The Park City School District has created a new Chief Academic Officer position which is part of the executive administrative team. The role is responsible for curriculum and academic success of the nearly 4800 students in the school district.
The new Chief Academic Officer Dr. Amy Hunt comes from a varied background starting out as a biologist working in a clinical laboratory. Later, in pursuit of her love of teaching, she went into a middle school environment where she taught math and science in San Diego.
“After teaching math and science for a number of years, I was assistant principal and principal and a district office level over human resources and people services. So, I’ve had some unique experiences both working with students and leading systems that serve students.”
Hunt has a doctoral degree in organizational leadership. Her most recent assignment was with the Granite School District where she was responsible for the adult education program.
“And one of the things that I have studied and researched is really looking at effectiveness of systems. How to create organizational wide systems that serve all the individuals from the bottom to the top. So, this is something that I’m excited about. Park City is a small but mighty district.
Hunt says using good data along with Park City’s highly skilled teaching staff will allow her to tailor instruction to meet the rapidly changing educational environment. Since her start date of August 1st, she’s met with Park City High School Administration to assess math performance on the ACT. She’s also worked with the district Data Specialist Kaitlin O’Connor to evaluate K - 3 literacy and how to help the youngest students become efficient readers.
There were a lot of problems with the statewide standardized RISE tests given last year. Despite the Utah State Board of Education’s decision to terminate and replace the vendor, they will still have 2019 results certified sometime in October.
“The data’s important because one of the most important facts that we can look at is how a student’s doing over time. Look at their individual growth. Those scores will not only be able to help us see our overall competency of our students but each of them individually, how they’re doing over time."
That’s Dr. Amy Hunt, the new Chief Academic Officer for the Park City School District.
The state board of education has selected a temporary vendor for testing in the coming school year but a permanent replacement to the RISE testing service has not been announced.
