Newsletters 2014-15 Focus newsletter, [1] fall | Page 5

LEADERSHIP IN PUBLIC EDUCATION

PAGE 5

New chief academic officer driven
to help each child discover brilliance
All children should experience a moment when
they discover they are brilliant, that they can learn
something challenging today, and tomorrow and the
day after that. Working to create the conditions for
each child to experience that moment is what has
driven Dr. Cynthia Hays throughout her career as an
educator.
“I want every child to say, ‘I am smart. I can do
this and even more,’” said Dr. Hays, who became
chief academic officer for the school district July 1
as part of a reorganization of the district’s curriculum
department. She will oversee student achievement
from preschool through age 21; research, evaluation
and testing; integration; state and federal programs;
and the Quality Compensation (Q Comp) program.
Dr. Hays believes her passion for learning was
grounded in early experiences with her grandfather,
who was superintendent of the Eden Prairie School
District at the time when it consolidated from four
one-room schools into a school district in 1924. She
attended school in Eden Prairie and later was principal of Eden Prairie High School.
The messages her grandfather shared back then
are very much the messages educators share today:
attendance at school is very important. Parents need
to be involved in their children’s education.
Everyone has a role in helping kids get to school.
Kids need to have real, authentic work to do.
“I learned these early on and they are just as
important now as they were then,” said Dr. Hays.
She has had a varied career as an educator, driven
by her twin passions of continuing her own learning
and helping others learn.

She completed a degree in Spanish at the
University of Minnesota, moved on to San Diego to
do graduate work in multicultural and bilingual education, and then returned to Minnesota to complete
her doctorate in education at the U of M. She has
continued to take courses in organization, planning
and strategic development, and more. “I can’t help
myself,” she explains. “I keep finding things I want
to learn so I go on for more credits or another certification,” she said.
Her list of experience is extensive. Over the years,
Hays taught every grade but third. She started
teaching elementary students in San Diego, then
Spanish and French in seco