Harrisonburg’s very own superintendent Dr. Michael Richards was recently named the Journalism Education Association (JEA) 2024 Administrator of the Year. JEA presents this award to administrators who have shown dedication to promoting journalism education. Richards started his education career in Maryland working in a program called Maryland’s Tomorrow. While working there he acted as a school liaison, connecting students and families in Frederick Maryland.

“I started to love public education at that point, so I went on my journey to becoming a teacher. I was a permanent sub for a second grade class, then I taught high school English. I [also] taught special education,” Richards said.

Richards went on to get his master’s degree and started teaching both for the school system and in colleges. He holds a Master of Arts in American Studies from The University of Maryland, a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Notre Dame and a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from the University of Texas at San Antonio. During this time he was approached about becoming a principal.

“One year an assistant superintendent came to me and said, “I need you to be the summer school principal”. That’s when I got into administration. I really enjoyed it because I could build programs that support teachers and students, that’s the beginning of my journey,” Richards said.

Richards started as the superintendent for Harrisonburg City Public Schools in 2019, immersing himself in different programs and making connections with students.

“One reason I think that I’ve received this award is because I immersed myself in the world of students and teachers here at HHS. Really this award speaks to the program, Valerie Kibler, and the students in the program, more than it speaks to me. I’m kind of just going along with them, participating in their world,” Richards said.

Freedom of the press has been an ongoing topic for student journalists, especially at the high school level.

“I want to advocate for students to have real-world experiences and gain real-world skills, while also supporting teachers in providing those experiences. That’s one reason I gravitated toward HHS media,” Richards said. “Students four years ago came to me and said ‘We want to have more free speech rights’. My professional organization, the Virginia Association of Superintendents said, ‘No, we don’t agree with that. We don’t want them to have more rights, because if they have more rights, they would potentially fight things that would harm principals and superintendents.’ I said, “No, I think they should have more rights, as long as they also have an equal increase in their level of responsibility.”

Richards wanted students to be able to cover important topics while also ensuring that they weren’t purposefully diminishing the school’s reputation.

“Students wanted to do a story here on use [of] drugs. I didn’t want to make the public think that this is an opium den or something. [I wanted the students to] be realistic, don’t criminalize people, don’t say [someone specific] smokes marijuana. Even though you may know that’s true, don’t publish that,” Richards said. “What happened was the student journalists worked with the administration and did a very good story [that] pointed out some of the dangers of the reality of [drugs].”

Richards worked with students to promote a bill called New Voices Legislation in Virginia that went through the General Assembly. In the end, the bill didn’t make it, but Richards continued to advocate.

“We kept going to conferences and talking to people about the rights and responsibilities of students. I’ve presented every year now with students,” Richards said. “You guys are growing up in the real world, and I think it’s important that you get real world experiences. I don’t think it’s a great idea for students to not have those experiences and then be hit with them in college. Students learn better when they’re really invested in whatever it is they’re doing. They’re more invested if they are working toward a product that they care about. I think students really care about those conference trips, and they cared about that bill. So they were willing to really devote time and effort to it, which means they’re learning.”

Journalism teacher and JEA president Valarie Kibler has been teaching journalism for 32 years working closely with Dr.Richards while he has been superintendent. 

“He’s been incredibly involved with making sure that our students got to conventions, doing presentations with the students, and being very supportive of all our First Amendment rights. He understands that not every story we’re going to do is going to be a positive one, but the idea that we’re learning by covering all sides of an issue and allowing students to figure out how to help solve problems. He wants to create better citizens. He is very different from all administrators we have had before [because] he loves traveling with [the students] and taking them on tours and eating dinner with them,” Kibler said. 

Richards’ The World is Your Classroom program also heavily supports the student media giving the program $25,000 a year for conferences. The program refers to the student’s point of view, saying that the world is a student’s classroom. 

“Teachers are continually trying to get students real world experiences, get them out of the classroom, whether it’s physically out of the classroom or just thinking outside the classroom. It has to be SOL aligned, it has to be equitable and it has to have authentic deadlines. So the conference trips, you’re going to be presenting in front of 100 people. That’s an authentic deadline. They have to present to someone other than the teacher,” Richards said.

At conferences Richards doesn’t just present, he takes the students to do activities and explore the cities. Junior Elsie Corriston attended a conference in New York where Richards came along.  

“One of the things we did in New York was we went to see Broadway musicals. One of the musicals was called & Juliet. I watched that sitting next to Dr Richards. It was so much fun, the music was pop songs that people know. Dr Richards knew them, I knew them and you could tell that he was having fun. Dr Richards, he’s just another person.  He doesn’t act like a strict superintendent, he genuinely is just another person that’s there, enjoying the trips and making it a fun place to be,” Corriston said.  

Richards wants to make it clear that

“Getting this award makes me feel like the whole program’s been recognized. I intend to say that in Philadelphia when I make remarks when I get the award, I’m not going to talk about myself, I’m going to talk about our program,” Richards said.