Week 2 Competencies and Job Entry Plan

Week Two – Part B of the Comprehensive Final Report: Summarizing Leadership Experiences in each of the SBEC Superintendent Competencies

Week One Assignment, Part 1 – Description of SBEC Superintendent Leadership Experiences by Domains and Competencies

Domain I—Leadership of the Educational Community – Competencies 1 - 4

Competency 1 Area: The superintendent knows how to act with integrity, fairness, and in an ethical manner in order to promote the success of all students.

            I have had a variety of experiences during my time as an intern that have exposed me and introduced me to a new insight into the world of being a superintendent.  Although these have been in conjunction with a variety of new experiences in my first principalship, in combination with a mentor; I have felt that this area has been one of experiences both in my log and undocumented that have built my confidence and provided me with growth opportunities.  During my internship, I have had the opportunity to work with the director of Human Resources on some questionable cases as well as some case studies; which have allowed me to make difficult decisions that are best for students, staff and the learning environment.  These decisions are not always easy because when dealt with a difficult decision, there tends to be another human being involved with feelings and usually a family to support.  I have learned tips and been given some insight into ways to engage in difficult conversations with dignity and respect for other person involved.  I have also been given the opportunity to discuss grievances, compensations and the selection process for teachers and an administrator, which was eye opening.  I have also had the opportunity to help deal with an EEOC lawsuit that was filed against a school to see the ugly side of the world that we must deal with.  I have had the opportunity to work with the principal who school was filed against to ensure that procedures and processes are in place so that it never happens again. 

            Another opportunity that I was afforded was to work with the district program of studies, which is a governing body of principals to ensure that students on the North side of my district are afforded the same opportunities as students on the South side.  My district is demographically diverse and in the more affluent neighborhoods; the students have access to numerous resources based on their parent's income or networking.  The school district has made it a mission to ensure that the courses that we offer are accessible to every student within our system.  It has been an eye opening experience to serve on the program of studies committee and facilitate difficult situations and conversations where there is no right answer other than the creative allocation of funds, resources and staff in order to make sure that this access happens.  One example is the type of Advanced Placement courses that were offered at the various high schools.  In some schools, every subject area had access to the College Board advanced placement courses where in other schools, there were very few AP courses offered.  Through difficult conversation, a long-term plan was made to incorporate more AP courses in the next 3 years at all high schools to balance the offerings.  This process was exciting because the students will benefit greatly.

            Finally, I was able to help build a summer plan for the struggling students in Spring Branch ISD.  It has been exciting to work with central office personnel and campus leaders to build programs that will promote student success and expand graduation rates for students at all levels in the system.  The challenges that both school leaders and the district face and enormous, however; with creativity and a strong team, it has been possible to begin to see ways to financially, and academically promote student success and future growth within the summer programming.  Collaboratively, I helped to facilitate a summer program that will begin to build foundational skills as well as help scaffold in content that will ultimately lead to secondary and post secondary success.  With collaborative planning and purposeful conversations, the leaders in SBISD were able to create meaningful summer plans, which accomplished our goals for the summer program of 2013.

Competency 2 Area:

The superintendent knows how to shape district culture by facilitating the development, articulation, implementation, and stewardship of a vision of learning that is shared and supported by the educational community.

           

            Spring Branch ISD is a single focus goal district.  I believe that by having a single focus goal, Spring Branch ISD has shaped the district culture and unified the educational community around a common vision.  This model has proven to help unite a district and keep everyone invested on the same page.  I can say that from my experience in Spring Branch thus far, you can ask anyone within the system what the goal for the district is, and they will tell you in detail and with confidence and clarity what the single goal is for Spring Branch ISD.  This single focus goal has helped to shape and unite a district as well as a community.  In working with the superintendent during my internship, I have had the opportunity to help by serving and facilitating conversations on cross-functional teams.  These teams were developed to provide a variety of experiences and input on topics that are important in the system and also to help create action plans.  I have had the opportunity to lead discussions and find ways to build consensus and help us to articulate getting ourselves narrowed down in our focus on what we will begin working on next.  In these cross-functional teams, we have developed, articulated, and began to communicate next steps to our community so that they understand the work we are doing and what we are going to do next.  This opportunity has given me a deeper insight into district culture and how to create a shared vision and plan, and I have also had the opportunity to build networks and relationships to understand how the various puzzle pieces fit together.

            The second opportunity I had was to go and watch the superintendent conduct a faculty meeting at a different campus and sit down with him afterwards to discuss the message, purpose, and delivery.  We had great discussions about how he changes what he says, but not the message depending on the community, the school's needs, and the purpose for the meeting.  It was clear to me that when he enters a campus, that he has a clear purpose for doing so and that he identifies that purpose and builds his speeches and commitments based on what he needs to have them understand.  Since having this conversation, every faculty meeting that I have had since has had a much clearer focus and purpose, and I anticipate that as I hopefully move up in the system, I always keep the purpose for the meeting in the forefront of the work that I do.

            Finally, I have worked with the superintendent and had the opportunity to listen and learn about the implementation of House Bill 5.  My superintendent had a heavy hand in the writing of House Bill 5 and has continued to push this new legislation through because he has a clear plan on bringing in legislation that is good for kids.  During the internship, I had the opportunity to go to Austin with him and testify for House Bill 5 and against the insanity of testing that we were putting kids through.  It was very scary to stand in front of the house and testify, however, the confidence that my superintendent showed in me helped me to build my confidence as a leader and also as an advocate for children.  Testifying in Austin was a scary and wonderful experience for me and I enjoyed the skills that I learned during the process.

Competency 3 Area:

The superintendent knows how to communicate and collaborate with families and community members, respond to diverse community interests and needs, and mobilize community resources to ensure educational success for all students.

            In SBISD, we serve an extremely diverse community and a variety of student groups, which causes for various challenges in the system.  Like in any large district, there is no one size fits all answer to problems because the various schools within the system have different needs.  There are numerous different people who evaluate and plan for programming within a system, and I had the opportunity to work with several of them to discuss programming that could be valuable and programs currently implemented that benefit schools and students.  One of the most valuable experiences was working with our local YMCA to discuss the programs that we currently have in place and looking at additional programming that we could implement to continue to improve school programming and work with them to provide new opportunities for schools with a need.  I worked with our district lead counselors to discuss after school programs, summer programming, and early morning programs, which provide unique educational opportunities for our children.  To see the excitement from the community when they find ways to support our schools is a rewarding experience and I hope that I can find ways to collaborate and partner with neighboring programs to enhance opportunities within our schools.

            The second opportunity afforded to me in this domain was the opportunity to work on a new system of care for our school district.  Our data indicated that we were sending far too many of our at-risk students to our Alternative placements and that there were a disproportionate number of students also being suspended.  I had an opportunity to work on what we are calling our System of Care, which gives administrators, parents, and community different resources to ensure that we keep more students in school and support them both at home and in the classroom so that they ultimately can graduate and become productive members of our society.  This system required a philosophical shift in how we handle student discipline and the message that we send to students and the community about the kids we have in our system.  In it's earliest implementation, the district began by retraining administrators on various strategies that will help them to use more positive behavior reinforcements to help change behavior.  The initial data from this approached showed that the number of referrals, suspensions, and missed class time was cut in half in comparison from the previous year.   The excitement about this work has grown exponentially, and we are beginning to share this information with the community to generate excitement and find more areas of need within the community and become proactive in solving problems before they enter the schools.

            Finally, the implementation of House Bill 5 and how we are going to communicate, implement and send out information about the changes within our system was crucial, and I had the opportunity to sit on the committee and help with the how this would look.  I found it interesting as to how the material was developed, how the information would be interpreted, and what information would be coming next.  House bill 5 effects the courses that schools offer, and programs in which they have, and jobs of the teachers within the schools.  I found it interesting when listening to the district leaders as to how the prioritize and through this process, I learned how they think and it allowed me to ask questions that will be valuable in my future work as a leader.   I am grateful for this opportunity.

Competency 4 Area:

The superintendent knows how to respond to and influence the larger political, social, economic, legal, and cultural context, including working with the board of trustees, to achieve the district's educational vision.

            As a superintendent intern, attending a board meeting is like a rite of passage.  Having the opportunity to see the connections, the disagreements, the openness, the ability to work together and ask good questions are just a few of the opportunities that are provided to you as an intern.  A superintendent must balance the social and political aspects of the job while still having the openness that is required to do the job well.  I had the opportunity to watch the superintendent and board of trustees have various interactions within board meetings and additionally on committees.  The relationships that are in place evidently are built with mutual respect and the upmost integrity, which resonates through the system.  In this particular competency, I had fewer projects where I was able to facilitate or implement programs, and more opportunities to watch, learn and listen.

            With a variety of needs, it was interesting to watch how the superintendent responds to different needs within the community based on their perception of the system and their experiences based on their cultural understanding of their school.  A great example of experiencing this in my internship was in discussions about our single focus vision, T-2-4 and what the needs are of students to get them to attain a post secondary education.  The superintendent would constantly have to remind them of the resources that were available to students depending on their economic background and their prior experiences.  In addition, the options and interests of students were drastically different depending on what area of the district they came from, and it was interesting to watch and help educate parents, board members, and community on how students get to post secondary educational institutions.  In addition, we looked at the gaps in achieving our goal with the board of trustees and community members to cover a deeper understanding of the needs that the school has to achieve our goal.

            Finally I learned a lot about influencing the board and community and helping to educating them when I worked on the Dual Language Task force in order to help build and strengthen the Dual Language programs within the system.  There was a significant amount of animosity regarding the dual language program because there was not a signifant amount of success; the community was questioning the funding and continuation of a staple program within the district.  The task force along with the superintendent pulled together a task force to discuss improvements that needed to be made and how to promote the success and improvements to the community.  In addition, I was a belt o analyze the data that was available throughout the process of growth to improve the quality of the programs and the perception of the community.  What I found interesting about this learning opportunity is that the pushback from the community came of parents and areas that were not directly involved in the school.  The community has such a deep loyalty to the programs being offered, that when they are not successful, even if it doesn't directly impact their child, is something that will always cause and uproar in the community.   Learning this lesson and that you have to be aware of how program success and failure will impact the entire district is always important.

            Domain I, school and community leadership is on where I saw significant improvement in myself, and my overall communication with my own staff and community. 

DOMAIN II—INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP – COMPETENCIES 5 - 7

Competency 5 Area:

The superintendent knows how to facilitate the planning and implementation of strategic plans that enhance teaching and learning; ensure alignment among curriculum, curriculum resources, and assessment; use the current accountability system; and promote the use of varied assessments to measure student performance.

            Instructional Leadership should be at the heart of every school leader, which I have been reminded of both within my school internship program along with my own superintendent.  If we are not instructional leaders, which are at the heart of what we do, then we will never continuously improve the quality of work that we do for students.  In the competency number 5, I first improved my ability to ensure alignment between curriculum and the accountability system by working with the district analyst to find out how I could learn to make system wide improvements by learning to analyze data more effectively.  The data analyst taught me how to pull reports, read for specific trends that might now be obvious, and to learn what questions to ask based on triggers that might not have been evident to others in the system.  The time period in which I worked with him was during the STAAR data release over the summer, so we were able to look at the STAAR data given to us and figure out what patters and themes were evident and needed adjustment within the curriculum.  In addition, the data analysis taught me to look at the current benchmark assessments given and use the data we have to ensure that district assessment are written to promote growth within the system and mirror the tests that students are required to pass for graduation.

            The second activity that I had the opportunity to participate in was the building of an internal accountability system to help ensure that we are measuring the progress of schools based on a well rounded approach and that schools are held accountable based on all of the data that they have, not just one data point.  We analyzed the indicators of what makes a school great, and then worked to see if there were measureable data points that would support this accountability point.  In doing this, we were able to create strategic plans to enhance teaching and learning and show all schools their greatest area of need and where their strengths are.  This experience opened my eyes to the ways that we look at our schools based on data and that although we know that there is more to a school then a data point.  If we don't have the right data to look at, then we won't be able to push both high performing and struggling schools.

            The final activity I had that would relate to this competency would be the analysis of curriculum for biology with the District Lead Science iCoach, In looking through the curriculum, we looked at the TEKS, the resources currently used, the assessments throughout the year, the current accountability system and the improvements that need to be made based on our current data.  This process was extremely helpful in remembering some of the nuances in planning a course well, but also exposed me to the new resources, technology, and assessments available to teacher sand district to continually improve.

Competency 6 Area:

The superintendent knows how to advocate, promote, and sustain an instructional program and a district culture that are conducive to student learning and staff professional growth.

          As stated earlier, learning to be an effective instructional leader is something that should be the highest priority of all school leaders.  One of the most difficult tasks is finding ways to support and promote instructional programing at the district level and still giving the school autonomy to do what is needed in order for them to be successful.  In first interviewing my superintendent on instructional programming, I asked about this challenge.  He discussed that importance of having content experts with a variety of experiences and a wealth of knowledge and resources so that you can promote and sustain programs that are implemented and matched to campuses.  However; he advised against whole district instructional initiatives unless you had the ability to have strong follow through and had the necessary data analysis to ensure that all schools regardless of their demographics and instructional needs would benefit from that particular program.  In addition, he stated that the instructional leadership to help support the initiative on that campus must be superb or else it will be implemented incorrectly or poorly.  Finally, he discussed that there must be a long range plan and need for the program so that it is meaningful and incorporated in the appropriate way, not a fad that would go away after year one when something newer or more exciting came along.

            The second activity that I had in this competency dealt with district culture and professional growth.  Every February we administer the TRIPOD survey to students, which is a survey out of Harvard University, which addresses the way the students feel about their teachers and the learning that takes place within the classroom.  This data is extremely valuable and provides administrators with avenues to discuss professional growth not only on the concrete objectives and teaching methods, but also on how to set up a classroom environment that promotes success and student growth and achievement.   These surveys allow for administrators to implement programs such as Love and Logic in a meaningful way with data to back them up and support the need as well as sustain them for years within a system with district buy in.  The culture created by implementing this survey has been invaluable and the teachers being held accountable for how their students feel about the work that they do daily has changed the tone and climate of all schools within the system.

            Finally, in looking for ways to create a sustainable instructional leadership program, we looked at ways to assess the needs of teachers outside of the data.  Finding ways to survey both the teachers and leaders of the schools to ask about the needs that they currently have and ways that we can support them from a central standpoint.  In talking with campus leaders, depending on their students and the experience of their staff; they all had a variety of needs at different levels.  In addition, with the financial limitations of the district, we wanted to find financially responsible ways to offer that support with limited staff and resources available.  In conjunction with leadership in the curriculum and instruction department we looked at creating a catalog of course offerings throughout the year that administrators and teachers could reference so that when they need help, they have a point of reference to look at the type of support that the schools could offer them.  In this case, we asked campus leaders to give us the names of their best teachers in a variety of categories: classroom management, formative assessments, differentiation strategies, English as a second language and special education and reached out to the appropriate personnel to ask them to help create courses and present them to build leadership within the presenter and also to build a more diverse catalog.  This approach allowed for a very rich and diverse catalog that has proven to build upon the instruction within our system in a meaningful way.

Competency 7 Area:

The superintendent knows how to implement a staff evaluation and development system and select appropriate models for supervision and staff development to improve the performance of all staff members.

            Currently our system uses the PDAS state adopted system for staff evaluation and performance.  This state approved system although comprehensive, is only an evaluation system for the performance of teachers.  Campus leaders use this to help identify strengths and weaknesses within a teacher; however, this mode is lacking in the sense that without the aforementioned staff development catalog, there was not substantial way for our schools to provide the necessary trainings in order to really improve the work that teachers are doing within the classroom and schools.  Knowing this, the district has created a cross-functional team called teacher development and evaluation and is working to devise a plan to recreate the current staff evaluation device in conjunction with the growing staff development plan in order to build the skillset of teachers.  The implementation of this is something that they are still working on and I am anxious to learn how they roll this out in the future.  I was able to sit in on the committee meetings in order to listen and learn about how to begin this process and work to improve the current system. 

            The second piece that I had the pleasure of learning about is the Human Resource side of this competency.  Not only is it crucial that we have a consistent way of evaluation and developing teachers, but also a clear process of how to council teachers out who are not able to perform at high levels with support.  I worked with our Superintendent of Human Resources to learn about the legal aspects of removing a teacher from the classroom so that we ensure that as we work to develop them, that the evaluation system supports administrators with the necessary documentation to remove ineffective teachers in the process.  Without this documentation, the system cannot improve the quality of teaching and push good teachers to be great because there will be a significant amount of time spent with teachers who are struggling.

            Finally, I was able to help this year with the Human Resource departments training of new administrator on the PDAS evaluation system.  Training new administrators on the PDAS system and having the opportunity to have good conversations regarding instruction allowed for a calibration of instrumentation and ensure that when these administrators were sent out to campuses, that they were also given the appropriate tools so that there would be consistency amongst schools.  This might be one of the most important components of instructional leadership is ensuring that the people who are closest to the action have a clear understanding of what they need to do and what is expected of them and I will always remember that as I move through the leadership pipeline.

DOMAIN III—ADMINISTRATIVE LEADERSHIP – COMPETENCIES 8 – 10 

Competency 8 Area:

The superintendent knows how to apply principles of effective leadership and management in relation to district budgeting, personnel, resource utilization, financial management, and technology application.

           

            Domain III, Administrative Leadership might have been the domain that initially I was the most nervous about when beginning my superintendent internship.  Budgeting is a scary new concept for me both as a future superintendent and a new school leader.  They always tell you in course work that if you want to get fired, mess up with money.  Not a very comforting statement when you are just starting out; however, after meeting with different central office personnel, coursework, and my internship, my level of confidence is significantly better.  I worked with our Comptroller and his department in the beginning to look at activity accounts (865) for the district and ensure that the manual written for how to effectively run and maintain and activity account was comprehensive, understandable, and relevant.  We went through line items to ensure clarity and then sent it out and held focus groups to see what questions we didn't answer within the manual before final production and approval by senior staff.  This process allowed for more efficient budgeting and implementation system wise.  The financial management of activity accounts has significantly improved based on the work done by the group.  Clarity and expectations was key, and this experience along with several others in the world of finance opened my eyes to the complexity and continuous learning curve that I have in the future.

            The second activity that I participated in was regarding personnel. As mentioned earlier, I worked with Human Resources to ensure that new administrators understood PDAS and how to effectively evaluate teachers.  In addition, we worked on the documentation handbook to ensure that they were also familiar with how to effectively document a poor teacher or staff member and the necessary process in order to non renew or non extend their contract.  This tricky legal process is something that is crucial in effectively running a school and system and the responsibility to do this appropriately is great in that it impacts every student that they interact with.

            Finally, resource utilization and technology integration was something that I experienced as we are currently working on a new technology roll out for the district.  I had the opportunity to experience the bidding, purchasing and distribution process for new teacher laptops for the district.  Laptop roll out is a huge undertaking and the training, distribution, software updates, and transition has been something that has been fascinating to watch due to the numerous parties involved in the process.  Now in full roll out mode, I have had the opportunity to attend several of the campus roll outs to help with trouble shooting and debrief with campus leaders and district leader to discuss how to make the process smoother and more customer service friendly at every step of the way.  In addition, I have been able to access the teacher and leadership feedback from the staff weeks after the arrivals of the new laptops to continue to trouble shoot and adjust.

Competency 9 Area:

The superintendent knows how to apply principles of leadership and management to the district's physical plant and support systems to ensure a safe and effective learning environment.

            Leadership and management for the physical plant and support systems was a completely new world as I entered my principal ship, because the chain of command is so significantly different in this area of my school.  I worked with my superintendent of operations to learn more about the leadership pipeline in this area of schools as well as to help create systems that could be implemented.  In working with the head of custodial services, we recognized that the physical plant is such an important piece of an effective school, however; the custodians did not have a clear chain of command in reporting issues and problems within the system.  To alleviate this, we created a flow chart of the organization to clarify and define various roles throughout the system.  In addition we created a communication network for day and night crews as well as a communication system to the supervisors so that everyone knew the needs, issues, and responsibilities within the maintence and cleaning of the schools within our district.  This process reminded me that no matter the job, there must be clear communication in order to effectively do our job; and when we do our job well, kids and teachers have better environments to learn in.

            Secondly, I had the opportunity to participate in an intruder drill with the district police team and SWAT team at one of our schools.  This crisis exercise allowed for us to ensure that we had clear plans in place so that we can have piece of mind that kids are safe in their environment on a daily basis.  We involved students, teachers, administrators, district leaders, local police, and school police to ensure that the event created real experiences and we could get authentic feedback from everyone involved.  This simulated event gave us insight in to areas of strength and weakness within our school system and gave us a work plan for areas of improvement over the next couple of months.  In addition, we interviewed all stakeholders involved in the drills to discuss things that they noticed from a different perspective in order to improve the safety of our schools.  Afterwards, the team held debriefs with leaders not involved in the drill in order to share experiences and find out if they have plans or have thought about ways to prevent events such as this drill from becoming disastrous within their own school.

            Finally, I had the opportunity to work with the bond committee in an effort to learn more about the bidding and use of bond funds within a school district and how money, time, and projects are allocated within the system.  I began this long process with the idea that I would follow the work that was being done on my campus over Christmas break.  I was involved in everything from the initial report of work to be done, to the outside bidding, the construction meetings before the work, and then the closing meetings and walkthrough's to ensure at the work was done with a high level of quality.  I feel fortunate to have experienced this because it was very overwhelming and the district seemed to have a very organized and experienced staff working on the project.  I noted several processes that I would like to implement such as a weekly bond meeting with all constituents to the cross-functional team model used in the bond meetings. 

Competency 10 Area:

The superintendent knows how to apply organizational, decision-making, and problem-solving skills to comply with federal and state requirements and facilitate positive change in varied contexts.

           

            The final competency deals with the superintendents ability to create and implement a chain of command and problem solving techniques to maintain structure while allowing those within a system to make necessary decisions about the work that they must do to build and execute positive changes and process within a system while still meeting federal and state requirements.  This particular competency allowed for me to have a variety of experiences with extremely knowledgeable people within the system.   Meeting with various leaders and interviewing them for assignments or for personal growth allowed for me to learn about their roles and responsibilities while still understanding their accountability to the superintendent.  Every district employee that I met with had a very clear understanding of their role and responsibility within the system while still maintaining a create perspective within the regulations.  Fostering this type of climate is crucial and difficult and I hope to always keep this in mind as a leader whose role is to build a structure of trust and creativity.

            My superintendent hosted many leadership workshops with central office staff, district leaders, board members, and campus leaders in order to educate them on the legal requirements of the work that they do, while still communicating the message of autonomy and trust.   In addition, he would allow for collaborative planning within the structure to foster new ways of thinking and gain insight and input into problem solving strategies and solutions to system wide issues as well as issues unique to a specific department.  I found myself during my internship watching the response from those involved in these workshops to see how they reacted to both the difficult and easy conversations and the relationships that were developed and fostered throughout this collaborative planning model.  What I found extremely refreshing was the way that finance could give input to curriculum, and curriculum to the safety and operations departments and how open and appreciative everyone was that there was a genuine sense of togetherness and team.  In addition, the willingness to share and ask questions of myself by these departments as a guest was something that I will never forget and the ability to answer in a caring and supportive environment is an experience that I will never forget.

            Finally, I was able to work with my superintendent and his staff on creating and internal accountability system, which used data to make informed decisions about the needs and direction of the district.  To see the volume of decisions that the superintendent makes on a daily basis was overwhelming; however, to learn how and why he makes the decisions he makes should be something that every leader has to do.  Although I do feel that my superintendent is a transparent leader, there are still too many decisions to understand and know about.  Watching him go through his process and use data and resources to make these informed decisions has been eye opening.  The entire internship experience has been one that I will never forget and I feel fortunate to have worked with people who really exposed me to the work that they do daily.

Week One Assignment, Part 2 – Job Entry Plan

In Week One, Part 2, we asked that you identify your career and leadership goals. One of the most important skills in preparing for a career move is developing a job entry plan(s). The job entry plan should describe what goals, objectives, activities, and resources needed for you to accomplish your first day duties.

Please write a job entry plan describing the following for your FIRST DAY, FIRST WEEK, FIRST MONTH, AND FIRST YEAR.

We are not asking for a comprehensive multi-page report. We are asking you to try to identify one or two goals that you hope to address your first day, first week, first month, and first year. Remember to include the following for each first:

Goal(s)

Objective(s)

Activities addressing goals and objectives

Resources needed to achieve goals and objectives

First Day

 Goal(s)        

1.) Meet with office staff and Senior Staff

Objective(s)   

On day 1 I will meet with Senior Staff, and office staff to begin to know them and understand their roles and responsibilities within the system.  This will give me an idea of how things work and personalities that I will be working with.

Activities addressing goals and objectives

On this day I will most likely do some icebreaker activities, then create a flow chart of who does what with Senior Staff.  I will want to have good conversations about the work that they are doing and have them celebrate their success and the things that they are the most proud of. 

With office staff, I will work with them to begin to understand current systems in place and again, find out what they are doing that they are proud of and find ways to celebrate those things with them.

Resources needed to achieve goals and objectives

There will be minimal resources needed for this day.  We may bring some games, a white board, but today will be more about focusing on the people that I meet with.

First Week

Goal(s)         

1.) Meet with office staff and Senior Staff

2.) Meet with Campus Leaders

3.) Meet with Board of Trustees

Objective(s)   

During the first week, I will meet with the following groups to again celebrate successes and then begin identifying problems within the system.  In all 3 meetings we will identify problems and begin creating a running list of the issues that they would like to address.  For office staff at this time we will start to create norms and processes for the work that we do.

Activities addressing goals and objectives

During this activity, I will break them up in to groups and ask them to make as long of a list as possible.  My goal will be for them to get it all out.  I want to know everything, leave nothing unsaid.  I will not judge or offer solutions at this point. It will be a therapeutic and eye opening activity for me.  We will then share out and create a giant list.  At that point maybe begin pulling out themes, but if they are not obvious then we will just begin listing them.

With office staff, I will work with to begin creating systems and routines that we all can benefit from.  During this time, I will try not to change anything, but looking for ways to ensure high impact, and high efficiency.

Resources needed to achieve goals and objectives

There will be minimal resources needed for this week as well.  White board, paper, computers, anything to take notes and then make a list.

First Month

Goal(s)         

1.) I will meet with all leaders within the system to begin identifying themes and then categorizing the problems within the system.

2.) We will narrow down the problems to 2 or 3 manageable problems to work through within each category.

Objective(s)   

We will begin work on an action plan to improve the system.

Activities addressing goals and objectives

We will begin categorizing the problems and highlighting the ones that we feel are the most important or pressing at the time.  We will do this by using different activities and also by doing gallery walks and small group work to bring them to fruition.  In addition, we are not problem solving at this time, it is really an identification phase.  We do not want to rush.  In addition, we will ask ourselves what data will be available to confirm the problem?

Resources needed to achieve goals and objectives

Again, there will be minimal resources needed for this activity.  During this time, I would like to spend more time thinking and talking.  Documenting the work, but not doing to much other than listening and writing.

First Year

 Goal(s)        

1.) Begin building an action plan for our work and begin putting some of it into action.  This work will help us to work towards a common vision.

Objective(s)   

Leaders within the system will begin creating action plans for solving problems within the system with high engagement and ownership of the work.

Activities addressing goals and objectives

During the first year, we will take our two to three identifiable goals within the various categories and begin putting plans into action.  During the year, we will have looked at data, discussed the issues with a variety of stakeholders, looked at different solutions, discussed options with focus groups, and then begin implementing the plan within the system.

Resources needed to achieve goals and objectives

Data from various problems identified by leadership team.

Access to focus groups of parents, student, and teachers, community members within the system.