LBUSD Supt. Jason Glass aims to meet community needs, embrace technology

Jason Glass, the newly-appointed superintendent of the Laguna Beach Unified School District, refers to education as the family business.

Looking back at his own path, he recited a family tree that included a Kentucky school teacher for a paternal grandmother, followed by a pair of educators for parents.

Glass grew up in a small town in Brandenburg, an agricultural community along the Ohio River.

“I grew up seeing that the community would do anything for us as kids, and the school district would do anything for us as kids, as well,” Glass said. “So that professionally has always had an impact on how I’ve tried to lead school systems...it’s the responsibility of this community and the school district to do everything it can for its children.”

Glass said he has relocated to Laguna Beach with his wife, Sarah, and their two children. Norah, entering eighth grade, and Chase, heading into seventh grade, will both be attending Thurston Middle School.

Most recently the associate vice president of teaching and learning at Western Michigan University, Glass was previously the commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Education and the Iowa Director of Education. He has also served as superintendent of the Eagle County School District and Jeffco Public Schools, both in Colorado.

Jason Glass was previously the vice president of teaching and learning at Western Michigan University.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

“I’m not new to leadership roles, but over the course of all those years, I have learned to slow down and learn a community and what it wants and values, and then build the future plan based on that,” Glass said. “I don’t come in with a playbook … and start directing people. I’m taking the time to understand this place, what are the aspirations and needs of this community, and then build our future from that, because I think it’ll be much more stable.”

The Laguna Beach Unified Board of Education appointed Glass as the new superintendent on June 9. Jason Viloria had held the position since 2016, until his contract was terminated in December.

Jeff Dixon, formerly the district’s assistant superintendent of business services, had stepped in as interim superintendent as the board carried out its search to fill the position. He has since moved into an assistant superintendent role in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

Faculty and parents heard Viloria prioritize the development of the whole child in his latter years with the district. While Glass said he does not enter his new role with a playbook, he indicated that would be a focal point for him, too.

School systems continue to grapple with several challenges, including those brought on by a disruption in educational and social-emotional development during the coronavirus pandemic.

“I think it will take us years to fully unravel the effects of what experiencing COVID as a young person were,” Glass said. “We definitely have seen an increase in social-emotional and behavioral challenges, student isolation, a drop in academic performance — although that’s recovering.”

Glass, who has also served as the superintendent of the Eagle County School District and Jeffco Public Schools, grew up in a small agricultural community along the Ohio River in Kentucky.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

Glass surmised that some of the trends around student interaction were showing up before the pandemic, attributing some of those impacts to the rise of technology. Nevertheless, he is prepared to embrace it, sharing a belief that students should be prepared for the world that they will be sent out into.

“That’s exactly the space that Laguna Beach has stepped into is supporting both teachers in the development of lessons that have students responsibly and ethically engage with [artificial intelligence], and students learn about what that looks like, too,” Glass said. “As adults and as professionals, we’re using it. I’m using it as a really high level sort of executive assistant to proof things, to give me concepts and ideas to think about.

“I do the work. I make the final decision. The analogy I think of is it’s not driverless. … You’re not giving the thing complete control, but it’s driver-assisted. I’m still making the final decisions and deciding where we’re going, but it’s helping me out. I think that’s the concept that we want students engaging with right now, too.”

There is an importance to be placed on programming that results in human experiences, Glass said. He noted that social media can create “fear of missing out at scale” because people generally post the best moments of their lives.

“[Technology is] going to be all around us, even at levels that we can’t even comprehend right now, but at the same time, as a school system, we’ve got to emphasize and create opportunities for human connections and to develop uniquely human traits,” Glass said. “Creativity, complex problem solving, persisting through adversity, designing something new, standing and delivering a presentation or experiencing something that makes you feel … those are things that we have to intentionally design into education.”

Glass said his new stomping grounds have it all. He believes Laguna Beach is a place where people get to experience “the full palette of a vibrant life.”

“From arts and music to wonderful restaurants and the beaches and the outdoors, it’s a full, rich life here,” Glass said. “The Laguna Beach Unified School District has done a good job thinking about how they bring learning experiences from all those [areas] into schools, so that’s something that I definitely want to continue and support.”