Reprint from the Progress Times - March 9, 2007
©Progress Times 2007 - All Rights Reserved

Sharyland ISD Superintendent Looks Toward Future

By David Rodriguez

Scott Owings knew long before hiring on as superintendent of Sharyland schools that the district was where he wanted to be. Helping out at the taco stand during football games, Owings got a good look at a people and attitude that he could identify with.

Now Owings, who is in his second year as superintendent and just had his contract renewed through July 2010, is looking forward to helping the district grow and succeed for the foreseeable future.

Owings’ job is a mix of planning and procedure. He is charged with keeping everything on track and trying to move the district in a cohesive direction.

"We have a lot of great staff here and my job is to move everyone in the same direction," said Owings. "We have a district strategic plan and we have a yearly update to that. There’s a lot of long term decision making that’s done in conjunction with boards but also day to day decisions need to be made."

A native of Michigan, Owings first moved to the Valley in 1980 when he started as an elementary teacher in Raymondville. He then became a high school assistant principal at PSJA, then a jr. high principal in the same district. In 1993 Owings was made principal at Nikki Rowe then moved to assistant superintendent in McAllen. In July 2005 he was named superintendent of Sharyland ISD.

Owings said his travels have made all the difference in his approach to his job and the people of the district.

"In every job I’ve learned different things," said Owings. "The biggest thing is working with different groups of people. We’ve gone through a lengthy process of changing attendance zones and sometimes that’s not a happy process for everyone, but it seems to be going pretty well."

Attendance zones is just one of the facets of Sharyland’s rapid growth. Planning and managing this growth has been Owings’ biggest challenge.

"We’ve grown 48 percent in the last six years," said Owings. "Dealing and keeping up with the growth has been challenging. We’ve done a great job with our new Human Resource Manager Yasmina Nye, who has done a great job streamlining processes. We’ve moved up teacher’s salaries and put together a recruitment DVD about the district so we can be fully staffed and prepared."

The growth of the district can be seen not only in the attendance logs, but at a few different building sites in the area. Sharyland is currently building two new schools as well as planning for a new high school down the road. In fact, the district has already purchased land on the north side of the district.

Owings says he is most proud of Sharyland’s student’s performance on their TAKS tests last year as well as the $40 million bond issue to begin work on the new elementary schools.

When asked why he believes Sharyland ISD has enjoyed the success it has, Owings points to the community.

"I think it’s a the combination of such great community and business support. We also have a real stable school board and administration. You can’t imagine what a difference that makes," said Owings. "That stability is the number one thing that makes it strong here. You’ll see other districts where they’re always changing boards or administrators and their instability takes away from focusing on kids. Our goal is to not waste our time doing all that stuff and focus on helping kids."