A familiar face will be taking on a new role in Marion County Public Schools. Dana Thomas has been selected to serve as Instructional Supervisor for the school district.
Thomas had previously been an elementary instructional coach for MCPS. Prior to that, she had stints as a classroom teacher in Washington County and in Marion County at Glasscock Elementary, where she began her career.
In her new role, Thomas will oversee student learning at the elementary level as well as district literacy initiatives. During her time as an instructional coach, Thomas was able to collaborate with schools across the district which she says will help in her new role.
“I feel like I’ve established really good relationships with the principals and teachers across the district over the past nine years,” she said. “I think there’ll be a really strong relationship with them going forward.”
Thomas said she’s especially passionate about literacy education and hopes to see more integration of literacy skills within content areas.
“Literacy is in every content area,” she said. “I’d like to see a blend of literacy throughout all content areas because when kids have the prior background knowledge, when they can understand what’s going on in science or social studies, it’s going to enhance their reading.”
Thomas also said she hopes to see the district continue to implement some of the initiatives and strategies in which she was involved as an instructional coach such as the Live Scoring sessions where students received immediate feedback following a writing assessment.
“It’s an instructional strategy that really grows our students,” she said.
During her time in MCPS, Thomas has also served as a Marion County Educator Support Program mentor where she observed, mentored, and provided feedback to new teachers in the district.
She’s a 2021 Kentucky Women in Education Leadership inductee and received the 2022 Campbellsville University Excellence in Teaching award.
“Mrs. Thomas has always been an outstanding educator for Marion County Public Schools whether she was in the classroom or serving as an instructional coach,” MCPS Superintendent Chris Brady said. “I’m very excited to have her as our Instructional Supervisor and I feel very confident she’s going to continue to help drive this district forward.”