“Thank you for being a blessing, thank you for allowing me to be your superintendent for 14 years.”
This was Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation (EVSC) Superintendent David Smith’s emotional address to the district in which he held multiple roles for 43 years. He’s retiring in July.
On Tuesday, the EVSC held the 2025 State of the Schools Address, presented for the last time by Smith.
He saw the district through the effects of the recession, severe funding cuts and the Pandemic.
Smith said personally, he’ll avoid any new opportunities for a few months at the urging of his wife Sarah.
“She's been such a blessing in my life, 35 years and married in just a few weeks, and I'm going to listen to her,” he said. “But the first thing I'm going to do, professionally and personally, is sleep, something I haven't gotten a whole lot of in the last 14 years.”
Still, during his speech he said he'd do it all over again for the students.
“You are worth every sleepless night — everything —everything.”
Smith’s retirement aside he highlighted the familiar mix of accomplishments and challenges for the third largest school district in the state.
He touted their fine-arts investments and highlighted accolades by schools such as New Tech Institute becoming a National Spotlight School.
A video presentation of the State of Schools Address can be seen here
Smith said looking back over previous presentations, he said needed to share the scope of what they do — such as the largest transportation department and largest food service system south of Indianapolis.
“But at the end of the day, all that doesn't matter,” he said. “It's the individual child in a classroom making certain that they have an outstanding teacher in that relationship that's formed with the teacher, the student and their families, that's what's important.”
Smith also teased a significant health-fields-related partnership with the University of Evansville which will be announced next month.
He finished his presentation to a standing ovation from the Rotary crowd.
