Vance County Schools – Creasman Selected for SUPES Academy


Brian Creasman

Brian Creasman

Brian Creasman, assistant superintendent for Administrative Services and Instructional Support with Vance County Schools, has been selected to participate in the SUPES Academy, one of the country’s premiere training programs for aspiring superintendents.

Vance County Schools has a total student population of about 7,000 with a total of 16 schools including 10 elementary, two middle and four high schools.

Creasman has been in the district since 2004, previously serving as an assistant principal for curriculum and instruction, interim principal at Eaton-Johnson Middle School and principal of Northern Vance High School.

This training is in line with one of the school system’s goals to train administrators to become 21st Century leaders and empower teachers to become teacher leaders in schools.

Vance County Schools is always seeking ways to offer effective, educational training to school system staff members, teachers and administrators. It is critical that the local school system grow its own talent of teacher leaders and school administrators, as public schools in North Carolina face an ongoing shortage of highly qualified teachers and school administrators. High student performance in 21st Century schools requires the development of teacher leaders and school administrators as instructional leaders. The SUPES Academy will provide access to valuable training for Creasman and the school district.

The 2014-2015 SUPES Academy cohort received over 400 applications from diverse districts around the country and accepted only 50 cohort members. Sessions are held in Chicago in September, October and November of 2014 and in January of 2015. The sessions culminate with a graduation weekend at the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) National Conference on Education.

Training is centered on the goal of empowering school leaders with skills necessary to transform our nation’s schools. All graduates from the SUPES Academy will emerge with a refreshed passion and eagerness to make changes in classrooms and districts, as well as reform and management knowledge to ensure successful action.

Workshops are given on topics such as navigating political and economic pressures, response techniques in real-world situations and training in business and crisis management. Special focus is given to creating and interpreting strategies to increase student achievement in the unique situation of the district administrator’s home district. The programs balance the intersection between theoretical and practical learning in order to provide the most relevant experience. Previous participants have described programming as an “intellectually stimulating portfolio of strategies and practices focused on transforming the participants into emerging leaders of public education.  The facilitators are proven, experienced experts that were knowledgeable in all facets of school superintendent responsibilities . . . the networking with the diverse cohort was invaluable.”

These goals are achieved through an individual focus on each program participant. The curricula are finalized after the cohort is chosen and constantly amended based on feedback in order to ensure relevance and continues to evolve throughout the program. The cohort will hear and get to know from dozens of faculty and guest speakers who are all nationally recognized, award-winning sitting and veteran superintendents.

Gary Solomon, chief executive officer of The SUPES Academy, was pleased to announce this year’s cohort saying, “This group of educators are an incredible group of passionate, talented leaders. We look forward to working with them, and seeing them grow into our next district leaders to help schools across our country grow and succeed.”