Former Dallas ISD communications chief Jennifer Sprague sat down with KXAS (Channel 5) Thursday for her first interview since it was reported that she planned to step down. The official announcement is expected Friday.
In the interview, Sprague said she realized recently that ?Dallas ISD is not the place for me? and needed to move on from the district. Superintendent Mike Miles brought Sprague to DISD in one of his first hires after trustees hired him in April. Sprague, 31, worked with Miles in Colorado Springs, Colo., became a close confidant and adviser and helped him express and sell his reform plans.
But Sprague?s brief tenure in DISD was bumpy. Her $185,000 salary was widely criticized as excessive and trustees, on occasion, admonished her for not being prepared at board meetings. In the interview, Sprague said she never realized her salary would become the issue it did.
?I was hired here for the chief of communications position and it?s a cabinet-level position,? she told Channel 5.
Sprague suggested she wasn?t pushed out of the district by saying she would still be there today if she never turned in her resignation letter. However, district officials have told The Dallas Morning News that both DISD administrators and Sprague decided it was in everyone?s best interest for her to leave.
Earlier this week, in a presentation to the district?s 223 principals, Miles had a slide in his presentation about lessons he had learned his first six months on the job. Lesson No. 1: strategic communications.
Miles told The News that while he has talked to numerous community groups and given presentations around Dallas, he failed to be strategic in how he reached out to people. He said the district must forge better bonds with business groups, community organizations, parents and the news media. Miles said that the next communications chief ? the position might be posted Friday ? must help improve those relationships.
In the TV interview, Sprague didn?t say what her next plans may be. She moved her family ? husband and two children ? to Dallas from Colorado, where she had worked for years.
?I think the superintendent would agree and, in many cases, there?s always things that we could have done better or said differently,? she said. ?Superintendent Miles is a great leader, and he knows what he?s doing, and I back him 100 percent.?
Matthew Haag writes about the Dallas Independent School District. Follow?@matthewhaag?on Twitter,?@DallasISD_News?on Twitter and the?Education Blog?on Facebook.
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