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EDUCATION

Liberty Elementary District selects Monroe as new superintendent

Monroe championed the parental voice during his interview

Posted 5/11/23

Liberty Elementary School District board selects Dr. Cort Monroe as its new superintendent after a public interview championing parent’s rights Thursday.

Monroe was selected after a …

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EDUCATION

Liberty Elementary District selects Monroe as new superintendent

Monroe championed the parental voice during his interview

Posted

Liberty Elementary School District board selected Dr. Cort Monroe as its new superintendent after a public interview championing parent’s rights Thursday.

Monroe was selected after a 30-minute executive session following his interview with the board. Throughout his session, Monroe used the entire time allocated to explain his answers, sometimes going over the three-minute timer with no remorse.

During the interview, board member Paul Bixler led with a question asking about Monroe's preferred educational model, either traditional or modern.

“Public school is driven by the market now that parents have choices,” Monroe replied. “What do our parents want for their kids? Is Dr. Monroe going to sit in his office and decide what the next school will be? Well that would be pretty foolish. I think if we're looking at elementary school No. 8 or the next school, and we don't talk to our parents about what do they value in their child's education, we're doing a disservice because they may go enrolling into a charter school.”

Last year, the Arizona Legislature passed a school choice voucher bill that affords parents a monetary sum to attend charter schools, online schools or to home-school.  

To many conservative or moderate residents, it was a escape route from the perceived pitfalls of social-emotional learning as a primary educational focus. 

Monroe, however, didn’t wholly dismiss SEL, citing a time and place for soft skill development.

“As a superintendent, I'm laser-focused on making sure our kids are college and career ready that they can go to high school and they have the skills and they have the grit, they have the resources to be successful,” Monroe said. “But it became very apparent during the pandemic that there's a lot more than just reading, writing and math going on with our young people.”

Monroe’s daughter missed her prom, softball season and graduation because of the pandemic. He said there may be room for quick SEL lessons for students because COVID may have impacted generations in ways we don’t understand yet.

“Her developmental journey is different than all my other girls and myself and my wife and probably most people in this room,” he said. “So there's going to be different social, emotional needs that we all have and so I guess I would define some SEL that way kind of the skills needed outside of the classroom if you will. And those would be maybe a few conflict management and those kinds of things that would be in a mini-lesson or, you know, a counselor might do in a small group.”

Monroe said he also wants to rebuild trust with stakeholders in the district, understanding that he can’t solve all their problems.

“A lot of times, people don't expect you to have the answer,” Monroe said. “They just want to be heard. People want to be heard and understood. So a lot of times, we use our mouth way too often. If we use our ears, it’s amazing.”

Board president Mike Todd said Monroe faced challenges Liberty will be facing soon with growth and an upcoming bond election.

“We have to rely on our local assistance to to help bolster that budget and bring it to where it needs to be,” he said. “So we're going to do that. Dr. Monroe has some great experience in working in that. I think one of the things that's been great for him as he also worked in Queen Creek previously, which is very familiar, the growth experience there was very, very similar to the growth we're here. It's explosive.”

 Monroe is currently an adjunct professor at Northern Arizona University. He was superintendent at Cave Creek Unified School District for nearly three years. Before that, he was an assistant superintendent at Queen Creek Unified School District. 

Before that, he was an administrator at Higley Unified School District. He served as a principal in the same district. Monroe received his doctorate in education from Northern Arizona University. He also attained a master’s degree in educational leadership at Arizona State University.