Covington Schools selects new Superintendent: Cortnei Flucas

Covington Independent Public Schools has appointed Cortnei Flucas, an educational professional from Indianapolis, as the district’s new superintendent. She will assume the role at the end of the current school year, taking over from current Superintendent Alvin Garrison. The Board of Education declined to reappoint Garrison last summer.

“I hope to demonstrate in my leadership a strong desire to listen and learn and be responsive to the needs and the desires of the community,” Flucas told LINK nky.

The move follows an (unusually) long process of recruiting and public input. The Covington Board of Education contracted with Chicago-based consulting firm Alma Advisory Group in September to head up the search process for a new candidate, which included a long public input process that employed online surveys, public community input sessions and focus groups to gather data about what the community wanted in its new superintendent.

According to a press release from the board last year, the input process revealed some key desires from the community, including:

• Improved academic outcomes
• Increased work-based learning opportunities to help students prepare for careers and post-secondary education
• More family and student input on decision making
• Improved communication from the district
• A new superintendent with experience in the following:
  • change management
  • academic turnaround
  • diagnostic and systems-based thinking
  • authentic communication
  • consensus and coalition building
• A superintendent who could “drive significant improvements in student achievement; develop a culture of accountability, transparency, excellence and continuous improvement; build high-performing systems, structures and leaders; maintain strong financial stewardship; and leverage city and community partnerships,” according to the board’s release.

Flucas has a doctorate in educational leadership with a focus on systems and implementation science from Ball State University. Most recently, she worked as the unified student supports officer at Indianapolis Public Schools, the largest school district in Indianapolis. It serves over 30,000 students across more than 50 schools.

Flucas told LINK nky she assumed the unified student supports role during the pandemic when her department was responsible for managing various health and support systems for students in the district in conjunction with local public health agencies. Additionally, the department was responsible for directing systems related to mental health, social and emotional learning, homelessness among the student population, expulsion examinations and overall culture and climate in the district, among other systems.

News coverage from Indianapolis NPR affiliate WFYI from last fall (around the time CIPS contracted with Alma) suggests that Indianapolis Public Schools successfully staffed a new standalone special education academy for the first time last year under Flucas’ tutelage.

“I believe that systems design is really central – or must be central – to the approach when you are wanting to ensure equity for all students,” Flucas said.

“She demonstrated the kind of thoughtful, student-centered and systems-oriented leadership this board believes Covington needs as we build the next chapter of public education in our community, ” said Board of Education Chair Tom Haggard.

Over her roughly 20-year career, Flucas has worked in other administrative positions and formerly worked as an English teacher.

Flucas said that she tried to be visible, transparent and accountable as a leader. She also said that districts need to center “the whole child,” rather than just focusing on academic performance and metrics.

“In order to be ready to learn, students have to be well taken care of,” Flucas said. “They have to have all of their needs met so that they can face those academic challenges and pursuits.”

Additionally, Flucas said she was a “staunch advocate for public education and public funds serving public education.”

School funding has been a repeated source of contention in the commonwealth and attempts to shunt public tax dollars towards private education, whether religious education or charter schools or other forms of private education, have been defeated at both the ballot box and in court.

“The amazing thing about public schools is that we have the opportunity and privilege to serve every child who shows up at our door, and we use and leverage those dollars that we receive from the state and federal government to meet the needs of students, to serve our staff and to do right by our communities,” Flucas said.

Overall, Flucas emphasized that meaningful change was dependent on communal efforts, rather than singular individuals.

“Meaningful and transformative work does not happen because of one person,” Flucas said. “It happens because dedicated people across a system show up every day determined to do what is best for every child.”

Flucas will assume her role on July 1. The last day of the school year at CIPS is May 29.