How Springfield’s interim superintendent plans to bring people together

Shawn Stover stumbled into teaching by chance. 

He graduated from the University of North Carolina with a degree in economics in 1990 and interviewed at a bank, confident he would get the job. But the bank was in the middle of a merger and couldn’t hire him, so he went back to the drawing board. He opened up a copy of the university’s student newspaper, The Daily Tar Heel. There, in the middle section, was an ad that read “Who Will Teach for America?”

Stover was in the first cohort of Teach for America, a national nonprofit organization that trains and places members in under-resourced schools across the country for two-year commitments. Though he didn’t have any teaching experience, he had experience with children, helping raise two younger siblings and working as a camp counselor.

Teaching immediately clicked for Stover. He liked the creativity and hands-on nature of it, relishing in the challenge of teaching abstract concepts in accessible ways. In his early career, he taught fourth grade math and science. He fondly remembered the Metric Olympics, when students recorded how many times they could do an action in one minute.

“You’d be surprised at how much you can do in a minute,” he said.

He also worked a nearly two-year stint as a high school teacher at a juvenile correctional facility. There, he learned to see negative behaviors in the broader context of a student’s social and emotional needs. Stover said this experience shaped his approach to discipline as a teacher and soon after, an administrator — and now, as the interim superintendent at the Springfield School District.

Stover went on to work in an array of education leadership positions across the country. He was a principal, a senior leader at Teach for America, a charter school network director in Dallas, Texas, a secondary school administrator in D.C. Public Schools and superintendent of a rural North Carolina school district. 

As he steps into his new role in Springfield, Stover is drawing upon his adaptability, curiosity and dogged drive to bring people together to move the district forward.

‘A little bit of crisis’

Stover is not fazed by inheriting drama in new roles. He got his job at D.C. Public Schools right after journalists found that the district was graduating students who had not met requirements. He was hired in North Carolina’s Rockingham County immediately following a legally contentious, drawn-out ending to a popular superintendent’s tenure.

Instead, he sees stepping into discord as an opportunity and a challenge.

“I’ve learned that sometimes you need a little bit of crisis to set a stage to really try new things and be adventurous,” he said.

Superintendent Charles Perkins of Rockingham County Schools was Stover’s assistant superintendent during his time at the district. He was struck by Stover’s warmth and curiosity when he first came to Rockingham County. It was an uncertain time for him and others who had been leaders at the district for years.

“The first weekend that he moved into the county, he had reached out to me, and he came over on a Sunday afternoon with his wife,” Perkins said. “He met with me and my wife for about four hours and we’d planned for only about an hour. He just wanted to know so much about the county and the history.”

As a leader who worked alongside Stover, Perkins admired what he called Stover’s thoughtful and genuine approach to relationships. Stover believes in the good in people, Perkins said, especially students. He also had a constant desire for feedback and reflection and would own the district’s mistakes in Rockingham County, even if he didn’t make them.

“You have to take the slings and arrows when things go wrong, and when things go right, you can’t accept that praise either; you’ve got to give it to the others that were working on the issue,” said Perkins, speaking to what he had learned from Stover.

Stover credits leadership training he took through the organization Leading Now for helping him navigate difficult situations, including conflict. He referenced a book he read through the program, “High Conflict” by Amanda Ripley, to describe one aspect of Springfield’s challenges from last year: people getting so wrapped up in conflict that they stopped talking to each other, which makes conflict worse.

Leading Now began in 2021 to help superintendents “navigate political complexity and strengthen public trust,” according to its website. Stover said through the program, he’s seen how issues of politics, trust, funding and declining enrollment are not unique to the districts he’s worked in. 

But Stover’s ability to cut through tension doesn’t just come from serious leadership books — a sense of humor also seems to play a role. Stover kicked off a recent school board retreat by playing the “Schoolhouse Rock!” song “Conjunction Junction” to demonstrate the need to work together. In a room stiff with past frustrations and disagreements, board members and administrators cracked smiles and bobbed their heads to the familiar tune. 

‘I just thrive on that challenge’

Though Stover is contracted as interim superintendent of Springfield for only one year, his sights are set on staying — if things work out. The board must consider him as a long-term fit for the position before he even has a choice whether to stay.

In the meantime, he’ll be busy. Stover will be team-teaching in classrooms, riding along on bus routes, serving meals in cafeterias, going to classes with students and shadowing his own district office staff for the next two months, getting into the nitty-gritty of what it’s like to work and attend school at Springfield Public Schools. Though Stover knows it might be seen as performative, for him, it’s not a publicity stunt.

“I know that me teaching a couple lessons or serving on the line or riding the bus route, that doesn’t give me the full experience of what our staff members go through, but at least it provides an appreciation,” he said.

After he immerses himself, he’ll come up with three to four focus areas for the year. Then, he’ll do more analysis, digging deeper into the issues he found to formulate a more detailed plan.

Much of his work this year, however, will be listening. 

Part of a leader’s role, Stover said, is to keep conversations going and not let people stop talking due to disagreement. For example, he plans to hold listening sessions for parents who have chosen to pull their children out of Springfield Public Schools and homeschool them or send them to a private school, because “enrollment is our hustle,” he said. He also is working on a plan for the secondary Spanish dual language immersion program, which past district leaders decided to cut this school year due to its cost relative to the number of students served. He wants to involve families in the decision-making process.

Luckily, it’s all work that Stover enjoys.

“I would be bored out of my mind to find the district where everything’s just going well,” he said. “You know, the Lake Wobegan district. I would be a horrible superintendent for that because I just thrive on that challenge.”