Kamela Patton- Collier's New Superintendant of Schools

Official Ceremony of New
Collier County Superintendent,
Dr. Kamela Patton taking office

Collier Public Schools has a new leader, Dr. Kamela Patton who believes communication is the key to building trust.  I am confident that the Dr. Patton will be quite successful in Collier if she can rebuild the collaboration and morale of many stakeholders that suffered a the hands of the former superintendent, Dr. Dennis Thompson.  Thanks to the current School Board we are not experiencing the same Sunshine Law controversy over a superintendent termination that was 'hot news' in Collier for quite some time when Dr. Thompson first took leadership.  Unfortunately that entire situation tarnished Dr. Thompson's perception from day one.  It was the untimely demise of Ray Baker and the contract settlement that ended the reign of former School Board member Linda Abbott since many believe she was instrumental in the poor handling of the superintendent situation at that time.  Now that three years have past and the board has new life and leadership, the school district may now move forward with hopes of redefining itself as a force among school districts in this state.  At her swearing in to the office of Superintendent of Collier County Public Schools, Dr. Kamela Patton stated "I am so excited to be your Superintendent. As I have said right along, this district isn’t broken – it is a great district and I’m happy to be here to enhance it in any way I can.Communication is what it is all about for me and I pledge to communicate regularly with you – staff and members of the community – hopefully in fresh, innovative, and perhaps some unexpected ways.
I have hit the ground running, as they say, already meeting with staff and various community groups. In the weeks and months ahead, I will continue to reach out to you. In the meantime, if you need to reach me, I invite you to do so."(collier.kk12.fl.us)
Dr. Patton claims to want to engage all stakeholders in collaboration building trust and an open relationship with them.  She also believes in multi-level management, meetings and input from everyone.  This is quite encouraging since from my experience and knowledge of the last administration communication was not open, collaboration did not include everyone and morale was down district wide.  Although Dr. Patton stated that this district is not broken, it will be up to her to pick up the pieces that have not been interactive or working in the past few years and put them back together into an efficiently working model.  After reviewing her application and resume, it is apparent to this writer that she does have extensive experience with legislative platforms, budgets, accountability, technology, community involvement, statutory compliance, team-building and diversity.  She believes in testing and evaluating realizing that everyone working in this district must focus on closing the achievement gap between the underachievers and overachievers.  But that is easier said than done.  Anyone who has worked with children knows that is the goal.  Now is her chance to help Collier County use the data they have to achieve those goals while meeting the demands of our state and federal governments. 
I want to commend Dr. Patton for taking the first step towards helping those underachieving schools by changing leadership.  I believe all the principals relocated are excellent at what they do whether school was and "A" school or not.  Some schools in our district have more disadvantages as other which influences the grade (unfortunately).  Hopefully a shift in management will help.  It's good for schools to get new management periodically anyways.  It helps to integrate new ideas from new perspectives where steady management can become stagnant.  I also hope that Dr. Patton takes a really close look at all the leadership in Collier reviewing all aspects of their successes and failures.  It's great that Dr. Patton believes Principals should hold people accountable; have data charts for teachers; reach out to the community; and manage the  operation and maintenance of their site but I can only hope she will have close oversight over these Principals.  Every once in a while a little house cleaning needs to be down especially if Principals become too comfortable, cocky or dominant.  We shall see if the morale in all schools improves, the grades in schools improve, and if Dr. Kamela Patton is really a "people person" who will connect with the students, community, employees, businesses, foudations, universities, unions, and all other stakeholders in Collier County Schools.  I wish her luck but I know many are anticipating her changes and management style.