About NSPRA
The Superintendents to Watch award recognizes school district leaders who have fewer than five years of experience as a superintendent and who demonstrate dynamic, fast-paced leadership with strong communication at its core.
Dr. Steven Craft leads Dalton Public Schools with a communication-centered leadership style built on clarity, trust and connection. In fewer than five years as superintendent, he has guided the district through growth and change while anchoring every decision in the district’s shared call to Learn, Lead, and Succeed and its five core commitments: Safety and Security, Culture, Standards-Based Tier 1 Instruction, Literacy, and Customer Service.
“Dr. Craft has led Dalton Public Schools through transformative growth with a calm, steady hand and a visionary mindset. His leadership is defined by collaboration, clarity, and a belief that the best schools are built on trust, communication, and community.” — Dalton Public Schools Communications Team
Building a Shared Identity Through Communication
Under Craft’s leadership, Dalton Public Schools launched a new district brand in July 2025, including a refreshed mission, vision, tagline and logo designed to unify the district under one cohesive message. Through intentional communication, storytelling, and collaboration, he ensured that every employee, from teachers to transportation staff, understood and embraced the “why” behind the work. The result was a powerful sense of shared identity and purpose that continues to resonate throughout the district.
Dr. Craft recognized early in his tenure that clear and consistent communication is essential to building trust and connection with families, staff, and the broader community. To support this vision, he strategically expanded the district’s communications department from a team of two to a team of three, ensuring that Dalton Public Schools had the creative and technical capacity to communicate with excellence across multiple platforms. This investment reflects his philosophy that communication is not an auxiliary function—it is a leadership priority.
Key elements of this communication work have included:
Dr. Craft's openness to feedback and responsiveness to community perspectives created a sense of collective pride and alignment districtwide. The outcomes were immediate and measurable. Families reported greater clarity about district goals, staff expressed renewed pride in representing Dalton Public Schools, and community engagement with district content increased significantly across all channels.
Making Communication the Strategy
Dr. Craft has embedded communication directly into the district’s strategic framework, aligning every goal with the five commitments and reinforcing those priorities across all platforms and audiences. To sustain this alignment, Dr. Craft established multiple two-way communication systems that keep feedback and dialogue at the center of decision-making. His Advisory Councils for students, teachers and parents provide direct input on district priorities, while the Culture and Climate Committee helps assess and strengthen school environments. These groups meet regularly with Dr. Craft to ensure that communication flows both ways—listening before leading.
Dr. Craft’s commitment to transparency is evident across every platform. He leads Board of Education presentations with clarity and openness, hosts an annual State of the Schools address to share progress and goals with the community, and frequently speaks at local events such as Leadership Dalton-Whitfield and the Chamber of Commerce’s State of Education. His approachable style and data-informed messaging have strengthened public trust and built strong relationships with local partners.
“What sets Dr. Craft apart is his authenticity. He doesn’t just listen to reply — he listens to understand. When we share concerns or new ideas, he truly hears us. He doesn’t treat communication as a formality or a checkbox; it’s a dialogue that shapes real action. His openness has built a culture of trust that gives leaders like me the confidence to take risks and innovate for our students.” — Aubrey Poppel, Apex Program Director, Cyber Academy, Dalton Public Schools
Leading With Visibility and Care
Craft is a highly visible and accessible leader across Dalton Public Schools. He attends school and community events, hosts Superintendent Breakfasts to connect with employees, and maintains an open-door policy that includes sharing his personal cell phone number with staff, parents, and community members.
Internally, Dr. Craft models consistent, inspiring communication. Each year, he opens the District Convocation by speaking directly to all employees about the mission, vision, and commitments, connecting each role to the district’s shared purpose. At his annual Leadership Symposium, he sets expectations for administrators, outlines goals for the coming year, and reinforces the importance of clear, unified communication. He also launched a Superintendent Video Series, where he personally discusses major initiatives and updates before they are shared districtwide, allowing staff to hear key messages directly from him.
“He leads with a ‘team-first, people-first, communication-first’ philosophy that has reshaped the way Dalton Public Schools operates.” — Nick Sun, Deputy Superintendent, Dalton Public Schools
Under his leadership, Dalton Public Schools has strengthened how it communicates, aligns its work, and builds connection across the district.
B.A. - Mississippi State University; MPA - University of Georgia
I believe school PR/communications is what I was born to do! One of the biggest decisions a parent can make is where to send their child to school, and it’s an honor to share with our parents the engaging work that their children are doing under the guidance of world-class teachers and leaders. On any given day, in any given school, there are many stories to be told and I take that charge seriously. As school communicators played a key role in COVID-19 communications, storytelling was more important than ever – not only did I share information with parents about our protocols, but I also made over 80 visits to schools last year and told a variety of stories about how students were thriving with both in-person and distance learning options. I also worked with principals to determine best mitigation practices and helped make those pervasive, because positive action must be the foundation of what we are ultimately communicating. School public relations is incredibly complex and I love that each day brings a new challenge.
My greatest school PR success was completing 11 nationally-innovative school communication audits using a process of research, planning, implementation, and evaluation. I am now in phase two of this project and am attending school council meetings to garner feedback from parents about school-level communication and how I can better support the work of their schools. One of the most significant findings is that as students take more ownership of their learning, they also take more ownership in parent communication. Therefore, next steps are to better prepare parents for this transition and to also determine best practices from exemplar teachers and coaches at the secondary level so we can strike the right balance with parents feeling informed and fostering student independence.
My greatest school PR challenge is overcoming rigidity. Like many PR professionals, I am detail-oriented and a self-described perfectionist. It’s a blessing and a curse to see when something is one pixel off, but the greatest challenge I have faced in my 13 years in this field is to learn to be more flexible. I might have an aversion to Comic Sans or Curlz, but it’s not the end of the world if those are a font favorite elsewhere. What’s more important is the bigger picture – staff and parents feeling well-informed and students growing and learning in positive school cultures. Instead of telling someone their website isn’t formatted properly, I now make a 2-3 minute screencast if I think there’s a quick tutorial I can offer to provide ongoing professional learning. By being much more flexible, I have deepened relationships and become better at supporting the most important job that occurs in our school system: teaching.
My favorite part of my job is the relationships. I often say that there is no substitute for showing up, and that’s why I make so many school visits each year. From getting to hold a gorgeous monarch butterfly to watching a vibrant student musical to seeing 3-D printing in action from engineering students, I have witnessed countless unique opportunities, and these experiences are just a small piece of what our students get to take part in each and every day. If I didn’t take the time to form relationships, I wouldn’t know that what students value is knowing that the photos I take may show up in their yearbooks. I wouldn’t know the myriad of annual activities that teachers do across our schools because I wouldn’t have witnessed them firsthand. I wouldn’t know about the families of our principals or what they believe makes their school unique. All of that is invaluable because at the end of the day and at the end of this career, relationships are what will remain – both professionally and personally.
The communication tool I use the most is Canva! I would be a brand ambassador if they asked! I am not very mathematically-minded and it can be challenging for someone with an eye for good design – but not an eye for rulers and gridlines – to be a graphic designer. However, Canva has made it possible and I am able to create aesthetically-pleasing graphics with short turn-around times. I have trained communication ambassadors at our schools how to use it as well. Right after Canva, the tool I most use is iMovie. I am completely self-taught in videography and using iMovie and Canva together has made me someone who can add “videographer” to their list of expertise.