New superintendent says she wants Rock Hill diplomas to be ‘guarantee of readiness’
Despite being the last person to learn how to read in her first-grade class, Deborah Elder never gave up on what she started.
It carried her all the way to becoming the superintendent of the Rock Hill School District.
She welcomed students on Monday for the first time and talked to The Herald about her first year leading the district. She officially started the job in July. At the heart of Elder’s approach for the 2025-2026 school year is a focus primarily on learning in classrooms, making sure that students absorb lessons that cross over into every grade level. If you focus on the classroom, the test takes care of itself, Elder said.
Rather than turning schools into “test factories,” her goal is to promote a school environment where kids come to learn, enjoy what they are learning and stay engaged, Elder said.
Who is Deborah Elder?
Elder was unanimously voted to be Rock Hill’s newest superintendent by the Rock Hill Schools Board of Trustees out of the three finalists that were announced back in May. The two other finalists with Elder were Eric Bracy, superintendent of Johnston County Public Schools in eastern North Carolina and Joshua Starr, former superintendent in Maryland.
Prior to taking on the role as superintendent, Elder was a teacher and worked as a principal in the Albuquerque Public School District in New Mexico.
Elder has over 30 years of experience and her most recent role was as chief operating officer of the Iowa Department of Education. Through that role, she served approximately 500,000 K-12 students and more than 86,000 community college learners.
Rock Hill superintendent’s goals
As a growing school district, Rock Hill currently has 16,300 students and is the second-largest school district in York County.
Elder wants to create the same kind of long-lasting impact as her teacher from first, second and third grade, Maxine Todd.
Todd had more than just a strong teacher-to-student relationship with Elder. She was in Elder’s wedding, helped set up her first classroom when she started teaching and the two remained close until Todd’s death.
“What I want for kids is for our diploma to be a guarantee of readiness. A guarantee to the military, a guarantee to a two-year or four-year institution. Anything that students want to end up doing, I want our diploma to be a guarantee that they are ready to choose any path that they want,” Elder said.
Elder also says she will be laser-focused supporting educators in the classroom by making sure they have what they need — high-quality materials, relevant professional development and continue improving their craft. The support for teachers will ensure that students learn every single day, Elder said.
Elder said she plans to spend time at every school, allowing her to talk to teachers informally and gather their ideas on how to improve.
“There are a lot of great ideas about how to improve Rock Hill Schools. My job is to bring cohesion and unity around where we’re going and how we’re getting there,” said Elder.
Elder said the Rock Hill School District has a diverse student population — 40% Black, 39% white, 11% Hispanic or Latino, 1% Asian, 1% American Indian and 8% other. And she’s focused on the words “because of” as a way to help students.
“One popular term in education is regardless. That, ‘we want all kids to achieve regardless of their background.’ I’ve always felt like that diminishes kids’ backgrounds. I think that instead of ‘regardless of’ it should be ‘because of’ who they are,” Elder said. “Students succeed because of who they are and because of their background, it’s an asset, not a liability.”
This story was originally published August 7, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
