Unlearning Leader: Leading for Tomorrow’s Schools Today
"We have experienced reform movements since the 1940s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2010s. Elements of them have been really nice, really successful, or really eff…
"I think that when the system provides support to staff members and they feel they can take risks, they feel they can be rewarded for being creative and for helping one another, for stepping out of the box, and I see that h…
"I come from that background as a migrant worker, myself as an English learner, so I had an empathy and an understanding for the struggles that many of the families worked through. And I believe that helped to shape me as a…
"The most important part of education is relationships. Whether it's a teacher-student relationship or the teacher, principal, and so on, without good relationships nothing positive is ever going to happen." - Phil Ert…
Hi everyone, and welcome to District Leader. We’re taking a break for the holidays, but will be returning with incredible guests in the new year. In the meantime, I invite you to listen to our past District Leader podcasts…
"How do we create that inspiring vision that will help us break out of that cycle, something that is greater than ourselves, something that can only be achieved by everybody working together." -Randy Ziegenfuss, Ed.D.
-R…
"...there are these skillset gaps that happen because ...even though they might have been in the system, the system may not have really developed a strategic plan for succession leadership. It's just whose next available o…
"My immediate thought was that nobody was going to die on my watch. I certainly had no plans to die that day, and I didn't have any plans that any of my students were going to be hurt or injured..." - Cindy Zurchin, Ed.D.
"...I think it's essential for us at the central office to stay connected to the schools, to stay connected to the kids... to the educators; but also we really are the conduit to the greater community, and we need to be the …
"Our tagline is, 'every student, every day'". And I take every one of those words very seriously. When we say every student, we are not talking about some of them, a few of them, or these ones, we are talking about every s…
Hi everyone, and welcome to District Leader. Thank you for joining us. I wanted to do something a little different t his week. Instead of posting an interview with one of our guests, I wanted to take the opportunity to…
"I really believe that as a leader. . . to be able to inspire, we have to have the belief that we can achieve whatever it is we set our minds to. If we have that belief, then the people around us will have that belief . . . …
"So we made a commitment several days ago, that our kids are going to have the same access and opportunity that other kids throughout the world are having, because they are going to be behind in knowing and realizing and acc…
"In that school system, Luis, I was the superintendent and the entire central office. It was me, the principal of the prek - 8 schools, and we had 3 administrative assistants. And we were the administration, together with t…
"I was willing to take the risk because of what I believe education should be for kids, and really begin to ask questions, and frame questions in a way that our school board and our community tried to understand what we were…
"I think I stepped in a few things early on. I said some things that my intent was good, but it was perceived differently. And perception is that person's reality. So I really had to think about who I was and how I was lead…
"If I'm going to make a difference in the lives of young people, especially poor children, and children of color, then I'm going to have to be the Superintendent to put those systems in place and make sure that I remove tho…
"Education is the civil rights issue of our time. There is no more important agenda to making sure that we continue to enjoy the economic prosperity and the national security we've enjoyed for over two centuries than being …
"For us, the message that we're trying to get out... is that we have the potential to positively impact every single child every day. And what we want to do as an organization is to be a little bit better tomorrow than we a…
"I don't know that I ever expected the political nature of this job... at Leyden we serve 7 different communities... I have to get to know 7 mayors, 7 police chiefs, 7 fire chiefs, 2 state senators, 4 state representatives..…
"We have not suspended a student in the last 5 years. Now that's just the framework and the belief system. There's a lot of strategy within that belief system, but it really empowers the whole team and the students to know …
Steve Holmes, Superintendent of the Sunnyside Unified School District, in Tucson, Arizona. Steve serves as the top administrator in Southern Arizona’s second largest school district. Steve is a champion for equity, and has…
"You absolutely have to be the lead person, you are the educator. So when you move from the classroom to the boardroom... or the classroom to the big room, in an educational setting or an administrative office, your role is…
