Nearly 20 minutes after Columbus Municipal School District Superintendent Cherie Labat spoke Tuesday about a June work trip to Chicago on the district’s dime, the board denied two other requests for her to travel out of state for conferences.
Each by a 3-2 vote, the board voted against Labat’s requests to attend upcoming conferences in Arizona and Washington, D.C., after trustees questioned the benefit those trips would bring back to the district.
Labat was scheduled to speak at the McGraw-Hill Innovation Conference Oct. 3-6 in Litchfield Park, Arizona. Responding to a direct question from board member Josie Shumake, she told the board she would be representing CMSD, part of a league of innovative schools, and speaking on technology, community and social and emotional learning innovation within the district.
Board member Telisa Young then pressed Labat on student benefits at home.
“I applaud your national efforts, they’re commendable, but there are so many needs in our district, so I’m not sure how we’re benefiting from (this),” Young said. “I understand innovative schools, I understand what that is, but the McGraw-Hill conference — how are our students benefiting from that?”
Labat said she is not the only superintendent at the conferences and in order to grow and learn, it is important to get out of “your bubble.”
“A lot of things we’ve done have come out of going to these conferences and getting information,” Labat said. “Just because I’m a speaker, I also attend the conference, so I also bring things back, also.”
Young joined Yvonne Cox and Cynthia Brown in rejecting the Arizona request. Then without further discussion, Cox, Young and Shumake formed a majority to reject Labat’s request to attend an invitation-only U.S. Department of Education National Digital Equity Summit Sept. 27-29 in Washington, D.C.
Prior to those votes, Labat presented to the board about her most recent out-of-state business trip to Chicago for a LiberatEd leadership conference. She said she discussed strategies the district has implemented to improve student voice and graduation rates.
“We’re really working on our students telling us what they want to be once they graduate,” Labat said. “They (LiberatEd) have a great and extensive program and we work through the process of what the students go through, and it’s been very energizing for other districts, for students to have a voice and engage in what they want to do after they graduate. So, we will be working with LiberatEd to work on having more student voice.”
Cox said the reason the board continues to approve Labat attending out of district conferences is because it is important for the superintendent to be a visible leader. She agreed with Labat’s point that it is important to get out and speak with other leaders to learn and improve but said her primary concern is student performance at CMSD, where state testing scores continue to lag.
“Right now I know our accountability scores and all of that are closed up, but believe me, we do basically know where they are,” Cox said, referencing the importance of Labat’s visibility in the schools, as well as on the national and state level. “No one has to tell me. I can imagine that already because I’ve been here now for four years in the midst of our district. The one thing that’s very important is visibility of our leaders. It has a lot to do with meeting the learning needs.”
Labat interjected that she is in the schools at least once a week and that principals could vouch for her. She stated she is a very visible superintendent in the community and buildings constantly.
“Believe it or not, I have looked at her travel, and so we know,” Cox said before turning to Labat. “… I look at your travel, right?”
Speaking to The Dispatch after the meeting, Cox said the board needs to continue to be more judicious in what travel it approves for the superintendent.
“I have always supported administrative professional development in support of district initiatives,” she said. “However, you must be selective as to when you are … out of the district. As I noted during our board meeting, visibility of the leader is critical to school improvement and has an impact on the success of the district.”
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