It’s been Dan Brown’s first full school year as Camp Verde Unified School District superintendent, and so far his bosses seem pretty happy with his performance.
“I appreciate [his] work,” School Board member Judy Gilbert said, discussing Brown’s evaluation at last week’s board meeting.
The evaluation itself was conducted in February, giving Brown an opportunity to review what the board thinks so far.
He received good marks, according to the document, scoring in most areas between a three and a four on the four-point scale used by the board.
His strongest skills, according to the board, have been in coordinating the duties and work of the district’s employees, taking responsibility for the district’s finances and acting as the district’s chief public relations officer.
With his background in education, Brown also scored well in how he administers the education programs in the district and how he keeps abreast of new and effective educational practices.
In fact, Brown recently spearheaded an effort to take district employees down to the Vail School District, near Tucson, to see what they’re doing that keeps most of its schools in the high-performance category.
Brown recently said school employees have taken what they learned in Vail to heart, and there’s enthusiasm in the district’s classrooms.
One area where Brown said he needs to improve involves keeping up all of the district’s policies and other standards set up by the Arizona Board of Education.
Brown said he has made an effort to network with school officials through the Verde Valley, Yavapai County and the state to keep informed.
“I’m working as hard as I can to understand educational law,” Brown said. The first-year superintendent is also planning to talk with the superintendent of the Paradise Valley Unified School District, now in his second year, to get an idea of the steps he has taken.
Brown also said he would have more conversations with CVUSD Director of Operations Chris Schultz in order to make sure effective controls are kept on expenditures.
Brown also told the board he would work on bringing as much useful information to the board as possible — all the “pros, cons and alternatives,” before any decisions the members have to make, something Gilbert said was important.
Brown also noted he would be working on new procedures for keeping the board informed about personnel changes in the district, and would be working on a method to determine what the district should value when deciding on any possible staff reductions due to the tight budget currently in the works.
“I’m going to keep working on getting from where we are to where [the board] wants me to be,” Brown said.
Brown was formerly the principal at Camp Verde Middle School. He replaced former Superintendent Jeff Van Handel last year after the board allowed Van Handel’s contract to expire. The board at the time felt Van Handel wasn’t a good fit for the direction they want to take the district.
