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The joy and electricity in the air were unmistakable
the day Midway Independent School District began
its honeymoon with a tall, lean and good-humored
man from College Station.
No one questioned that it was a match made
in some kind of educational heaven -- 45-year-old
Brad Lancaster, formerly assistant superintendent
for Allen Independent School District, was treated
to a ceremonious welcome as the district's new
superintendent by approximately 800 Midway faculty,
staff and administrators.
Midway patrons, many donning school-spirit
garb, waited with giddy anticipation to shake
the new superintendent's hand at the special
breakfast meeting held in his honor last week.
They formed a messy line that extended well
outside the Midway High School cafeteria doors
and into the hallway.
"We're very glad to finally have him,"
said special education teacher Judy Geib. "He's
great."
When Lancaster took center stage to deliver
an opening speech, he easily charmed his audience
with personal anecdotes and notes of appreciation
for his new appointment.
"I've never been more excited to start
work in all my life," a beaming Lancaster
said. "This was meant to be."
Lancaster's mission during his first few months
on the job is no secret: earn the district a
recognized rating from the Texas Education Agency.
That will mean raising a handful of test scores,
specifically in math and science.
At the conclusion of his first week on the
job, Lancaster already has made strides toward
that goal. Over two days, he held brainstorming
meetings with administrators from the middle,
intermediate and high schools and their math
and science faculty.
Midway ISD missed a recognized rating by a
few test scores last year. This year, the bar
for receiving a recognized rating has been raised
5 percent from last year's requirement.
Lancaster comes to Midway from a TEA-recognized
school district. Allen ISD, which has a student
population more than double the size of Midway,
was given a recognized rating last year after
being rated academically acceptable in 2005.
As former executive director for curriculum
at Allen ISD, Lancaster had a direct hand in
the district's accountability boost.
Victoria Sublette, Allen ISD school board president,
said she admired Lancaster's ability to identify
individual students and their particular needs.
"Under Brad's instructional leadership,
Allen ISD joined the elite group of districts
. . . which are Texas 'recognized' districts
under the new, more stringent accountability
system," she said. "The results of
his department's districtwide initiative to
improve math and science scores far exceeded
our very high hopes."
Sublette noted that the rating came at a time
when the district's enrollment sky rocketed
to more than 60 percent.
Allen ISD spokesman Tom Carroll, who has 15
years of experience in the district, said Lancaster's
greatest contribution in his five-year stay
was strengthening the district's curriculum
department.
"He created an environment where teachers
felt the curriculum department was there to
support them," Carroll said. "Most
of the people in his department were out of
the administration building and in the schools."
A strong background in curriculum management
was one of the key characteristics the Midway
school board looked for in their future superintendent.
"Brad was the clear and obvious choice,"
Midway school board trustee Tom Pagel said.
Lancaster was born into education. He grew
up in a 40-year-old home built by his grandfather
no more than 100 paces from the Texas A&M
University campus. His father, Bill Lancaster,
was the director of budget and payroll at Texas
A&M before he retired. Both his older sisters
have careers in public education, and for a
time, Lancaster's mother taught kindergarten
in their home.
As a boy, when he padded downstairs for breakfast,
Lancaster was greeted by a roomful of rowdy
college students, and his mother dressed in
an apron and armed herself with platefuls of
eggs, bacon and biscuits to feed them. The Lancasters
have owned and operated a boardinghouse for
college students for more than 30 years, though
they no longer cater to their gastronomical
fancies as they did in the beginning.
"It was a great way to grow up, to wake
up every morning to hear the Aggie band playing,"
Lancaster said. "By the time I was 18,
it wasn't a question of whether I was going
to college, it was where."
The winning choice was Baylor University, where
Lancaster's mother had received her sociology
degree in the 1950s. He graduated from Baylor
in 1983, majoring in secondary education. Lancaster
now holds a doctoral degree in educational administration
with a minor in curriculum and instruction from
Texas A&M.
He did his student teaching at Lake Air Middle
School.
As a former teacher, assistant principal and
principal, Lancaster believes in the importance
of being a visible superintendent and places
a special emphasis on individual relationships
with the people in his district.
Throughout last week, Lancaster made a point
to visit most of the campuses and meet as many
people as possible.
During Lancaster's visit to South Bosque Elementary
School on Tuesday, principal Mary Lou Glaesmann
said her campus fell in love with the district's
new head administrator.
"It's obvious he understands teachers'
needs," she said. "He is family-oriented
and plans to stay (at Midway) for a while, which
is real important. We want that consistency."
Other than becoming a recognized school district,
Lancaster said, Midway is not a district that
needs sweeping changes or reforms.
"I don't want people to have the impression
that . . . I'm coming in on a white horse to
save the district," he said. "I'm
just coming to see what you need to get your
classroom over the hump -- that's my job."
Lancaster plans to have regular conversations
with high school students about what they like
and don't and what they'd like to see in the
future.
As a family man, Lancaster will have a very
personal stake in the district: his two children.
Daughter Julia, 14, and son Will, 11, started
classes at Midway one day after their father
took the reins.
Lancaster's wife of 17 years, Karen, whom he
met at Baylor, said she already has begun to
feel at home in their new house.
"We have had a great time moving out here;
people have gone out of their way to be kind
and thoughtful," she said. "All of
our married life, (my husband) has talked about
'Someday when I'm a superintendent . . . '"
