Daviess County Public Schools Superintendent Matt Robins was given all “exemplary” ratings by the Board of Education in their annual evaluation on standards of performance.
Each year the board evaluates Robbins on any four of their following seven standards of leadership: Strategic, Instructional, Cultural, Human Resource, Managerial, Collaborative, and Influential. This year, Robbins was evaluated on the latter four.
Board member Dale Stewart read the highlights of the evaluation, saying they determined Robbins “has maintained exemplary performance throughout the 2022-23 school year.”
“Mr. Robbins continues to ensure that DCPS employees have opportunity for personal growth through the Grow Your Own program as well as the Future Leaders Academy,” Stewart said.
The board also noted that the restructuring and elimination of bus routes saved the district nearly $1.9 million, money that the district has “been able to utilize in other areas.” Most notably, the board cited those savings as a major reason the district was able to recently approve a 2% raise for all DCPS staff.
Some might question why Robbins was given an “exemplary” rating across the board after issues with the bus routes caused DCPS to delay the start of school by three days, along with the fact the new Daviess County Middle School wasn’t ready at the start of the school year.
Board chair Todd Anderson said the board “absolutely” considered that in their evaluation.
“We also factor in the results where we ended up with his leadership,” Anderson said. “(The bus route issues) didn’t continue on, and it was only just for a few days. His leadership got involved and corrected it as quickly as we could. Some of it was out of our control. There’s no way he could have stopped that or prevented that. But look at where we ended up.”
Speaking of the bus routes, Robbins said “We saved almost $2 million that helped balance our budget, and we don’t have to go back to taxpayers and ask for that money.”
Addressing the new DCMS building not being complete, Robbins said the district did the best with the information they had and made the switch to the new campus as early as possible.
“All we can operate on is the information that’s given to us at hand. As I said then and I’ll say now, nothing has changed from the fact that the owner of the construction company had said that they will have us in (the new school on time for the first day). We know the outcome of that. But at the same time, we moved in over Fall Break. Most school districts wouldn’t move in until the end of the year or a Christmas break. That’s dealing with an unforeseen circumstance and making the end come out rather well.”
In the highlights of the evaluation, Stewart further said that Robbins helped ensure the district added two additional school law enforcement officers, bringing the total to seven.
Stewart said Robbins’ collaborative efforts also helped fill the new positions of Director of Juvenile Drug and Mental Health Court and a Full Service Schools Community Coordinator.
“These positions will be beneficial in supporting the mental health of DCPS students and demonstrate his passion for keeping ‘Kids First’ in all he does,” Stewart said.
The board also said Robbins “is a leader among his peers, mentoring new superintendents” and “leads with a servant’s heart and gives others the tools they need in order to be great leaders, educators and overall great people.
Of the exemplary ratings, Robbins said he was “humbly accepting of the evaluation that was given to me.”
