Interview with SVVSD Superintendent Don Haddad, Ed.D

In 2008, the St. Vrain Valley School District's (SVVSD) overall graduation rate was approximately 75%, with the Hispanic graduation rate at approximately 55%.

Over 16 years, the district has seen significant progress. As of 2024, the overall district graduation rate has risen to an impressive 93.3%, and the Hispanic student graduation rate has also seen a substantial increase, now at 87.7%. According to Don Haddad, Superintendent of SVVSD, these improvements were achieved despite the district's increasing graduation requirements, making them among the highest credit requirements in Colorado and beyond.

The music program, a source of pride for the district, has been recognized as being in the top 15% nationally for four years in a row, and is the only district in Colorado to receive this recognition in the nation.

The athletic programs have the highest percentage of individual and team state championships in Colorado; the Longmont Robotics team recently won the world championship, and the Drumline was the state champion. SVVSD is one of only 373 school districts, out of approximately 14,000 school districts nationwide, to make the College Board's annual Advanced Placement (AP) Honor Roll school district list, and was selected to host the advanced placement training for teachers this year.

Since July 2009, when Haddad became the superintendent of the SVVSD, his leadership team, board of education, teachers, and staff have been able to implement their strong vision for the educational system. He believed that financial barriers and other systemic roadblocks prevented many talented individuals from reaching their full potential, and sought to address these issues through his role.

Haddad began to realize the issue of limited access when he attended college at Colorado State University on a full-ride wrestling scholarship, having won two high school state championships. In high school, Haddad said, "I did okay in my studies, but my focus was on wrestling."

Once he started college, he applied himself and received a 4.0 grade point average. He believed that "if not for wrestling and the scholarship," he might not have had the opportunity to attend college and change his focus to academics and education. Haddad felt that students were caught up in a system that did not allow their talent to surface due to a lack of options in the education community.

In his first year of teaching, he discovered that some of his students came from families where no one had ever graduated from high school. He noticed some of these young men on the wrestling team were not achieving academically to their full potential. Yet when these same young men started wrestling, they began to apply themselves more consistently, improving their grades and successfully graduating from high school. Haddad felt that if you tap into students' talents, they blossom. He realized that providing alternative pathways could open up new opportunities for these skilled students, marking a pivotal moment in his understanding of education.

Based on his background and experiences, Haddad felt that college needed to be redefined and that students might need a different type of education. While many people associate college with a four-year degree, post-secondary opportunities in learning trades such as welding, machining, electronics, and automotive are extremely valuable today.

Haddad strongly supports traditional education, such as college and universities, however, he wants people to realize there are different pathways. An analogy he used was how many ways you can drive from Longmont to Niwot High School. He explained that there are multiple ways, yet the destination remains the same. Similarly, different pathways can lead to a viable career that will allow one to earn a good living for one's family.

Haddad referred to Tom Friedman's book, "Thank You for Being Late," which discusses the impact of technological breakthroughs in 2007, including Apple's iPhone, Facebook and Twitter going global, IBM's Watson, Github, and Hadoop. This resulted in a need for change in the workforce as most jobs being created did not require the traditional four-year college path.

But while this change occurred, traditionalists held tight with the public educational system, stuck with only standardized testing and one educational pathway as a measure of success. Finally, the bottom dropped out, and the repercussions from the mismatch of job requirements and employee talents hit the private sector's bottom line.

Haddad said, "Businesses soon realized changes needed to be made to the existing educational system to better align job requirements with employees' talents." This realization implied that society needed to overhaul the educational system that was creating our workforce. Consequently, a new workforce pipeline emerged through partnerships between businesses and academic institutions, aiming to match talents previously sidelined by a one-size-fits-all system.

When asked how the district's successes align with Governor Polis's call to "blur the line" in his State of the State address, Haddad explained that this concept is realized by redesigning the educational system to be more integrated and flexible, thereby creating additional pathways alongside the traditional route.

Over time, these efforts led to national recognition for SVVSD, with over 70 diversified and rigorous instruction focused academies and programs across 60 schools, including Aerospace and Engineering, Energy, Medical and BioScience, Leadership, International Baccalaureate (IB), STEM, Biomedical Sciences, Visual and Performing Arts, the Innovation Center, and a 45-foot mobile STEM lab.

Haddad said, "The SVVSD raised the bar, broadened the opportunity, and increased graduation rates with many students graduating with an associate degree from high school at no cost to the student, so we took the financial barrier out of the equation."

This program includes five Pathways in Technology Early College High School programs, known as P-TECH, in which students earn their two-year associate's degree simultaneously with their high school diploma at no cost to the students. Current P-TECH programs offer degrees focused on computer information systems, cybersecurity, biochemistry, teaching, and business.

SVVSD's recent partnership with Metropolitan State University (MSU) Denver adds to this portfolio of pathways. The partnership will foster a pathway to higher education for all district graduates, providing students with early access to admissions support, financial aid, campus events, and career readiness. MSU Denver serves 17,000 students of all ages and backgrounds in 90+ majors and ten graduate programs. Nearly 80% of MSU's 108,000+ alums stay in Colorado, advancing Colorado's communities and economy.

Another noteworthy aspect of Haddad's role in the school district involves the internet. Haddad explained, "The SVVSD has 33,000 students and 5,500 teachers and staff. Using the local NextLight service and other services, the system can all log in simultaneously without exhausting the district's bandwidth. This allows the students to do more with technology that many districts cannot access. We provide all students K through 12 with an iPad at no cost to the student, and the district provides financial support for the internet service."

Haddad is very proud of the district's high-tech mobile lab, where the students can come inside and practice with all kinds of technology. The district is setting up a second one for cyber security and a third for artificial intelligence (AI).

Haddad said, "The district has made great advances in developing policies and providing professional development for teachers in leveraging AI and I feel AI is a potent and valuable tool for efficiency, effectiveness, and information." He cited a couple of positive examples of AI, including the review of the medical records of a million patients to prescribe a treatment, and tackling environmental issues by analyzing large amounts of data to develop solutions. Still, he said, "It is also very dangerous because of what people can do with artificial intelligence, such as creating fake people, dialogue, and situations and tapping into other countries' infrastructure."

Haddad also discussed AI and plagiarism in an educational setting, saying, "You can research the information and discuss the sources you used. We use AI similar to how we once used an encyclopedia, but you still have to vet the information using footnotes and other sources, perform an editor's job, and research other sources. We also encourage parents to monitor media use. We have parents that participate in a leadership St. Vrain program and parent network engagement sessions."

Haddad believes in the value of public education. "Our public education system, which educates approximately 90% of American children, is vital to our children's education and well-being, our economy, public safety, national security, our property values, businesses, the strength of our democracy, and our workforce pipeline," he said. "I want people to view education in a holistic sense that is key to the strength of our nation's foundation, well-being, and success."