Robertson County Superintendent Sean Bailey recently visited a kindergarten classroom where he read a book to students and did a balloon animal activity. Photo courtesy Robertson County Schools
The new superintendent of one of Kentucky’s smallest districts, Sean Bailey, said Robertson County’s size works to Bailey’s advantage because it allows him to be close to students every day.
“Small is not a problem,” Bailey said. “I want that narrative to be that small is a strategy. We can build relationships with kids in ways that no one else can. I will know every student on a first-name basis.”
Robertson County is the smallest county in Kentucky with a population of roughly 2,000 people. The district has about 400 students, and each grade level is located in one building, along with district staff.
“I’ve been blessed to be hired into a position in Robertson County where I get to be a part of the full educational process every single day; I’m not stuck in a board office separate from the school, I’m a part of the school,” Bailey said. “There (are) very few superintendents in the state of Kentucky that have the opportunity that I have to be with the students every day. Very few students in the state or superintendents in the state of Kentucky can walk through their entire district in one building and walk through kindergarten through senior classrooms.”
Bailey regularly visits classrooms of all grade levels. On Sept. 4, he visited a kindergarten classroom where he read a book to students and did a balloon animal activity. The book was about a young girl who felt that she had to wear a hat to be an artist, and when she lost her hat, she couldn’t be an artist anymore.
“I wore the balloon hat in the classroom and came in there, made a puppy dog out of a balloon and told the kids, ‘I can only do this if I have my hat on, right?’” he explained. “I read the book to them and then said, ‘Well, maybe I can do it without.’ And all the kiddos said, ‘You just have to believe in yourself’.”
Bailey said he was drawn to Robertson County because of its uniqueness, the close-knit community and family atmosphere.
“Robinson County is so unique; there’s no other school district like it in the state,” he said. “Our teachers, our staff, from instructional assistants to bus drivers to custodians to grandmas down the road, everyone wants the best for this school district because this is how the community goes. And if the school isn’t doing well, we know the entire county will suffer.”
Bailey came to Robertson County after spending his entire educational career in Bath County. Throughout several schools in the district, he worked as a business, technology and career teacher, an assistant principal, principal, then moved to the district level as chief academic officer.
He has a bachelor’s degree in business and information technology education, a master’s in school administration and principalship, and a doctorate in educational leadership and technology, all from Morehead State University.
Bailey has also been a pastor for 20 years at Owensville Christian Church, which he said allows him to develop even closer relationships with people in the community.
“It’s been great because those outside relationships really, really helped with both teaching and administration,” he said. “Being able to bridge the community with Robertson County here with the school system, especially the faith community, has been something that I’ve been focused on.”
Bailey said one of his biggest priorities in his role is to listen to what those in the district want improved. He said he wants to ask people questions and use their feedback directly to solve problems and drive improvements.
“One thing I’ve learned in education is that you can have great people working really hard, but you can still have a system without producing the results that you want,” he said. “I think it’s true where you can be really busy in education without it actually getting better. That’s why I want us to become very intentional about focusing on improvement. We’re going to identify our greatest needs and we’re going to develop a plan and make sure people know their role in that plan.”
One of his other biggest priorities is making sure teachers are given the support they need. When he was at Bath County, Bailey led new teacher mentoring and said he loved training teachers.
“That’s what I want to do here is to go alongside the teachers and see them grow,” he said. “I believe strongly that if we want to transform student outcomes, we have to start with the experience that students are having every day, and that starts with the teacher and that great instruction.”
He said he wants to challenge students to think more critically and doesn’t shy away from the idea that struggle can be productive.
“I want them reading hard texts that are on grade level, I want them writing and solving problems that are difficult, I want them to have to struggle to figure things out and have high expectations,” he said. “But somewhere along the way, education has created this idea that if kids are enjoying themselves, the learning must not be hard enough. I totally go against that. I reject that because students shouldn’t have to choose between being challenged and loving school. … It should be a perfect marriage of both.”
He said sometimes students don’t realize the difficulty of what they learn when they have consistently enjoyable experiences in the classroom.
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