Susan Enfield leaves Highline, highlights decade of high notes, hard lessons

For Highline Public Schools, the end of the 2022 school year marked the end of an era — a decade with Superintendent Susan Enfield at the helm. 

On July 6, Enfield started her new role as superintendent of Washoe County School District in Reno, Nevada. Ivan Duran stepped in as Highline’s new head of schools on July 1; previously, he served as superintendent for Bellevue Schools. 

In 2011, all eyes were on Enfield when she was tapped as interim superintendent for Seattle Public Schools amid a $35 million budget shortfall and a school board shake-up. Many observers were surprised when she chose not to apply for the permanent job in Seattle, and later took a job at the much smaller district to the south.

On June 30, her last day in Highline, amid packing boxes, bouquets of flowers and handwritten notes, the administrator reflected on her decision to leave Seattle, school leadership in a pandemic, and why she’ll always be Highline’s “biggest cheerleader.”

This conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity. 

What drew you to Highline?

I mentor a lot of new superintendents or aspiring superintendents and one of the things I always say is choose your professional home wisely. 

When I made the decision to leave Seattle, I knew that I wanted to be a superintendent and my husband and I really liked the area. The consultant who was doing the search for Highline reached out to me and, I’ll be honest, I mean, it’s right in Seattle’s backyard but I really hadn’t heard much of Highline and I didn’t know much about it. But I ended up applying and interviewing.

The final interview day we went to Evergreen High School and I met a social studies class of students, mostly young men, all students of color … And I said, tell me what the new superintendent needs to know. And their hands shot up. They said we want more AP (Advanced Placement) classes. Another one said, if you keep raising “pay for play” (fees charged to student athletes for participating in sports), I have friends who are gonna drop out because sports are what keep them coming to school.

Another one said just because we don’t have a lot doesn’t mean that we don’t want to be taught what it’s going to take for us to be successful, ‘cause we have dreams and we want to be successful.

I called my husband that night and I said, “I’m in. This is where I need to be.” When the board offered me the job and I accepted, I went back to those students and I said to them, you all are why I took this job. And I will do everything I can to deliver on the things that you said the new superintendent needs to do.

And how has that worked out?

We made sure that students at all of our comprehensive high schools had access to Advanced Placement courses, which at the time they didn’t. We haven’t completely eliminated pay for play, but we’ve made huge strides in making sure that athletics are available to every student who wants to participate.

And I really think that [everyone in the district has] rallied together to not just educate and support and invest in our students but to signal to them, loud and clear, that they are brilliant, beautiful and brimming with promise. 

You once had the opportunity to lead Seattle, the state’s largest district. What made you say, “This is not for me?” Why did you leave? 

I entered Seattle as the chief academic officer. I was appointed as the interim superintendent during a very tumultuous time for the district. They had terminated Maria Goodloe-Johnson who was my boss and I stepped in and worked really hard with the board and with the team to continue the work that Maria had started. I think we rebounded from that tumultuous time pretty quickly and were able to rebuild some faith and confidence and optimism in the community … 

But there was a board election and there was board turnover and … the new board, I felt, needed to pick their own leader. So I made the decision that I would step down. Was it difficult at the time? Absolutely. 

I really try to not live my life with a lot of regrets, but the team we had in Seattle and the community support and the traction we were getting — you know, grad rates are on the rise, test scores — things were going well. I just have to wonder if we could have stuck it out … and kept some stability for another five, seven, 10 years, because this work takes time, I do wonder where Seattle would be today. There are such good people there.

That said, I do not regret my decision to leave. It was the right thing to do at the time. And I will never, ever regret coming to Highline. This has been the job of my lifetime. 

What was in place when you got to Highline and what’s changed over the past decade? 

Highline was not a district in free fall. Highline had really good leadership, a pretty stable board, supportive board, great people, and I think the district was really ready and eager to do some self-examination. 

I think the biggest thing that most people probably would point to is our Highline promise, to know every student by name, strength and needs so they graduate prepared for the future they choose.

That really became the heart of our strategic plan and really the DNA of our system. That promise … frankly, is the best definition of equity that I have ever come across. At the end of the day, isn’t that what public education should be all about? 

What else are you proud of? 

The expansion of our dual language programs is a real highlight and point of pride for the district. And the fact that we have more learning opportunities for students now through things like Maritime High School (and) we’re launching the Highline Elementary Virtual Academy next year. 

I would put our staff, whether it’s our custodians, our teachers, our bus drivers, our principals, our central office staff, against any in the country. 

We made a huge investment in early learning, every child having access early on to full-day kindergarten, tuition free, high quality. Increasing the number of pre-K opportunities that the state still doesn’t fund — I am sad about that, that I was able to help get full day K funded but we didn’t get universal pre-K — so that’s a battle still to be won at the state level.

One of the early changes we made was … to our discipline policy and practices. That garnered a lot of criticism and attention. We really worked to eliminate out-of-school suspensions and expulsions, except when critical for staff and student safety.

That was hard. Made some mistakes. Learned a lot of lessons. And would do it again in a minute because it was the right thing to do. We were hemorrhaging kids. … We really focused on knowing our students and building relationships because, fundamentally, discipline comes down to relationships. 

I think the biggest accomplishment or point of pride is just the people and the fact that this community is quite supportive, that we were able to pass a bond, a tech levy, I think three maintenance and operation levies, and have been able to rebuild Highline High School and a middle school. 

How do you feel about handing off the district to Dr. Ivan Duran?

I think the world of Ivan. I think he is exactly the leader that Highline needs and deserves. He’s not just an exceptional leader, he’s an exceptional human being. 

When the search consultants began … I said, look, you know all the qualities that the board and the community are looking for and obviously we want someone who’s brilliant and a fearless leader and all of that. But what I would say is just find somebody who will love Highline as much as I’d love them because this community deserves to be loved. 

I’ve said this before, every leader has a shelf life, and if we’re smart, we realize it before someone else realizes it for us. He will absolutely make change and change is needed. 

What does it mean to be a superintendent these days?

People ask me, do I love my job? And I say some days, most days, not every day. Because the job is the politics, it’s the toxicity, it’s the attacks, it’s the unfairness, it’s the hypocrisy, it’s the mundane — it’s all that stuff. But the work of serving children and families is a gift, even on the hard days. So I make a clear distinction between the job and the work, and that’s what keeps me in it. It’s work that I truly love, as hard as it is.

Faith in public education, for some people, has wavered. Why should they keep the faith? 

Public education is being scrutinized, in some ways appropriately so, and in some ways I think inappropriately so … I do think there’s plenty that we should be examining, reflecting on and improving. But I find that a lot of the critics have formed beliefs based on hearsay or assumptions. 

Now, once you have the facts, if your opinion is still this school is not good for my kid, I respect that. As the parent, guardian, grandparent, you know your child better than I can. My job is to make sure that your local public school is a viable option.

We do need to hear what people are thinking … because even in the criticism, as hard as it is to take, there are kernels of truth.