Pittman and Friends Podcast
Welcome to Pittman and Friends, the curiously probing, sometimes awkward, but always revealing conversations between your host, Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman - that’s me - and whatever brave and willing public servant, community leader, or elected official I can find who has something to say that you should hear.
This podcast is provided as a public service of Anne Arundel County Government, so don’t expect me to get all partisan here. This is about the age-old art of government - of, by, and for the people.
Pittman and Friends Podcast
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell on Choosing Education and Anne Arundel Challenges
Join Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman for a compelling conversation with Dr. Mark Bedell, the superintendent of the county's public schools. As they delve into the real-life challenges and triumphs of managing a large educational institution, Dr. Bedell shares his remarkable journey from childhood adversity to becoming a leader in education. This episode explores how collaboration—between educators, the community, and local government—can drive educational success. It also addresses issues such as teacher recruitment and retention and legislative policies.
Learn more about how Anne Arundel County addresses unique challenges while focusing on student achievement and well-being. Dr. Bedell emphasizes the importance of listening to feedback from families and educators and implementing a strategic plan to create an innovative, supportive environment where all students can thrive.
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Welcome to Pittman and Friends. The curiously probing, sometimes awkward but always revealing conversations between your host, Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman - that's me - and whatever brave and willing public servant, community leader or elected official I can find who has something to say that you should hear. This podcast is provided as a public service of Anne Arundel County, so don't expect me to get all partisan here. This is about the age-old art of government of, by, and for the people. Al right, well, I'm here today with my good friend. I can say that now. My good friend, Dr. Mark Bedell, who is the Superintendent of the Anne Arundel County Public Schools. Welcome.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:Hey, Steuart. It's an honor to be here with you today. I'm already hype and excited about this podcast, so I'm ready to get into it.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Can I just say you're hyped and excited all the time?
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:I am. I have ants in my pants. I have issues.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:You do.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:I do. I recognize that.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:That's what I love. We meet every month and you are always on it. You're always so quick and and fixing stuff. You fix stuff all the time. But let's, let's not get too much into all the great stuff that you're doing in your job and that we do, that we've done together until we get into a little background.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:Okay.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:First of all, just tell us what Anne Arundel County Public Schools is in terms of how many and how big.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:It's a pretty massive size school district.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:We service about 85,000 students. We are considered one of the fastest growing school districts in the state of Maryland, and I would argue, one of the fastest growing school districts in the United States. We went up by nearly 700 students this year, when the national growth rate is a negative 2.5 in public schools across the country, and that was cited in Ed Week a couple of months ago. We have about 12,000 employees. About 5,800 of those employees are teachers, and so they make up a large segment of the workforce, and it's just a really good school district. It's the 37th largest school district in the United States, but the fourth largest in the state of Maryland.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Okay, so how many students total?
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:85, a bit over 85,000.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:85,000 students, yeah, and we're a county of 593,000 people. So we've got a new generation coming and, thanks to the work of your team, it's going to be a good generation, I believe.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:Oh, I think so too. And when we get into some of the progress that the school district is making, there is a significant amount of promise for Anne Arundel County. What I believe we will be able to produce as a result of the collaboration we have with you all, but also the support that we have been able to garner from other elected officials, our school board, but the community at large.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:So, just so people know, tell us about who your bosses are. The oversight, the oversight of Anne Arundel Council.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:I mean, as a superintendent, we all have a risk. We generally are hired by a school board. The eight school board members go through some form of an election. And the reason why I say some form of election, because we also have a student board member, which is the only one in the United States that has full voting rights. And that process is conducted through CRASC, which is the Students Council for students across Anne Arundel County and also across the state. And then the other seven board members are folks who are elected because they represent various districts and are elected by constituents. They then have the responsibility of hiring a superintendent.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:And then they're elected by the same district as our county council.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:That's correct, the exact.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:It replicates what happens with county.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:And it didn't used to be that way.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:They were appointed by the governor, but that changed that now they're elected. It's happened in the last and seven years.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:For me, some people say, well, how, what do you think about that? And I said, well, all I've ever worked with was an elected board. My six years in Kansas City was all elected. So when I came here, already have familiarity with generally agendas and what has been promised to constituents. And my role as a superintendent is to help everybody think about the greater good of the system, but also recognize that everybody needs to get some type of win. Everybody can't get everything that they want. It just doesn't work in that manner. Otherwise, you won't get anything done.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:So the laws that you abide by, and that you follow. A lot of those are state laws, and there's a state organization too, right?
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:Yes, it is.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:There is. Because you have MABE, which is the state organization for school board members. And then for us as superintendents, PASAM, which is the superintendent's association here for the state of Maryland.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:And then you have the state superintendent herself, right?
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:And then you have the state superintendent, so you have MSDE, the Maryland State Department of Education. So there's a number of different layers that I think help to provide a number of guardrails. So we stay true to the work that we need to do, which is to really create and provide a fair and balanced educational experience for all of our students, regardless of where they come from and how they show up.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:So just to be clear to everybody out there. I am not your boss.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:That's correct. I mean, you have a number of offices that are direct reports to you, but my boss is the Board of Education of the Anne Arundel County School District and those eight board members generally speak as one voice when they speak to me. So, it's not as if I'm having to figure out eight different ways to do things. The board comes together one voice. We all agree on the direction we're going to go in and then we work together to make that happen.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Right, right. And I will just say that the time when we interact the most is during budget season, because the one area of what you do that the county does control is how much money you get from the county. You get some state money, you get some federal money still. Hopefully, you'll continue to. And then you get half of our budget, really half of what our taxpayers pay in local taxes goes to the school board.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:But this is why the relationship that you and I have is very important because if, if, if our relationship isn't tight, given what has happened at the state level, what's also happening at the federal level, as many people may be aware. You may not be aware the vast majority of our funding comes from the county because we are considered a wealthy county. And so if I don't have a tight working relationship with you all and it's not just you, it's the County Council. The relationships that I've been able to build with them, the amount of money that you all have funded since I've been here, above maintenance of effort, just wouldn't be possible. And I got a number of colleagues. Some have retired because of not getting the support and others are having to do significant layoffs, potentially because of not getting that additional money above maintenance of effort, and I know we lived through that at one point in this county. But, I think for me, we've been fortunate to have this relationship, for you all to do the best that you can, and that return has looked very good so far.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Yeah, yeah. I mean, I've been. I hear from other county executives about their relationships with some of their school superintendents in the school system and it's not always positive. And I know that in the past in Anne Arundel County it hasn't always been and it has been a priority for me to make sure that our school system is great and that our kids are. I mean our future, our economic development is. People want to live here and they want to run businesses here if they think we have a good school system. And so I've been. Really, you're in your what your third year now, right?
County Executive Steuart Pittman:And so, um, uh, when you came on board, we met right away and hit it off, I think, and philosophically and uh, you know, we've been able to not just do what we can financially. But, I think our teams, our budget office and your budget team, communicate all the time. Our staff, uh, communicates. The land that the schools are on, um, is land that is usually is purchased by the county. Um, and then the school controls it once the schools are on is land that usually is purchased by the county and then the school controls it once the school is on there.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:But there's all kinds of overlap that we work on.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:But you said something important. Our school district is a school district that is in demand. Test Prep Insight, I think, was the entity that did a survey. Anne Arundel County. This was back in either March or April of last year. Landed on the list of 11,000 plus school districts in the United States. 250 districts made this survey as the most desirable school districts in the United States. Anne Arundel County was ranked 40 out of the 250 districts, but number one in the DMV.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Yep.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:And so we are the number one most sought-after school district in a state that is also, according to Wallet Hub, is ranked number three as the best state to be educated in in the United States for children.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Yep.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:So, we feel like our partnership has contributed to this state being ranked number three. And then the demand that people have. So the question is how do we continue to work together as a community to continue to make Anne Arundel County be that desirable place that people want to have their kids educated and want to reside in?
County Executive Steuart Pittman:So, I don't want to embarrass you or anything. I don't think that's possible. But, but you, you're part of it. You're part of the reason why we are a popular school district now, and you're definitely a part of the reason why it's easier it's not easy, but it's easier to recruit teachers to Anne Arundel County. Teachers are mobile not all of them, but but they have some choice in where they go in the region. And and so we've got to be good to make them want to come here. So let's talk about you a little bit. First, where did you start out, even pre-career? You know where were you born, raised. What was your childhood like and what got you into education?
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:Yeah, I have an article coming out in the superintendent's magazine that goes out. It's called School Administrator Magazine. It will be in the next month's edition. It goes around the entire country. It's the largest distributed education magazine and that article talks about my life story. It talks about how I've leveraged that life study to be the leader that I am today and being able to build relationships, having the soft skills to help people get on board but then operating with a high degree of empathy. It's the difference between empathy and sympathy, and I think sometimes we sympathize people to failure in life because of the terrible hand that they were dealt in life. And I was one of those people who was dealt with a terrible hand.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:I was from Rochester, New York. I was a ward of the State of New York growing up, meaning that we were all split up as a family because of the household environment we grew up in was not a healthy environment for us. I experienced things that no student or no child should ever experience, but one of them being homeless at one point in my high school career. Being the only one out of eight to graduate out of high school and also being told by a teacher in the second grade that I was dumb, ugly, and would never amount to anything, and I quit school in the second grade.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:You dropped out in the second grade?
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:Dropped out in the second grade and I had to repeat the second grade because I didn't go to school. And that was when Child Protective Services came in and they split us up and we all lived with different people. It wasn't until my 10th grade year that my homeroom teacher pulled me to his desk and said you know, you're academically talented, but you're throwing it all away because you're mad at the world. You need to find somebody to talk to, and at that time I was sleeping on the couch in my grandmother's house. So, I slept on the couch in a studio all of my high school years, pretty much.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Was that the first time a teacher or somebody told you that you had talent?
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:Oh, I think that's where it really hit me. This teacher told me that, but he said you need to find somebody to talk to. It don't have to be me. So he knew I was going through something. And I tell people this teacher was a white teacher. We always talk about we racialize things. My attitude is if your heart's in the right place, it doesn't matter, right? We got people that who hearts aren't in the right place shouldn't be in front of kids, regardless of your race. This guy heart was in the right place and I came back and told him everything I was going through. And then after that, I started making the honor roll and I didn't look back.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:From there he took me in as a mentor, and this guy and another history teacher. They both told me that I was. I was going to be a teacher one day.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:I was like nah, I'm going to the NBA. I'm not going to teach kids.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:And, sure enough, they had planted the seed in me, probably my junior year, that I would be a teacher one day. And eventually, eventually went to college, got away from Rochester, New York, and had my chance at the NBA. Tried out, got invited to five NBA pro camps, gone out of college. But ultimately I decided that yes, I'm going to teach one day. Never thought I would be a superintendent in a million years. I thought I would be the greatest teacher. There's an article in my office that talks about if I teach one day, I want to go teach in some of the toughest areas. And I did that, and eventually I moved into administration because I couldn't afford to take care of a family of four making $34,750. And that made me leave the classroom.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:So you started having kids. Started having kids, man, and they made me leave the classroom. So you started having kids.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:Started having kids, man, and they changed everything.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:That changes your life.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:They changed everything. And we had them back-to-back, like my wife was in law school and we had kids her second year in law school, third year in law school. And she did not drop out of law school and got her law degree in three years from the University of Houston. But I knew at that point, I'm going to have to do something else to take care of a family of four and that's what forced me into administration.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Hey, I didn't know, you repeated second grade. I'm going to come clean with you now. I repeated second grade, too.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:Really?
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Yeah, it was because I was coming home crying every day because I wasn't learning how to read and my mom realized that you know, I'm just not ready for third grade, and so I did it twice. I was mad at my parents for holding me back, yeah, but I am so glad that I did it, because it made all the difference, yeah.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:Yeah, and so I use those stories. I share those stories with my students to let them know that I'm not a perfect leader. I share my imperfections and my vulnerabilities to let people know that my path was not a straight, easy path, that I went through, but I also did not allow for those circumstances to ultimately define who I am now. And so what I tell my kids is, I'm not here for you to be pushed through the system. I get it. Some of you have been dealt a bad hand in life, but you're going to work, you're going to earn your high school diploma and that's my expectation. And so, if I can make it, I'm setting that mindset in this county that we're not going to be a county pushing kids through. And then my legacy, 10 years later, is that all we did was push you through. This superintendent was terrible because y'all didn't properly educate me. Not under my watch.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Yeah, just graduating is not good enough. Okay, so what got you from? You decided to be an administrator. How did you end up in Anne Arundel County. What did you do between that?
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:Well, I mean in between that. So I, I ended up working in Houston. I taught. I moved all the way up to becoming a high school principal and supervising high schools in Houston. And in 2012, the new superintendent came into Baltimore County, was like, hey, I would love for you to come and visit. And I was like, al right, yeah, yeah. Initially, I said no. And then they called me again when I was on vacation in Galveston Beach and I was in a whole different mood. I said you know what, Robin, I'm going to go down and we're going to visit. I'm going to go visit. Came down, visited, had a great experience, and my brother-in-law lives here because he was assigned to Fort Meade and he lives in Severn. So we decided that when we came in 2012, we found a place to live in right down the street from them, off of Telegraph Road.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:In Anne Arundel County.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:So, I lived in Anne Arundel County, but commuted to Baltimore County for four years between 2012 and 16. So my kids were attending Ridgeway Elementary. My two younger, older kids and then they both attended the Old Mill Middle School North and Middle School South, and then my younger one was going to school at Seven Oaks in pre-K, and so we already have familiarity with this area. I left in 2016 to become the superintendent of the Kansas City Public School District in Missouri, did that until '22, helped that district get its full accreditation restored for the first time in 22 years. And I did, and I did what I said I was going to do and Arundel came open.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Yeah, and I know. I know they heard about what you had done in Kansas City, and in fact, the whole country heard about what you had done in Kansas city, the progress that you had made.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:So, uh, we were, we felt really lucky to get you, um, and we hope you stick around.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:Well, I think you all can thank my wife for this, because the, because we have a home in um in in Houston area still, and that district also came open and that was a district I had my eyes on. I told my wife you know we got options here. I can apply for Anne Arundel or I can apply for A-Leaf, because that's coming open and we can go back to Texas.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:And my wife was like I loved the four years when we lived in Anne Arundel County, so I would rather us take a look at that. So that made it easy. So then when I applied, I was like, okay, I'm going to get in this interview.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:And I felt great because we did just get that full accreditation back, and I was saying listen, I'm leaving on top of the world in Kansas City. But I want to be able to come into a district like this and show everybody that what I did in Kansas City can also be applied here. But the goal would take, would be that this is a good district that's not in a hole. We're trying to turn it into a great district, and so that's why I feel good about what we're doing right now.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:And I remember there was a committee of school board members that was doing the search committee and they were very careful to make sure that it had the most conservative as well as maybe some of the most progressive board members on it. And it was unanimous that you know across the board. Totally different philosophies, but they all liked you.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:Well, I think it's important for people who will listen to this to know that part of the reason why they made that decision to go with me was because it didn't matter if you were Democrat or Republican during my time as a superintendent in Kansas City. I went after both entities equally if I felt that they were doing things that were going to harm our ability to properly educate children. And I took positions, whether it was a very popular mayor Democrat, a Democratic mayor or a very popular Republican that was in the Senate or the House. If I felt like things were being done. My job is to fight for children and I have to operate from a position of neutrality when it comes to that, and I don't have any broken relationships. Even when I had to do what I had to do with the mayor of Kansas City, Mayor James, we were still friends afterwards.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:I didn't burn bridges, right.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:That's funny. Because when I heard your name, that you'd been hired, I Googled you, of course. And the first things I read were comments from the mayor about you leaving to go to Anne Arundel and how disappointed he was. And I figured well, that's a good sign.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:Well, you're right, and he was the new mayor, but I had a great relationship with him. But I had a great relationship with the previous mayor that had some item on the ballot that superintendents didn't support and to this day, like we still, I just don't. You know. I'm just here to do the right thing to try to move a district forward and to protect the interests of the school district. That's what I was hired to do and I think that really resonated with the board members, that I was a fair and balanced person. It wasn't that I was only going after Republican folks. If it was Democrats, it's clearly articulated that I didn't have a problem challenging them too.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:So let's talk about some of the stuff you've been doing. I mean, we could start with the strategic plan. That's a boring topic. When you say the word strategic plan, everybody turns off their. You know, I can leave now. But just tell me why you did that coming in and what that was about.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:I mean, the strategic plan should coming in and what that was about. I mean, the strategic plan should always be about what the community wants. So when we put that together, I put people from all around the school district and invited them to help us shape what the next five years would look like. It's, in essence, a blueprint and a roadmap for where you want to see your system look like in five years. And in that strategic plan, you have simple goals that you want to accomplish. Student achievement, first and foremost, so academic excellence and really being able to move the school district on that front.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:You want to take care of your people on that front. You want to take care of your people, so you want to be able to close disparities in vacancy rates and all of those kinds of things, right. You want to move your district forward, making sure that kids from a college career and readiness standpoint are getting what they need, and then the social, emotional and academic well-being. Those types of things you want to have a focus on and then facilities. So we built out this strategic plan that has these five goals that really allow us to move forward, but then we have the. What's the word I'm looking for? The profile of a graduate and the things that the kids say that they want us to be able to do when they leave our school district, whether it's being an empathetic. So you ask the kids what it should be and we involved everybody.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Oh, I didn't realize that.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:And and, Steuart.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:The strategic plan should never be about a single superintendent. It should never be about a school board member, because we come and go. In the end, the constant is going to be the community. So we wanted this to be what the community felt we needed to have in place in order to move this district from good to great.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Can I just say that a lot of people think and I'll admit that I've got a little bit of this bias too that that there is no room for creativity. There is no room for innovation in public education, that you come in and you do what the state law says, or you do what the curriculum that somebody gave you is. And, and just the fact that you did a strategic plan and you ask students and parents and and obviously staff what, what should be done, um means, I think that you're prepared to innovate right and try new things.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:Well, yeah, people, people, exactly, and that's what. That's what we are embarking on now. People will buy into it when they feel like they've had voice, and this strategic plan is a simple strategic plan. I mean, the title of the plan is basically belong, grow, succeed. We are almost branding this like the NBA does. You see my lanyard?
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:Belong, grow, succeed, so we're turning this into a brand and we believe that if we can create a sense of belonging and because we are a diverse school district. I don't want my conservative kids feeling like they don't belong, just as the kids who are moderate or kids who come from liberal families. We have to create an environment where everybody feels like they are a part of the Anne Arundel County family. Then they'll be able to grow socially, emotionally and academically and if we do those things well, then they'll be able to succeed in a globally competitive world when they leave us at the end of their 12th grade year.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:And that strategic plan helps us to get there, but also gives us space to be able to innovate and offers grace when some of the innovation doesn't work.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:I remember you saying that what upset you the most is when people don't try. And I can't even remember. I think it had to do with the bus driver shortage and you were saying you know, remember. I think it had to do with the bus driver shortage and you were saying you know, we gotta, we gotta do contracts with smaller vehicles and and it may not work and if it fails that's okay. At least you tried, right?
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:Right, and look at what happened with that. Yeah, we were able to fix transportation. I started August 8th. I wrote out a plan to the school board about this alternative vehicle initiative, came and shared it with you and we got the support to launch that financially. And so we had already told folks that your transportation was going to be interrupted at the start of the second semester. If your kid had transportation, they're not going to have it. When we launched that initiative, people immediately applied and we did not have to interrupt transportation. And then the following year, which was my second year, we've had zero vacancies in the last two years that I've started here, clean.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Yep.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:And I think that's because we innovated.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:Yep, we took advantage of a law that is now a game changer for our county.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Right, right.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:And everything is up. As a result, if I can bring kids to school, attendance rates are going to increase, test scores are going to go up, graduation rates are going to go up. And all of those things I can say have played out because we're going to bring kids to school.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:They are happening.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Yeah, and for other reasons too, probably. So there was another. I think it was our first budget that we did together. You came in with a budget request. We did everything we could on it. I think it included the pay package. It never includes everything, never all the positions that are requested, but it wasn't bad. And then our budget officer, Chris Trum bauer, um, we knew. We knew we needed to increase starting salary for teachers in order to be able to recruit because we were in big trouble, you know on on hiring and and it was.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:It was very late in the process, in fact. I think we had already done our budget and we had to amend it for in front of the council. He had figured out a way because of some other things that had moved in the budget. Maybe it was state money, federal or something where we could bump the starting salary for teachers up to what the Blueprint was saying we needed in a couple of years. I think it was a starting of 60.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:Yes.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:And that would put us ahead of other counties. The problem we all knew was that if you do that, then you're creating compression in the scale for other teachers and. But the only way that money was going to go into teachers at all was if the union agreed to support this. And we all thought that was going to be a heavy ask and they did and it was because good relationship you had, good relationship we had, and we've tried that with some other bargaining units and it hasn't worked out. Where we've tried to do this, everybody has to move up. If you raise the starting, everybody has to go up. So I mean I want to thank TAC, the Teachers Union, for that. I know they're still struggling to get more, they're still struggling to deal with that compression and we're all trying to deal with it. It's always money, but I thought that was amazing how, how quickly we were able to make that happen and it was.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:It was. It was a little crazy to be doing at that point.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:I mean, but it moved us from 19th out of 24 school districts to fourth. It's starting and and with the starting salary. And let me tell you what it also did. When I first got here, we were sitting with over 300 teacher vacancies. Immediately, that was shaved in half and now we are sitting as a school district that has about 5800 teachers with roughly 65 to 66 teacher vacancies. Some of these vacancies are just real hard to staff positions, right, where there's just hard to find some of these people.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:But we have, we have. We have done a phenomenal job.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:Well, yeah. Yeah, special ed is just. It sometimes can be very difficult. We have a plan, because I had to reorg how we were gonna support special education in this school district. And now, I have like a special ed guru that is leading our special ed department, who has a thorough plan that is, I think, will take us into a situation where we're going to be able to really get a lot of people to want to come to Anne Arundel County in this recruitment season.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:That's good, because we've been here, we've been hearing at budget town halls, we've been hearing from a lot of teachers and staff. Not just teachers, um, but particularly special ed and some social work staff describing what their job is like.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:It's tough right now, yeah, because with this growth, we have had a shift. We have more special education kids that are enrolling in Anne Arundel County and if we don't provide those supports, the burnout will run these people out. I'm just telling so that's the reason why I wanted to have this focus on special education. I want to have this focus on building gifted and talented education. I'm tired of losing our kids that are super high achievers to private schools because we don't have a rock solid gifted and talented program. The same applies to our kids with exceptional needs that have IEPs. We've been losing them and having to outsource them because our program hasn't been strong, and that has been a major focus of mine. I want to keep my kids that have exceptional needs in this county, just as much as my kids who are gifted and talented. And our budget requests have allowed for us to begin to build those things out.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:So, uh, I want to. I want to go to another that I know a lot of parents, some parents are thinking about right now. Um, you just dropped the redistricting, or three, three versions of a plan, three options from the consultant that parents are starting to review for the redistricting in Phase 2, the second half of the county. When you came in, we had about 10,000.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Some counties have more empty seats, unutilized seats in schools, and then we had other schools that were I think one was close to 140% capacity. Made no sense whatsoever. Fortunately, we had some new schools coming on, which helped. But that also, when you have new schools, you've got to redistrict because you've got to figure out where those students are going to come from, and so you did phase one. I want to thank you for that because it hadn't been done in so long, because superintendents and school boards were afraid to do it, because it is always controversial. There are going to be families. I mean, I got people in my own family who are complaining about the proposed changes in where I live. Davidsonville's got overcrowded elementary and they got to redistrict, and so people are going to be affected. But if we don't do it for one, we'll lose state money, right?
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:Yeah, well, ultimately we can't continue to go to the state and ask for capital money to continue to do additions. It's just not being fiscally responsive and I would be upset as a taxpayer if that's what we're doing because we don't have the courage to redistrict. Now people will laugh at what I'm getting ready to say. I don't remember redistricting being a part of the conversation. When the board and I were interviewing, I told the school board, had I known that I was going to have to come here and do whole district redistricting, I would have stayed in Kansas City. But nevertheless, this is the right thing to do.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:But the hard things are the most important things.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:Well, they are.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:And, getting that done to me is one of the greatest things you've been able to do. The first half. We've got to get through the second half.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:We do. But here's what I want people to understand. I've had to redistrict. There's two ways of having to redistrict. One is growth and one is a decline in enrollment. And when you have a decline in enrollment, you're redistricting because you're having to close schools. You're redistricting because you're having to close schools and when you now have to close schools, if you don't have a strong repurposing plan, you create blight within that community that ultimately will lower property values and create just an eyesore because people are vandalizing and then crazy things are happening in that vacant building. Right, I had to live through that kind of stuff and that's a lot more frustrating than having to redistrict because you're growing. Because you're having to open up more schools and you want to balance schools so kids can get the attention that they deserve to be able to flourish academically, socially and emotionally. And that's the situation we find ourselves in in Anne Arundel County now.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:While none of it feels good and nobody wants to go through this, it is a necessity. It is a necessity and we have to go through it and you know and we're going to ultimately. We put out three examples. Last year, when we went through this. We put out those examples. None of those examples was the final one that the board voted on. So people need to. They're mad. Put your comments in the two that we created and let us take that information and figure out what makes the most sense. We'll bring recommendations to the board, and then the board still has the power to shape how they want these to be when it's all said and done.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:So you actually want people to speak up and tell you what they think about it.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:I do. I do, but there's a process. We inserted a high degree of transparency.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Yep.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:And so your comments will be taken to a comment, but those comments help to shape what the final result was of phase one.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:But not everybody will get what they want.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:No, that's not possible. That's not possible. That's not possible.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Yeah, yeah. So okay, here's here's a crazy one I didn't even have on my list. I just because as we sat down, we both realized we're both going to the same place. Tonight it's the AG dinner and I'll tell you you've never been. I've been every year since long before I was, because I used to be on farm bureau board. It's about 800 farmers from across the state of Maryland getting together eating the best Maryland-grown food that you can find anywhere. They moved it to Live Casino, which is kind of new for them. It's a little fancier than what they're used to and I understand that you're going.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Invitation from a member of the Board of Education from South yeah, Don Pulliam. Yep, yep and uh, and part of the reason she wants you there is that she and a lot of South County. And really, I think, a lot of residents across the county um want to make sure that kids across the county have an opportunity to learn about ag education, to learn about the industry and the jobs and the careers in it. So this is interesting.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:What are you going to wear?
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:Listen, I think I'm just gonna keep what I have on, but I do want listeners to know that.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Um, you want them to know how cool your cowboy. He's got, this, guy's got.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Yeah, you got it.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:I am about that western life and and I lived in Nashville. I went to college in Nashville. So I lived in Nashville between 90, 93 and 2000, but then I left Nashville and moved to Houston where I started to teach. So I was in Houston for 12 years in the schools. I supervised schools that had the AG program, that the largest AG magnet I supervised, which was Madison High School in Houston, ISD. So, I was.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:I really learned a lot about the rodeo, about livestock, about all of those things. And like I have this vision and this vision might be too big because it's all about what students want and we're going to look and see what Magnet Schools of America reveal but like I want a real, a full blown mag. I mean, agaponics, hydroponics program If the demand is there. If it isn't, then we're going to take a look at how we can partner with local farmers and um and folks that are the leaders of of the agricultural community here to figure out how can we enhance what we currently have. Maybe not doing it to the vision that I want, because it is based on student demand and if we have a lot of students interested, then that get you know, that's something we can look at. So today gives me an opportunity to begin to network with folks in that space, and I'm excited about it.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Good. Cause, I think. I think students are going to go for it. There's a lot of careers and and we all know that um, whatever happens in the future, we've got to know how to create food, grow food and all that. And I had coffee with Don Pulliam the other day and we were scheming about how we were going to do this. And then there's a really great teacher named Dr. Echol who does the program at Southern High School, and I know she's scheming. So we'll see.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:There's a lot of scheming, but here's what I will say to you.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:I share my vision with you, but I have to be realistic. Because just because I'm the superintendent doesn't mean that I get everything that I want. Just like in the strategic plan, there were some things people wanted. They didn't get in there. There's some things I wanted in there that we didn't get, but we came to a consensus on it, and you know I'm talking. I understand the heavy lift of what I want to see happen, um, and so that's the reason why I want to let Magnet Schools of America do what they need to do get and let. And then we'll do it based on what the data is telling us, because you can't go out and raise money and do all of this and then you don't have the number of students to really take advantage of it. It may just have to be a smaller scale of something that we can do, yeah, but there's gonna be some enhancements, I believe, over time for certain.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Good, good. Alright, I know we could go on a really long time. No, and we're over time. But I do want to ask you one last thing, which is if you and I know you think about this stuff. If you could change maybe one or two or three or however much you got time for things in public education in this country, what would you change?
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:I mean, I think the first one for me would be. I think I was on WBAL radio, probably two or three weeks ago. And I just shared with them that I think sometimes we as educators don't feel that we're being treated as thought partners, and a lot of things tend to be done at a legislative level that don't also take our voice into account. Sometimes I feel like that as a superintendent and then I wonder you know, do my teachers feel like that when we're making decisions at this level? So how do I be more conscious of the people who are in the trenches and making sure that they are at the table and that they have voice? I think the same has to apply for superintendents. When people feel like things are being done to them.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:Legislation is passed or introduced and we don't even really get a voice in it, and then we have to oppose or, you know, always, constantly amend.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Yep.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:It, it. It ultimately drives people away. And when you think about the turnover, the average tenure of a superintendent used to be 3.2. I think it's lower than that now kind of given what's been going on.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:That makes it hard to have consistency, to really be able to have a strong public education system.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:People are so afraid they're going to lose their job, they don't even bother trying to be creative. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:Or what happens is because there's so much change, people will just try to wait you out, so they never get on board with the agenda that you may have. That may be really good for the system, because they're in a retreat, defensive mode constantly because of the churning. We're going to have almost full-blown turnover in this state when you think about right now what's happening.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:I just saw on the news about Baltimore City.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:You got. Queen Anne's is coming open. Superintendent in Calvert is potentially a finalist. Elsewhere. The turnover is significant. If we want to be a state that's going to remain.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:I hope Calvert knows about this. We can cut that part out.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:No, it's public. I wouldn't be saying it if it wasn't. No, it's public.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:I just think that we need to slow that up and we need to have some stability here, and I think that's important. And then the second thing for me that I think is very important is we got to figure out. We got to figure out. I know funding is not infinite, but I also know that education really is that foundation that produces everything else that works in this country, like they do in Sweden and other places like that, where those people are viewed as they're some of the most important people. They are able to get their college degrees all the way through a doctorate degree at no cost, because education is viewed as a noble profession.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:I'm not certain that that's the case here, and we're the ones that produce the county executives, the doctors, the lawyers, the executives. They all have gone through. Whether it's private, whether it's charter, whether it's traditional public schooling. We produce these folks and I just think there needs to be some level of value and appreciation towards you know that those people were in the trenches. And I'm talking about not just the teachers, but the paras, the custodians, the food service employees, the administrators who are working these extreme hours to make sure that these kids get the experiences that they deserve. And I think once we get there, as a country man, I could watch out.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Yeah, I can agree with you more. I mean, we've got a governor who's saying that the reason that we have a financial problem in the state of Maryland is we had 3% GDP growth while the country had 11%, and then the government grew by 70% during this six-, seven-year period before he came in, and he's saying the solution is growth. But he's also not saying, oh, that just means that we're going to, you know, cut taxes for the top earners and corporations so that they have more money to invest in the economy. That's the old trickle-down version, but but it's it's about. We got to have the best education system and we gotta, we gotta, make sure we have housing and child care and transportation, all those things.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:And I remember a meeting that I was at in my very first year where one of the county executives said we need to have just a really hot economic development strategy. We need to have some industry that's going to drive, you know, the growth of this, you know, and the wealth and all of that of this state. And I remember saying what about the blueprint for education? Isn't that what that's for? You know, isn't education the biggest economic driver you can have? And it's like absolutely, it's the biggest economic driver.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:Yeah. A good system will do that, and that's what we want.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:And if that's what we believe, we better darn well respect the teachers and the staff that are making it happen.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:Listen.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Yeah.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:There is a reason why you have a number of vacancies that you have around this country a lot of people aren't choosing education as their preferred pathway when they go into college.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:Yep, because I do think that there there is this fear of educators not being valued to the extent that they need to be valued at, and but I think that can be reversed. It absolutely can be reversed. I mean, we we've seen it with the with our numbers here in Anne Arundel County. You know people will say, well, we got, we got a long way to go and I get that. We'll work on it gradually to try to close those gaps. But I think in Anne Arundel County, at least since I've been here, we've done a phenomenal job of showing our appreciation to the educators in this county. And I want to continue to figure out ways that I can show appreciation and remove workload that's on them so that they can focus on really just being the greatest teacher possible. And so efficiencies, what we do in central office. If those efficiencies trickle down to the school level, we make this a much more desirable place in county for people to want to come and educate children in.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Yep, and I know that includes compensation.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:It's not just that, but it includes that, and we have to figure that out on the government side.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:We will. We will.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Yeah, so thank you. Alright. Well, this is great.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:Al right.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:And if you're listening and you see a subscribe button there, hit it and we'll send you an email about who the next guest is. But this has been a blast, so thank you.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell:Thank you.
