"Leaders will be those who empower others."
A quote found on many inspirational posters and coffee mugs but rarely found in places where leadership is a necessity. However, Forsyth County’s new superintendent, Mr. Mitch Young, has built his career in classrooms and (previously) on the courts on finding new ways as a leader to build new leaders.
Originally from Pennsylvania, he traveled down south to study at Florida State University to pursue a career path of coaching college basketball. When asked about his past basketball experience in Florida, Illinois, and Pennsylvania and where he finds overlaps with his current career, Young answered, “I would tell you, Simone, in great coaching is really great teaching. And so, all the things I learned being around those really high-quality coaches is they first and foremost cared at a relational level about the athletes. They saw themselves as educators, not as just coaches chasing a championship. When I got into teaching then I started to realize all these lessons that I learned in those three years of chasing the dream fit right in with this.”
Young continued, “When I was at DePaul University, we were rebranding an old basketball program and trying to bring it into the 21st century. When I got the principal job at Central, It reminded me of DePaul University It was a great school, but the reputation didn’t match up, and so really that became a big rebranding job.”
Young left his career in college basketball to start a family in Gwinnett County. His first leadership role in administration was at West Forsyth High School where his role was, “a teacher part of the day and administrator part of the day.” After that he transitioned to becoming an assistant principal at Lambert High School for three years, then went back to West Forsyth for one, before finally becoming a principal at Forsyth Central High School. His approach to turning the school around wasn’t ordinary though, it involved raising the standards for both his students and his staff.
“...my pride is in seeing all those people believe in themselves and then go out and achieve.”
“The people that I encountered when I got to Central had some of the biggest hearts for education and for their kids that I ever could have imagined. Central had an unfair reputation. When I got there I realized that the perception and reality were not anywhere close. I think probably the biggest thing we had to address when I got there is that you had all these teachers who love their kids, but you had some pockets of students - maybe with special needs or with language barriers - who were not succeeding at the rate of the other students and were not graduating at the rate of the other students.”
It became apparent that a mix of support, love and high expectations was needed. “Once you establish high expectations, then give whatever support you need to help them meet those. And I think when we changed that kind of approach, we saw our school go from an 82 percent graduation rate to 96 percent that last year I served as principal,” Young added.
This philosophy of raising expectations and then giving the support to meet those goals has been present in every piece of Young’s interactions with students and staff. It is a key piece in the process that he describes as, “developing leaders.”
The idea that your role of leader is not just to build yourself to be the best one you can be, but to build others in hopes they will be able to take on leadership roles for themselves one day too.
Thinking back on the success of Forsyth Central High School, Young said, “Several of our assistant principals are now principals of their own schools. One of our assistant principals is now the head of all the transportation for the county. One of our assistant administrators came up to the central office and developed our alternative certification for the Forsyth Teacher Academy. We had one of our graduation coaches now serving as the head of all mentoring for the entire University of Georgia. So really, my pride is in seeing all those people believe in themselves and then go out and achieve.”
And that sentiment is not lost on students. During our interview, I was lucky enough to be told of a new student leadership program (yet to be announced to the public) that Young plans to roll out during his time as superintendent.
“We've always had a superintendent student advisory. We want to have a student leadership development program that feeds off the same leader profile that we've got for all of our teachers and administrators.”
I asked what makes a Forsyth County leader, Young described four tenets: understanding the value of relationships, effective communication, operating with intentionality, and embracing innovation.
While they may all sound simple, becoming the leader you want to be can be difficult for Forsyth County students. Between college applications, pressure to engage in artificial nepotism, and navigating LinkedIn before having a degree, following the four tenets sounds easier said than done.
Young’s advice to students wishing to become leaders seems to give students some clarity: “I would tell them ‘You’re missing it. You're actually missing the most enjoyable part, and that's the journey itself.’ That happens in the classroom, where you're so fixated on grades that you miss out on the learning. If you take the time to really throw yourself into something that's larger than yourself, if you can turn some of yourself over to the group good and get off of the individual good, the journey and the relationships you're going to develop, those are going to be the things that last a lifetime. You know, that might sound like pie in the sky, but I never wanted to be a superintendent. I just wanted to be a great teacher.”
Young continued, “I'm ambitious, don't get me wrong. I wanted to be the best teacher. But I found along the way that being the best teacher meant that I had to really shut my mouth and listen and observe what really truly great teachers were doing.”
“I’ll add another tenant to what makes a Forsyth County leader truly great: shutting up and listening,” Young added with a laugh.
And Young wants to add something to the conversations adults have with students and remove something else altogether.
“Let’s stop asking, ‘What do you want to do when you grow up?’ I would love for that question to be changed to: ‘Who do you want to be?’ Let’s shift the narrative back to character and character building. That gets us on a track; that gets us more on a wisdom track and less on a knowledge track. And, you know, it doesn't matter what your job is, you can be a great person.”
While changing century old narratives may be a struggle, Young is determined to do it for Forsyth County Schools so that it can become a place known for building great leaders inside and outside the classroom.