{"id":6,"date":"2026-10-13T18:17:38","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T18:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.graniteschools.org\/chief-of-staff\/?page_id=6"},"modified":"2026-10-26T15:51:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T15:51:18","slug":"home","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.graniteschools.org\/chief-of-staff\/","title":{"rendered":"Home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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<\/i><\/span>Page under construction:<\/strong> This page is still being built and some information may not be correct.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Deputy Superintendent<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Granite School District<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Deputy Superintendent is charged with increasing the effectiveness of teaching and learning throughout Granite School District. The fundamental aim of the position is to improve student achievement by improving instruction.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Contact Us<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Deputy Superintendent<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

<\/i><\/span>Dr. Mitch Nerdin<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Executive Secretary<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

<\/i><\/span>Trinda Burdett<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/i><\/span>385.646.4723<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Improving<\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Improving Student Achievement by Improving Instruction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Deputy Superintendent leads and coordinates districtwide efforts designed to strengthen the quality and consistency of teaching and learning. The work is ultimately evaluated through a simple question: Are the actions of the district making it more likely that every student experiences excellent instruction every day?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Current work includes a focus on ensuring teachers have the resources necessary to improve student achievement through increased instructional effectiveness.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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About the Role<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The Deputy Superintendent accomplishes this by working on behalf of the Superintendent and in partnership with the Board of Education, district leadership, principals, teachers, employees, families, and community to ensure that the district’s people, systems, resources, professional learning, and improvement efforts are aligned around high-quality instruction and improved outcomes for students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Deputy Superintendent serves as a bridge between district vision and classroom practice\u2014helping translate the priorities of the Board and Superintendent into coherent action throughout the organization.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Areas of Responsibility<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Select a topic below to read more about how the Deputy Superintendent supports teaching, learning, and student achievement across Granite School District.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Improving Student Achievement by Improving Instruction<\/strong><\/summary>\n

The Deputy Superintendent leads and coordinates districtwide efforts designed to strengthen the quality and consistency of teaching and learning. This includes helping establish a shared understanding of effective instruction; ensuring teachers have the resources, professional learning, coaching, time, and support necessary to improve their practice; strengthening instructional leadership among principals and district leaders; and using evidence of student learning to determine where additional support or changes in practice are needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The work is ultimately evaluated through a simple question: Are the actions of the district making it more likely that every student experiences excellent instruction every day?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current work specifically includes a focus on ensuring teachers have the resources necessary to improve student achievement through increased instructional effectiveness.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Aligning District Leadership Around Teaching and Learning<\/strong><\/summary>\n

The Deputy Superintendent helps organize district leadership around student achievement rather than around departments, programs, or administrative functions alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has included reimagining the district leadership structure as the Student Achievement Leadership Team (SALT) and intentionally including principals from elementary, junior high, and high school levels so that school and classroom realities inform district-level decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through SALT and other leadership structures, the Deputy Superintendent works to create collective responsibility for student achievement across the organization. Academic improvement is not viewed as the responsibility of a single curriculum department; every district function is expected to consider how its work supports schools, educators, instruction, and ultimately students.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Leading Implementation of the District Strategic Plan<\/strong><\/summary>\n

The Deputy Superintendent provides leadership for implementation of the district’s strategic priorities, working across divisions and departments to create greater coherence in the support provided to schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A central responsibility is identifying and removing organizational barriers that cause departments or divisions to operate independently when their work should be coordinated. The Deputy Superintendent helps connect initiatives, clarify responsibilities, align resources, coordinate timelines, and establish systems for monitoring whether district strategies are actually reaching schools and producing the intended results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This responsibility includes overseeing development, monitoring, implementation, and communication associated with the district strategic plan and tracking progress toward district goals and priorities.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Building the Instructional Leadership Capacity of Principals<\/strong><\/summary>\n

Because classroom instruction is heavily influenced by school leadership, the Deputy Superintendent works to strengthen principals’ capacity to lead teaching and learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This includes aligning professional development that was previously delivered through separate district meetings into a more coherent, ongoing model of principal development. Rather than treating individual meetings primarily as administrative or informational events, district interactions with principals can become opportunities to continually build leadership capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Deputy Superintendent also promotes coaching as an important improvement strategy throughout the organization\u2014including instructional coaching for educators and capacity-building coaching from district directors, accompanied by more frequent school visits.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Keeping District Leadership Close to Schools<\/strong><\/summary>\n

The Deputy Superintendent works to ensure that district leaders understand what is actually occurring in classrooms and schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That includes increasing the amount of time district leaders spend alongside principals, teachers, and students; examining instructional practice; understanding barriers facing schools; and using those observations to improve district decisions and supports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An important example has been redefining the work of School Leadership and Improvement Directors (SLIDs) so their attention is increasingly concentrated on instructional leadership and working directly with principals in schools. The creation of a district ombudsman function was intended to remove other demands from SLIDs so more of their time could be devoted to this work. The district’s project summary reports that 70% of schools demonstrated improvement in student achievement.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Concentrating Support Where Students Need It Most<\/strong><\/summary>\n

The Deputy Superintendent helps the district differentiate its support rather than assuming that every school requires the same response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BOOST Schools initiative exemplifies this responsibility. Schools experiencing the greatest student-achievement challenges were identified, and district support was intentionally concentrated and coordinated to provide those schools with the additional assistance necessary to improve teaching and learning. The district’s two-year summary reports meaningful student-achievement improvement in all eight BOOST schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This work involves examining achievement information, identifying areas of concern, coordinating intervention and support, monitoring progress, and adjusting district actions based upon results.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Creating Coherence Across Departments and Divisions<\/strong><\/summary>\n

One of the Deputy Superintendent’s most important organizational responsibilities is ensuring that Granite functions as one school district rather than a collection of separate departments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The position works across organizational boundaries to improve communication, eliminate duplication, resolve competing priorities, and ensure that departments understand how their work connects to the district’s instructional mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When an important problem crosses departmental boundaries\u2014or when an issue does not naturally belong to any single department\u2014the Deputy Superintendent can assume responsibility for bringing together the appropriate people, defining the problem, organizing the work, and moving the issue toward resolution. The formal role also designates the Deputy Superintendent as a point of contact for issues not assigned to another central-office department and as a leader of cross-team initiatives.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Bringing School Leaders Into District Decision-Making<\/strong><\/summary>\n

The Deputy Superintendent creates structures through which successful practitioners can help solve districtwide problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guiding Coalitions at the elementary, junior high, and high school levels bring together innovative and successful principals who have the trust of their peers. These groups identify and address issues that affect schools broadly and develop solutions intended to improve teaching, learning, and school operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their work has included development of an elementary master schedule; additional planning and PLC time; mathematics fact-fluency supports; increased media-specialist time to support reading; development of an instructional observation\/coaching tool intended to more explicitly define effective instruction; and examination of athletic and extracurricular structures, including full-time athletic directors and principal supervision responsibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this way, improvement is developed with school leaders rather than simply delivered to schools from the district office.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Strengthening Professional Learning, Coaching and Support for Teachers<\/strong><\/summary>\n

The Deputy Superintendent works to create the organizational conditions in which teachers can continually improve their effectiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That includes ensuring professional learning is coherent, strengthening instructional coaching, protecting meaningful collaborative\/PLC time, improving the quality of feedback teachers receive, and aligning district resources with identified instructional needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The goal is not to create additional initiatives for teachers. It is to make the district’s existing systems work together more effectively so teachers receive clearer expectations, better support, stronger coaching, useful feedback, appropriate resources, and sufficient opportunities to collaborate around student learning.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Defining and Supporting Effective Instruction<\/strong><\/summary>\n

An important component of improving instruction is establishing greater clarity about what effective teaching looks like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Deputy Superintendent helps coordinate work that makes instructional expectations explicit and usable by teachers, principals, coaches, and district leaders. The Guiding Coalition’s work on an instructional observation and coaching tool, for example, is specifically intended to define explicitly what good instruction entails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This creates greater coherence between teacher professional learning, instructional coaching, principal observations, district support, and the instructional experiences students receive.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Collaborating with the Granite Education Association and Aligning Resources<\/strong><\/summary>\n

The Deputy Superintendent coordinates ongoing collaboration with the Granite Education Association (GEA), including work connected to negotiations and joint labor-management problem solving, to strengthen organizational cooperation and ensure that district resources, employee time, professional learning, and support structures are aligned with the shared goal of building educator capacity and improving instruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This responsibility extends beyond the formal negotiation of agreements. The Deputy Superintendent helps create structures in which district and association leaders can jointly identify organizational barriers, examine the practical impact of policies and practices on educators and schools, and develop solutions that support both employee needs and the district’s instructional mission. The emphasis is on using collaboration to increase the organization’s capacity to support effective teaching and student learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This work has included the 8-Hour Task Force and continues through the PLC Task Force. These collaborative structures bring district and association perspectives together to define problems, consider competing operational needs, align resources, and collectively develop workable solutions. The PLC Task Force, in particular, supports the district’s effort to strengthen meaningful professional collaboration by examining the conditions, time, resources, and organizational supports necessary for PLCs to contribute to improved instruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through this work, the Deputy Superintendent helps connect labor-management collaboration to the district’s broader theory of action: organizational cooperation should create greater capacity for principals and teachers, and that increased capacity should result in stronger instruction and improved student achievement.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Engaging Families and the Community in Improvement<\/strong><\/summary>\n

Improving student achievement also requires listening to those who experience district systems firsthand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Deputy Superintendent facilitates structures through which parents, community members, educators, and district leaders can examine significant district issues together. The District Community Council, for example, has examined concerns surrounding Proficiency-Based Learning, Granite’s Characteristics of a Graduate, attendance and behavior, systemic attendance supports, and alternatives to traditional parent-teacher conferences that could create more meaningful academic engagement between teachers and families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Deputy Superintendent also builds coalitions and communicates with students, families, municipalities, advocacy groups, legislators, and community partners while representing the Superintendent and Granite School District.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Leading Complex and Districtwide Problem Solving<\/strong><\/summary>\n

The Deputy Superintendent organizes, coordinates, and leads major projects assigned by the Superintendent, particularly those that are complex, cross-functional, emerging, or difficult to locate within the district’s traditional organizational structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The role is therefore partly one of organizational problem solver: identifying the issue, gathering the people closest to it, examining evidence, determining what is preventing improvement, developing solutions, assigning responsibility, coordinating implementation, and monitoring whether the solution is producing the desired result.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Supporting the Superintendent and Board of Education<\/strong><\/summary>\n

The Deputy Superintendent works closely with the Superintendent to ensure that district priorities are understood, coordinated, implemented, and monitored throughout the organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The position serves as a senior member of the Superintendent’s leadership structure, supports communication and coordination among executive leaders, assists with school visits and district programs, helps coordinate matters involving the Board of Education, and represents the Superintendent with internal and external stakeholders. The formal job description also assigns the Deputy Superintendent responsibility for district operations and supervisory responsibilities in the Superintendent’s absence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This creates an important line of connection: Board priorities to Superintendent’s direction to District systems and leadership to Principals to Teachers and classrooms resulting in Student learning. The Deputy Superintendent helps ensure that this chain remains connected.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Key Collaboration Groups<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Deputy Superintendent oversees several groups that bring district leadership, schools, and the community together around shared priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/i>Student Achievement Leadership Team (SALT)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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SALT reimagines district leadership around student achievement, bringing together district leaders and principals from elementary, junior high, and high school levels so school and classroom realities inform district-level decisions and collective responsibility for student achievement.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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<\/i>Principal Guiding Coalitions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Guiding Coalitions at each level bring together innovative, trusted principals to identify districtwide issues and develop solutions\u2014such as master scheduling, PLC time, instructional coaching tools, and athletics structures\u2014with school leaders rather than for them.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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<\/i>District Community Council<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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The District Community Council brings together School Community Council members, educators, and district leaders to examine significant issues\u2014such as proficiency-based learning, attendance supports, and family engagement\u2014and strengthen listening and collaboration across the district.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

District Community Council Agendas & Presentations<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Departments<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/i>Organizational Effectiveness<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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<\/i><\/span>Joan Giroux-Bramble, Director<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/i><\/span>Organizational Effectiveness<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/i><\/span>385.646.4574<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

About This Department<\/summary>\n

The Organizational Effectiveness Department oversees the planning, spending and implementation of several state and federal funding sources including LAND Trust, Title I, TSSA, CSI and other funding that supports school improvement.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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In Summary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Deputy Superintendent is charged with increasing the effectiveness of teaching and learning in Granite School District and, ultimately, improving student achievement by improving instruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He does this by aligning district leadership around student achievement; translating Board and Superintendent priorities into action; leading implementation of the strategic plan; strengthening instructional leadership; building the capacity of principals and teachers; coordinating professional learning and coaching; focusing resources on schools with the greatest needs; bringing district leaders closer to schools and classrooms; breaking down barriers between departments; defining and supporting effective instruction; coordinating ongoing collaboration and negotiations with the Granite Education Association; using joint structures such as the 8-Hour Task Force and PLC Task Force to collectively solve organizational problems and align resources with educator capacity building; engaging principals, teachers, families, and community members in solving problems; leading complex districtwide initiatives; monitoring results; and continually aligning the work and resources of the organization with the needs of teachers and students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At its core, the Deputy Superintendent’s responsibility is to help Granite School District operate as a coherent instructional organization\u2014one in which leadership, resources, systems, professional learning, and support are deliberately aligned so that teachers can teach more effectively and students can achieve at higher levels.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Key Collaboration Groups The Deputy Superintendent oversees several groups that bring district leadership, schools, and the community together around shared priorities. Student Achievement Leadership Team (SALT) SALT reimagines district leadership around student achievement, bringing together district leaders and principals from elementary, junior high, and high school levels so school and classroom realities inform district-level decisions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"templates\/template_full_width_no_sidebar.php","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_gsd_hide_title":true,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-6","page","type-page","status-publish","entry"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.graniteschools.org\/chief-of-staff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.graniteschools.org\/chief-of-staff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.graniteschools.org\/chief-of-staff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.graniteschools.org\/chief-of-staff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.graniteschools.org\/chief-of-staff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.graniteschools.org\/chief-of-staff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31,"href":"https:\/\/www.graniteschools.org\/chief-of-staff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6\/revisions\/31"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.graniteschools.org\/chief-of-staff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}