Superintendent says kids 'must feel safe, wanted and valued'

By James R. Campbell

Nevada Daily Mail

You'd be unlikely to guess that Dr. David Stephens was a hardheaded boy who had trouble at school, testing his parents' patience and tempting some teachers to give up on him.

He decided he didn't like school in the fifth grade at Carl Junction and showed it with three years of bad attitude before an eighth grade math teacher turned him around to the extent that he ended up earning three degrees and becoming superintendent of Nevada's R-5 School District.

"School was not a place I wanted to be and it was driving my parents crazy," Stephens said, adding that he wants his administrators and teachers "to know I was that kid.

"Lyle Messer was not warm and fuzzy, a wrestler and coach, but he saw value in kids. He made me feel comfortable in his class and feel like I could be successful in school. I went and shared that with him last year before he died."

A 51-year-old Miami, Okla., native, Stephens grew up at Carl Junction, 60 miles south of Nevada, and earned a bachelor's degree in psychology and special education at Missouri Southern. He got a master's degree in counseling at Pittsburg State and a doctoral degree at the University of Missouri, writing his dissertation on, "Against All Odds: Leadership in a High-Poverty, High-Performing School."

He and his wife Kelly have three children, Isabelle, 7, Lula, 5, and 3-year-old Samuel. His mother Lavada is at Carl Junction. His father, Melvin, a route salesman for Wonder Bread, died in 1984.

Stephens was a Joplin middle school special education teacher and guidance counselor; and he worked as assistant principal at Neosho and principal and assistant superintendent at Carl Junction. He came to Nevada in 2008.

Asked if his special ed background influenced his philosophy, he said, "It helped me recognize the value of every kid and see that they can all learn.

"Every contact we have with kids is significant and we have to make the most of every moment. A kid has to feel safe, wanted and valued before he can succeed. Sometimes, coming to school can be intimidating for a parent and we try to make it welcoming to them because we need their particiption in their children's education."

Stephens hires teachers "who are child-centered, creative, not afraid to try something new but also finding value in the traditional," he says.

The R-5 District has 2,400 students and 221 teachers at three elementary schools, a middle school, high school, technical and early childhood centers, alternative school and Heartland Behavioral Health Services.

The toughest times of the superintendent's life were the passings of his dad and brother Alan, a nurse anesthetist at Freeman Hospital in Joplin who succumbed to cancer in 2005, and the dismaying sequential deaths of six R-5 students in 2008-'09, two in a traffic accident, two in a fire and two who were murdered. "The death of a student is the worst thing that can happen to us and we had six in one year," he said.

"Alan's passing was very difficult. He had a keen sense of values and was committed to a value system. He took care of people. He was just a good guy. He was three years older than me and I still look up to him."

Raised in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and joining the First Baptist Church here, Stephens was a songleader in Carl Junction and is a featured singer at the Nevada church, where he teaches an adults' Sunday school class.

One of his best friends, First Baptist Church Education Pastor Steve Russ, says he "has a great voice.

"The first time I heard David start singing, the voice that came out was not what I expected," Russ said.

Stephens is reading a book by one of his favorite authors, John Eldredge, "Beautiful Outlaw: Experiencing the Playful, Disruptive, Extravagant Personality of Jesus."

Other hobbies are yard work and running. He has run a number of half-marathons, or 13-mile races, and last April did his first marathon at Fayetteville, Ark. "I hit the wall at 19 miles and had to push through the last," he said.

The Stephenses are putting their love of traveling in abeyance while their children are small but will resume traveling one day, having loved the food, history and scenery of Italy at Rome, Florence and Vernazza on the northwestern Italian coast.

Russ calls Stephens "a humble, honest man, a man of integrity and a good person to talk to.

"I'm heavier than he is and he has been helpful at getting me more active," said Russ. "We get up at 6 a.m. to work out at the Y. I'd never run a 5K (three-mile race) and he got me to run one and then a half-marathon.

"I took him fishing at a farm pond and we're going trout fishing at Roaring River State Park east of Joplin. David is genuine. You know exactly what you have with him. He doesn't play any games."

Pondering the complexities of leadership, Russ said, "One of the things he's impressed on me is that you want to lead with the right motives and make choices based on what's right, not necessarily on what people want you to do.

"Sometimes, you can want to keep people happy and end up making poor choices instead of doing the right thing."