This story was originally published by Daily Montanan:
URL: https://dailymontanan.com
This story has not been altered or edited.
(C) Daily Montanan. Licensed for re-distribution through Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
------------



Montana superintendent of public instruction hires special education director – Daily Montanan

['Keila Szpaller', 'More From Author', '- March']

Date: 2022-03-26 00:00:00

After JP Williams nearly died from COVID-19 in spring 2021, he said he made a commitment to himself: “When I get out of this, I’m going to go to the wall for every child that I can help, no matter if they were going to my school or another school.”

Friday, the Montana Office of Public Instruction announced that Williams, principal of Butte Central High School since 2018 and former chair of OPI’s Special Education Advisory Committee, will step into a critical role as the state special education director.

Williams said he will take the helm after July 1 to complete his current obligations with Butte Central Catholic Schools, but he’s eager for the challenge at OPI. In a phone interview Friday, Williams said he is a self-described sports junky and former athlete and coach who wants Montana students and families to win.

“I literally am jumping through the roof because of this opportunity,” said Williams, whose resume lists a master’s in special education from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and a master’s in educational leadership from Nova Southeastern University in Miami.

In a statement from OPI, Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen praised Williams, also noted on his resume as a fall 2022 doctoral of educational leadership candidate at Montana State University—Bozeman. The news release from OPI said Williams has been in school leadership for 10 years and is in his 17th year as a professional educator.

“JP Williams has the range of knowledge and skills necessary to lead our Special Education Unit,” said Arntzen in a statement provided by OPI. “The leadership under JP and our team at the OPI will aid in the partnership of parents and teachers supporting all our students’ abilities.”

OPI noted Williams, who has worked in diversity and equity, will oversee the Special Education Unit with 19,156 students from 3 to 21 years old, or 13.2 percent of the total student population in Montana. Williams said he knows the core staff of the unit and looks forward to supporting them and other teachers, superintendents and administrators.

“Every teacher has been working so hard through COVID, and it’s important to me just as a school leader, an educational leader, that I use every talent, skill and ability I have to support teachers in Montana, to support superintendents in Montana, to support school administrators and special education directors and principals,” Williams said. “I want to bring that energy and that excitement back to education that COVID kind of took away from us all.”

Prior to returning home to Montana, Williams said he worked closely with the Nevada Indian Commission, and he looks forward to working with Montana’s Native American students as well. He noted his wife, Jamie Williams, is also an educator and was honored five times as teacher of the year.

“I’m particularly, particularly excited to begin working with Native American communities because, as I said before, when all students learn, we all benefit,” Williams said.

OPI noted Williams is in his fourth year on the Special Education Advisory Committee and continues to serve as a member of the Montana School Safety Advisory Committee. The news release also said Williams is deeply committed to youth advocacy across Montana.

In recent years, OPI has had a high turnover rate and hard-to-fill vacancies, including the role of special education director. In the fall, all of the AA district superintendents signed a letter critical of Arntzen for a series of problems, including the absence of a head of special education, which the leaders described as a “high risk” area for districts requiring technical assistance.

At a meeting in November, the deputy superintendent at OPI said the special education director job had been the most challenging position for the agency to recruit in part because the $79,000 salary was $40,000 below market, and one recruitment had yielded just one applicant. But OPI noted in February it was making progress.

Special ed in Montana Students attend Montana public schools, private schools, and special education cooperatives. There are 21 cooperatives in Montana that serve rural students with disabilities. Cooperatives are made up of the public school districts within the cooperative’s boundaries, which help alleviate funding restrictions and special education teacher recruitment and retention issues. There are 1,098 teachers with a special education endorsement in Montana classrooms. Source: OPI

Williams said he agreed the job is highly technical and said he’s ready to make contributions that help all students have an opportunity to learn. He will earn $85,000, but he said he didn’t take the job for the money; rather, he said he was inspired to apply for it to help Montana, especially as he saw the work of Republicans Gov. Greg Gianforte and Superintendent Arntzen during the pandemic.

“I was excited as I kept watching what Governor Gianforte was doing and his leadership style in the state, and that was really impressive,” Williams said. “He always seemed to put a positive foot forward through that whole pandemic … Then seeing the work that Superintendent Arntzen has done, and she has done an incredible amount of work.”

OPI also noted Williams’ recent “focus has been on developing the Public/Private educational partnership at the state level with OPI and the Governor’s office.”

Williams, who is free to remain living in Butte and anticipates much travel across Montana in the new job, spent a couple of decades in Nevada and worked in the fifth-largest school district in the nation, Clark County School District, he said, but his parents and grandparents are buried in Montana, and he’s not going to let down his family.

The job is a dream come true, he said, and in his message to Montana, he wanted to echo what President George W. Bush said to Americans in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks: “Come on, Montana. Let’s roll.”

[END]

[1] Url: https://dailymontanan.com/2022/03/26/montana-superintendent-of-public-instruction-hires-special-education-director/

Content is licensed through Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/montanan/