001interviews so welcome and we appreciate you taking the time to to join us this evening well thanks for having me this is really really a great opportunity for me so I appreciate your time excellent we're just GNA Dive Right In if you're good that we're headed right okay um so we're g to we have a couple questions we're just going to go down on the line here uh we're curious um if you can explain how you approach working with teachers that may be uh resistance to change or feel that they don't need it and if possible could you give an example of a time you had to make a difficult decision that was different from what was desired by the staff or the community and how did you help your staff recognize the value of
002that change sure yeah change is is difficult right um it's it's kind of counterintuitive counter to human nature most people don't like to change they prefer to you know stay with what's comfortable what they are familiar with um and teachers at times are are are no different um I think you have to have that understanding whenever you approach a big change uh you have to be very strategic about it and think about what are some of the um potential kind of pitfalls or obstacles that you're going to face as you try to implement uh whatever new change it is that you're going to going to uh hope to do um I think from my experience probably one of the biggest changes that uh staff and teachers weren't 100% on board with was when I was
003the principal uh at Florence right out Elementary School Wilton in lboro Central School R um I was principal of both schools and at the time um Florence R out Elementary School needed to be renovated and updated it was running out of space it was the larger School in Wilton and then we had a smaller School uh at Liber Central School class sizes around 5 to8 per you know class and it was a challenge because what what the community some in the community wanted some did not and some of the STA teaching staff did and some of the teaching staff did not was to consolidate those two schools and um bringing both the populations the teaching population as well as the student population uh together there was a lot of reasons that um uh I can
004think that you know the staff and and the community were kind of against mostly we want to keep our small school we like the you know the community here it's Community Based that kind of thing um my job as the principal really was to sell it as a good idea and I did think it was a good idea I believed wholeheartedly that having the two school and the population come together with better for kids and if you can go at any change you want to bring about in a school as something that's better for our students and really looking at and expanding upon and and really um thinking about what the impact is going to have on it's going to have on the kids um then the change you most people will come around to
005it most will um get to get to see that you know in in the case of the you know uh Wilton lro having a larger group of peers that was a big um you know benefit for our students being able to um have a different classroom teacher every goup different grade level you know in lme brro they had the first grade teacher second grade teacher third grade teacher that's all all you had but you know having options with whose class you were going to be in having a a a greater uh pool of peers so whenever you're looking to do a change at a school you're looking to get staff in the community on board it really is trying to um sell it as far as what are the benefits for our students how are
006they going to um how is this going to improve either the you know the academic growth um the social emotional um whatever whatever it is that you're looking to implement if it has an impact and you can sell it as a positive impact on kids most people are going to move towards that change awesome yeah thank you very much JY thank you um so this next question how do you build a culture for the csda community of staff students and the larger community in general and could you cite specific examples of how you have turned the culture around for the positive sure you know I can uh say that this is a real strength of mine uh really really have had the opportunity as a principal to come into different schools and make uh a
007culture shift uh one that's positive and focused on on students um you know culture is you know defined as things that we we all believe in common and beliefs that we have in common and and sometimes those traditions and things that we we do um so I think most recently you know my work at Milford Elementary School at The Jock School um the culture was not where it really should be and um making a lot of changes there um you know it was a difficult um we had a diff difficult population that was challenging with their behavior um we had uh a lot of staff that that really just weren't happy with some some of the way things were done um so to get people on board and to get uh people to realize that
008um you know uh we need to make a shift towards a positive culture really is by Leading by doing and really making sure the values that we all agree with those things that we all believe in are are Forefront and everything that we do will be about those values once you understand what those values are clearly articulating them communicating them frequently to the families the community to the staff um leading by example always bringing those to the Forefront um I think that the work that I've done at jock Memorial School in in Milford we've really made a cultural shift there there it is a lot more of a positive School environment for our teaching staff as well as the students um I think I answered your question yeah yeah I think can I just would
009you consider yourself a turnaround Specialist or do you prefer and thrive in a place where there is little need for looking at uh challenges and opportunities I always I would say I can turn a staff and a building thing around I always want I never want to rest on my Laurels though I always see room for improvement I'm kind of competitive that way I want to get better I want to be the best and um you know I I I know a lot about csda and I know if you know a little bit of my background in Brooklyn I grew up here right and I know uh when I was at csda as a teacher it was a great Community but we could always get better in whatever we do and whether it's you know
010uh you know the academic performance of our students whether it's um developing new events and activities for families in the community to engage in um to feel more part of the school community at large um you know I think there's always room uh to get better I don't like to sit on my lurel I always look for ways to improve uh any school that I'm a lead meing and part of so thank you yeah so question three how would you encourage and promote continuous learning and professional growth for staff members yeah and we'd like a specific example of a time you mentored or supported a teacher in their professional Journey sure um I think that these days you really have to invest in in your staff in your teachers they do come to us with
011a certain you out of college with a certain amount of skills or from another school or a certain skill set um but as a school and as a district you really need to invest in growing those teachers providing the the the teachers the opportunity to grow professionally is really important um I I have offered lots of different uh professional development for staff all attuned tuned to the direction and the goals that we're trying to achieve you know most recently um you know at jock Memorial School it's been our Focus around trauma informed instruction mtssb dealing with students that have social emotional behavioral challenges that's been our focus and so we've brought in a lot of training and and you know and resources for our staff there um I I think that uh you know when
012we have teachers that don't have a skill set or an area that they need to grow in it's my responsibility as the principal to point that out number one but to also shower them with resources send them to a a conference or even enroll them encourage them to enroll in a college course that will help them grow that skill set um I can think of a kindergarten teacher that I had uh right after Co ended she really have a great student teaching experience and uh was remote and so it was really challenging for her to um come into the classroom for the first time that was man there were really very little management skills she didn't really build a a a classroom Community she didn't really immerse the the students in uh routine from the
013beginning um so we had a lot of conversations about that and you know I've given gave her a lot of feedback but I want to spend the time in my effort as the principal to grow that person this person's I've I've spent the time hiring them and they've spent the time you know the district has spent you know money we we want to make sure that they're getting to where they they need to be where we want them to be and that takes time uh I enrolled her in responsive classroom she loved it she spent the week doing that um uh course and I think it was in conquered she came back just rejuvenated I know exactly what I need to do now I think I could execute this and do this and do this
014a little differently um I've had a lot of experience talking with teachers about their skill set and about areas that they need to grow in um I don't expect anyone to be perfect and there's always room for people to grow and to improve and so um these conversations I I have with staff the relationship I build with them it doesn't come across as a um you know you should do x y and z i i help them come to realize that on their own and encourage them to get better let's do better we can always do better even myself so um I've had a lot of teacher teachers that I've grown and um teachers that have developed and have thanked me for it and I I take a lot of pride in that much like
015when I was a classroom teacher when you have a student that is struggling in an area and you work with them you provide them the resources and and and they grow uh it's what what we do I'm still an educator and that's part of my job is to help um our staff grow and develop and to learn so let just ask a quick followup So when you say that um if you feel like teachers are kind of in a place where they're not really seeking professional development and you are seeking it for them or kind of encouraging them to go to conferences how do you kind of have that conversation with a teacher where you come in and maybe they're thinking really need to be enrolling in professional development and you're like I think you
016do how do we kind of have that conversation that's a tough conversation to have I think that um you have to really work on helping them to see the benefits of where this new learning will take them again um not point out the deficit so much just more this is what's what's going to happen it's going to make you a better teacher it's going to make you better in some case you know a better person this is what I think you how it could how it could improve you um you know there's there's initiatives in professional development that we do for the whole staff that teachers not always are always in on and um again it's part of that whole change piece as well um we don't need this I I think I I already
017know how to do this and um that kind of uh is difficult to hear having those tough conversations with staff and you know more often than not though they come out say oh I didn't realize that huh I really got this takeaway from it it and I'm going to apply this in my classroom from the workshop whever it it may be um so in the end you know it most most of the time it's successful it it really is and it's just taking the time some people are there sooner some people are there it takes them a little bit longer and you know there it's always I hate to say sometimes it's the veteran staff that have been doing things for a long time the way that they have been doing it and you know
018I think realizing that things are changing and there can be a new way of doing things and try something new and do something a little bit different in your classroom I like I mentioned I don't like to rest on my Laurels I like to look for ways to always improve and to get better at what I do um so I think that mindset that growth mindset that comes across we try to instill upon our students is something we still need to work and do with our our teaching staff as well so yeah great hi Tim thanks for here tonight um glad to be here um so we've been talking about development and staff and students and so now I want to talk to you about managing a tight budget um which I know I know
019coming from Litton lineboro you're talking about that experience you certainly have probably done um how do you prioritize resources um and what strategies did you use to um make sure that all the needs were met yeah it's a great question question um developing a budget you need to be strategic about it right um and I was just talking to Dan about the project here with the library um that uh no you have to you know uh think what are your goals and sometimes it's not something you can do in in one year sometimes you have to take that project do little pie pieces of it at a time right and and not have it impact the budget so significantly in in one budget Cycle One budget year you have to really look at the project
020what can we Implement and do first right what what can we if it's a new program can we start with just the you know first grade you know or can we start with the fourth grade and kind of build it year after year after year um you your priorities have to be set by the board have to be set with the superintendent what are some of the things that we need to get done here at the school what are some of the things that we need to think about fiscally um and be responsible out and it it is sometimes breaking things larger things into smaller chunks so it doesn't impact the budget year after you know um at one year U you know the budget that I have Staffing aside and you know all the
021facilities uh you know electricity all all those things really my uh curriculum budget for the materials that you know we we use to run the school and for teachers to use is about $80,000 right now at Jo Memorial School and it seems like a lot of money but it's not when you're talking about close to 300 students right you have to make that money go along way um un fortunate to have some great teammates in the district that I work with we work together to procure grant funding for certain initiatives um we look to Stage things in over time so it doesn't have a huge impact on the budget cycle those are some of the like more basic strategies that we use okay yeah that's great and I I think you know thinking about like
022our budget process you know I'm sure it's similar you know the first round is you know everyone's sort of wish list right um and and then as the as the process proceeds we sort of like have to balance between being a team player like right and working with the board and working with the superintendent versus advocating for what you believe strongly your school and your staff and your kids need um how do you how do you do that balance well I definitely listen to my colleagues because ultimately doesn't it's not just about me in my school it is about our students together right whether it's the high school the middle middle school you know down here at rmms it is a collaborative effort and sometimes I have to take a back a back seat yeah
023I'll still advocate for my students and my staff in my building um and sometimes though I have to take a backseat and really listen to my colleagues and and to the board and listen to their you know input and insight you know looking at what are the greater needs for the district right right what are the greater needs for our students um and that may not I may not be number one priority it might be a convers well maybe next year you promise next year that kind of thing um but it it is something that we need to work collaboratively on and we have to have a lot of discussions around we have to be able to give and take and I know that's part of any budget process and in my experiences um I
024just wanted to I made a note when uh Johanna was asking her question that I wanted to follow up because I think I I appreciated your response about like showering um a teacher with resources and so I'm wondering given tight budget constraints you know obviously one way is to send someone to for a one we immersive for responsive classroom or um How do you like accomplish that with tight resources yeah so sometimes an example like that you might have a a teacher in the school that is doing what it is that you know you want to see this teacher do right professionally and so it's teaming them up having them visit their classroom having them have time to to have those conversations there's a lot of really talented teachers and when you have some new
025teachers are or even teachers aren't where they're supposed to be some a creative way to do that is to team them up and have someone mentor and uh have conversations set up some meetings visit their classroom see how it's working in their classroom um and sometimes that can even happen you know beyond our district walls right Beyond The District if you can figure out you know this at this school they're doing this hey do you think I can send a team of teachers over to your school to see how this is working there um because we're interested in doing some of that and you know professionally collegially we can we can work something out and you know usually just uh you know um have the opportunity um maybe to to uh you know do something
026reciprocal in in nature for them but I think that yeah there are times where you can't afford to send someone off to some training or enroll them in some college course and that's when you need to look and get creative and think about okay so this is where I want this teacher to be I have this teacher who's there let's have this person work with that person and um think think about it that way I think uh there's also a lot of online resources videos um I don't think they're as as effective but um those are ways that you can kind of think outside the box and keep those costs down and still get people to grow great so yeah thank you yeah you're welcome all right I have a scenario for you oh boy
027ready you the new principal of csda yeah what do your first 90 days look like first how many days 90 first 90 days um so right off the bat my focus is going to be building relationships in in addition to that um getting to know a little bit about the building in my role I think I mentioned in my previous interview um this I think one of the staff asked the same question first things first got to know the safety plan the Emergency Operating plan that is is Paramount safety first right I need to know the phone number you know for this the bus company I need to know um what we're supposed to do in an emergency because I need to know and my ultimate responsibility is the safety of the staff and the
028students right so that's priority number one uh after that I'd like to open my doors up I'm I'm assuming this over the summer for listening opportunities um it doesn't have to be at the school could be off site someplace um some you know a place where staff can approach me sit down have a conversation tell me a little bit about themselves I can tell a little bit about me I'll do a lot of listening um I think it would be great to have some type of meet Mr O um event for the community uh whether maybe it's down at the Grove with some ice cream I'm going to know everyone's down there in the summertime and you know serving some ice cream getting to know some of the families some of the kiddos um and
029really just trying to figure out uh through our discussions with the board with Administration what are our our goals and priorities for the school moving forward where do we need to focus our efforts where do I need to focus my efforts and getting an understanding of that um and and then providing you some input as to where I see our school is at and what what my first impressions are talking with the superintendent talk with my colleagues um we need to establish some some clear goals for uh the first three or five years and by the end of that 90 months I may have an idea of what those goals could be um and what kind of Direction I think some of the actions that we need to take to achieve those goals um but
030really it's about taking a lot of information in it's going to be a steep learning curve it's going to be information overload um you know really though when those kids come through the door in late August early September it's going to be my efforts going to be focused on building relationships with them right off the bat they're going to see me every day I'm going to make sure that they hear my voice every day um that I'm in their classrooms they get to know me I get to know them um the challenge every year is for me to get to know every student's name um successful about 90% of the time something like it's brothers and sisters all all confused you know um so but that that is real important when you get to know
031all the kids' names you know that just that says a lot to that student this this is by principal they they know who I am and call me by name so that will be a focus um 90 days goes by pretty quick but that'll be that'll be kind of the gist of it awesome I will say though you'll have a a challenge with the name thing because uh Dan over here can identify families by car and what they does he know their license plate number probably that's impressive probably probably car oh yeah um thank you for your for your time I appreciate it we have a couple of minutes left and I just wanted to ask if you had any questions for us if there was anything um we we only have a few minutes
032so unfortunately but I I did want to give you that opportunity if you had a question or two to ask wrote a few things down um so I guess in general so talking about goals right talking about um what coming in what my role will be to help achieve those goals so how do you how does the board Envision the future of csda of the school and maybe the next three or five years um and how can you see me contributing to that I mean I think one of our biggest concerns as a Bard is just we want things to be cohesive and we want things to be collaborative mhm um and that's for all of our schools in this District right so here at rmms at csda um you know there's there's been some
033I don't want to say issues but certainly there's been some things brought up in regards to that so as a board we would want to figure out a way to kind of bring everybody back into a more cohesive flow and so how you're contributing to that is I I would probably envision your leadership style how are we how are we trying to hear what people are saying listen to what people are saying Implement that um if there are concerns bring it to whoever it needs to be brought to so that we can work on it and get ahead of it before we're playing catchup because it's much better to react proactively than it is to be reactive that usually does not break out great yeah I think I think also as a board I think
034um our our vision for csda um the growth academically is to be able to provide more for our we always want more for our students right and not just the kids the targeted kids that need more but the students are where they should the students that are where they should be being able to offer them more as well and you get down and and lots of enrichment and when you get down with a really tight budget we we would love a leader that can find those creative ways to balance that with the budget with the demands of the curriculum and it's a right on forever going growing challenge but I know we would like to start seeing some some more of that and or plans in future plans of how to make that happen yeah
035I think just to respond to both of you I can do that I can really work with the staff to bring them together um I really um expound upon and I'll do this when I first meet the staff the notion the idea of teamwork about working together and how it's important to work together because it's that's what we need to do for our students and um it it is you know people are people sometimes they don't always get along but we need to get along in the efforts that we have because we have a real important job and that's to teach the kids right and to and to move them forward unfortunately I you know I think a lot of our efforts in time you know does shift more towards making sure those students that
036are below the Benchmark right that aren't meeting our goals and where they should be we provide that intervention and the support for them we shouldn't do that however at the expense of the other students right the other students still need to grow and they still need to be challenged and they still need to have have the opportunity to learn more right and uh so fortunate you know at jock we did uh we have a what I need time so it's a time where those students can get that extra support that they need sometimes different um students uh go to see some service providers whatever they might need but there's also groups of students that have you know the opportunity for what we call an extension right so the challenging work I I even uh last
037year was teaching an extension group um because you know I have a lot of staff that work with that population that's not there yet uh we don't have a lot of staff that can extend some of there uh but it was great I had five kids first graders and they were reading at a second third grade level so we read about fish and we learned all what we could about fish and then we bought a fish tank we put it in the office and they got to name the fish and take care of the fish it was great um so those are the the type we can't neglect those kiddos that are already achieving what we need them they're showing us that proficient they they still need to grow they still need uh support and
038resources to get them moving forward can I just really quickly can I just ask um sometimes we need to look at the system and not the individual and I think in the last five years with covid with our current situation now in the culture that we're in there is room for innovation and I just would I mean it's not even maybe a question or statement I I think in addition to what my colleagues have said I would like to see a a forward thinker like you had said you know 3 to five years yes there are challenges right now how do we look at Innovations in our system as a whole to move all of those students forward um and really look at that really look at three to five years and how we can
039reach our benchmarks um as a whole in a collective sure yeah awesome all right yes we are at time thank you very much it was pleasure to meet you pleas thank you for taking the time you got a big decision to make for your time clap thank you I do I do I love a clap thank you do I have thr own public input no cuz it's on the sheet and it's technically ating no wonder think so we're like literally interviews I know and maybe but it says public input after the interviews nobody's here so I'm wondering if legally I need to open it so it can just be open but it's after both interviews right yeah so I think you have to wait for the second interiew but then we can go to nonpublic
040if nobody's here probably okay yeah just check in just check good evening evening good evening would you like to introduce yourself welcome Charles right you call by Chaz Charles Chaz Chaz great my name is is Alison Manion uh member of the school board here we're going to go down line just to introduce ourselves great hi welcome thanks for joining us uh Tracy Perry great nice to meet you Johanna Shan great nice to meet you Kelly zacher great nice to meet you and I believe you've met um I have good to see you again good to see and Lauren um I'm the director student services we met at the oh that's right we did thank you excellent excellent and you know Gina of course excellent all right well thank you very much for taking the time
041to come this evening um we have a couple of questions for you like to get to know you a little bit um so I'm just going to Dive Right In you're good with that abolutely great um so how if you can talk a little bit about uh how do you approach working with teachers who might be resistant to change or feel that they don't need to change um and then the second part of that is perhaps you can give an example of a time when uh you had to make a difficult decision that was different from the what was desired from the staff in the community and how did you help the staff how did you help the staff to recognize uh the value of that change so yeah no that's a great question um
042I I think there's a lot of there's a lot a lot of pre-work that needs to be done in in those cases because in uh so this is my 2020th year as a principal and um I I I think the root of of that question the heart of that question is about culture building I think I think there's a logistical answer kind of kicking around within that but I I think that's really about you know how do teachers feel about themselves in the building how do they feel about um uh you know their sense of belonging within the school um and I think you know teachers who feel a a greater sense of belonging this is my space I feel valued here I feel like I can fail forward here I feel like um my
043peers and administration value my ideas here um if there can be pre-work done um to build that and build that trust first and foremost um the times of disagreement aren't a kind of traditional disagreement it's more of a discussion um it's more of working together um and I I think you know at this point in my career I think about my leadership as as two four and with and not two or four 2 T be like two 46 um but it's it's a matter of in in my leadership and how I'm leading um what percentage of the time am I doing things to people what percentage of the time am I doing things for people and what percentage of the time I'm doing things with people and for me I can't speak for others but
044for me a a solid 10% of the time would be in some way my leadership is doing something to them mandates things like that other times it's for maybe building knowledge things like that um somebody's having a bad day doing things for them but a large percentage of time has to be doing things with people because it's within those with conversations that um I learn about teachers teachers learn about me and when teachers understand that that's how leadership in a building is going to be whether it's teachers to teachers or or Administration to teachers or even kids with teachers that that that's established it kind kind of takes away that whole dynamic of somebody disagreeing here and somebody over here saying well no this isn't the way we're going to do it it doesn't occur
045very often in in in the buildings that I work at that somebody has to disagree and commit but that's where I I kind of see that that question going um there are times um less times but times that um a teacher might have to um understand this is not where we're going but again the pre-work on that is do teachers in the buildings that I work at understand the why behind what I do and if I'm an Adept Communicator um then the teachers will understand the why and it's easier to disagree and and commit um a great example would be when I first uh came to ledge 7 years ago um we were uh we had uh so a little backwards story but I was two days into the job it was like July 3rd
046right and uh the superintendent came into my office I was still unpacking and and he comes in he says this isn't your fault just what you want to hear from a superintendent right two dayss in and uh and he said uh he said we you're you're a school that's going into CSI because of the previous year's uh uh scores and CSI is comprehensive School Improvement so uh ledge was in the bottom I think 6% that year or something like that so they got identified so he said you know you got to work yourself back out of this in 3 years so I'm like all right let's rock so um so the first thing that I knew that had been successful in in the previous places I've worked in Washington and Washington State in North Carolina
047um was that we need to teach how the brain learns it it gets to student engagement which gets to increasing test scores and so what I did was is talk with the staff very um plainly about the why that if we teach how the brain learns we're going to be using things that you already know how to do and then we're going to add some tweaks to that so it's not going to be heavy lifting of all this new stuff there's no new program it's kind of a way of being and really explaining and going deep into the why and I think teachers at the heart of what they do they want to know why things are done and and a lot of times if it's something that can help them and they can see
048benefit towards their kids towards themselves there's really not a ton of resistance I think a lot of times that resistance comes from a miscommunication or a lack of you know a sense of belonging or a lack of a why being told uh in there so kind of a roundabout answer to your question understood understood thank you we appreciate that thank you uh thanks again for being here so um you talked and and you touched a little bit on culture so his question is around culture how do you see yourself building a culture for the csda community that includes staff students and the US the community at large um and can you give us some examples of how you turned around the culture um I think you started to talk a little bit about that um
049for the positive yeah um I've learned especially gosh these last probably seven or eight years uh of being a principal um listening to understand is is just crucial uh for for a principal it's a have to and every school that I've ever gone into um I I start off and and this would be my example I guess uh I would I start off with a listening tour and and if you all haven't heard about what a listening tour is it's a real simple concept um but I will uh come into a school and if I was fortunate enough for instance to get this job um I would uh set up times to meet with students meet with parents and meet with teachers anybody who wants to and logistically I won't bore you with the details
050of that but you set it up so anybody and everybody who can come can come and it's a time for me to listen to understand so in front of those groups or in small groups I'll ask them two really simple questions and I ask the same questions to every school okay the first question is um what is going on successfully here now because building off the successes is the greatest way to keep momentum going to help build trust with people because it acknowledges me walking in the door there's already greatness going on here what is it talk to me about that right the second question is when you think about so if uh if I Samuel Douglas as as an example if you think of Samuel Douglas at its most efficient at its at its
051greatest point at at its most effective what are the characteristics you see what does it feel like what does it what does it look like uh what does instruction look like um what do people interacting and teaming look like from those two questions and and and that's the framework of the conversation whether it's with kids or parents or or staff I I ask them those questions and then I take all that data and I do very little talking um about what I would do or what uh uh what should be done or what I've done in the past it's really about listening to understand what's already going on and working off of those bright spots and moving forward from there because then we get to a point where we're not looking at something that's negative
052and trying to go away from something but we're looking at something that's already going well things how we already know thinkings work well and then building from those successes and moving forward so we're really taking what's good and going forward which is much more of a I guess you would call it maybe more of a solution based way of of looking at things um but again it it looking at the the inverse of that of talking about what's wrong and and asking people what's not going right here um it it really doesn't focus on kind of a positive of where we need to go and what we want to do that answer your question yes thank you yeah okay thank you um all right so question three is we're going to be talking about um
053learning and professional growth staff so how would you encourage and promote um continuous learning and professional growth and if you could give a specific example of a time you've mentored or supported a teacher in their professional Journey yeah um so I think there's there there's two pieces to that um and I know I've touched on this a couple points already but um there there's a cultural piece to that where uh and and there's a logistical piece so the the cultural piece is that teachers have to feel uh a sense of belonging and a sense that they can fail forward that that because I ideas sometimes they come from Educators uh or even from school boards and and and admin um when things are going really well but um a lot of times they're they're born
054out of kind of chaos great ideas kind of come from that and when teachers feel like they can put an idea out there and it may or may not work but that's okay you fail forward and it's all good and you know what you may do something else and you may have another idea you may fail forward and you know what it it's all good and you know what that third time though you may try that thing and that thing may be amazing and so I think there needs to be a culture around the school of of of I I I guess it would be really couched in vulnerability and and it would start with me you know being that person that fails forward that is always willing to say that did not go the
055way I thought it was going to go um and letting them know that mistakes are are our best way of learning just like we talk to the kids about um and that they do not have to fear that type of you know um uh I have this idea but I'm kind of afraid of of putting it in place as I it might not go perfect and then gosh what happens then then you know what that's great we learn what we learn from we move on um so there's that cultural piece of of teachers feeling that sense of belonging that sense of um um you know vulnerability that they can have in the building the second piece is is really logistical um there has to be a couple of things in place and and what I've
056learned um in working with professional development is um the oneshot and probably preaching to the choir on this but the the one-hot professional development doesn't work uh talking to teachers about a thing never revisiting it never building relationships with it um with the people who present it whether it's me or other teachers or whatever revisiting it doesn't work there has to be a sense of professional development being put in place very specifically logistic whether it's through uh professional learning teams so it's overtime and um you know I've worked with professional learning teams um and professional learning communities most of my career at least since probably 2008 um and so groups of teachers and admin sometimes kids with that sometimes parents with that um will group and learn from each other or have a sense of
057we're going to work on this one thing that was part of a broader professional development we're going to talk about it we're going to talk about how data wraps into it uh how the standards wrap into it how does it impact student learning how does it impact student engagement all that great logistical stuff can be done through teacher teaming if we're going to do like if we're all going to be in here and we are going to um have professional development in here as a group um it's really important that whatever professional development we have the why behind it is given um why is this important why are you even doing it um you know and kind of building up to a Common Language and a common practice that's built over time so it's not
058just a one shot thing it's we're going to start here but you know what we're going to revisit this in a couple months and you know what we'll revisit it again all the time supporting teachers um so for a specific example um when I first came into uh LED Street um and we were putting in place uh teaching how the brain learns and it really gets to student engagement um a lot of teachers um uh didn't understand the language I was using um they had an idea of what it might be but didn't really think about um you know kind of all of us having a Common Language and then ending with a common practice so what I did was is I bridge the gap there because what I during my listening tour we had
059veterans tell me Chaz listen we have a veteran staff here appreciate us please appreciate we have knowledge and you know I heard that and I took that in and I realized that when we were doing PD that there was a lot of stuff that I could pull that they already knew so working with a very veteran staff to say you know when we talk about turn and talk in the classroom you guys have done that before but you know what we're going to do we're going to make sure the kids turn to each other we're going to make sure that they look each other in the eye we're going to make sure we have maybe a little sentence stem that they start off with if they're going to talk with each other and process their
060learning and you know what when they process their learning it goes to a whole different part of their brain and it holds it there so learning is going to Skyrocket so what it did was it connected it to something they already knew which is always more palatable for somebody learning and then coming in with something knew that maybe I had given them that I had learned from something else and so it's it's in that kind of working together with staff um and and again I do have to say that that goes back to the very first steps that I take in a building is making sure that trust is built from that very very first step kind of going in great thank you great hi thanks so much for coming um now time to turn
061to like the Money Talks um everyone uh please describe a time you had to manage a a tight school budget and um in in that experience how did you prioritize resources and what strategies did you use to ensure they were met yeah so great question so um entering uh CSI back in 2018 um uh I had worked with grants and big budgets before especially with uh most of the schools uh I've worked at least half of them um have been schools that receive Title One funds so always working with millions of dollars hundreds of thousands of dollars each year um and what I found is I I'll take the the CSI example because it's probably the best because it had to be the most focused because we as the superintendent told me on my third
062day we're working out of that in three years um so I knew that I would have gosh probably I think the first year I had 400,000 um 400,000 in funding and so my first thought was and and again not knowing the school yet was how are we going to spend this money and if we spend this money in the wrong place then all of a sudden my goodness that's a huge waste and we're already back a few steps so um we as schools will do this in different ways but at at ledge and and at schools that I've been at before uh staff wanted to and I wanted to so we did this we created School Improvement a school Improvement plan and basically what that was is you have two goals um academic and behavioral
063and it it's not a deficit thing um I've created these uh in districts where the district mandated that every school had a school Improvement plan it was just a way of focusing people down on these are our goals this is the data we're focusing on and this is the direction we're all going because what I've noticed is um kind of in a deficit way if a school doesn't understand what it stands for uh in goals whether it's academic whether it's cultural whether it's uh positive behavior um money will just be spent all over the place there has to be a sense of what kind of goals do we have and so I I think especially in these tighter times now that we have this kind of Cliff with Sr funding ending and all that I
064think most districts are are tightening up a lot there's got to be a sense of schools understanding we're focusing on these things and why we're focusing on them I don't know the the the past of of Samuel Douglas and and what they've done in the past with this but in schools I've been at we have focused down the first year to say what are our goals and again it can't it doesn't have to be as official as a school Improvement plan sometimes that can scare people in the beginning if there's not the trust built yet you know what is a school Improvement plan what does it mean what does it mean if we don't meet our goals or we do a process check and the data doesn't come in the way we want it to
065um it can be as informal as within our plc's we're going to take a look and we're going to figure out what's important to you what's important to you as it relates to the standards and as it relates to the data and as it relates to student engagement as it relates to positive discipline how are all these things tied in and and and when we when we kind of focus down on what it is that's important for us instructionally and with positive behavior um and with the culture of the school then we're able to say okay it's a no-brainer we're going to take the money and we're going to put it here okay um for our budget process a lot of times we're starting with like one round of budget and a lot of times
066the principal and the administrators have wants and needs you know to improve their you know learning for their staff or their educational opportunities or curriculum changes um things that the students might need or want um and as the process goes on those things get widowed away um and so can you tell us about a time like how you've balanced being like a team player being part of that process trying to like think about the greater good of the district with this small pot of money um and still advocating for your school yeah I I think in in my career I've I've learned to do more with less um you know uh having living through as an administrator uh you know the the Great Recession and times like that when man everything was cut and um
067you know I mean I I remember those days where I had I had money taken out of my budget in March in in those years um you know if money left over it would just disappear and district office would say we have to take this it was in there and yeah it goes so my general philosophy with it is um we can always make do with what we've got and so my my time in North Carolina where I worked for uh probably about 16 years or so as a as a teacher and as an administrator um that was where I learned to do more with less and so again I think it it does come back back to there are those things that when a school has goals or identifies whether it's whether it's um
068uh you know very formally identifying goals or very formally identifying these are the things that are important to us instructionally material wise or if it's kind of a work in progress uh depending on where the school's at that's where it keeps going back to kind of what you were asking in the first question you know there's there's things that I would love to have you know would love to have you know smartboards in all my classrooms at ledge right um but that's not something we have the money for um what I do need is is Eureka books Eureka Math uh you know books so you know you know sometimes we have to dive back to what are the things that that we're focused on for goals and and and for priorities and go with those
069um I've worked uh with teaming with other principles um so Nash has 12 element school so um the 12 of us always work together um talk to each other about what we need um so I think there has to be trust built um I think within Administration for that as well um that people just have an idea we'll ask for what we need um and uh and and at times ask for what we want but know that that want is is truly that and and so if it doesn't come through you know the reaction isn't the same as if I don't get what I need if that makes sense good okay all right scenario time great perfect fire away um you've been named the new principle of ccsda talk to us about what your first
07090 days looks like first 90 days yeah so this goes back to kind of how I I answered it uh with the listening tour so i' I've seen um I've seen a lot of uh principles over the course of my career uh and and the ones that have been most successful are the ones that again go in first listening to understand and and the ones that that I I I think maybe didn't meet their potential as they could have were ones that went in and said I know what to do I've never seen your school before I haven't really talked to anybody but I know exactly what's got to happen here follow me there there is just less of a chance that that that is going to be something that I think hits the mark
071So I think it starts with that listening tour that I describe it's going to Branch out from there in whatever way comes from those positive conversations because those positive conversations will then set the priorities for whatever data is harvested from that listening tour will set what's going to happen within the first few months of school um what I can say is that um there are certain things that I will always do coming into those first 90 days logistically I I don't like coming in to say well teachers need to change this and and kids need to change this and parents need to change this and for school but I I need money to do this I I think that's that's kind of jumping the gun a little bit but um you know knowing that the
072very first 60 days or 90 days or even longer will be about building culture and building trust and understanding who we are as a school together now and um developing that sense of relationship between myself and the kids um myself and the staff myself and the parents myself and admin and the school board um and um and building those relationships right away um it's usually something that's important to me I like doing it um but it it really is the base or or the glue that holds everything else together so again it would start with that listening tour but I guess logistically um understanding that you know there are times I'm I would like teachers to meet with other teachers so looking very carefully at what professional learning communities are like within the school um
073how do teachers talk with each other um how do leadership teams interact with each other in the school and by leadership teams I mean you know teacher leadership teams so ledge we have um an academic leadership team and a behavior leadership team as teachers but it's it's in schools that I've worked at we've had student leadership teams and I was led around the school by four amazing kids um uh that were great but you know I'm sound old for a quick second but you know kids these days right know kids these days I should say it in an old voice um but kids these days they have such a keen sense of fairness they have such a keen sense of where are where am I at in my world and they have a very keen
074sense of how I can fix my own world and this is what I would like to do and so I think tapping into that is crucial um so having student leadership teams um and in previous schools previous to ledge I've had student leadership teams interact with teacher leadership teams that have interacted with PTO and it's just so great seeing them all interact together and the ideas that come and how kids feel empowered about their world and about what they can do to change his school so it's pretty amazing so I think I would come in and I would take a look at what leadership teams are say up um in there um I wouldn't automatically say we're creating this team or that team it would have to be about what you know what does this
075community want what has the community had before what has been successful for all I know they have all of this in place just right now and and we could build off of all that so leadership teams teaming things of that uh coming into place and then I think just gaining an understanding of student engagement would be the other thing that I'm going to really focus on coming in um mostly because without student engagement nothing else happens um in a school and it's more asking questions about it and listening to understand and and understanding how student engagement is within school um what that looks like and what is the definition of student engagement in in every school can be different um so I think doing something like that and looking at student engagement uh um yeah
076awesome thank you very much definitely appreciate it um we have a little bit of time so wanted to just give you opportunity if you've got questions for us make sure we we have the time to answer them so yes I do I have a question um so um feel free to say uh little man you're not going to get an answer to this um uh uh uh budget wise kind of just opening this up like where is the district at kind of thinking about budg as as well I've got a YouTube link for you oh boy so great great yeah I have a lot of feelings about that um Brookline is uh we're an sb2 District so we have basically two budgets we go through four rounds of a budget process here I think we're
077at like what 12 million something around 12 million this year um we also have a tax cap right now so we have an 8% tax cap so um that plays a big role in our budget um they I feel like it's split pretty evenly based on the needs of both of the schools but I mean I believe and Dan you can correct me if I'm wrong both the pr principles are in on those conversations through the budget rounds yeah so you would definitely be involved in that um we then also have a default budget because if our like presented budget doesn't pass then we go to the default budget which kind of just cuts out all the new things that you wanted keeps us at the level that we were before so I mean it's
078your that money is covering you know your teacher salaries teacher professional like equipment um we try to do a good job of phasing out like equipment that's being broken or used so computers chairs heating systems all of those things um that might come in in a separate bond which is what it did this year um but we then go to the deliberative session and and we present it and everyone gets up and kind of asks their questions and then they vote on it six weeks later so um yeah in a nutshell that's how our budget works here that's different than the co-op which has a town meeting format okay and Hall so we're the only one that does that here um but it's yeah I mean if anyone else wants to you meant by like
079yeah yeah like how it works or yeah you were kind of touching on it as you were as you were going through it uh yeah I can see exactly what you're saying yeah um just kind of wondering where uh where you were at yes to all that um uh kind of where you're at with um like what was there uh a situation and not that this matters to me it's just more curiosity but was there a sense of eser funds being used and Esther funds dropping off and now it's a matter of finding where down the line that's all I'm doing you may have heard a chuckle when you were discussing um grants uh so we don't receive title one so therefore we don't receive title four yep um we our Esser funds were uh
08030,000 oh okay so they were at a level that we could do much with them so therefore when they went away we didn't notice okay that's great but that's great because then we didn't have all these funded position and then to you know figure out how do we live without them so I guess that's the Silver Lining so 70 what is it 71% of our budget is funded directly by uh Community oh great right 71% is that more than that that great I no it's not great it's not great because it's a challenge because when we do the budget year to year we have to be incredibly mindful of we have a tax impact cap um that we have to work within the confines of though that may change after everything goes to vote in
081March March 11th who who knows um there's a lot of things on the table this this time around but the the point is we are essentially Town funded and so as you progress year to year if you if we have major maintenance items or if we have teacher contracts coming up that's going to impact wish lists it's going to impact um a variety of things if we have a need for teach so it's it's a big balancing act so our bu budget process starts October actually start July it's a year it's a it's a it's a long process um we as a board Tri you know we we want to be as supportive and I think all of us are incredibly supportive of ensuring that our schools get everything they need while trying to give
082them everything they want while also balancing the needs of our community and ensuring that we're not taxing them to death so it is um it is a long process also it's a contract year next year so just putting that out there there's there's a lot of so it's our turn to contract that's what that looks like so no we're not really feeling the the um impact now I will say our administrative team is amazing about going after grants finding different ways to bring in additional funds but that is not a guarantee every year and so we have the job of being mindful that we can Supply needs and and yeah it's it's a fun I fun process I think one of the things that we that the Administration has done very very well is making
083a dollar out of 15 cents um and uh that's difficult sometimes uh for for us to get some kind of balanced those wants and needs um but I would say I think to Allison's point the community and socialization of our wants and needs is really important the community does have a fairly you know I think they have a voice yes they absolutely do they will also contribute when when they can we we had was the the PTO that helped put the playgrounds in and like I think like the PTO or we got funing for the rock wall I don't know if the rock wall here is still happening we had a we had an eagle scout or a Boy Scout build a build something build Eagle Scout and Girl Scout project only the Girl Scouts
084could build us a new school I know I don't think you get a that's a lot of cookies cookies but I don't know like cook does does that help answer your question that does I mean and it it kind of fits you know um I I didn't mention this but um I I looked at this at this District because I I noticed just kind of by happen stance noticed the the mission and vision of of the district and the school and and and it it it's very uh the the vibe of it is very collaborative it's very together and and I can see how you guys are grounded just from how you're talking about things that that there's a there's not just a Reliance on everybody but there's a way that you all work together
085here and um it was interesting my my wife's a teacher and and when I looked at this job I've always wanted to do a grade four through six um uh school and never had the opportunity so I think it's really Progressive you guys do that a fifth grade I just want one more year with them just give me one more year right and um but uh but but my my my wife looked at that and she's like oh my gosh like that's that that's the way you run your school like that that's what you did that's your philosophies right there and so so I looked at this and and it's interesting because when you know I took the tour around uh Samuel Douglas and and was talking to the kids and and talked a bit
086with the staff and things like that but but looked at the school and there is a definite Vibe with this district and it's a really good one and I'm again I'm probably preaching to the choir about this but I could tell you guys have an appreciation for this is our space and we feel like we are here and and and it's a space we love and we care about and we invest in you know and so so it it it's a really unique space and I'm not sure um sometimes how how often people hear that too from from other people so want to wanted to make sure to say that to you guys you any other questions that we can feel for you I I think I'm all good I think I've meted them throughout
087this the process thank you very much thank you so much appreciate you joining us apprciate thank you for having me again do I have to open so no we're actually going it on public now yeah but do I actually since we're a formal meeting do I have to open public input uh so it's not actually oh it's not on our agenda uh we go into non-public and then we go into public okay all right so let's um if we can take a roll call vote to go into need a motion oh yeah I I will motion to go into nonpublic second excellent did you get that I did yeah all right we'll start with Kelly Kelly's I Johanna I Tracy I Alison I okay 7 let's go