Nobody can say that Matt Sewell didn’t pay his dues on his way to becoming the new Vilonia High School principal.
“For some years, I didn’t even have a classroom. I had a satchel and a filing cabinet stuck in the corner of somebody’s classroom that I had a key to,” Sewell said. “I guess I’ve always been a nomad in this business, even in this district.”
He’s not complaining; it’s just a fact.
“I think my strengths are, one, I’m pretty determined, and I don’t mind change,” Sewell said.
Currently the Vilonia School District’s director of special education, Sewell will officially start July 1 as high school principal, replacing Andy Ashley, who was hired as superintendent for the Cedar Ridge School District in Newark.
Sewell, who turned 40 in April, grew up in Texarkana, Arkansas, with one brother. Their father, a bricklayer, had an eighth-grade education, and their mother, a secretary, had her high school diploma.
Sewell said his father valued education above all else, even to the point of selling their boat when he thought his sons were fishing more than studying.
“The last thing he wanted was his boys to go find another passion in life, hunting … or sports. He didn’t want anything to get in the way of education,” Sewell said.
Sewell’s small office away from the main campus has mounted ducks and turkey feathers displayed on the walls, so he has found a way to merge that pursuit with his education.
Sewell played baseball and football in high school, too. “I can’t tell you I was great at it, but I love it,” he said.
After high school, Sewell went back and forth between Texarkana College and the University of Central Arkansas, trying to get settled. In high school, he took advanced courses and did well just by listening. In college, “the first two years were more of a disaster than a success,” he said. “I didn’t know how to study.” His grades left something to be desired until he got the hang of it. Then, he was on the president’s list or dean’s list each semester at UCA.
Sewell’s goal was to become a cardiovascular perfusionist — a person who works with a heart-specialist team and monitors cardiovascular and pulmonary functions. “My cousin, that’s what he does in Texarkana. He is someone I have a lot of admiration for,” Sewell said.
He took a class at UCA called education profession, and that changed his life.
“After taking that class, there was no doubt what I wanted to do was teaching and coaching,” he said. Sewell took a class in special education and found he had a love for that, too. In high school, he said he had worked with Special Olympics as vice president and president of the Key Club.
“It was always very rewarding,” he said.
He got his bachelor’s degree in K-12 special education and a master’s in educational leadership. His first job was in 1998 in the Vilonia School District. For the first year, he taught resources classes, plus he coached cross country and volunteered as a football coach. His days started at 5:30 a.m. when he got to school to coach cross-country practice at 5:45 a.m., then he showered in the coach’s office, ate breakfast and taught school all day. He had football games three nights a week and cross country meets on Saturdays.
Sewell wasn’t married, but he had “a girlfriend I was real serious about, who is now my wife.”
As the years went by, he changed positions, which included serving as junior high football coach and junior high track coach and moving to the senior high football staff and senior boys track coach, while teaching resource classes at the middle school and junior high. As if that weren’t enough, at the same time, he taught Algebra I through the Alternative Learning Environment program, for which he was responsible for providing special-ed services.
In 2004-05, he became assistant principal at the high school under Ed Sellers.
“I was pretty young, and I guess I was really torn about making the decision about getting into administration,” Sewell said. “I love teaching my kids in the classrom; I loved my coaching responsibilities. I was living the best of both worlds.”
After the middle school principal retired, Sewell was hired for that position and stayed in it two years.
“Somebody told me a long time ago, ‘God plants you in a place, and you have to look to see what has to be watered,’” he said. “You go forward and try to do that.”
Sewell’s next advancement was as director of finance, student services and athletics.
“That was a pretty overwhelming experience,” he said. “I had a 2-year-old at home and ballgames every night, and you lived at the school. … I felt really burdened that my family was going on having a family, and I was going on having a career.”
Sewell said he prayed about it, and “came to a peace that I was going to resign.” He took a job selling insurance at Sue Shock Insurance in Vilonia. “It was great,” he said. “I’ve had some stressful experiences, but I can’t tell you any of the experiences have been bad. It’s a people business, much like the school business is a people business.”
It takes awhile to build a customer base in insurance, he said, and he was looking at taking on a second job to make ends meet. Then-Vilonia Superintendent Frank Mitchell came to visit him one night and told him about an opening as the district’s director of special education. Sewell said he thought he was out of education for good, but after investigating it, he applied and was hired.
“It felt like home,” he said. “I never felt uncomfortable in the insurance business, but when you live in a small community, the school is the largest industry in town. You still work with a lot of the same people; you still go to the ballgames. For me, I needed that time back with my family.”
He sold insurance for 18 months. His daughter was 3 when he left education; she was 5 and starting to kindergarten when he got the director’s job. In addition to Mattie, now 9, he and his wife, Angela, also have a 3-year-old son, Andersen.
Mitchell said Sewell was the perfect person to be the special-education director because it’s a difficult job to balance the needs of the students, teachers and parents. “Matt, I think he fit it just perfect,” Mitchell said. “Matt is a good person, a good family man, a good citizen overall. As an educator, he’s done a lot of different things.” Mitchell said although he wishes Sewell didn’t have to leave his current job, “I really think it was a good move making him high school principal.”
Even though he’d been a special-education teacher, Sewell said he didn’t fully understand what the director’s responsibilities were. The paperwork is relentless and changes every year, he said. The biggest change in special education that he’s seen is “the threat and the freedom to litigate.”
Sewell said he gets emails on new case law weekly, and twice a year he attends conferences where lawyers present special-education case law “on things like service animals,” for example.
Despite the challenges, he said he’s enjoyed the role of director.
“It has been a great experience. I can’t say enough about the people I work with who serve our special-needs population,” he said. “It makes my job — not easy — it’s made it a great position to hold.”
Going in as high school principal, though, gets him back in touch with the students — almost 800.
“In this job and central office, there are not many opportunities to work with students. If you got in the school business, at some point in your life you had a passion for students,” he said. “I’ll be interacting directly back with the students.”
His first goal is to develop a student leadership team, he said, and he’s got 80 students interested. “The only criteria, you had to respond to my email to be part of it.” Sewell said the goal is to get a “true representation” of the student body. “I want the most popular kid, but I wanted the one who feels like they’re the least popular. I want the smart kid, but I also want the struggling kid. I want someone who represents every clique, club or faction in our school district.”
He said the goal is for the leadership team to meet four times over the summer and give input on everything from school policies to learning styles. The idea is to help the students feel more invested in their education.
“I love kids; I love students, and I truly believe sometimes we don’t give them enough credit for what they could do,” he said.
The job he’s moving into will be a change for him, but, as usual, he’s looking forward to it.
“I can adapt and change in whatever environment I’m in and find the positive in that environment and build on those things,” Sewell said.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.