Dr. Karen Couch, Superintendent of Kent County Public Schools, Announces Plan to Retire

Dr. Couch announces plan to retire

ROCK HALL — Dr. Karen Couch, superintendent of Kent County Public Schools, will be retiring at the end of the current school year.

Dr. Couch announced at this month’s Kent County Board of Education meeting that her retirement will be effective June 30, 2024. She said at the January 8, 2024 meeting that It has been an honor to collaborate with the exceptional team of administrators, teachers, staff and board members.

“Our collective commitment to the students and families of this county has been profound,” Dr. Couch said. “Throughout my tenure, we achieved significant milestones, a testament to our collective dedication to excellence in education. This commitment consistently drove us to adapt and innovate, ensuring our students receive the best education possible.”

Upon the delivery of Dr. Couch’s announcement, Joseph Goetz, president of the Board of Education, described the meeting as a “heavy night” with the weight of the superintendent’s decision in the air.

“But you’re not gone,” Goetz told Dr. Couch. “And we’ll have time to celebrate and we’ll have time to reflect on where we’ve been and where we’re going.”

Goetz said that everyone is a link in the chain driving KCPS, with many having come before them and more to follow. He said they will all do the best they can to continue providing students with a top-quality education.
“Working with you has been an absolute joy,” Goetz said to Dr. Couch. “There’s been a lot of ups and downs, but we’ll celebrate all that as we move forward.”

As a first step in the KCPS leadership transition, the Board of Education is holding a special meeting at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 23 to discuss the search for the next superintendent. The meeting will be held at the KCPS dministrative Building, 5608 Boundary Ave., Rock Hall.

Dr. Couch is retiring in the back half of her third four-year term as the superintendent of KCPS. Her most recent contract renewal was approved in the spring of 2021 for four years.

She first came on board at KCPS on July 1, 2013, having led a candidate field of nearly 20 applicants. Dr. Couch was named the Maryland Superintendent of the Year in 2021.

She made her mark on KCPS early, launching a technological revolution by bringing computers and smartboards into classrooms, greatly expanding teachers’ and students’ access to educational resources.

She built a collaborative environment in schools through fostering professional learning communities, which brought teachers together to share best practices to help reach all students.

She also made KCPS one of the first school systems in Maryland to adopt universal all-day prekindergarten, giving children an important head start on their education.

“Amidst numerous budgetary challenges, including declining enrollment and limited resources, we remained committed to prioritizing organizational improvements and addressing the diverse needs of our students and staff,” Dr. Couch said.

She improved the school buildings themselves through targeted renovations, enhanced safety features like security vestibules and launching the planning process for a new middle school.

“During my tenure, we also executed a comprehensive six-year Facilities Strategic Plan, revitalizing educational facilities untouched for over 25 years,” she said. “Moreover, we successfully fulfilled preliminary state requirements for the construction of a new middle school while advocating for legislation to increase state funding participation for the project.”

Francoise Sullivan, vice president of the Board of Education, praised Dr. Couch’s professionalism in the face of myriad challenges including tight budgets, declining student enrollment and the COVID pandemic.

“You have helped our schools accomplish so much in the time that you’ve been here and it hasn’t been easy,” Sullivan told Dr. Couch. “You have always been professional and represented our schools really well, and I can only imagine how tough that probably was for some things.”

Hailing from New Mexico, Dr. Couch previously served from 2001 to 2013 as the superintendent of the Moriarty-Edgewood School District, about an hour east of Albuquerque.

In 2010, she was honored as the New Mexico Superintendent of the Year.

Dr. Couch moved to Kent County with a reputation for having turned that rural school district into one of the top-achieving in the state through a focus of continuous school improvement and the incorporation of research-based education programming.

She has likewise implemented similar strategies at KCPS, increasing the visibility and participation in the Career and Technical Education (CTE) program at Kent County High School, encouraging the growth of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) programs and training elementary school teachers in the renowned Orton-Gillingham method of English language arts instruction.

Trish McGee, the longest serving among the current Board of Education members, was first elected the year after Couch’s hiring. McGee covered the search process that saw Dr. Couch come onboard as the associate editor of the Kent County News.

Speaking at the January 8th Board meeting, McGee said Dr. Couch paid out of her own pocket for travel from New Mexico to Kent County for one of her first interview visits. McGee said that showed just how prepared Dr. Couch was willing to go the distance to address the challenges faced by KCPS.

“I think every decision she ever made personally and professionally was really about how to move our school district forward,” McGee said. “And I can’t think of a greater legacy than something like that.”

Dr. Couch’s tenure at KCPS caps off a career in education that began in 1980 when she became a kindergarten teacher in the Las Cruces Public Schools in southern New Mexico. She was then employed by the Alamogordo Public Schools and rose through the ranks in that district from teacher to principal and, ultimately associate superintendent.

Along the way, she earned her master’s degree and later received her doctorate in educational administration from New Mexico State University.

Dr. Couch said she is confident that KCPS will continue to nurture and inspire every child who walks through its doors and she eagerly anticipates hearing all those future success stories.
“As I begin a new chapter, I know that our work has laid a strong foundation for continued student success,” Dr. Couch said. “The legacy of our efforts is not in the programs we’ve started or the facilities we’ve renovated, but in the lives of the students we’ve touched.”

Read Dr. Couch’s full retirement announcement, HERE:

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