Shenia Suggs’ first job with Wayne Township schools wasn’t supposed to be long term.
She was hired as a single-semester English teacher at Ben Davis High School. Back then, the district would hire teachers in the first semester and wait to see how students moved around before extending their contracts to a full year.
“I remember her saying … ‘if they don’t hire me back, I’m going to fight it,’” said Grace Schmitt, a Ben Davis science teacher who was hired the same year. “I was immediately impressed with her gumption.”
Thirty-three years later, Suggs is stepping into a new role with Wayne Township — superintendent.
She takes over this winter after longtime leader Jeff Butts retired from the district to accept a new position with the Indiana Association of Public School Superintendents.
The change brings an unfamiliar transition to the westside school district. While some Indiana communities have grown accustomed to the naming of a new leader every few years, Suggs will be just the sixth superintendent in the district’s 63-year history.
Parents and volunteers say they are eager to meet the new leader. Ben Davis mom Julie Otte-Rash said she met Suggs for the first time Feb. 5 at her daughter’s show choir performance.
Otte-Rash acknowledged the superintendent has already had to juggle a lot in her early days as superintendent: first with making decisions to close school after last month’s 10-inch snowfall, and now balancing student safety with free speech rights as teens across the city walk out of school to protest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“I was very impressed,” Otte-Rash said of the district’s response. “It’s a very fine line they have to walk. They’re doing everything that they know how to keep the kids safe but still give them their voice, and that’s what I expect from Wayne.”
Early years in Wayne Township
A graduate of IPS’ George Washington High School, Suggs has spent her entire career in Wayne Township. She served as an assistant principal, human resources coordinator and assistant superintendent before stepping into the district’s top job on Jan. 5.
Suggs, who is Black, is also the first woman and the first person of color to lead Wayne Township schools which are, like Indianapolis, growing increasingly more diverse.
“I would hope that any student from any background will look at me and say that ‘maybe, one day that’s something I want to do,’” Suggs said. “Is it specifically because I’m a woman? Maybe. Is it specifically because I’m a person of color? Maybe. But I also hope it’s because they see someone who’s dedicated, someone who leads with their heart.”
It wasn’t until Suggs went to college at DePauw University in Greencastle that she seriously considered a career in education.
But the signs were there. She tutored classmates and led Bible studies. Others pointed out those qualities and asked if she’d considered teaching, but it took until Suggs’ sophomore year of college to see it herself.
“I thought I was going to be an attorney,” she said. “But, when the light bulb finally came on, I never looked back.”
Suggs took that first teaching job at Ben Davis in 1992 after applying to just two districts: Indianapolis Public Schools, which is the district she attended, and Wayne Township.
“Wayne Township answered first,” Suggs said in her first radio interview as superintendent. “The administration was very clear: ‘We want to hire you for first semester. We can’t promise anything else.’ … I said, ‘I’ll be the very best one-semester teacher you’ve ever hired.’”
Building relationships at Ben Davis
Schmitt, who started her teaching career the same year, said she watched Suggs build relationships with students. Within just a couple of years, Suggs had won a Senior Choice Award — something graduating students give to a select number of Wayne Township teachers in recognition of their influence as educators.
“She had hardly been teaching,” Schmitt said, “but those kids that she had fell in love with her.”
The future superintendent went on to serve as an administrator at South Wayne Junior High School, now known as Lynhurst 7th and 8th Grade Center. She then moved over to the district’s central office where she worked in student services and human resources before becoming assistant superintendent for human resources.
Suggs, though, is quick to point out that her knowledge of Wayne Township extends beyond that of a long-time employee. She’s also a parent.
All three of her children graduated from Ben Davis. They took dual credit classes, played sports and participated in performing arts. It’s part of what’s kept Suggs working in Wayne all of these years.
“I’ve experienced it through so many lenses,” Suggs said. “I just feel so privileged to be able to serve in a community that has given so much to me.”
Adapting to new education landscape
Beyond snow days and student protests, Suggs will soon be met with other big decisions in her early days as superintendent
Indiana students are adapting to new high school graduation requirements that incentivize learning experiences outside of the classroom. For many schools, that means expanding technical education classes, building partnerships with local businesses, and getting creative with transporting teens — some just on the cusp of learning to drive — to part-time work.
As the state’s second largest brick-and-mortar high school, Ben Davis will have to provide these opportunities on a scale larger than most other schools. It’s a moment Wayne Township is prepared for, Suggs said.
The district already offers career and technical education programs to about 1,400 central Indiana students at the Area 31 Career Center. Wayne Township also offers a three-year apprenticeship program, and administrators are pursuing virtual work opportunities for students for whom transportation could be a barrier.
“It’s about the individual student,” Suggs said, “and making sure each child is on a path that’s going to get them through graduation and, even more importantly, on to the next step after graduation.”
She’ll also lead the district through some difficult budgeting decisions after state lawmakers passed legislation last year limiting the amount of property tax revenue schools will be able to collect.
Wayne Township administrators have already taken steps to slow spending. The district decided to purchase fewer buses this year and opted not to give teachers a raise, negotiating a one-time bonus instead.
If you go
Wayne Township school board meeting
🗓️ 6:30 p.m. Feb. 9
📍 Wayne Township Education Center, 1220 S. High School Road
A 300-person commission is expected to report back additional ways to save money during a school board meeting Feb. 9.
Schmitt, the Ben Davis science teacher, said she believes Suggs’ time working in the district’s central office has prepared her for the tough decisions she’ll have to make as superintendent.
“She’s very pragmatic, she’s very practical,” Schmitt said. “She’s able to discern situations that have challenges and how to best move forward.”
Otte-Rash, the show choir mom, said she was always impressed with the former superintendent’s support for performing arts, even when district finances were tight. She was excited to learn Suggs was once a show choir mom, too.
“Oh, I think we’ve got a good one,” she said. “I’m optimistically hopeful.”
Want to keep up with Wayne Township schools? Indy Documenters often cover these meetings. 📝 Read their notes.
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Mirror Indy reporter Carley Lanich covers early childhood and K-12 education. Contact her at carley.lanich@mirrorindy.org or follow her on X @carleylanich.
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