Kevin Gilbert is pictured here with the last of four championship trophies he won coaching basketball. The athletic director in the Mississippi district where he worked gave it to him when he left to take another job.
Kevin Gilbert has done all kinds of jobs within a school system.
The new acting superintendent of schools in South Orange Maplewood has been in administration for many years but he has also taught, coached, been a substitute bus driver, operated the floor waxing machine and run the cash register in the cafeteria lunch line.
He stepped into the acting superintendent role about a month ago after Superintendent of Schools Ronald Taylor was essentially fired from the job by the Board of Education after a no-confidence vote from the teacher’s union, continuing transportation problems and the cancellation of all in school Halloween activities.
Gilbert, 52, is married with a five year old daughter. He has two sons from a previous marriage, one is 22 and a student at Jackson State University while the other is a senior at Ridgeland High School in Mississippi. His wife and daughter are living in the Washington, D.C. area with plans to join him in Montclair in the spring.
Born outside of Chicago in Joliet, Illinois, Gilbert’s parents were both in education. His father was a public school teacher in the Joliet district and his mother was an art teacher at Joliet Junior College.
Much to his dismay at the time, his family, he has a brother and two sisters, moved from Joliet in 1984 to a town outside of Jackson, Miss., where both of his parents had grown up. He was 13 and did not want to go.
“From eighth grade through high school, my plan was to figure out how to get out of Mississippi,” he said.
He didn’t leave, though, at least not right away. He ended up enrolling at the University of Southern Mississippi, where he received a partial scholarship to be
an equipment manager in the school’s athletic department. A baseball player in high school, his coach helped him get the position.
“It started out as 50% but by the time I graduated it was around 95%,” he said. “And I got to be around baseball.”
He continued his studies at the university, becoming a graduate assistant and helping out with the football and baseball programs and that helped pay for his master’s degree.
“My major was political science but I made the decision to get involved in education,” he said. “I blame my parents for that.”
His first work in the field was substitute teaching in Jackson until he got a full time job at a ninth grade only school, Sumner Hill Junior High School, which had about 450 students at time. He taught social studies and coached boys basketball and track and field for both boys and girls.
He also got a commercial driver’s license because when his teams had road trips he was expected to drive the bus. Having gotten the CDL, he also signed up as a substitute bus driver and would get called in to drive when regular bus drivers were sick.
Gilbert liked the school and felt it helped students in the transition to high school. He left the school, however, to teach and coach boys basketball at Rankin High School, which is also in the Jackson area.
He returned to Sumner after a couple of years and taught and coached there for another four years, deciding along the way that he wanted to get into administration. He was offered a job as assistant principal in nearby Hinds County, which he took.
The set up was somewhat unusual in that the middle school was part of a k-12 school that had one principal, two buildings a couple of miles apart and two assistant principals with one for each building with the principal based in the elementary school building. As a result, Gilbert was often the de facto lead administrator in his building.
“It gave me a chance to do some leadership work in the building without having to sit in the big chair,” Gilbert said. “The principal would come over for the big decisions.”
The state of Mississippi, however, decided that an assistant principal shouldn’t be in charge of a school and Gilbert didn’t feel he was ready to be a principal so he took a job as an assistant principal at Clinton High School in Clinton, Miss.
Gilbert said he liked the transition to administrative work because he felt he could impact more people.
“As a teacher, I felt my ability to help students was boxed in. You have your classroom. Being an administrator gave me more of a chance to influence and impact. To make decisions that benefit the students, the staff and the support staff.,” he said. “I had a desire to be more of an influencer.”
Gilbert said his desire to move up the ladder in educational leadership grows out of his desire to expand his influence and “be a part of the solution for the next generation of leaders.”
During his teaching days, Gilbert had joined the Mississippi Education Association, which is composed of grade school teachers, higher education faculty and staff, educational support professionals, retired educators and college students preparing to become teachers. The MEA works to improve salaries, benefits, and working conditions for education professionals and for the betterment of the Mississippi public education system.
Gilbert became vice president of the statewide organization and was then elected president, which was a full time job.
“It gave me an opportunity to tour the state and work with the state Department of Education,” he said, adding that he worked with community groups, the state, educators and others to fight for schools, particularly for funding for schools.
He was president for two, three-year terms but could not run for a third term because there are limits on the position so he returned to the Clinton district working in administration.
His responsibilities included overseeing the custodial staff and the food service team.
“There were times I had to hand out food, or work the cash register,” he said. “When we were down a custodian, students would see me fighting that floor waxing machine in the halls.”
He didn’t mind the work, he said.
“I’m not afraid to get in there and get in the action,” he said. “I’m willing to get down in the trenches with you to do whatever is necessary.”
Gilbert said he has studied leadership and he believes in the servant leader concept.
“It’s not about me, it’s about service,” he said. “I look at myself, I’m here to serve, not direct. To serve the parents and to help the students be successful.”
The model grows out of his faith. He grew up in the church and was a deacon in Mississippi. “Being committed to service has compelled me to be successful. That’s the leadership style that works best for me.”
At Clinton, he was also responsible for staff development and special projects, including keeping track of how the district was measuring up under the federal desegregation order that it was still under at the time he worked there.
“You hate to have legal mandates but you want to meet them,” he said.
The Clinton Public School District, which also includes Sumner Hill Junior High School, has been cited as a model for desegregation nationally in publications like The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic and The Hechinger Report of Columbia University’s Teachers College. One of the noteworthy things the district has done is arrange students by grade, rather than neighborhood, creating things like a ninth grade only building.
Gilbert also became active in the National Education Association, eventually becoming one of nine members of its executive committee. “It was there I got to do a lot of equity work, which meant I got to go around the country. My emphasis was on restorative justice.”
Restorative justice focuses on repairing harm through inclusive processes that engages everyone involved. It shifts the focus of discipline from punishment to learning and from the individual to the community.
In 2016, Gilbert left Mississippi and headed northeast to take the position as the first director of diversity and inclusivity in Howard County, Maryland.
Michael J. Martirano, who is the superintendent of the Howard County Public School System, said the 58,000 student district is very diverse and one of his goals was to advance diversity, equity and inclusion.
“I was advancing a very robust agenda on the aspect of inclusion, installing restorative practices and creating a system where all students are welcome and feel a sense of belonging,” Martirano said. “When I became superintendent in 2017 one of my first actions was to advance a position called director of diversity, equity and inclusion. He (Gilbert) was my first hire.”
Martirano said that Gilbert partnered with him in his effort and helped advance the program.
“Today we have a very robust Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion with solid work and training and he was extremely instrumental in helping me spark that within my district,” Martirano said.
In that position, Gilbert, as a director as opposed to an assistant superintendent, didn’t have decision making abilities.
“One of the things that brought me here (to SOMA) was the opportunity to make an impact,” he said. “Being able to create change.”
Gilbert was hired as the school district’s assistant superintendent of access and equity in the spring of 2022. He was appointed interim superintendent in November and was immediately thrown into the fire when the board removed its liaison to the MapSo Freedom School after the organization posted numerous items in support of the Palestinian side in the Israel Hamas War. MapSO Freedom offers programming for youth, social justice professional development and community events for educators and others.
Gilbert participated in an hours-long contentious meeting and has been a visible presence in the district since, having visited all of the school and met with faculty and staff.
“It was important to hit the ground running and let people know the education of their children was moving forward,” he said.
“It was really important that students and staff saw that their world would not be interrupted. There’s a lot happening, stability and maintaining calmness was important.”
Going forward, Gilbert said his top priorities were building good collaborative relationships, creating an equitable environment and upholding the district’s commitment to the board approved goals in the Fergus Report.
To rebuild relationships, he plans to meet weekly with teachers, staff, administrators and regularly with the PTA and HSA.
“Be visible in the schools and with families and students,” he said. “And listen.”
An equitable environment is one where students see themselves and others in the classroom, he said.
“For our students to attain their highest level, they have to be their actual self and the staff has to help them get there.”
The Fergus Report, which grew out of the district’s settlement with the Black Parents Workshop, outlined disparities between white and black students.
Among the recommendations are improving the teaching of math at all levels; creating a plan to identify high- achieving students from under-represented backgrounds for higher-track math courses; increasing accessible and equitable parent involvement in math course selection; developing and implementing a professional development series that focuses on continued development of cross- cultural capacity; hiring more Black teachers/teachers of color and creating affinity spaces to support those teachers to increase retention.
“I feel like I’m in an area with the opportunity to do great work, to shape and transform lives and to build equity in a school district,” Gilbert said. “Here,” he said, indicating Maplewood South Orange, “there is the actual opportunity to be successful.”
New super sees opportunity for real success added by Joe Ungaro on
View all posts by Joe Ungaro →