New CCISD superintendent holds meet and gree

By BRITTANY FHOLER

Cove Leader-Press

Copperas Cove Independent School District’s new superintendent Dr. Brent Hawkins met with community members and listened to concerns during a meet and greet held last week at Lea Ledger Auditorium.

In a casual setting, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., Hawkins introduced himself to a steady flow of people who had come out to say hello and learn more about who the new superintendent is.

Hawkins intently listened as community members discussed the issues close to their heart related to the school district.

Hawkins shared that the bond was “on everybody's front burner” and that everyone he had spoken with had mentioned the bond. He listened as some parents shared their reasons for loving Copperas Cove and the school district and as they shared their concerns and offered feedback they felt was necessary for some campuses, such as Copperas Cove High School.

In one conversation, Hawkins stated that he is a small-town guy at heart, which drew him to Copperas Cove.

Hawkins has 32 years of experience in public education, with 16 plus years spent serving as a superintendent. He spent 10.5 years as the superintendent of Livingston Independent School District, and when he began looking for his next step in his career, he came across the news that Joseph Burns had announced his plans to retire.

Hawkins said that the average length a superintendent spends in a district is around two and a half years, which is not enough time to really accomplish anything. He added that when he saw Burns had been the CCISD superintendent since 2012, that showed him that Copperas Cove was aiming to be a destination, rather than a pass-through district.

Hawkins said that Copperas Cove ISD needs to “rethink the ways that it creates environments and climates in schools that will add value to our students’ lives, so that when they leave our schools, that Copperas Cove brand that's on their diploma is a little bit more valuable than anybody else’s.

“I think the way that we do that is to look at what the needs of our kids are, and so you've got about 25 percent of your population that even care about going to a college academically, and then the other 75 percent - you will not meet anybody that's more passionate about skills, crafts and trades than I am, and my resume highlights that. We have to enable our kids these opportunities with skills, crafts and trades, Career Technology programs to get those things that they need so that when they leave, they can be a nurse, they can be a cosmetologist, they can be a plumber, they can be an HVAC technician and be good stewards of the next generation of our society,” Hawkins said. “I feel very confident as I've walked through, and I've looked at our CTE programs, that we got a lot of great things going on in this district. There are a million miracles happening today in CCISD, and we've got to tell people about that, but our career tech programs, we can improve them. One of the greatest areas to improve is to ensure that that choice doesn't just stop in high school, that choice has to go all the way down to the elementary school.”

Hawkins said that the district must meet the students’ needs, like STEAM, dual language, or other models of learning, in addition to the more traditional path.

“When you do those things and you can accomplish all the things that I laid out there, I think public schools can emerge more robust,” Hawkins said. “I mean, there, there's folks that are advocating and trying to kill us, but at the end of the day, they're going to make us stronger if we do those things. Schools that don't do those things, they're going to get cannibalized.”

Hawkins said his entry plan includes using the first 90 days as superintendent to listen and talk with the community and the board and to get the input from everyone. One topic that has come up the most has been the $175 million bond proposal that failed to pass in May 2024. Hawkins said he also did his own research prior to accepting the job and read the comments online.

“There's no question, you know, there's people that said that there's no need for a bond, and I think that, just my time in the district, there is definitely a need for a long-range facility plan,” Hawkins said. “If you drive around our community, you see houses going up in different plats all over Copperas Cove, and so with that, we have to do long range facility planning, and then we have to let that take us to where we are. Our schools are owned by our community, so we have to make them a part of what is it that you really want to see.”

Hawkins added that he heard lots of comments about how wonderful the community is and the students and staff and district.

“Other than the bond, it seems like the themes that I'm hearing right now is to increase a culture of collaboration, a culture of accountability, a culture of excellence,” Hawkins said.