What will school look like this fall?  How do our school administrators make the decisions that will affect families with children and by extension, our whole community?  Get the inside view in this episode of the Prescott Woman Podcast with PUSD Superintendent Joe Howard and Assistant Superintendent Mardi Read.

Welcome to the Prescott Woman Podcast, the monthly audio companion to Prescott Woman Magazine. We’re your hosts Kelly Roberge and Charles Matheus, a curious couple exploring the rich array of talent, personality, and engagement we find throughout the Quad Cities.  We dive deeper with the people featured every other month in the pages of Prescott Woman Magazine, discovering more about how they are working to make our community better.

Our guests this episode are stalwart education leaders, Mardi Read and Joe Howard.

Mardi Read graduated from UC Riverside with a BS in Environmental Science and worked in environmental consulting for 10 years. She moved to Prescott in 1997, where her father was raised and her grandmother was a teacher at PHS.

Education and Prescott must be in Mardi’s bones, because she went on to earn her teaching credential and two master’s degrees - in educational technology and educational leadership. She worked for years in the classroom and as an administrator before becoming Assistant Superintendent of Prescott Unified School District. 

Joe Howard also has the education of Prescott kids in his bones. Joe’s father Jim Howard was superintendent of schools in Prescott for years.  Joe has been the superintendent of the Prescott Unified School District for the last five years, guiding the district through budgetary, enrollment, and staffing challenges. Following his second year as superintendent, he received the prestigious Distinguished Administrator award from Arizona School Administrators.

Joe and Mardi were very open and honest with us about the challenges of educating kids during a pandemic, especially considering the limited resources available and the rapidly changing situation. But they have come up with a clear plan that balances keeping kids safe while working hard to keep their education on track.

There’s a treat at the end of the episode. Mardi, who’s clearly the historian of the pair, regales us with some stories about the early years of Prescott Unified School District, so listen for that.

We think you will finish listening to this episode feeling more confident in our school administrators and more hopeful for the future of our kids.

References & Show Notes:

What makes Prescott (and the rest of the Quad Cities) strong? What makes us unique and successful when things get tough? Our first episode attempts to answer those questions.

In the spring of 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Prescott and the Quad Cities. We all started seeing the effects and the community felt the strain, but our collective community spirit and ingenuity rose in response. The writers and staff at Prescott Woman Magazine started collecting stories of that resilience and creativity and featured them in the June/July issue of the Magazine, with the headline, Prescott Strong.

To further lift up those voices and our community story, Prescott Woman commissioned this oral history.

The Prescott Strong Audio Chronicle is a collage of personal reflections and reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic. We trust that you will find it inspiring and meaningful because these are the voices of your neighbors and friends.

Show Notes:

Thank you to the following women and men for contributing quotes:

Special thank you to our guests:

for sharing their trials and triumphs with us in extended interviews.

Over a dozen other local citizens contributed quotes that you can read in the current June/July issue of Prescott woman magazine. The issue is available in locations throughout the Quad Cities and at https://prescottwomanmagazine.com/

The following local musicians provided the soundtrack to the episode. Follow these links to more of their music:

Kelly Roberge narrated this podcast and Charles Matheus produced, recorded and engineered it.

We hope you enjoyed hearing from and about your Quad Cities neighbors and businesses in this audio format. Please join us every month when we’ll share interviews and stories to inspire and engage you on the Prescott Woman Podcast.

A preview of the inaugural episode.