Superintendent Daniel Day reads to a group of students for Dr. Suess Week in 2022 at Mountain View Elementary School (Leslie County). Photo courtesy Daniel Day
New Leslie County Superintendent Daniel Day has spent much of his life in the district and is continuing his service, having worked there for more than 15 years.
Day was born and raised in Leslie County and attended the district’s schools from kindergarten through high school.
In the district, he has served as a high school U.S. history teacher, a basketball coach, a principal at Hayes Lewis Elementary, and a director of pupil personnel and district assessment coordinator. He started working in the district in 2010 and most recently served as assistant superintendent and chief academic officer for the district for the last five years.
“It’s just home. We are just such a tight-knit community,” Day said. “It’s just a place where everybody knows everybody. … There’s the old saying that everybody who’s ever left Kentucky has always talked about getting back home to Kentucky. I believe that also rings true with Leslie County.”
Day received a master’s degree in educational leadership from Union University. He got another master’s degree in instructional supervision, a director of pupil personnel certification and a superintendent certification from the University of the Cumberlands.
Day said he enjoyed being a history teacher and believes that role will help inform his decisions as superintendent.
“I loved being a U.S. history teacher; it’s always been my passion and when I retire someday, I hope to go back and do that. There’s something that you miss the farther that you get out of the classroom and those connections every day with the kids,” Day said. “But I hope that every day when I’m making decisions, I will try to reflect back on what would Daniel Day, the U.S. history teacher, have thought about this? … How would I see it from that perspective, not from the superintendent hat?”
Day said as the district’s chief academic officer, he’s seen a significant amount of growth in the district’s Kentucky summative assessment scores, and he hopes to continue that progress.
“We’ve had numerous schools within the top five, top 10 as well, and a lot of that started with more of our aligned instructional team, with our principal coach or reading coach or math coach, with our principals really becoming instructional leaders,” Day said. “Then with our teachers just owning their curriculum, owning their instruction and the buy-in from the parents and the students.”
Day believes the district does well with literacy efforts, Science of Reading and math scores. He said one big push for the district this year is implementing new high-quality instructional resources in math.
The district also recently received a $10 million grant for the Leslie County Area Technology Center for a major renovation, and Day is excited for the opportunities that will provide students.
Day said the district has started more significant work on its portrait of a learner this past year and will continue working on it. Portrait of a learner is a shared vision for the knowledge, skills and dispositions every Kentucky learner needs to thrive. They hosted initial community meetings in the spring to talk about learning priorities for students and had a great turnout from community members.
“It’s going to be a big lift on some people here,” Day said. “We are a small district, but one of the things that we always talk about here at the central office and as a board is how can we get the community more involved? How can we tell our own story? How can we be something other than just a test score?”
Day said he is excited to keep serving students in a capacity that impacts their lives positively.
“They can do anything they want to do,” Day said. “I just want to ensure that when kids leave here and they walk across that stage, they get that diploma and are ready to continue on that legacy that we built here.”
Leave A Comment