staff

Tom Marrs, Instructor and Coach

Dr. Thomas C. Marrs is a district coach and instructor for the Washington State Leadership Academy (WSLA). His current assignment is coaching the North Kitsap team and serving as an academy instructor for the Olympic ESD 114 region. For the past two years, Marrs worked closely with the Elma School District as they built a focused staff development model to improve student learning.

Marrs is committed to utilizing the WSLA curriculum and tools to help build effective district leadership to ensure that planned correctives and enrichments are built into instructional strategies for every student. It follows that staff need the training and preparation to guide students toward learning strategies that are timely, data driven, and lead to continuous improvement toward identified targets. Implementing these and other key leadership functions requires that school administrators have the time and opportunity to develop their own capacity to guide system improvements. He is excited to help school systems develop that capacity through joining the WSLA program.

During his 39-year educational career, Marrs served at the superintendent, central office, principal and classroom levels. He acted as the director of special programs for Northwest Educational Service District 189 for two years following his 2005 retirement as the superintendent for Anacortes School District. In the North Mason School District, Marrs enjoyed 21 years as a central office administrator and principal at the middle and high school levels. He also taught reading, language arts, social studies, and journalism to junior high students in the Federal Way School District.

Motivation theory and the application of career ladder opportunities for educators, linked to effective  system and school strategies continue to be topics that intrigue Marrs. Recent publication and presentation titles include: "Elma's Washington State Leadership Academy Team Culminates Its First Year With a Summer Institute to Focus the Entire System on Student Learning," "Response to Intervention: Leveraging School Improvement Initiatives," and "Confronting Destructive Leadership: How Do We Want to Lead and be Led?"

Marrs' academic credentials include a B.A. degree at Whitworth College, an M.A. from the University of Puget Sound and an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership at Seattle University.

rev July 2010