- Johns Hopkins University
- Happier times: Dr. Susan Enfield (left) and Maria Goodloe-Johnson at an awards ceremony last year
Or so she divulged during a conversation with Seattle Public Schools students last year. While trying to explain the importance of arts in education, Enfield revealed that her debut as a performer had been as a fully-costumed French fry in a school play.
It’s a tad difficult to picture the cool, composed Enfield—usually spotted at Seattle School Board meetings making presentations in stylish suits—disguised as a French fry. But it’s not hard to picture her transitioning into the role of interim superintendent if the board votes to terminate Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson’s contract at their regular meeting today. The board is considering firing Goodloe-Johnson after an independent investigation revealed that she could have done more to prevent the district’s $1.8 million financial scandal that is currently the subject of a criminal investigation. It will vote on whether to approve Enfield as interim superintendent at the same meeting.
It was Goodloe-Johnson who hired Enfield as the district’s chief academic officer in July 2009 from a national pool of applicants, putting her in charge of curriculum, teaching, and testing, and the district’s schools. Enfield succeeded former chief academic officer Carla Santamo, who left to become deputy superintendent in Tacoma.
Enfield was named a finalist for the position of superintendent of the Bellevue School District in 2009. She came to Seattle Public Schools after a stint as deputy superintendent of Evergreen Public Schools in Vancouver, Wash., where her achievements included nearly doubling the number of advanced placement students, according to SPS. Before that, Enfield was director of teaching and learning at Portland Public Schools and director of the bureau of teaching and learning support at the Pennsylvania Department of Education. She started her career in education as a high school English, ESL, and journalism teacher in Cupertino, Calif.
Enfield has degrees from Harvard, Stanford, and UC Berkeley, where she was a school improvement coach. You can find her detailed resume on Linkedin.
While some community members seem relieved at the prospect of having someone with Enfield’s background and experience ready to step into Maria Goodloe-Johnson’s shoes if she gets ousted, others remain skeptical, wondering if she’d be more of the same. Enfield presented the controversial proposal to bring national nonprofit Teach for America to Seattle before the school board last year, stressing that TFA candidates would create a more diverse applicant pool. Although the Seattle teachers union opposed TFA, arguing that there was no dearth of qualified teachers in Seattle, the school board ultimately voted to approve a contract to bring TFA to Seattle.
If approved as interim superintendent by the board, Enfield would earn an annual salary of $225.000 plus benefits. Her contract with the district would be until June 30, 2012, and the board expects to decide whether to extend it or begin a search for a new supe before Jan. 19, 2012.
Enfield is MGJ’s cheif yes-man and a terrible, terrible choice for interim supe. Ugh, I can’t wait for school board elections.
Agreed, @1 – different name, same game.
I just have to wonder, since Enfield has been in charge of curriculum, if she is partly responsible for the controversial “discovering math” curriculum Cliff Mass is so opposed to. Seattle really needs a rock star messiah supe at this moment, our schools are shameful.
Time to take our schools back from the race card hustlers and pimps.
@3:
She apparently supports common curriculum and testing, or did very recently. See this article on her interview for Bellevue supe.
http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/east_king/be…
“During the forum, Enfield was asked her experience and views on common curriculum and common assessments.
Enfield spoke in favor of common curriculum.
“From a district perspective and as a district leader, I have to be able to look families in the eye and say to them with confidence that regardless of what school their child goes to, they will have access to the same high quality curriculum and the same high quality teaching and learning practices,” she said. “There has to be some common ground from which we are all functioning.”
In regard to common assessments, Enfield said that in her opinion, assessments give good data for teachers and the system to see where there may be gaps in student learning but also gaps in the curriculum that need to be addressed.
“It’s a good way for us to say we are functioning as a system and not just as a collection of independent schools,” she added.”
Gov. Gregoire only made $166,891 last year.
$225? An hour?
I can’t believe Susan Enfield fired Martin Floe from Ingraham. The details remind me of nothing so much as when I was fired from a telemarketing job by a computer in another state because I had low sales one week on a cold call list. I hope she does the right thing before her terrible decision ends up costing the district a lot of money, not to mention a fantastic principal.