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New supt. believes in solving problems, not laying blame

Randy Harris tries out his new desk on his first day on the job as superintendent of the Huntington County Community School Corporation on Monday, Aug. 3.
Randy Harris tries out his new desk on his first day on the job as superintendent of the Huntington County Community School Corporation on Monday, Aug. 3. Photo by Rebecca Sandlin.

Originally published Aug. 10, 2015.

Randy Harris’ No. 1 pet peeve is people who want to blame others for their problems.

And as Huntington County Community School Corporation’s new superintendent, if there is any of that to be found in the district, he plans to change it — and the 11 schools in the district — and make HCCSC into a model school system.

“There are plenty of problems out there,” he concedes, “and there is plenty of blame to go around. Ultimately, as people working with kids, our job is to solve the problems.”

It’s that philosophy — plus a solid background in business and technology — that made Harris stand out as a candidate for the corporation’s top job. He began his job officially on Aug. 1, and had his sleeves rolled up on Monday, Aug. 3, to take the helm.

Harris grew up in Morgan County near Mooresville and graduated from Monrovia Junior/Senior High School in 1976. While in high school he played basketball and baseball, was a member of the National Honor Society and played in the school band.

He obtained a bachelor’s degree in social studies and secondary education from Oral Roberts University. His goal was to teach social studies in high school and coach athletics. He went on to earn a master’s degree in school administration at Butler University and a specialist degree at Indiana University. He is currently pursuing a doctorate at Ball State University.

“I’m just trying to see how many universities I can give money to,” he jokes.

Harris realized his goal of teaching back at his alma mater of Monrovia, as well as coaching football, golf and basketball for both junior and senior high kids.
His first year in school administration was as the assistant principal and athletic director at North Knox High School, near Vincennes. Next, he became principal of Eminence Junior/Senior High School and then principal of Delta High School near Muncie. While at Delta, he was responsible for fitting classrooms with the most advanced instructional technology available at the time.

Then, after 14 years in education, Harris’ career took an abrupt turn, in which his technology experience landed him a job with the Dukane Corporation, a global manufacturer and marketer of audio-visual and technology products.

He was responsible for selling media retrieval systems to school systems and served as a national trainer for Dukane’s SmartSystem, among other duties. His travels across the country led him to observe what was happening in some of the most innovative schools in the U.S.

When the company was sold to a large corporation and the technology he sold became obsolete, Harris found himself searching for another job.

He came into a ground-floor opportunity at Educational Furniture and was its first full-time employee. Harris wore many hats: salesman, general manager, marketer, accounts payable and receivable and website developer, just a few.

During his time running the company it went from $800,000 in sales the first year to $6 million in its sixth year.

“But I missed education. I missed being around the teachers and I missed being around the kids. And I looked for a way of getting back into education. I was extremely blessed that I was hired as superintendent at Eastern Hancock,” he says.

“As I describe it, I was in education for 14 years; I was out of education for 14 years; and I’ve got at least 14 more years back in education — hopefully a few more than that.”

Harris says he brings a people-based style to his management philosophy.

“I believe in people partnering together, working together,” he says. “I think one of the things that really intrigued me with the situation at Huntington is that it really is a community where everybody wants to work together.

“How can Huntington County schools work with county government and city government? How can they work with the Y and the Boys & Girls Club? How can they work with Huntington University?

“I think there is a lot more power and a lot more strength in all of us working together.”

One of the challenges Harris sees that he needs to work on is the county’s decreasing student enrollment. He says the reasons are likely numerous and there are different ways to tackling the problem.

“We need to stabilize enrollment; we need to, likewise, stabilize the personnel numbers,” he says. “We need to try and get some of those numbers back in line. We will continue to evaluate that and look at those kinds of things.”

Test scores are another factor that Harris wants to improve.

“The challenges that are faced by educators today — poverty, low income, all of those things — are major challenges. But the other side of it is, I guess some people want to look at those as excuses,” he explains. “I got into education to make a difference, and I think that’s what most educators get into education for …

“If we’re not making a difference with these kids, then who are we going to pass that on to? Because somebody has to take that up.

“I’m concerned about the value of kids, and what we can provide to them. So the education of every one of the kids in Huntington County is going to be at the forefront of all of us, because that’s what we’re paid to do, and that’s what our jobs are.

“That’s why I got into the business, is to educate kids and make a difference.”

On the other hand, Harris sees a lot of things right with HCCSC, noting how well teachers care about their students and what they teach, as well as the school system’s fiscal responsibilities.

Another of Harris’ goals will be to bring up the level of pay for the corporation’s teachers and other school personnel.

“You can talk about how much you value teachers, but ultimately you’ve got to provide some of that value in the checks that they take home,” he added.

“We’ll be looking at that and how we’ll become more efficient, paying not only the teachers but all of the other school people that work for kids, whether it’s instructional assistants, the secretaries or the bus drivers – all of those people are valuable and important in the education of our kids.”

Harris promises that he’ll be a familiar sight around each of the school buildings as well as out in the public.

“I love people. I love working with people. If they see me around town or in the community, don’t ever hesitate to come up and say hi,” he says, “and if they’ve got any ideas of ways to make the schools better, shoot us an email or whatever. Because our ultimate goal is what can we do to make Huntington school better. And we’re going to do that.”

Harris’ hobbies include playing with his 4-year-old grandson, golf and travel. He also says he and his wife, Loretta, are “religious walkers,” spending time after dinner walking through their neighborhood. The couple has two adult children, a son and daughter.