Sharon L. Contreras  Sharon L. Contreras is Superintendent of Schools for Guilford County, North Carolina. Previously, she was Superintendent of the Syracuse City School District, in Syracuse, New York. Contreras earned bachelor's and master's degrees in English literature from Binghamton University, where she also earned a master's degree in English Education. In 1996, she earned a third master's degree in educational administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she has also completed work toward a doctorate in educational leadership and policy. Contreras became a principal at age 27, in the Rockford Public Schools in Rockford, Illinois, the district where she started her career as a high school English teacher. She later served as a central administrator for the district. Contreras' prior positions include:  With an initial three-year contract, Contreras became Superintendent of Schools in July 2011. In 2012, her contract was extended through 2016. Upon becoming Superintendent, Contreras took over a district with a graduation rate under 50 percent, a dropout rate of nearly 30 percent, a high and dramatically increasing poverty rate, and hundreds fewer positions due to significant budget cuts in each of the two years before her start. When the State Education Department identified the lowest performing schools in the state, nearly every one of Syracuse's public schools was in the lowest-performing 15 percent of schools. Contreras led the development of a 5-year strategic plan aimed at improving the schools by providing all students with equitable access to rigorous curriculum, investing in teachers and leaders, developing systems to support student success, building a district culture based on high expectations, and improving communication. The New York State Education Department required that several historically low-performing schools be restructured due to their consistently poor test scores, graduation rates and learning environments. With Board of Education support, Contreras avoided closing the schools altogether by developing plans to phase out the underperforming schools while phasing in new, innovative schools. The following new schools were opened in the fall of 2014:   Contreras expanded career and technical education (CTE) and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs by partnering with Syracuse University, the State University of New York's Onondaga Community College, Le Moyne College and the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Syracuse developed a dozen new CTE pathways in areas including computer forensics, cybersecurity, law enforcement, geospatial intelligence, and nursing.