APRIL 2022 | DR. CHRISTINA M. KISHIMOTO

Throughout history, but more so today in light of the national political climate, there is a risk that women leaders of color take in boldly vocalizing equity stances on behalf of students. Dr. Aleesia Johnson keeps it real as we sit down to talk about her perspective on the superintendency, politics, and leadership. While gender politics in the U.S. today still results in biased perceptions of the desirability and capabilities of women in the Chief Executive seat, when we look at the impact of leaders like Aleesia, we see student-centered boldness that is needed at greater levels nationally. Unfortunately, we also see discomfort with the intersectionality that women present as they bring their authentic selves as women, women of color, mothers, and other aspects of identity.

Aleesia shares, “It’s about how we define leadership in society, in a country where when they are considering who is ready to lead, what comes to mind is often not a woman, and it certainly is often not a black woman or a woman of color either.” Women struggle to be noticed as viable candidates to lead as School Superintendents. Despite the deep pipeline of women teachers (78% nationally) and women Principals (40% nationally), the data clearly shows that Boards of Education continue to give preferential consideration to men for the top seat (27% women; 73% men).

Aleesia and I talked about how this intersectionality has shown up in living color on our news feed in the Supreme Court nomination hearings held this week. A highly competent, highly articulate, highly successful judge sits before Congressional members in what appears to be a mismatch of intellect and purpose. The obvious tension that comes from Judge Jackson being seen as Black woman first and a judge second, by certain Congressional members, is palpable. And for the people of our nation who have a front row seat to this race and culture war at the highest level of governance and government, we are all squirming in our seats. “There are genderized concepts of leadership. Just watching the Hearings this week has been triggering for me. Just watching how this imminently qualified woman is being mistreated by men.” Aleesia sees the areas of progress for women leaders in education, but calls it out as being accessible to only a select few. “The disproportionality of men to women in the Superintendent seat is immense, and as a woman, something that we talk about in the black community holds true. We often have to work twice as hard to get half as much. Whether that is respect, position, pay. You have to be on your game as a woman all the time, in a way that men are not held to.”

If intersectionality seems to you like another racialized concept of the day, consider the change that has taken place in the Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS). IPS has a majority black student population at 40.3% and an overall BIPOC student population of nearly 79%. Yet in the school system’s 133 year history, Aleesia is the first black woman superintendent. Aleesia shares an interesting perspective about her role in history making. “I always say, I am the first Black woman to be Superintendent, but I certainly am not the first one that was ready to serve. I am fully aware that I am the first to get the opportunity, not the first to deserve the opportunity.” The research is clear that representation impacts students’ perception of self. Yet, history shows that biased culture has deep roots. “We are a school district that was forced to integrate. There were deeply held racist views in our past.”

Aleesia shared that her board and community are highly supportive, and while being a black woman in the CEO seat matters in creating a greater sense of inclusivity in children’s perceptions, she feels accepted for who she is as a leader. Along with her predecessor who is a Latina woman, Aleesia recognizes that they broke through both the gender and racial barrier that was part of IPS’s history. One of Aleesia’s leadership strengths is that she expects her team to show up as who they are, and because of this she believes her team brings particular strength in reflecting the diversity of the Indianapolis community.

There is nothing surprising about Aleesia finding herself in the public school Chief Executive seat. With a family history of educators, Aleesia shared, “I always loved school. Definitely a nerd! I came from a family of educators. My mom is an elementary school Principal. My grandfather was a teacher, Principal and worked in the central office. My grandmothers – one was a Sunday school teacher and the other was a teaching assistant. Education, schools, going to school events, all of that was part of the fabric of my growing up. So the fact that I landed in education is not shocking at all.” The step from Deputy Superintendent for Academics to Superintendent though brought new challenges, a much broadened scope of work, and a spotlight.

“For this role, what I did not fully appreciate was the political nature of it. I knew it, but I didn’t fully appreciate it until I got into the seat.” Unlike other roles that Aleesia held internally that allowed her to focus in on a set of particular areas, the typical day of the Superintendent is a scramble of many areas from facilities, to school events, media events, curriculum decisions, board meeting preparation, and yes, politics. “We are coming out of a legislative session where we spent a lot of time really battling back what felt like very unnecessary culture war bills. One was the anti-CRT bill worded as divisive concepts that can’t be taught in schools. We spent a lot of time on discussions that were not about how we make learning for our kids better. We are still seeing high absenteeism among high school students, and that tells me that there is something that our older students are not seeing as particularly valuable and are thus not showing up.”

While Aleesia talked about the ways in which instruction and support have to be improved coming out of COVID, the legislature seems out of step. Aleesia described the frustration among leaders in spending so much time blocking harm, rather than rebuilding responsive systems for kids. With a long deep breath that reminded me of Supreme Court nominee Jackson at points during her recent Hearing, Aleesia shares her thoughts about this point in our political history. “As a leader, it’s figuring out what is the capital I should expend, I’m willing to expend, or if it’s up to someone else that needs to be the carrier of a particular message. That calculation is happening so often in my mind. I’m asking myself should these words come out of my mouth or do I need to have a male board member carry the message. These days we are all making calculated decisions about who is saying what to whom and where. That navigation is mentally tiring.” She further shared, “a lot of our energy is being spent on the defensive mode thinking about how to ward off undoing all of the racial equity work we’ve been doing for years.”

Despite the challenges of the position, Aleesia has a balanced view of life. “You are not your job. Work is not my whole life. I am also a mother, wife, sister, daughter, friend… and the people in my life help to fulfill me and help me to demonstrate my love for others.” Her advice to aspiring superintendents? Stay true to yourself. Honor who you are. Find a board that will support you. Identify a great mentor and thought partner for your first year on the job. Create a ring of support that comes from a great network of other women leaders. “You have to be who you are. There is no superintendent uniform or hat to put on. It’s you.”

Great advice from April’s voice for equity – Dr. Aleesia Johnson!

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Dr. Aleesia Johnson was named Superintendent of the Indianapolis Public Schools in June 2019, a school district of 23,000 students. Dr. Johnson has deep experience in curriculum and innovation at the school and district level, and taught at the middle school level.

Featured Voices for Equity made possible through the sponsorship of Scholastic

APRIL 2022 | DR. CHRISTINA M. KISHIMOTO

After 31 years as a public educator, Kathy Demers retired as School Superintendent of the Monroe Public Schools in Ohio, and joined BASA – the Buckeye Association of School Administrators. In her new leadership role at BASA, former Superintendent Demers delivered the largest women’s educational leader conference in Ohio with 440 women leaders in attendance.

Christina: Kathy, March 10th and 11th was a lot of fun! I had the chance to be at BASA’s (Buckeye’s Association of School Administrators ) 17th annual women’s conference. You had record numbers! Seventeen years and you had your highest number of attendees. Tell me about that.

Kathy: Yes, we had 440 women in attendance. Of those in attendance, we had K-12 educators, superintendents, district-level administrators, classroom teachers, treasurers, administrative assistants, many of whom are involved in K-12 education. A small percentage of our partners from corporate and business were in attendance as well.

So we have been doing this for 17years. It started with BASA women’s committee with an attendance of about 100. The year before Covid, we had about 286 in person, and during Covid, the conference went virtual. So this is the first in-person conference since Covid, with 440 in attendance. It is the largest celebration of women in leadership conference that BASA has hosted and the largest of all of the conferences we have hosted. So we are very excited about those numbers.

Why is it so important for women to convene in this way. There are a number of amazing conferences in Ohio, regionally, and nationally where superintendents and other leaders get together in the field of education. So why is it important to have a separate space that focuses on women in leadership?

As female leaders, we have unique needs in our roles and throughout our journey that are a little different. It is great to be part of creating a space for large groups of women to come together to network, learn, and grow in a safe space. Through the feedback that we received from the women’s conference, that has been a key theme. Women feel very comfortable and welcomed.

I had one woman share with me that she felt this was the first opportunity she had at a conference to be herself and not be judged. She felt welcomed as she was in the space with women who had similar needs and similar journeys. We must continue to be in touch with the needs of aspiring leaders and current female leaders to create space for them to help meet those needs and support them in their roles.

I was particularly impressed that there were multi-generational presenters, from junior high and high school age through highly experienced leaders, administrators, and superintendents presenting as part of the conference. You gave a multi-generational voice to women. You also had vendors that were multi-generational. You had a school-age vendor, a college vendor, and other vendors there, which was just fantastic. You were very intentional about that. Can you tell me about that?

Being in touch with our female educators and their needs was important. We looked to our presenters to make sure they reflected who our audience was going to be. It is important to the BASA women’s committee to make sure we are working with our young ladies who are not just current educators but who are school age and bring them along on this journey. We want to be mentors and role models and create opportunities and experiences for them to lead as well.

I was on the elevator with one of the attendees, and I asked her what her favorite part of the conference was, and she said it was the young lady speaker, as it reminded her of her purpose as an educator. I thought that was powerful.

In addition, our vendors for the conference were all female-owned businesses, entrepreneurs, multi-generational women supporting women. Whether they were in education, businesses, or corporations, they all came together to support each other.

A common theme during the conference was the increase in women superintendents in Ohio, reaching 20%. The national average is 27%. Education is a woman-led profession, yet at the highest seat, the Superintendency, women are represented in only 27% of those seats. What are your thoughts about what Ohio and the nation needs to do to address the inequity in access?

We are all in this together and need to work together to close that gap collectively. As an organization, we are focusing on how we can close that gap in Ohio. During the women’s conference, we launched a women’s leadership series that we are sponsoring. It is a 6-part series that starts in September to continue to bring women together, both aspiring and current leaders, that will focus on confidence, communication, and various skill sets in leadership. This will be our third cohort. We had two cohorts prior to Covid, and now we are picking back up.

Our women’s committee is branching out with Superintendents taking the lead in their regions to continue the work of the women’s conference by bringing women in their region together until we meet again as a large group at next year’s women’s conference. They will do various activities and events to keep the relationships strong, build the network, and continue with professional training while addressing the needs of women. So it’s not just the women’s conference, and you’re done. We want to keep the women engaged and to bring new women along. Hopefully, through those efforts, we will continue to get more women interested in those higher-level positions by having these various opportunities and equipping them with the support, skillset, and resources to help them develop as leaders.

Whether we are talking about this at a local, county, state, or national level, the more we can continue to foster opportunities to get more women involved and provide the resources to help them get to where they aspire to be; eventually, we will see that gap close.

You were leading the Monroe Public Schools most recently before joining BASA. How has that transition been from Superintendent to leading in a professional learning organization?

I did retire at the end of July with 31 years in public education. Twenty-four of the thirty-one years were in school administration. It was an absolutely beautiful journey, and I loved every one of those 31 years. I am really enjoying this position at BASA. Now I am in a role where I get to help meet the needs of school leaders across the state of Ohio. Just coming out of the Superintendency, I bring that fresh lens and perspective of their needs. I also spent a little over a year as a Superintendent during Covid.

Kathy, I want to thank you for your service to our nation’s children and for your leadership in Ohio and nationally. Thank you for this opportunity to talk with you about the great work you continue to lead.

Thank you very much, Christina. I appreciate it.