The LIVING Interview
Joe Howard
SUPERINTENDENT, PRESCOTT UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT Interview by Ray Newton
J
oe Howard cares about Prescott’s students – and it shows. Following his second year as superintendent, (he is now in his third year) he received the prestigious Distinguished Administrator award from Arizona School Administrators. And he continues to make a difference every day. Through his mission to create a good work culture for faculty and staff, partner with the local community and – most importantly – give students all they need to succeed, Howard is bringing leadership and results to the nearly 150-year-old school district. An advocate of public education, a family man and longtime Prescott local, Howard puts the “super” in superintendent.
PRESCOTT LIVING: Thank you for sitting down with us! You and your family have been involved in education for many years. Your father Jim Howard was superintendent of schools in Prescott for years. How did your family influence you and your career? JOE HOWARD: I think it’s huge, Ray. My dad still says, all the time, it’s the most important profession in the world. You know, I think some of it was like osmosis. When it came time to choose my career, I remember right where I was. I went to Phoenix College, before NAU, on a wrestling scholarship. I was taking a creative writing class at night, and I said, “Well, I think it’s time to decide what I should do with my career.” And it took about two seconds. I said, “I’m going to be a teacher. It’s the most important thing in the world.” My mom was an incredible elementary teacher. They’ve been a huge influence on me and still are. We’ll still have family discussions about what’s happening in education. It was like the family business. I feel the way about PUSD like I do about my home and my family. You do the best thing that you can for those folks and for yourself and for your community, and so I think that definitely was inherited, to a large extent.
FALL 2017 • THE EDUCATION EDITION
PRESCOTT LIVING: Joe, you’ve had opportunities to move your career elsewhere. Why have you stayed in Prescott? JOE HOWARD: Oh gosh. I can probably answer it the same way so many people do in Prescott. I mean, there are so many things to love about Prescott. First of all, this morning, my wife and I rolled out of our front gate on our mountain bikes at 5:00 in the morning. We just had some fresh rains, and it was beautiful. I met my wife, Jenna, in Seattle. I was a crab fisherman in Alaska and I took the boat down to do shipyard work, and I was living on the boat, and met her there. I was substitute teaching there, got a job offer as a head wrestling coach and a teacher there. My wife said, “Hey, look, you’re the one starting the career. What do you want to do?” And I said, “I want to raise kids in the greatest place in the world to raise kids.” And so we came to Prescott to raise our kids. But I’ll tell you now, this has come full circle, and in just a few days, I’m going to be looking at 500 staff members and welcoming them back to the school year and I’m going to thank them for creating this beautiful atmosphere for my kids to grow up in. PRESCOTT LIVING: And your job is more
than the paycheck? JOE HOWARD: Yes. It’s a passion. I’ll go so far as to say it’s a calling. We’ve been through some tough times here in PUSD over the last 10 years, especially with the downturn of the economy. I came into the district office – this will be my eighth year in the district office and third as superintendent – and in the last seven years, we cut around 250 people and closed two buildings. That was pretty hard, but we were losing great people, saying, “Look, if Arizona doesn’t support what we do, we’re going to go somewhere else,” and they would leave and I would say, “Hey, somebody’s got to stay here.” We’ve got 4,000 kids. This is a beautiful community. And, lots of us did. You know, we never stop doing great things for kids. Not once. Not even in the toughest of times. So, I’m pretty proud to just be a part of that and to be around these folks. PRESCOTT LIVING: What I’m hearing is it’s a team effort. But where have you, as Joe Howard, had real influence? That’s a tough one. JOE HOWARD: Hmm…that is a tough one. I’ll talk about my leadership style. You know, as a wrestling coach, as a teacher, as a principal, now as a superintendent, I’ve gone into situations and kind of taken a look at where we are and where we should go, and you do that by listening to people and building that team and listening to what their concerns are. I’ve just learned from the people around me. We figured this out together, but you know, you start believing in yourself and you start talking about what you want it to look like and you create that expectation and then it turns and that vision is fulfilled, because I be-
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