8/14/2019 Passion for Education

1/4

8 south mississippi scene

personalities: hank bounds

STORY BY LAYLA ESSARYPHOTOS BY LAYLA ESSARY AND COURTESY OF

MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

When South Mississippi

native Dr. Hank Bounds ven-

tures into high s chool settings

across the state, he has big

ideas in mind for the future.

When you consider that

high schools in our state look

and work like they did when I

graduated from high school, no

wonder we have a problem,said Bounds, highlighting one

of his passions as State

Superintendent of Education

the fight to lower high school

drop-out rates.

Everything else in our world

has changed, Bounds said.

Consider the advances in tech-

nology for example. When I

was in school, hardly anyone

had a personal computer. W e

have to look at ways to totallyredesign the high school experi-

e n c e .

His own career path flows

out of the high school setting

where he began as a teacher

and coach in the Petal and Moss

Point school districts . B o u n d s

recalled how one memorable

phone call led to his early

accent into leadership roles.

I had only been out of

school at Forrest County

Agricultural High School for

less than a decade when my

former principal, Carl

Shepherd, (now acting as super-intendent) called to see if I

would consider a principal

position at my alma mater,

said Bounds. I had no inten-

tion of being a principal that

y o u n g . I remember telling him

that I appreciated the confi-

dence in me but that I didnt

think I was the right person or

r e a d y .

But Shepherd would not take

no for an answer.I had known him for years

and knew that Hank was indus-

trious and a competitor, said

Shepherd, reflecting on his

effort to hire Bounds. I knew

that he would work incredibly

hard. Whatever he set his mind

to do, you could bet he would

achieve it and that was exactly

what we needed in a principal.

Even though I had my

doubts, I found it appealing to

get to work with Mr. Shepherd

and the other teachers, said

Bounds. It would also give me

an opportunity to be near myparents who were still reeling

from the tragedy of losing a

childmy sister in a car

wreck not long before. So I

decided to go.

Soon Bounds and his fiance

Susie were married upon

launching a career in school

a d m i n i s t r a t i o n . I was a bi t

a p p r e h e n s i v e . Number one, I

was young and number two, I

felt like it was going to be anuncomfortable situation, in a

position of leadership over the

people who taught me nearly

nine years earlier, recalled

B o u n d s . But the teachers there

were fantastic and so support-

Passion for

E d u c a t i o nM o t i v a t e sNative Son

8/14/2019 Passion for Education

2/4

8/14/2019 Passion for Education

3/4

Tucked between press conferences and

conference calls from the governor and the

U.S. Secretary of Education, Bounds was

contending with a flood-ravaged home and

two young children.

Both then and now, Im the youngest

superintendent in the country. I had just

turned 38 when I took the job. I can guaran-

tee that no other state superintendent was

going home at night and changing their

childs diapers, laughed Bounds. It was

during that time that his wife Susie spoke

insightful words t hat he still remembers to

this day.

We were on one of our many drives to

the coast to clean out the house and tear out

sheetrock, said Bounds. Susie said to me,

I now know why God put y ou in this job.

She explained how someone from another

Mississippi needs tounderstand it really

d o e s n t matter what thequestion is, the answ e r

is education, saidB o u n d s .

8/14/2019 Passion for Education

4/4

south mississippi scene

place or state may not have

known the community or the

people so well, even up into the

Hattiesburg area. These people

were our friends and dear col-

leagues and they were deeply

impacted by the storm. I had

never thought about it thatway. She may be right.

In the months to come, a

coalition of school leaders

formed an aggressive school

recovery strategy. W h e n

Governor Barbour wanted to

publicly announce when all

affected schools would be back

up and running, he turned to

the newly appointed superin-

tendent for a schedule.

I told the governor that we

would have all the schools open

by October, but he looked at me

with a somewhat skeptical look

and ultimately did not provide

the media with a date.

Bounds said that goal was

met when in fact all schools

were back in operation by

October 13, except one due to

the shortage of portable class-

r o o m s . We were able toaccomplish so much together

and ended up with more than

$330 million in federal aid, not

to mention long-term connec-

tions with the Kellogg

Foundation and other lasting

p a r t n e r s h i p s .

Those partnerships, said

Bounds, have led to new lofty

goals, centered on early child-

hood education and keeping

students on track for gradua-t i o n .

* * * * *

Each day, Hank Bounds tack-

les an aggressive schedule that

comes with the territory expect-

ed with his role as the s tates

education top gun.

But woven into the fabric of

each day, Bounds finds time to

meet with business leaders will-

ing to partner in new ways to

help strengthen the mission ofpublic education in Mississippi.

Without a doubt, Hank is

one of the most i nnovative and

creative people Ive ever met,

said Shepherd. Hes proven

himself all along as an excellent

teacher, principal, s uperintend-

ent and now as a leader of the

states education system. O u r

citizens can be assured that hes

looking out for the very best

interest of our children.

In fact, one of the ways

Bounds is looking after their

future is through his goal of

lowering drop-out rates in the

state by fifty percent by 2012.

Mississippi needs to under-

stand it really doesnt matter

what the question is, the

answer is education, said

B o u n d s . Want to talk about

p o v e r t y ? Address education.Improve health care? Look at

e d u c a t i o n . The statisti cs are

very clear. Boost economic

development or job growth?

Public education is really the

key, because more than ninety

percent of kids in Mississippi

attend public school and the

impact of them dropping out of

school is devastating.

Today Bounds is leading the

charge by speaking continuallyto broad segments of the popu-

lation about the On the Bus

drop-out prevention campaign,

which challenges both the com-

munity at-large and high school

students to take action today to

insure that all young people

make it through school with a

diploma tomorrow.

Mississippi still tends to

fall into last place in all the aca-

demic measures, however we

are making improvements in

the past decade, so good thingsare happening, said Bounds.

But we have a long way to go.

It is a culture, and it is clear

that folks in Mississippi dont

value education enough, from

the grassroots all the way up to

state leadership. We have to

understand that you cant con-

tinue to have one out of every

four students not make it

through school. We have to be

so solid in our efforts to help

students finish school and track

good jobs.

And the movement doesnt

stop there, said Bounds. I t

isnt just about the students and

t e a c h e r s . We have to make cer-

tain that we have the support

from state leadership to insure

that all levels of education, K-

12 through community colleges

and universities can be fundedat a level that they can be suc-

cessful. Changing a culture is

incredibly difficult to do.

Tough, but a task that

Bounds said he is committing to

seeing accomplished. And, just

as Governor Barbour has dis-

covered, Bounds wont rest

until he sees his goals turned

into reality once again.

For more information abouthow to get On the Bus and

support drop-out prevention in

Mississippi, go t o

www.onbus.ms or contact the

Mississippi Department of

E d u c a t i o n