Research shows that our sense of hope is nurtured by our connectedness to others. It makes sense then that teachers and coaches have the potential to be significant givers of hope to their students and players. That certainly was the case for Dr. Joe Gothard, the superintendent of Saint Paul Public Schools (SPPS). One teacher in particular, Mrs. Delores Bell, helped put him on the path to become the superintendent of the second largest school district in Minnesota.

Dr. Gothard grew up in Madison, Wisconsin. He was the fifth of six kids to a white mother and a Black father. He and his siblings were athletes, so sports were important. He also recalls that they didn’t talk about race at home. By the time he reached middle school, his father was no longer present. He describes himself as a confused, biracial 13 year old who was looking to fill the space that his father’s absence created. Mrs. Bell was the first and one of the few Black teachers he had throughout his educational journey. She was the first person to talk to him about race and allowed him to express what it was like to have a part of him that is white and a part of him that is Black, which helped him create his racial identity. Mrs. Bell showed tough love, humbled him when he needed it, never gave up on him and pushed him to be and do better. She taught him to be comfortable with who he is and accountable for his actions. One of his proudest moments was returning to her classroom to student teach.

Putting the Right Person in the Right Position

Along with teachers, there were coaches who provided the stability Dr. Gothard needed while growing up. As he got older, transitioning to coaching was a way to stay connected to sports he loved but could no longer play. It also was a way to pay it forward. As a coach, he realized it was up to him to shape the culture of the team. His biggest responsibility was putting the right person in the right position to get the best out of them. He worked to create a culture where players were motivated to demand the best from themselves and one another and build that into everything they did as a team. 

Coaching came naturally to Dr. Gothard and gave him the experience he needed to be the leader he is today.  He is very much a coach in his current role as he figures out how to get uncommon people with shared goals to come together and get the best out of them. He wants everyone to succeed and for SPPS to be a place that sees all, serves all and values all.

As superintendent, school visits are an important part of his work, and he can handle seeing a school on its best day and its worst. When visiting a school, he wants to be there to help, support and encourage. When a school is going through a difficult time, he nurtures the hope of the principals, teachers, administrators and students by reminding them:

There will be a tomorrow and this too shall pass. We have to continue to work hard and take stock of the moments when things are going right, which far outweigh the negative.

Every Parent Sends Their Best Child

Dr. Gothard learned early on from a mentor that every parent sends their best child to school every day. He also understands that kids bring their experiences to school with them, and for many, those experiences include homelessness, food insecurity, exposure to family and community violence and struggles with untreated or undertreated mental and physical illness. The most important part of this work is to meet every student where they are every single school day.

The trauma and disruption the pandemic caused only exacerbated the challenges many SPPS families were facing prior to it. SPPS staff, principals and teachers were in uncharted territory as they worked across the district to figure out a plan to serve all families. Many families lost loved ones and experienced financial hardship. The SPPS community was devastated by the death of School Board Chair  Marny Xiong, whom Dr. Gothard thinks of often. He realizes that many kids didn’t get their needs met, and it is unrealistic to expect them to just bounce back after an extended period of disruption.

During the 2022/2023 school year, an SPPS student and teacher were the victims of gun violence and a high school student was stabbed to death during a fight in school. As Dr. Gothard and his team worked to figure out the best ways to support the communities most directly impacted by these tragic events, they embraced the mantra, “We will get through this together” and repeated it often. At a time when numerous media outlets wanted to speak with him, Dr. Gothard and his team chose to make and send a video message to SPPS families to give voice to feelings of anger and sadness over recent tragic and painful events, to be honest that many kids were in pain and that the only way we’d get through it is by coming together to support one another.  

A Culture of Safety

All too often the narrative around SPPS is kids aren’t safe and learning isn’t happening, because undisciplined students are running the school. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Dr. Gothard says it is disheartening the lengths people will go to bring negative attention to an SPPS school or the district while bringing very little or nothing in the way of solutions. Local media outlets often tell an incomplete story of what is happening in SPPS. He realizes that people’s negative perceptions are influenced by attitudes around race and class. He wishes he could bottle all of the negative energy directed at SPPS and use it in better ways.

SPPS has approximately 33,000 students across 67 campuses with 71%* of them eligible for free and reduced price meals. Not every student is going to show up ready to have their best day all the time, so conflicts are going to happen. Maintaining school safety is made all the more difficult given that our communities are awash in guns.

SPPS works hard to create a culture of safety by reducing the risk of conflicts happening. They also work to create and implement safety plans for when they do happen to resolve them as quickly as possible and keep them from escalating. Of course, SPPS can only address the conflicts they know about, so the willingness of students, parents and community members to share information with them is crucial.

SPPS works with partners like the Saint Paul Police Department and the Office of Neighborhood Safety to share information and help create systems that improve safety in schools. Dr. Gothard values the partnerships he has with Governor Tim Walz and Saint Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, both of whom understand the importance of urban public education. People would be amazed to see what happens on a daily basis to create safe schools, none of which involves school resource officers.

A Positive Force

SPPS has many ways for students to demonstrate their genius, talents and success. Teachers and administrators don’t overly obsess about state-mandated test scores. Instead, focusing their energies on finding different ways to meet the needs of a diverse student body. Late last spring, Dr. Gothard visited an elementary school that was having Water Day. As he watched the kids running around, he was struck by how they were a perfect representation of the wonderful diversity of SPPS.

Dr. Gothard has been the Superintendent of SPPS for six years, which is a long time for a superintendent of a large urban school district. It is all the more impressive when you think about how the educational landscape has changed, especially since the pandemic, how politicized public education is and how public schools are battlegrounds for today’s culture wars. His hope is nurtured by SPPS parents, students, volunteers and employees who work hard to create vibrant school communities so teachers can teach, students can learn and meaningful relationships can form. He also gets support and guidance from colleagues at the Council of Great City Schools, a coalition of the 78 largest urban public school districts in the country who are dedicated to improving urban public education.

His family is his biggest source of hope. His wife of 29 years has been with him through the good, the bad and every moment in between. His three kids provide support and let him know how proud they are of him. His family reminds him of the good he is doing in Saint Paul.

Last year, Dr. Gothard visited a classroom working on reading skills. He was amazed at all the instruction the teacher delivered in the amount of time available. He was even more impressed when he got the chance to read with a student. Dr. Gothard says difficult decisions need to be made around resource allocation, but money isn’t the only scarce resource, so is time. It takes time to understand the impact of strategies designed to improve education, and that is difficult in a world that wants everything yesterday.

Dr. Gothard is proud to be the superintendent of SPPS. It continues to be a positive force in the city and a place where students' hopes are shaped and nurtured. He understands that relationships matter and that a teacher can have a profound effect on a student’s life. He believes, and many people agree with him, that given its size and the number of people who care, SPPS is a district where we can get urban public education right.

*All SPPS students will be eligible to receive free meals starting this year thanks to the passing of the Free School Meals Program.

Note to Readers

We moved our kids to SPPS five years ago. At the time, there were a handful of people who said we were making a mistake, and we would regret it. Some of the comments, sadly, were incredibly racist. Well, our kids are doing great, and we have no regrets about moving them.

There is often a big disconnect for me between what I read and hear about SPPS and what I see and experience for myself. The vitriol directed at SPPS is shocking, and the narrative around the district often focuses only on the negative. I hope this Profile in Hope helps change that narrative.

Learn More

Please visit SPPS to learn about what is happening in the district. 

SPPS is hiring. Click this link to learn more.

You can also learn about ways to volunteer in the district. One of the best things I ever did was volunteer in the schools that our kids attended when we moved them to SPPS. It was a great way to get to know the school community, and the teachers and kids were the best!