It was a job at the Canyons School District that first brought Dr. Molly Hart to Utah from Georgia’s education system.

Good thing.

After a month-long search, the Utah State Board of Education recently named Hart, former principal of Mount Jordan and Albion middle schools, the state’s new state superintendent of public instruction. She’s been on the job since July 1. 

“I would not be here if it weren’t for my experience in Canyons,” Hart said in a recent interview with Connect Canyons about her new appointment. Education in every state is “very, very different,” she said. 

Hart, a recent guest on the CSD podcast, says her Canyons colleagues certainly influenced the trajectory of her career. 

“I would not be here,” she said. “I absolutely would not be here.”

Hart says: “What is built in Canyons is really special and I carry and use the lessons that I learned with me every day.”

Hart brings to the state superintendency more than 25 years of experience in education. She’s also served on the Utah State Board of Education for nine years and as executive director of Utah’s Summit Academy, a K-12 charter school with multiple campuses in Salt Lake County. 

She has been widely recognized for her contributions to education, earning the Vocational Teacher of the Year Award, the Utah PTA Outstanding School Administrator Award and the Canyons School District’s 2024 Elected Official of the Year Apex Award.

“I was shocked when I got it,” she said of the Apex Award — one of the highest awards given by the Canyons Board of Education and Administration. 

“When I decided to run and then became a school board member, an elected official, I did it because I wanted things to be better and, and extraordinary for our teachers. Really and truly, that’s why I ran in the first place. And then to have that recognized by Canyons, that was so meaningful to me.

“It wasn’t because I love politics, for heaven’s sake, it was because I wanted things to be better.”

Though she has risen to the Utah’s top education leadership post, Hart said it’s the frontline educators who know the realities in children’s lives. 

“I don’t care if you are the national Teacher of the Year, the international Teacher of the Year, the most popular teacher at the school you are at. The minute you leave the classroom, you are obsolete. … You need to keep your ear to the ground and talk to the people who are actually teaching.”

She acknowledges it’s also important to keep in touch with district superintendents and listen to parents. 

“So, it’s a mix” of perspectives. “All are equally valid — and we need to hear from all of them.”

As state superintendent, she wants to get everybody rowing in the same direction to move Utah’s school children forward. 

“My job is to keep the focus on the children of Utah,” she said. “We have got to keep our North Star. And our North Star is the success of students.”