Kirk Shrum Appointed To Position Of VUSD Superintendent

By Abigail Miller

During the VUSD Board meeting on March 8th, 2022, members unanimously agreed to appoint Kirk Shrum to the position of superintendent.

Shrum has been in the education field for over 25 years with experience as chief school leadership officer with Henry County Schools in McDonough, Georgia. He also served as an area executive director and school principal for Fulton County Schools in Atlanta, Georgia.

Shrum received his Master’s degree in Instructional Leadership from Tennessee Technological University Cookeville, Tennessee and his Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from the University of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Shrum comes from a family of educators, “My mother was a first grade teacher her entire career of thirty plus years, my grandmother a school librarian and Education Association President.”

He wants to ensure that “we set strong foundations for every kid.” Early in his career he noticed “That experiences for kids [are not] always consistent. Some times it [varies] between who you have as a teacher, or what school you went to, or what part of the community you live in.”

He has made it a goal in his career to “set up systems and structures so that everyone had a strong foundation.”

He states that he is “excited to partner with this board to make sure every kid has a strong foundation.”

Shrum knew that VUSD would be the “right next step” for him when he “reached out to county superintendent, Tim Hire, and had a conversation that stayed with [him].”

The conversation centered on the richness of the Visalia community and the goals the board was working to achieve.

The biggest thing Shrum wants to convey to the community is that “anything is possible. That Visalia’s line is talking about creating futures, so I think it’s about ‘What are the futures we want to create?’ What the community, what the parents, what the kids want for their future? And then how do we make sure we make policy from the board table that reflects that?”

Shrum “believes in investing in people” and wants employees of VUSD to know that he understands the districts job “is to create the conditions for them to be successful and that’s what were going to go about, that’s the conversation were going to have at the district level and that’s the work that we’ll do.”

Shrum will officially begin working alongside Doug Cardoza on May 16, 2022, and then will assume the full responsibility of leading VUSD on July 1, 2022.

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