Shortly after the Spotsylvania County School Board hired
Clint Mitchell, Facebook pages and private discussions seemed to come back to
the same question. Is a person with limited superintendent experience from one
of the smallest school systems in Virginia ready to take on one of its largest
districts?
According to Matt Hurt, who leads the Comprehensive Instructional
Program — a highly successful initiative that has realized
extraordinary academic gains in some of Virginia’s toughest districts — the
data provides a good indicator that Mitchell is ready.
“During the 2023-2024 school year,” Hurt told the Advance,
“Colonial Beach Public Schools realized greater improvement in student outcomes
than any other division in the CIP consortium.”
The consortium is composed of 65 school divisions in
Virginia. Hurt says that overall these divisions “posted a two-point
improvement in 2024 over the previous year.” Colonial Beach was the district
that busted the curve.
Its “overall pass rate improved by nearly ten points,” Hurt
said. “To put that in perspective, the division (Greensville County) that
realized the greatest gains in the state in 2023 posted a nine-point
improvement.
Final state results won’t be published by the Virginia
Department of Education until September. “At that time,” Hurt continued, “we’ll
understand more fully the significance of this improvement.”
As dramatic as this improvement is, however, it’s far from
the first time in Mitchell’s career that he’s been part of such an eye-catching
turn-around.
His experiences in two of the commonwealth’s largest
districts – Prince William and Fairfax – are part of the reason that State
Superintendent Dr. Lisa Coons selected Mitchell to represent Spotsylvania
County Public Schools on two task forces. The first, based on Senate Bill 283,
deals with implementing universal school meals in Virginia. The second,
based on House Bill 830 and Senate Bill 314, is the Virginia farm to schools
Task Force, which aims to bring more locally grown fruits and vegetables to
school nutrition programs.
The Interview
Welcome to
Spotsylvania! Can you tell us a bit about your background?
Clint Mitchell: I grew up on a small Caribbean
Island, St. Lucia.
My mother had me young. My grandparents sent her to Canada
when she got married, and eventually to the United States. I was raised
by my grandfather and grandmother from about three months until I was 14 years
old.
I came to the U.S. on November 12, 1989 — I’m never going to
forget that day. New York City. Middle of winter. Cold. Looking at trees with
no leaves on it. That was foreign to me.
When I left, my grandfather told me two things: First — Stay
in school. Second — Listen to your mother. Little did I know, 30-plus years
later, I’m still in school.
I attended Samual J. Tildon High School in NYC. I was one of
those students who comes from a foreign country, so they put me one year
behind. I should have been a sophomore, but they made me a freshman. But it was
good for me.
At that time, Mayor David Dinkins had a program for
inner-city youth kids that allowed me to attend a summer program at
Choate-Rosemary Hall in Connecticut.
The shift of New York City public schools to one of the
most-exclusive prep schools in the country must have been a real shock. How did
it affect you?
CM: It was there I really started to see what
the possibilities could be for a young kid from the Caribbean. It opened my
eyes to what I could do if I stayed in school.
I finished my high school studies and went to Brooklyn
College, where I majored in political science and philosophy. I also completed
my first master’s degree in urban policy and public administration. I was
headed for law school. Then I met a professor who said to me, try teaching at a
public school.
I got a job at PS 275, Brownsville Middle School in New
York. It was there I found my love for teaching. I taught U.S. history for 7th
and 8th grade. After 3 years, I moved to Virginia in 2001 and took a job as a
civics and economics teacher in Prince William County.
Our test scores were abysmal at that time, so I launched a
Saturday academy. Thought I’d get 20 students to attend, I ended up with over
100.
I taught history to these students with my wife and another
teacher. I wrote the lesson plans, and we made some magic. Test scores went
from the 40s to the mid-70s. I met the supervisor of Social Studies for the
district shortly thereafter who made me his assistant principal. Three years
later, he retired, and I became the principal. I was young — 31 — and it was
baptism by fire.
Attending Choate-Rosemary Hall opened my eyes to what I
could do if I stayed in school.
– Clint Mitchell
I stayed in Prince William about 10 years as a principal. I
was very successful because of the people around me. Not because of what I did,
but because of the teachers I hired and the assistant principals around me. Our
achievements led to several awards. Most notably in 2013 when I won the
Washington Post’s Distinguished Leadership Award.
Then, in 2016, I went to Fairfax.
With so much success in Prince William, did you land a
higher-performing school in Fairfax?
CM: No. I took over the lowest-performing school
in the district at that time. It was the only school that wasn’t accredited.
The superintendent said, “We want to know your plan for changing this school.”
We spoke for two hours.
The state gave us conditional accreditation based on my
performance with a similar type of school. Within a year, we were fully
accredited. And we stayed fully accredited for the five-and-a-half years I was
there.
Finally, in 2021, I became superintendent of Colonial Beach
Public Schools.
For more on Clint Mitchell, go to fxbgadvance.com for the
complete transcript of the interview by Martin Davis. This interview was done
by our sister publication, the FXBG Advance.
