Last Updated on Friday, May 02, 2008 at 5:02 AM
News Release 07-030 - May 9, 2007
(BOWLING GREEN, Ky.) – At its retreat on Wednesday, the Kentucky Board of Education voted unanimously to ratify a contract to hire Barbara Erwin, Ed,D., superintendent of Community Unit District 303 in St. Charles, Illinois, as Kentucky’s commissioner of education.
“The board is very pleased to announce Barbara Erwin’s selection,” said Keith Travis, chair of the board. “Her vision for Kentucky’s educational future parallels this board’s goals and mission, and we believe her drive and focus will help schools meet the goal of proficiency in 2014.”
The contract term is for four years, and Erwin’s salary has been set at $220,000. Her responsibilities as commissioner of education will include oversight and management of the Kentucky Department of Education, serving as secretary to the Kentucky Board of Education and recommending and implementing board policies. She will begin her duties on July 16.
Since 2004, Erwin has served as superintendent of schools for the 15,000-student Community Unit District 303 in St. Charles, Illinois. During her tenure, she created a data warehouse and related training; increased student achievement through a comprehensive, continuous school improvement model using the SMART goals; and managed moderate growth in the district.
From 2000 to 2004, Erwin served as superintendent of the 30,000-student Scottsdale (Arizona) Unified School District. Her responsibilities included managing a $14 million budget shortfall, reorganizing the district’s administration, creating a community process for strategic planning, cstrreating new administrator evaluation instruments and bringing stability to a diict that had experienced turmoil.
Erwin served as superintendent of the Allen (Texas) Independent School District from 1994 to 2000. She managed the district’s rapid growth, led dramatic increases in student performance on state and national tests, helped bring instructional technology to state-of-the-art levels and worked to strengthen curriculum at all grade levels.
Erwin’s other previous positions include adjunct professor at Texas Women’s University and superintendent of the Tipton (Indiana) Community School Corporation.
Her classroom experience includes teaching students with disabilities at the junior high level and serving as a resource diagnostician for special needs students, elementary school principal and Title IV consultant.
Erwin earned a bachelor of science degree in special education from Indiana University; a master’s degree in school administration from Purdue University; and a doctorate in school administration from Indiana University. She has pursued post-doctoral work at Columbia University in New York and at the University of Southern California.
Erwin and her husband, David, currently reside in St. Charles, Illinois, and have two grown sons, Will and Jon.
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