Named for the Everglades, Glades County stands today as one the state’s most rural and least populous counties.
Just 1,600 children attend one of the few public schools offered in the county. But the children, the staff and its superintendent proved bigger isn’t always better in a place where cattle out-number people by more than 4 to 1.
Among the cattle and the sugar cane fields is that long-instilled pioneering spirit that educators across the county got a chance to learn about last week when Superintendent of Schools Alice Barfield sat on educational panels shining a national spotlight on the little school district.
"You know, we have three stop lights in the whole county. There's no grocery stores. There's not a county newspaper. But we, as a community, we have so much more," she said. "The resilience of Glades County is amazing. And the people are what makes it so wonderful. It's a truly youth-driven county. It doesn't matter, you know, where you're from in Glades County. People in Glades County will bond together to make sure that the kids get what they need to be successful. "
Success is something she and the district have been seeking out and achieving lately. Barfield was recently in California after being nominated for four national awards.
There she sat on multiple education panels explaining how she and district have worked to be successful.
"I know a lot of times people could talk about how it's really hard being a small community. But to me, I'm just happy because I'm fortunate, I guess you could say, because I get to advocate for the rural, you know, what is rural education,” she said.
By the end of the summit last week, Barfield walked away with four prizes from the National Association of School Superintendents. According to the organization, no other educator has come away with two 1st place prizes and two 2nd place prizes in a year’s time.
"And I'm incredibly honored to be able to say that now nationally, people know where Glades County is. And my greatest pride is that I get to represent Glades County," she said.
Barield was raised in Glades County and is a product of the public school system from kindergarten through 12th garde. After college, Barfield left Glades to become educator and school administrator for many years in Lee County.
But she gave up a more lucrative paycheck in the not far off Lee County public schools to return home after voters in Glades elected her to lead the schools in 2020.
At that time, the school district was heading toward an F grade of the state’s grading system. The Covid pandemic gave grace to school districts that year.
But Barfield, the staff and the children changed the trajectory on their own in the following years. And twice in the last two years, they earned A ratings from the state board of education.
Those recognitions among other educational fetes help bolster Barfield’s nominations to a cadre of recognitions from the superintendent’s association.
The top prize of Superintendent of the Year went to an educator from Connecticut. Barfield placed second.
And that’s ok, she said when WGCU News caught up with her by phone in California the evening after the awards and educational summit.
"I am feeling incredibly, incredibly honored right now. I cannot even begin to tell you how, just how my heart is so filled with excitement and it gives me more of a drive that I even thought possible to continue the wonderful things that are happening in Glades County."
Barfield said the journey to get to this point has been hard fought and worth it and she truly believes this is what she is meant to do.
"I've said this today probably 10 times. We all are so lucky. You know, lucky enough to be born. But very few of us are lucky enough to know why," she said. "And I know why I was born. And that was to promote rural education in America."
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