This year there is a new superintendent, Joe Craig. Craig has been to several band events, theater events, been interviewed, and has recently been to meetings about canceling school on April 8.
“I like the ability to have an impact on the school, build relationships with staff and community members and students and try to be very visible at everything.” Craig said, “I also try to do a weekly newsletter and try to write an article at least every couple of weeks, usually about hot topics in education, my intake of different things that are important to me, or the difference between grades and learning.”
Craig is a 55 year old that started out as a teacher and was in the classroom for five years. He had taught algebra, health, speech, and community classes. He also has his masters in science, health, and education along with his superintendent certificate.
“I started working as a superintendent as I felt that it was at that point in my career that I was ready to take the next step.” said Craig, “My first superintendent started in January, so I was a mid-year hire as well at my previous job in 2017, so seven years.”
Craig also has read the book “Building Thinking Classrooms” by Peter Liljedahl, which argues that traditional teaching methods in math classes are not effective. The book suggests that students should learn by moving around the classroom and working in groups rather than simply copying the teacher’s methods. Craig is interested in incorporating this approach in our own classrooms.
“I didn’t know a lot about Fairfield because it’s a little bit further away from the districts that I’ve been for the last 24 years;” said Craig, “it checked a lot of our boxes that we were looking for. It’s still a small school and in a small community which is something that is important to me because that’s what my whole career has been.”
