CANDICE HARTLEY
Baton Rouge Center for Visual and Performing Arts
East Baton Rouge Parish School System
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Candice Hartley, a Marine Corps veteran, was named East Baton Rouge Parish Teacher of the Year in 2012, and
the 2018 District Principal of the Year. She has diversified the school population through expanded programming,
while performance scores continue to rise and BRCVPA continues to receive state and national recognition.
Support is an essential part of Hartley’s approach to successful school leadership and culture. To create an inclusive, dedicated work community, she seeks out educators from diverse backgrounds with unique expertise and a
commitment to high performance. Valuing collaborative planning and professional development as fundamental, she established personal learning communities among her faculty to create content specialists who interact with each other in different capacities in support of equitable programming across campus. She also provides weekly faculty professional development to build instructional skills, competencies, and morale along with regional and national training and conference opportunities.
Part of providing support is also providing the correct resources. This is also key to Hartley’s leadership approach, believing people need equitable infrastructure, materials, and support to successfully perform.
To ensure a more equitable campus experience for all, Hartley has expanded morning and afterschool club offerings through partnerships with local organizations to provide programming such as Girls on the Run, Girl Scouts, and Spanish Club for students of all skill sets. She has also hired additional support staff with expertise in areas where the school has specific needs, connecting them with mentors on campus with whom they will collaborate so work is productive from the outset. She continues to seek out partnerships with industry and
businesses who can provide innovative programming to students and faculty, including piloting workshops on the art of healing with a professional art therapist and student lessons on lego storytelling across the curriculum with a STEM specialist.
Raise the level of performance consistent throughout school districts nationwide and creates a platform from which all magnet schools can flourish. Magnet Schools of America’s national certification process is designed to recognize the hard work of the best magnet schools in the nation and to help them as they grow.