Day in the Life with Grenita Lathan

Although she’s recovering from a cold, Springfield Public Schools Superintendent Grenita Lathan is up with the birds as usual.

Lathan rises at 5:30 a.m. and begins this Wednesday with private moments of prayer and devotional time. Then it’s off to her office at the Kraft Administrative Center. Lathan is in the habit of grabbing breakfast at work, since she frequently starts things off with an early-morning meeting, though that’s not the case today.

First up is a 9 a.m. preview session for the presentation she’ll give at an upcoming board retreat. Lathan reviews a set of PowerPoint slides with Deputy Superintendent of Academics Nicole Holt and the district’s communications team: Stephen Hall, chief director of communications, and Teresa Bledsoe, assistant communications director. The trio discuss where they anticipate questions or challenges, and Lathan makes sure she’ll be ready with answers.

Lathan explains that she met several times with principals and teachers, both individually and together, and culled their suggestions.

“We asked them what was working in the district and what we need to stop doing,” she says.

Their suggestions became a plan to guide the district in the 2024-25 school year, Lathan says.

“If we hear from people in classrooms and buildings, we can work and solve problems together and come up with solutions as a team,” she says.

Holt asks if they should plan to go into the weeds – minute details – with the board, sharing the results of an SPS employee survey that included 1,488 thoughts from 1,640 participants.

“Yes, because that’s what they asked for,” Lathan says.

Lathan’s next stop, set for 10:30 a.m., is at the district’s easternmost reach: Hickory Hills K-8 School. Students file out of the building to encircle a newly planted oak tree.

City of Springfield Urban Forestry Technician Troy Powell talks about how deep they had to plant the young oak and how much water it will require. It turns into a math problem; with his 2.5-gallon jug, how many times will he have to walk back and forth from the spigot to give the sapling the 10 gallons of water it will need? A sage fifth-grader knows the answer is four.

Powell advises against making mulch volcanoes – big mounds of mulch at the base of the tree – and reminds students to plant in wise locations and to call before they dig.

Lathan steps forward, along with Jason Steingraber, executive director of choice programs and summer learning, to douse the base of the tree with water.

Afterward, Lathan is swarmed by students, some asking for selfies.

Becky Ash, principal at Hickory Hills, calls Lathan a kid magnet.

“She wants to be here – she wants to be involved,” Ash says. “It’s not uncommon to see her out and about at these kinds of events, and it really makes her part of our team and brings us all together.”

As Ash and Lathan stroll around the building, it suddenly dawns on Lathan that most of the Hickory Hills fifth-graders are quietly ambling behind her.

“You can go around,” she says, waving them on with a smile.

“That’s OK,” a girl replies, and the slow parade continues, several dozen kids enjoying the sun for an extra minute or two.

Lathan has an appointment at Pittman Elementary at 11:30 a.m. There, she plans to meet Krystal Simon, CEO of children’s charity Care to Learn, and visit with school leaders.

At Pittman, nurse Julie Murdock shows Lathan and Simon the school’s resource closet, with clothes, toiletries and other supplies for kids who need them.

Simon says Care to Learn is nimble enough to fulfill children’s needs, from shoes to hearing aids, but she appreciates partners like Pittman, where people like Murdock know the families and have stocked up with essentials for them.

“We can do the one-off stuff all the time, but then Grenita has a crazy idea of hey, let’s do 30,000 hygiene items …,” she laughs.

“Yes!” Lathan says, remembering.

Simon says she trusts Lathan.

“She has the best interests of her faculty and staff and her students at heart, and we want to partner together, because it starts with that relationship piece,” Simon says.

From Pittman, Lathan returns to the Kraft conference room to meet with new Board of Education member Susan Provance. This meeting is intended to walk her through fine details of the budget so she’ll be on firm footing in future meetings.

Assisting are Travis Shaw, deputy superintendent of operations, and Cara Stassel, executive director of business services.

Stassel explains that board members are always given the most current information, and as a result, the figures may look different in a few weeks’ time.

Provance learns that COVID money from the federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief fund is going away, and the district can either opt to keep all of the positions not eliminated through attrition or it can right-size classrooms.

“Money can be for staff raises, or it can be to retain positions. We can’t do both,” Lathan says. “At some point we have to make decisions.”

To help with those, Lathan says Provance will be equipped with six years of figures: last year’s actual numbers, the current year’s constantly revised numbers, next year’s early projections, and three years of projections after that.

“This is what keeps me honest and legal,” Lathan says, holding up her copy of the budget. “It’s kind of like my bible. When we know what’s coming in, we can make some informed decisions. It helps us know what we need to do.”

Asked if she has any questions, Provance says she may have some later, but for now, she’s satisfied.

“This is the largest school district in the state of Missouri, and it’s in good shape,” Provance says.

Lathan says she wishes people would understand that.

“People don’t understand what they do when they tear down the heart and soul of a community, which is the school district,” she says. “We spend a lot of time putting out fires that don’t need to be a fire, and it takes away from the work we need to do.”

She notes discipline is a big topic right now, with a lot of people advocating a hard-line approach.

“There are times we have to suspend, but there are times we have to counsel and put together a plan to help children,” she says. “It’s disheartening when people want to jump to the most punitive plan possible for minor things.”

Provance agrees.

“Don’t throw them away,” she says.

At the end of the day, says Lathan, children need our empathy.

“People deserve second chances. People deserve a hundred chances,” she says.

Provance heads out, leaving Lathan to catch up on work before her 5:30 p.m. engagement, when she will make some remarks at the annual awards reception of the Student African American Brotherhood, an organization devoted to encouraging students of color to pursue higher education after high school.

After that, Lathan will head home to start in fresh tomorrow. Some weekends she has district or community commitments, but this weekend she says she plans to rest and recover.

Lathan says that’s her best advice for fellow executives.

“Truly practicing self-care is so important,” she says. “You have so many things coming at you as a leader – so many balls that you need to juggle and keep in the air, so many people you have to tend to. You have to take care of yourself.”