Stu Silberman has led two school districts to prominence in the state of Kentucky and has three times been named the state Superintendent of the Year. Most recently, he was among the four finalists for the National Superintendent of the Year Award.

Well-known for his mantra “It’s About Kids,” Silberman was hired in 2004 to be the fifth superintendent in three years for the Fayette County Public Schools. Since then, he has been credited with engaging the public, drawing more than 1,300 people to a summit on how to ensure that every student receives a world-class education. He has rebuilt faith with the community, instituting a 24-hour response time rule for phone calls and e-mails and launching dozens of communications initiatives to ensure transparency and openness.

Student achievement has skyrocketed, with nearly 40 percent of local schools besting state proficiency standards six years early and a clear focus on closing achievement gaps and holding all students to high expectations. School board meetings, which just five years ago often lasted well past midnight, are now civil and productive with a focus on student achievement strategies. In an unprecedented show of public confidence, a school board vote to raise property taxes to address facility needs received no organized opposition and was affirmed without a voter recall effort.

Silberman has been an educator for more than 35 years and will always be a teacher. He is married to Kathy Silberman, and they have three grown daughters and one granddaughter. He holds bachelors and masters degrees from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, did post-masters work at the University of Alabama, and received an honorary doctorate from Kentucky Wesleyan College.

Under his leadership in Daviess County from 1995 to 2004, the district became a national model. After an appearance on the NBC “Today” show for being one of America’s best places to educate children, the district averaged about 1,000 visitors each year to see brain-based learning programs providing piano lessons for all students as they enter kindergarten, foreign language instruction in elementary schools, chess lessons and exposure to the arts at a very early age. President Clinton also visited the district to observe how students living in poverty could achieve at high levels.

Silberman has taught in the state’s new superintendent training program for the last several years, helping new superintendents get off to a good start. Additionally, six members of his cabinets have gone on to become successful superintendents, and he is the only superintendent in Kentucky to have served as a mentor in the state’s minority superintendent intern program in each of its three years.

A recipient of both the AASA Leadership for Learning Award and a Tech Savvy Superintendent Award from E-School News, Silberman was selected as Kentucky’s Superintendent of the Year twice by the Kentucky Association of School Administrators and once by the Kentucky School Boards Association. He was also the recipient of the Kentucky School Boards Association Kids First Award, and his districts have received the NSBA Magna Award, the National What Parents Want Award, the Kentucky PEAK award, and a Gold Medallion from NSPRA.

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