he explained that his work as a social justice champion was driven in part by his early life in Virginia with a single mother who gave birth to him at 17.
“We struggled. We lived in a trailer with no running water.... she told me at a very early age that my route to break that cycle of poverty was through education,” Brown said.
Not long after taking the job in Reynoldsburg, a Columbus metropolitan district of about 7,300 students in 2017, Brown drew media attention by posting a statement on his district’s website in which he spoke out against racial violence in Charlottesville, Va.
“We stand in solidarity with the citizens of Charlottesville, Virginia as they continue to deal with the aftermath of the abhorrent events of the weekend,” Brown wrote. “While this country was founded on the ideals of free speech and assembly, we should express ourselves respectfully and without hate. We must not tolerate racism, threats, intimidation, or violence of any sort and reject those who purvey such beliefs.”
In the summer of 2020, Brown, in another strongly worded message to families, lamented the deaths of George Floyd in Minnesota and Breonna Taylor in Kentucky and called for unity.
“I am deeply troubled by what has transpired in America and, as a Black man, I live each day in fear of how this country feels about me, my Black son, and my Black daughters,” Brown wrote. “I have so many doubts whether the system is designed to protect my family and me. I wonder why this country that I love does not love me back. I have to constantly remind myself of my worth and that of people who look like me. That saddens me greatly.”
He said as a superintendent, he felt a responsibility to speak out and the urge to take action.
“I feel the responsibility to provide perspective for others and to explain the impact of these times to provide some solace for those who are struggling emotionally,” Brown wrote. “ However, to achieve real and lasting progress, we have to do so together. We are more similar than we are different.”
Brown said in his Fayette County virtual interview that he thinks it would be a mistake to remove law enforcement from schools completely because students need relationships with officers to build a sense of community.
Brown said that after the pandemic, “We have a chance to revolutionize education and do it in a way that is far more equitable and far more inclusive than its ever been before.”
He said making sure that every child has internet access in their home is part of that. Brown said wisely spending millions of federal COVID dollars given to schools will be crucial to moving students forward.
Brown said if the district does not focus on the social and emotional health of students with counselors and social workers as they come back to school in the fall, “We’ll be making an incredible mistake.”
He said there are so many issues aside from COVID that kids have had to confront by themselves and they will need to talk about them at school, such as social justice issues or the November election.
On another front, Brown said gifted students should be challenged and the district should be purposeful in identifying them and providing them services at their home schools. He said parents should be key players in decision-making for special needs students.
Brown said he has a wide breadth of experience that qualifies him to be superintendent of Fayette County Public Schools, starting as a high school English teacher and working in every sector of schools and multiple Central Office positions in several districts. He said he also worked as a regional vice president for a charter school management company.
He was previously associate superintendent at Prince William County Public Schools in Virginia, a district of 89,000 students and a county population of 400,000.
Brown said he and his wife have three adult children. He said he enjoys golfing and running and is a “huge sports fan.”
While at Reynoldsburg, Brown has addressed district inequities in high school programming, including Advanced Placement and College Credit Courses enrollment. He said he is leading initiatives that have transformed a district that was on strike two years prior to his arrival and had restored a relationship with the district’s teacher union. Brown said he has lobbied against state legislation that erodes public education.
In his district, he began the process for a bond initiative to construct new buildings, focused on a plan for improving teaching and learning, and increasing equity, expanded the communications strategy to greater engage the public, and exercised equitable fiscal management, according to his resume.
Brown has been featured on the education website Digital Promise.org for creating summer and fall programs designed to foster student/adult relationships. Digital Promise also reported that Brown’s district leaders are working with Ohio State University to provide cultural relevance and accuracy for the Social Studies curriculum and the district has a state grant to diversify the teaching staff.
In Fayette County, Brown said schools should not be competing against each other for resources. He said resource allocations at schools in less affluent parts of town have to be fair.
“Those barriers have to be torn down,” he said.
This story was originally published May 30, 2021 at 2:15 PM.