Leadership Secrets from a Resort

I have got to be the luckiest guy in the world. I know that other people have jobs similar to mine, getting to serve students as a superintendent of schools. One of the great things about having a 260-day contract is that you get vacation days anytime you want throughout the school year.

I was on the flight home from Mexico, where I spent five days with my wife and another school administrator and his wife who we travel with, when these thoughts crossed my mind. It was a glorious time. We went zip lining, whale watching, on a glass-bottomed boat and enjoyed the entertainment at the resort. All of our food was included in the price of the stay, which for me was a real plus!

As I returned home to school the next morning, my mind kept going back to the resort and how they treated everyone. All the workers, from the front desk people, to the waiters and waitresses, to the activity people, just everyone, were the nicest people to deal with. I thought about the leadership this resort utilizes and how we could translate that into schools.

I am convinced that education is a service industry. Schools provide a service of educating our young people. While I have never bought into the idea that the students are our customers, as some people have, I do believe that we, as educators, perform a service to the greater community, state and nation.

I would like our staff to treat the students as if they are vacationers at a resort, with a smile, with a dogged determination to make the student’s stay as enjoyable as it can be, while still getting the information into their heads. I learned a lot from our stay at this resort, whether it was a brush up on my Spanish or how to zip line, and it will stay with me for a long time, We need to present the materials to the kids so that it stays with them for along time – longer than just until the test is over. That might mean changing some of our teaching strategies and habits.

Education is a tricky business and in some remote situations, it seems like some teachers are the ones at the resort and the expectation is that the kids serve them. While I hope that isn’t the case in Pleasantville, I need to make sure that doesn’t happen. The leadership secrets of the resort need to take hold here. We serve the public and it is our job to serve the students by making it the best situation they can possibly have. We owe it to the students, their parents and the public in general. Adios mi amigos!

Humbled

Earlier this week, I tweeted,

Humbled last Friday with my trip to #worldfoodprize. Unbelievable stuff. 43% of the world lives on less than $2 per day. #soblessed

When Mr. Collins, Pleasantville’s Ag teacher, asked me to chaperone our student, Jessica Webster, who qualified for the World Food Prize, I had no idea what I had volunteered for. Now that it’s over, it was a tremendous opportunity and one that I wish everyone could attend.  Some of the details that have emerged through the day made me feel very small and insignificant. I have never been hungry a day in my life (insert fat joke here). I have never really known anybody who has truly been hungry. Growing up, I knew kids that were poor and probably qualified for free or reduced meals at school. But “$2 per day” poor? Nope, never knew anyone like that before. Our schools free and reduced population is between 30 and 35 percent. Better than some, worse than others. I have read research on Doug Reeve’s 90-90-90 schools, 90% minority, 90% free and reduced and 90% proficient on state tests. I marvel at those numbers yet I still feel depressed.

It has been documented that 3 billion (yes, that’s a “b”) people are on a “plant and rice” diet in the world today. In the next fifty years, we will need to feed the equivalent of two more China’s. Does that affect us here in central Iowa? Absolutely, it does. It affects us because there is no more farmland to till up and plant crops. We in education always talk about the need to infuse technology into our classrooms and the learning that takes place in our buildings, we also need to step up the technology resources that will be used to increase crop production and help feed the world.

We just have to do better. Danielle Nierenberg, Director of the Nourishing the Planet project, stated that there is 34 billion tons of food wasted in the United States between the holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas. There is a real dichotomy in these numbers. Our country needs to do better at feeding our own, in our own community, yet we’re so wasteful. I’m very proud to say that Pleasantville High School’s Student Council will again this year, be sponsoring a food drive to help fill the food pantries in Marion County. Our entire school will also be working with Meals from the Heartland (http://mealsfromtheheartland.org) packaging meals for countries where hunger is a real problem. Our school has set a goal of packaging 50,000 meals on Friday, November 16^th. I certainly hope we can make our goal. We can start small but we have to keep the big picture in mind. By starting locally, we can then start to spread out to the state, the nation and the world.

Thoughts on Executive Coaching

On Friday, September 14, I attended a seminar on “Coaching to the Core,” a new form of Executive Coaching for the building principals in the state of Iowa. I think it is a great idea but as Dr. Troyce Fisher put it, “we need you to be our critical friends and tell us how to make it better.” First of all, I was honored to be invited to this gathering of leaders from the education field within our state and as the day went on, some questions arose.

When I chose to enter into the superintendency, a good friend, who also does school audits for about 60 schools in Iowa, told me that there are two types of superintendents, those who are finance people and those who are educational people. I have always tried to be an educational person. What I mean is that understanding school finance is certainly a prerequisite for this position but sometimes, we superintendents worry about finance more than we should instead of worrying about school improvement. I have always tried to be an instructional leader to the building principals with whom I work. I have told that to our principals here in Pleasantville. The concept of the Executive Coaches is to hire retired principals or superintendents to serve in this capacity. I hope that these coaches work with the resident superintendents to work together to make our principals stronger. I worry that the local superintendent will be left out of the mix and I hope that does not happen.

My other concern is that the plan starts to begin with principals in low achieving schools. I would also like to see first or second year principals be involved with this coaching. While I believe that the low achieving schools might need some executive coaching, they might not as well. It was never really discussed or shared as to how the schools would be classified but some of our best schools in this state are listed on the SINA list due to different circumstances. By involving our newer (and younger) principals, we can help to mold them into the instructional leaders they want to become. If you believe in the concept of Deming’s Continuous Improvement model, shouldn’t all principals be involved in some sort of coaching? I do understand the concept that you have to start somewhere, and the first cohort of 100 principals is a great start. I just hope that all principals will have a chance to be involved in this activity that will help them all grow. As the old saying goes, “A rising tide raises all boats.”

I do believe this is a great idea and the time has come for us to work with all levels of educators. There has been a lot of attention given to improving the quality of teachers in the classroom, but leadership is vitally important as well. Developing the leadership traits of our building principals is a tremendous idea and I salute the School Administrators of Iowa, the Wallace Foundation and the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL Midwest) for joining forces to develop this concept. Job well done gang.

Big Rebates for PCSD

The Pleasantville Community Schools underwent a major renovation this past summer with the complete retrofitting of a new HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) system. This new system is very energy efficient and should save the school money in heating and cooling bills.

The heating system replaced three boilers that converted water to steam to heat the classrooms with two new high-efficient boilers that will heat water and run it to some of the necessary classrooms.

The air conditioning system will utilize some traditional rooftop units that will draw in the outside air and cool it before it sends it into the affected areas. One of the major areas the rooftop units will cool will include the gymnasium and locker rooms. These areas had previously not been air-conditioned. In the older part of the high school, new technology was utilized called VRV technology. This is a “variable refrigerant volume” style that is relatively new to the United States but used extensively in Europe.

Due to the foresight of the School Board and the project management team from The Baker Group, all of these technologies qualified for an Energy Efficiency Rebate. At the Regular School Board meeting on Monday, September 10, representatives from Mid-American and The Baker Group were on hand to present a rebate check in the amount of $36,768 to the School Board. This money will be put back into the Physical Plant and Equipment funds to help supplement the expenses from this project. The total cost of the project was $3.25 million and was paid out of the Physical Plant and Equipment funds as well as the Local Option Sales Tax funds.

Teaching and Farming

Last month, a good friend of mine passed away. His name was Howard Titterington. Just an ordinary, but really an extraordinary, guy who lived for over 80 years and served many people in many different capacities. When I served as superintendent of the Okoboji School District, Howard was the Director of Transportation. He drove a school bus for Milford and Okoboji schools for 63 years, starting his senior year in high school. Not many schools would have a member of a baseball team drive the bus to the game, but Howard did.

The funeral was lovely, lots of very nice people saying lots of very nice things about Howard and his family. I received a very long, hard hug from his wife, Roseanna. I was so glad that Victoria and I had trekked the four hours back to Milford for this occasion.

The funeral was held at what was our home church for the seven years we lived in Milford. Pastor Bob Vaage officiated and told many stories about Howard, the family, and his life of service to others. Howard also farmed. He farmed a lot of land, thousands of acres actually with his sons, Tim and Steve. Pastor Vaage said that Howard was proudest when he was called a farmer, one that would plant the seed, nurture it along, and help it when he could, prayed over it and then would collect the harvest.

I got to thinking that we do the same thing in education. Parents and teachers plant the seed of knowledge in our young minds at pre-school, Kindergarten and even earlier and then, each and every year, we nurture it along, help when necessary, and even pray for their growth. What a noble profession we belong to, a profession of being a farmer of minds and young people.

I miss Howard, just like all of us who miss people when they pass away, but I know he is in a better place, watching over all the intersections the Okoboji buses travel and also keeping an eye on his crops. I hope that the staff of Pleasantville will continue to keep an eye on our crops, the students we serve in our schools. I know we will continue to nurture along our seedlings, help where needed, and cultivate their minds, bodies and spirits like we should.

Yes, teaching is so very much like farming and I really believe that we will have another bumper crop this year. Thanks for your support of the Pleasantville Community Schools.

Passing the torch

I have been so blessed in my life in education. At the end of this school year, I will have completed 36 years in this business. Boy, when you write it down, it looks like a really big number. This past week, I attended the Iowa 1:1 State Conference in Des Moines. I think it was the best of the three so far. Many good sessions covering many good topics. The best part though? It was lunch.

There was a group of us that walked downtown to a restaurant. Within this group was Russ Goerend (@russgoerend), an impressive young teacher from Waukee who is doing amazing things in his classes; Andy Crozier (@acrozier22) and his wife, Julie, in his first year as a superintendent in Andrew and Google ninja; Matt Townsley (@mctownsley), the School Improvement Director at Solon who continually pushes the envelope with Standards Based Assessment and Reporting (SBAR) and is a state leader in that movement; Brian Abeling (@wdmTECH), the Director of Technology at West Des Moines, one of the largest districts in the state and the one in which my daughter has taught for seven years in the Family and Consumer Science department; and my old administrative team from Okoboji; High School Principal Brian Downing (@downing413), Middle School Principal Ryan Cunningham (@rcunningham78), Elementary Principal Rob Olsen (@rolsen88) and Director of Technology Chris Koink (@koinker), all great leaders in their own rights. If you are on Twitter and do not follow these people, you are missing out.

The impressive thing about this group is that they are all young. I realize that the term “young” is relative but I could almost guarantee that they are all at or under the age of 40. As I sat and listened to stories being passed around, questions and answers concerning school, school improvement and how technology can help in the process, I thought to myself that I was witnessing the passing of the torch. Me and my generation of educational leaders are giving way to this next generation of people who are just as passionate about teaching and learning as anybody. This group “gets it.” They know what good teaching is and how it relates to preparing today’s students for success.

With all the confusion in Iowa about school reform, school start dates, funding, waivers, etc., I feel very comfortable that the leaders of our schools, the eight educators I had lunch with, will do an exemplary job for the continuation of great education in our state. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t really matter when school starts, whether there are waivers or not, what matters is what is happening in the classrooms across the state. We, at Pleasantville, continue to make strides in the classroom and we will continue to work hard to make our school the best it can be, improving on a daily basis.

Yes, the torch may be in the process of being passed from one generation to the next in terms of school leadership, but rest assured Iowa, education in this state is, and will continue to be, in good hands.

World Food Prize

Back several jobs ago, I received a mailing inviting me to attend the World Food Prize Banquet in Des Moines. I did a bit of research on it, shared it with some teachers to see if they had students who would want to attend and when no one indicated they wanted to attend, used the old standby excuse, “Des Moines is a long way from here and it really doesn’t affect us.” Boy, was I wrong.

Now that we live in Pleasantville, which is only minutes from Des Moines, I was re-introduced to the project by our Ag teacher, Monte Collins. In fact, Pleasantville High School has been represented at the World Food Prize for many years. This year, Lauren James, a senior here at Pleasantville, attended and I asked her to write a reflection on her experiences. Here are the reflections of a high school senior and how she has been affected by this idea.

World Food Prize

By: Lauren James

I attended the World Food Prize in Des Moines, Iowa on October 13 through October 15. There I met with teenagers from all across the country and four other countries, as well as meeting with mentors and leaders from all over the word. This experience was really life changing. I had the amazing opportunity to listen to the former president of Ghana, John Agyekum Kufuor, and former president of Brazil, Luiz Inaco Lula Da Silva, speak as well as watching them receive their award for being the 2011 World Food Prize Laureates. I especially enjoyed listening to President Luiz Inaco Lula Da Silva speak the most because his speeches were full of passion and excitement.

On Friday we also had the privilege of being able to tour Syngenta, learning about the work they do there. Another experience I had that I enjoyed was packing meals for those in Iowa that are hungry, which are one of every six people. Later that night we had the hunger dinner, which was where we were assigned as lower class, middle-class or upper class. I was assigned to the lower class and had to sit on the floor for my meal. When it came time to eat, the women had to wait for the men to get their handful of rice and glass of water for their meal. Then with what food was left, we women went up and received our meal, having to eat the rice out of our hands since we were too poor to afford dishes and silverware. The World Food Prize leaders said that 60% of the people in the world are classified in this lower class. The middle-class was a step up from lower class, but any family that would have to suffer through a drought or other costly event would put them into the lower class. The middle class had rice and beans to eat, as well as chairs to sit on. However, the women had to wait for the men to get served first, and they actually ran out of food for the women. That’s how the life is typically for women in poor countries. The upper class is a different story though. They had the luxury of chairs, dining room table, and a delicious meal that had salad, chicken, vegetables and cheesecake. Only 14% of the world’s population is in the upper class. This hunger dinner was a huge eye opener, allowing all of us students to really see the blessings we have in this life.

On Saturday, all of us students had to give a three-minute presentation over the country we choose. We then further had to explain about the troubles they are having that are contributing to high hunger. After we explained the causes of the hunger, we then explained our solutions on how we would fix the high amount of hunger in that country. For example, I chose the country of India and discussed how low wages; poor education and recurrent droughts were contributing to the high malnourishment and undernourishment in children and adults. My solutions to fix this problem was by providing more nutritious meals during the school day to encourage children to come and get an education, as well as receiving nutritious food. I also encouraged fortifying more “atta” (wheat flour) with iron and micronutrients and then distributing it across India, thus helping everyone receive more protein each day. And finally, with the recurrent droughts they are suffering from I decided that we need to make drought resistant seeds more affordable and available to them.

All in all, this experience really helps open your eyes to see how fortunate we are. Not only that, but it really makes you want to help bring this awareness to more people and help figure out solutions to fix world food hunger. Thank you.

As you can see, Lauren is a bright young lady who will take this experience and take advantage of this opportunity. Please encourage your students to get involved like Lauren did. Thanks for your support.