Superintendent of Schools Dr. Mark Bedell today had the honor of speaking to principals about the school system’s work to cultivate relationships that will help move every student forward as part of Harvard Graduate School of Education’s summer leadership institute.
Today’s presentation centered on Dr. Bedell’s efforts to build trust among employees, families, students, and community members through an intentional focus on equity, transparency, open dialogue, and collaboration. About 170 principals from the United States and abroad were invited to take part.
“This is a great honor to be able to speak at Harvard to a national audience but to me, it is not about Mark Bedell,” Dr. Bedell said. “This is about where we are going as a school district and the ways we are trying to help everyone belong, grow, and succeed. We can’t achieve the success we want without honest conversations about where we are, where we want to go, and how we want to get there.”
As part of his presentation, Dr. Bedell discussed the school system’s work to implement mandates brought about by the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, the adoption of the first phase of a comprehensive redistricting plan that covered the northern half of Anne Arundel County, discussion of a controversial proposed flag policy, and the forging of productive relationships with groups often thought of as adversarial. He also spoke of the innovative alternative vehicle program put in place to help solve the school system’s bus driver crisis and the push to move starting teacher salaries from 19th out of 24 jurisdictions in the state in the 2022-2023 school year to fourth a year later. He credited the 16-stop Listening and Learning Tour in the 2022-2023 school year, which afforded community members the opportunity to openly discuss its assessment of the school district, as pivotal to building the trust needed to move forward.
“We were able to accomplish these things because we went to our communities during our Listening and Learning Tour and told them where we were and what we wanted to do,” Dr. Bedell said. “We were honest about our challenges, and we showed everyone – even those who didn’t have a positive image of our district – that they can have a voice in helping to shape the future. I think that’s the lesson in this part of our journey: that people don’t have to agree on everything in order to push forward together. This work is not about always being right and getting everything you want. It’s about doing the right things for students.”
Dr. Bedell is entering his third year as superintendent of Maryland’s fourth largest school system. He has spoken about the work in AACPS to groups of educators across the country, including a national audience of superintendents and school administrators at AASA a year ago. In 2023, he was named the recipient of the Joseph E. Hill Superintendent of the Year Award by the National Alliance of Black School Educators.