CASBO School Business Spring 2022

California Association of School Business Officials

Strategic succession planning 7 proactive steps to take now to ensure your staff can assume critical roles later

Small actions that pay big dividends Remembering your why, plus a few simple practices, can help bring the joy back to school leadership

Spring 2022

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4 California School Business Spring 2022

CONTENTS

Volume 87 Number one Spring 2022

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CHECKING IN With gratitude …

Tatia Davenport

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BOTTOM LINE To chart the future of education, we need our strongest leaders at the helm Richard De Nava

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GUEST FEATURE Innovation starts with defining the right constraints Fiona Murray and Elsbeth Johnson

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IN FOCUS MEMBER Jennifer Stahlheber

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IN FOCUS ASSOCIATE MEMBER Patrick Horne

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INTERVIEW Joe Sanfelippo, Ph.D. Award-winning superintendent, author, on telling your district’s story, creating new leaders and staying focused Julie Phillips Randles

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COVER FEATURE Strategic succession planning 7 proactive steps to take now to ensure your staff can assume critical roles later Jennifer Fink

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FEATURE Small actions that pay big dividends Remembering your why, plus a few simple practices, can help bring the joy back to school leadership Jennifer Snelling

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ABOUT CASBO The California Association of School Business Officials is the premier resource for professional development in all aspects of school business.

Founded in 1928, CASBO serves more than 24,000 members by providing certifications and training, promoting business best practices, and creating opportunities for professional collaboration.

CASBO members represent every facet of school business management and operations. The association offers public school leaders an entire career’s worth of growth opportunities.

CASBO MISSION As the recognized authority in California school business, CASBO is a member-driven association that promotes ethical values; develops exceptional leaders; advocates for, and supports the needs of, members; and sets the standard for excellence through top-quality professional development and mentorship, meaningful collaboration and communication, and unparalleled innovation.

CASBO BY DESIGN For the past 16 years, CASBO has been dedicated to the organizational planning discipline as a method for guiding the association into a successful future. Last year, the association completed its sixth such plan, CASBO by Design 2.0, a living, breathing document that guided the association in its long-term planning process, which is grassroots in nature, invigorating in procedure and motivating in outcome.

Work on our next strategic plan began in 2021.

Publisher Tatia Davenport Editor in chief Joyce Tribbey Features editor Julie Phillips Randles Contributors Jennifer Fink Nicole Krueger Jennifer Snelling Art Director Sharon Adlis

CASBO OFFICERS President Richard De Nava San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools President-elect Diane Deshler Lafayette School District Vice president Tina Douglas San Dieguito Union HSD Immediate past president Jamie Dial Kings County Office of Education

Ad Production Tracy Brown Advertising sales manager Cici Trino Association Outsource Services, Inc. P.O. Box 39 Fair Oaks, CA 95628 (916) 961-9999

CASBO has long been committed to organizational planning because the approach has consistently helped the association envision its future and determine the clear steps to get there. The road map that strategic planning provides has allowed CASBO to remain focused on its unique mission, goals and objectives and to respond effectively to a continually changing environment.

For more information on CASBO by Design, visit casbo.org > CASBO + You > About > CASBO By Design.

California School Business (ISSN# 1935-0716) is published quarterly by the California Association of School Business Officials, 1001 K Street, 5th Floor, Sacramento, CA 95814, (916) 447-3783. Periodicals postage paid at Sacramento and at additional mailing office. Submit address changes online by logging into your account profile at casbo.org.

Stay connected casbo.org

Articles published in California School Business are edited for style, content and space prior to publication. Views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent CASBO policies or positions. Endorsement by CASBO of products and services advertised in California School Business is not implied or expressed.

Copyright 2022 CASBO. All rights reserved. The contents of the publication may not be reproduced by any means, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of the publisher.

Published March 2022

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CHECKING IN

With gratitude …

After two years of caution, fear, isolation and indescribable uncertainty, most of us are beginning to enjoy travel, concerts, family reunions, ballgames and unmasked visits with the connections that improve our quality of life. The haze is thinning, making room for more joy, as well as stronger, more thoughtful (vs. reactive) leadership, as explored in this issue.

As we emerge, I am filled with gratitude toward our school business community for creating a sense of belonging, connection and purpose over the past two years. It wasn’t manufactured; it was a genuine reflection of who we are at our core.

And a fun discovery was that in our work, which tends to be serious and focused, humor became a staple of our daily lives as we faced the endless challenges together. While we rarely got to see many of our colleagues in person (from the shoulders down anyway!), we relied on humor as a coping mechanism, not realizing that it’s one of the most powerful forces we have for building genuine connection, self-awareness and well-being.

And if memes are any indication, creativity and resourcefulness abounded too, not to mention many new additions to our language, like “Plandemic.” But above all, it was the laughter that created more resilience to counter our stress as we surfed the waves of uncertainty and absurdity.

As I write this, history is being made as global threats of conflict unfold, posing the most serious threat to democracy the world has encountered since World War II. It’s terrifying … and there is nothing light-hearted about it.

Yet as we face the next waves of uncertainty, I encourage you to take a beat and reflect on the “LOL” moments of the past two years that continue to make us smile today. Keep drawing on them as you carry out the task of evolving education leadership and transforming the work we do for California’s students and schools.

Rely on that humor when you need it. It’s one of our most powerful tools of connection and gives us the fortitude to keep putting one foot in front of the other during difficult times.

Tatia Davenport CEO

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BOT TOM LINE

To chart the future of education, we need our strongest leaders at the helm HISTORICALLY, THERE’S BEEN a reaction

against focusing too much on the CBO – with some justification. School business professionals, as much as CBOs themselves, are crucial to the execution of a great strategy. However, strong CBOs are worth studying (which is just what we’re doing with the WestEd CBO study that is underway).

As stewards of public funds and their local education agency’s purpose, the CBO’s ability to make sense of the business environment, and to craft and articulate the business strategies, is central to long-term success.

S o h o w d o w e re c o n c i l e t h e disconnect between the annual “event” (or short-term orientation) of budgets and legislative changes with the “process” (mid- to long-term solutions) of meaningful change that education transformation requires? What can we do to ensure the short-term orientation does not destroy the value of the mid- to longterm solutions?

This is where the CBO’s expertise will inform the strategy. Will the execution be simple? Of course not! Will it be the right thing to do? Unquestionably!

Both in my military and education experience, I’ve learned some things about strong leaders:

Through successful skill development and leadership of self and staff, they accumulate a body of knowledge over a long span of time – knowledge that is specific to the trade and industry. They know their stuff!

•

•

•

•

•

They always treat people with dignity and respect resulting in earned trust.

They set high standards for themselves and everyone in their organization and are accountable for maintaining them.

They communicate vertically and horizontally, openly, transparently and continually.

They maintain balance by devoting time to family and community.

They have fun by embracing responsibilities with enthusiasm and optimism.

In response to the latest change or program initiative, our strongest leaders proclaim, “We can do that,” or “We can’t do that, but here’s an alternative,” because they can distinguish wishful thinking from an accurate recognition of vital internal capabilities – and they can do so early in the process.

Our strongest leaders have developed depth of knowledge and, in turn, are sharing that with peers, staff, state and community. Knowing how to develop a budget is an important, basic requirement of a CBO. But the experiences that allow for critical thinking, problem-solving and creative innovation around real challenges are what differentiate a skill from a competency.

It’s hard to overstate how important it is to understand the true value of our comprehensive and collective knowledge – in other words, how school business really works – so that we can affect, in a deep and substantive way, the bills, budgets, programs and plans that will shape the future of education.

We need our strongest leaders now! z z z

Richard G. De Nava President

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Innovation starts with defining the right constraints

By Fiona Murray and Elsbeth Johnson

What drives big, breakthrough innovations? Often it’s constraints – limitations that force designers to rethink the whole problem and come up with something completely new to address it. The caveat here is that certain constraints spur big thinking, while others tamp it down. Limiting outcomes (a new product needs to

cost 10% what its competitors do) or time (design this product in nine months) or both creates specific bounds for designers, but leaves the path they take to reach this goal wide open, forcing them to consider bold new solutions. Most leaders, however, constrain budget and risk. They tell teams their innovation must cost no more than a certain amount – a figure based on assumptions about what kind solution the team will deliver – or communicate to the team, “Don’t do anything too risky, especially something that might cannibalize existing business.”

In 2012, MIT Professor Amos Winter was asked to develop a lighter, cheaper prosthetic leg for the huge Indian market.

And not just a bit cheaper: The new limbs needed to be 90% cheaper than those sold in western markets to meet the needs of the over half a million amputees unable to afford prosthetics that often cost tens of thousands of dollars and lasted only 2-3 years. Under these dramatic constraints, Winter’s team went

12 California School Business Spring 2022

back to fundamentals and reframed the problem: What could the science of movement teach us about how to design and deliver a radically different prosthetic? Rather than taking a traditional approach, which sought to mimic a human foot, the team focused on a tunable but passive foot design that would instead mimic lower leg movements. By 2019, Winter’s team had unveiled their new, low-cost solution –

one that could cheaply and easily be tailored to a patient’s weight and height.

It was fundamentally different from existing products in terms of cost, design and material. This achievement was only possible because the initial constraints imposed on the challenge forced a complete re-thinking of the problem.

This story reminds us of a consistent lesson from the research on innovation: While unshackled creativity might intui-

GUEST FEATURE

tively seem to be the best route to novelty, actually some of the most innovative outcomes are produced when innovation is constrained.

But the type and quality of constraints matter. Leaders we talk with (especially in the public sector) typically impose two common constraints on their innovation teams: budget and risk.

They tell teams their innovation must cost no more than a certain amount – a figure based on assumptions about what kind solution the team will deliver.

Relatedly, the constraints on risk communicate to the team: “Don’t do anything too risky, especially something that might cannibalize existing business” or “Don’t fail because that’s not what gets you promoted.”

Unfortunately, neither constraint is particularly helpful in practice. In fact, they often produce unintended negative consequences by narrowing innovation to tried and tested solutions and precluding a radical reframing of the problem. As a result, a team’s potential to reimagine solutions is fundamentally hampered from the start.

But during the COVID-19 crisis, the urgency of the problem prompted traditional budget/risk constraints to be replaced by two alternatives – one that we believe support genuine innovation: 1. Constraining outcomes, e.g. “The new antibody test must have this level of sensitivity” or “The new ventilator must have this functionality;” and then, within the context of this new target outcome: 2. Constraining time, e.g. “We need a reliable test by Q2” or “The new hospital must be ready in a week.”

Constraining outcomes and time has precedent in a number of existing strategy concepts. One of us (Johnson) has shown how, in the content of strategic change, leaders need to specify clear, long-dated

outcomes if managers are to be able to respond with the best ideas about how to deliver a new strategy or change.

Another similar concept is that of the Commander ’s Intent. Here, military leaders give their soldiers a clear message about what needs to be achieved and by when, e.g., “We need to capture that territory by the tomorrow,” but leaves it to those on the ground to decide how to do this. Notice that the Commander’s statement doesn’t say: “You can’t spend more than this much” or “We can’t lose any men.” Instead, it states outcome and time constraints so soldiers own how this gets done and can respond as on-theground conditions change and enemy tactics emerge.

So, why do these alternative constraints – outcome and time – work better, and how can we most effectively use them?

The outcome constraint The key feature of the outcome constraint is, unsurprisingly, its focus on the end result. It defines what a good solution does for users, payers, or investors rather than the process or rules by which it’s produced. We have identified three approaches by which leaders impose effective outcome constraints.

First, the organization can choose to set a single, big new constraint – one that forces people to think about the problem in a fundamentally different way. Make a new prosthetic leg that’s 90% cheaper than existing products is an example of this.

Connect the world’s remotest areas to the internet is another. This was the outcome-based challenge that Google, through its “X” unit (formerly Google X), set the “Project Loon” team. By focusing on the outcome rather than making assumptions about how it would be de-

livered, this team developed the idea to connect remote areas using giant stratospheric balloons rather than by laying cable in the ground. what might seem like a crazy idea is now being realized: Project Loon is now partnering with telecoms companies to provide internet services in remote areas of Africa and Latin America.

Of course, such 10x rather than 10% projects won’t always succeed. But even if the ideas they produce don’t all fly, they are often a source of genuinely new ideas. And that’s because having big, audacious goal creates an environment where the ideas need to be so big and new in order to deliver the outcome, that big, new ideas are exactly what you get.

A s e c o n d a p p ro a c h i s t o s e t conflicting constraints. This is where two or more seemingly conflicting outcomes – ones that appear impossible to deliver together – force a fundamental re-evaluation of the solution space. When designing what became the Lexus line, Ichiro Suzuki, Toyota’s chief engineer, stipulated that the new car needed to be faster, lighter, and more fuel efficient than existing luxury sedans. The order was full of contradictions. Making a car faster usually meant having a bigger, heavier engine; making it lighter without compromising power meant stripping out luxury that was essential for this segment. So, the Lexus team returned to fundamentals and re-evaluated their most basic assumptions about how to build a car. Alongside tens of smaller new ideas, they designed and built a first-ofits-kind aluminum engine that made the car 120 pounds lighter, improving weight and fuel efficiency, thereby delivering on a seemingly impossible demand.

A third approach is to specify what’s not allowed. This is particularly helpful when there are many possible solutions available. For example, when MIT was working out how to bring

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Innovation starts with defining the right constraints

students back to campus during the pandemic in Fall 2020, the university initially operated as if all options were on the table. As a result, progress was hard and slow. MIT then decided that some outcomes would not be acceptable – for example, ones that would prevent students scheduled to graduate in 2021 from doing so. This immediately delineated who were the priority students. And if those people were on campus, this told them how many other people couldn’t be.

By specifying what was not acceptable, MIT reduced the scope of the problem and created a more focused, and therefore faster, process.

Having set a clear outcome constraint, leaders can now turn their attention to the second alternative constraint.

The timeframe constraint The second useful constraint is a deadline.

The relationship between time pressure and performance is well established: The Yerkes-Dodson Law has been around since 1908. People benefit from being under some pressure because it makes them focus and work faster, so long as people believe that not meeting the deadline has real consequences – we all know the difference between a real deadline and a fake one – and provided the pressure is not so high that it triggers stress and other performance-killing reactions.

But why is a time constraint more effective for innovators than a budget constraint? It’s largely because people experience the passage of time much more viscerally than they do the running down of a budget, where the information on a project’s cash position is often invisible to front-line managers and accountability for the over-spend isn’t always clear.

The key is to set timeframes for delivering innovation that are appropri-

14 California School Business Spring 2022

ate for the outcome you’ve established.

This contrasts with the all-too-common habit of linking timeframes to the internal cadence of your business, e.g., the annual planning process, the budgeting cycle etc. In contrast, a timeframe that is “appropriate” means one that is long enough to enable true innovation, which often requires an investment J-curve, but short enough to mean people feel a sense of urgency to deliver and to move through multiple learning loops as quickly as possible.

So how do you set the right timeframe? Sometimes events or competitors take care of this for you, but often it falls to leaders to set internal deadlines. We’ve found three approaches work particularly well.

The first option is to set the overall timeframe and then subdivide it, structuring the overall deliverable into a series of workstreams. For example, one timeframe could be imposed on the idea generation stage, where teams explore the problem. Having called time on brainstorming, and chosen the two best ideas, leaders would then choose a second timeframe for the next stage of the work, where these ideas are developed into operational (i.e. testable) propositions.

More appropriate for organizations than projects, another option is for leaders to set big, multi-year strategic objectives – for example, a certain market share or cost ratio – broken up into quarterly milestones to gauge progress.

The combination of long-term targets and shorter-term milestones provides the best of both worlds: A large enough target long enough away to enable fundamental change but with regular milestones to make the size and scale of the task feel both more manageable and more immediate. This simultaneously gives the work a greater sense of urgency (thanks

to the short-term milestones) but also the opportunity for managers to undertake bigger, riskier projects with multiple iterations, because the long-term target gives them the runway to do so.

A third approach, is simply to ask, “What can we accomplish in a week/ month/year?” For example, agile approaches often focus on how many new features and elements can be incorporated in a given period, rather than spending time and effort on setting more micro-objectives before beginning work.

Most salient in settings where urgency trumps all other priorities, this is another way for leaders to reduce the degrees of freedom in which teams operate, thereby emphasizing the speed with which they need to produce workable solutions. For this option to work, leaders will need to broadly agree on the outcomes that need to be delivered but by defining the scope purely in terms of the time available, effort is focused on what can be done quickly.

Combining outcome and timeframes While both outcome and time constraints are, we argue, individually better than budget or risk constraints, they are at their most effective when combined.

We’ve seen this in the development of COVID-19 vaccines. There were clear outcomes: it protects you from the virus without doing you more harm than good. The timeframe was also clear: as soon as possible. Regulation and testing protocols provided guidance around the outcome but urgency forced people to think differently about how testing and evaluation could be done.

The sequence in which these two constraints are set also matters. Timeframes typically work best once an outcome has been agreed. DARPA’s

development of autonomous vehicles is a good example of combining outcome and time constraints. The target outcome was to build an autonomous vehicle that could complete a three-mile journey, and DARPA specified that the prototype had to be delivered by on a certain date.

The addition of the deadline (which, like all DARPA deadlines, was short) meant that the exploration work – which could have continued indefinitely – had to be completed fast in order to leave time to develop the prototypes. This combination of ambitious outcome and time constraints meant entrants quickly produced prototypes that were genuinely innovative.

So, how can leaders make this approach work for them and their teams?

They should start looking at their own working style. We’ve identified a few essential skillsets and mindsets that leaders should cultivate.

• Making decisions around outcomes/time rather than budget/ risk requires leaders to shift to how they use their own. To become more futurefocused, leaders need to spend more time with technical, operational and futurefocused people both inside and outside of the organization. To do that, they need to reallocate time away from controlling risks or budgets within the business.

That is likely to require a fundamental redesign of their planning and budgeting cycle.

• To s e t e ff e c t i v e o u t c o m e s , leaders must develop a perspective about how the future may unfold. Leaders we’ve worked with who develop this often start their strategic narratives with, “Because we believe [fill in the blank] about the future, we will be targeting this particular technology, market, or customer segment.” Within this context, they then develop clear hypotheses – each mapped to these target

outcomes – with which to test and refine their initial point of view. For example, Noubar Afeyan, one of the early backers of Moderna (and a former colleague at MIT Sloan), has described how he first envisions several possible futures where science or technology can address an unmet need. Then he’d choose the one he wanted to pursue first by trading off the likelihood of reaching it against the likely impact of doing so. Having chosen the priority to pursue, the paths to reach it are then developed and tried out.

• To shape better outcome-oriented decisions, leaders need to develop and reward scenario-building skills – recognizing that these are different from “planning” skills. Too often, futurefocused scenarios are insufficiently different from the current state of a market or operation, largely because the people shaping these scenarios are “planners” rather than “futurists.”

This may mean you need to hire in specialist consultants for this part of the process, but it’s worth it if it generates some truly different scenarios.

• And because the trend data will always be contradictory, with little obvious distinction between what is signal and what is noise, teams must be able to thrash out their points of view without fear or embarrassment. That requires teams to have built sufficient psychological safety so they can have productive fights about what the conflicting data tells them and which of the myriad options they should pursue.

• To impose effective deadlines requires bravery. In particular, leaders must be prepared to potentially waste investment on the development of multiple ideas because too much time spent developing or polishing ideas at the start reduces the time you have to get your idea to market. Time is finite, so trade-offs will have to be managed.

We believe that by adopting two different constraints – outcomes and time – organizations can become more innovative. They can then afford to be less constraining of both budget and risk – the traditional constraints – largely because the clear imposition of outcome and time-bound constraints helps deliver more valuable innovation (the objective of a budget constraint, after all) and at lower risk. As the people working in your innovation teams will tell you, that’s very good news for genuine innovation. z z z A version of this article appeared in the April 5, 2021, issue of Harvard Business Review. Reprinted with permission. ©2021 Harvard Business School Publishing Corp.

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IN FOCUS

Jennifer Stahlheber When numbers let her down, she turns to relationships

By Nicole Krueger

Photography by Hope Harris

Jennifer Stahlheber starts every new job with a getting-to-know-you session: She sits down with the organization’s data and runs a bunch of historical trends, looking for patterns.

“Typically, when you do that, you get a very reliable picture of the district,” says Stahlheber, who joined San Juan Unified School District as its chief financial officer in July. But with a global pandemic skewing the data for the past two years, she says “It’s been all over the place. It’s been very challenging to get to know the district in a difficult time.”

Because schools rely so heavily on historical data to shape their budgets for the coming year, the havoc COVID-19 has wrought on data trends has been particularly rough for school business leaders – many of whom, like Stahlheber, have lost faith in their numbers.

“I’ve talked to other CBOs, and we’re all facing the same thing. We don’t have a lot of faith in our numbers like we used to,” she says. “What is our normal? We have multiple years that have not been normal. How much of that shift is going to stay?”

But as her grandpa used to say, you can’t complain unless you’re willing to roll up your

sleeves and make a difference. And that’s exactly what Stahlheber has done. Without reliable data to work with, she’s focusing instead on forging stronger relationships, growing people and tackling each challenge as it comes.

“I’ve always made it my motto to find my way to saying yes,” she says. “Sometimes I have to be creative, but it has served me well.

When I do say no, people get it because they know that Jennifer usually says yes.”

Stahlheber’s can-do attitude is one of the reasons she spent four years on CASBO’s Legislative Committee, advocating for schools at the state and local levels, despite having little interest in politics.

“Schools don’t just educate anymore,” she says. “They also provide mental health services and feed kids multiple meals a day.

We do all these other things, and we do them because they’re good for kids and help them achieve at higher levels.

A financial analyst at heart, Stahlheber got her first job out of college at a municipal financial firm that administered bonds for school districts and other public entities.

After taking some time off to have her first child, she set her sights on education as a

more family-friendly career path. She got her feet wet at Shasta Union High School District and has worked her way up through several smaller districts, as well as the Sutter County Superintendent of Schools and Calbright College, before landing at San Juan Unified, a large district with declining enrollment.

Starting a new job while also grappling with a mass teacher exodus, confusing quarantine protocols and a spike in parent frustration has been tough. It was also a difficult year personally for Stahlheber, whose youngest son was diagnosed with epilepsy within months of her oldest son leaving for college at UC Santa Barbara and her husband going into cardiac arrest while flying to a family reunion. Although all are doing well, she’s looking forward to a better 2022.

Despite the recent struggles, Stahlheber hasn’t lost her passion for working with numbers to create better outcomes for students.

“Schools are important, and I wish more people knew that,” she says. “People leave schools because it’s hard work and they don’t feel appreciated. How can we get that out there and plant that passion in other people?

We all want to do good things, to make a difference.” z z z

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Untitled-2 1

2/26/21 7:05 PM

Empower teachers Maintain guardrails

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IN FOCUS

Patrick Horne He’s helping districts redesign education from the inside out

By Nicole Krueger

Photography by Brian Powers

Walk into any California classroom, and you might see neat rows of rectangular desks with the teacher standing at the front – or you might not.

As educators increasingly challenge established pedagogies and long-held assumptions about how kids learn, classroom designs are becoming more fluid, flexible and freeform. Patrick Horne’s team at MeTEOR Education, which helps school districts reimagine their learning environments, is at the forefront of that transformation.

“Our philosophy is that the environment is never neutral. It’s either helping teaching and learning, or hurting it,” Horne says.

As managing director of the California Studio, Horne works with teams of designers and former educators to show districts what’s possible and help them create classroom environments that support their learning goals. They also provide training and guidance for teachers who aren’t quite sure how to make the most of agile desks or flex seating.

“When we talk about traditional classroom instruction, you have the ‘sage on the stage,’ or the teacher-expert up there lecturing to students,” he says. “But in many

healthy classrooms, you get to where the teacher is more of a guide, steering the conversation during small-group learning.

There’s time for lecturing a bit, but it’s not all day, every day.”

Horne didn’t initially set out to revolutionize classrooms. He began his career selling school library furniture in Sacramento, until the company he worked for was bought out and his division eliminated. With a recession on the horizon and just two months’ notice to find another job, the father of two connected with some folks in Florida who were looking to expand their school furniture company nationwide.

“For the next five years, it was almost a traditional startup story: expanding too quickly, hiring too many people, trying to make it work,” he says. “Now we’re a privately held company in over 35 states, with significant sales in California and across the nation.”

By 2015, however, the company’s leaders realized that although their unique furniture designs were a cut above the competition, something was getting lost in translation.

“We were developing these really cool designs and selling them to district admin-

istrators, and we would go back six months later and they were using the new furniture exactly how they used their old furniture,” says the CASBO Premier Partner. “The desks were set up in rows, and the teaching and learning style in the room was no different than it was in the ’60s. We had to be honest with ourselves and say if we want to make a difference and make it better for students, we need to do something different.”

They began recruiting educators and curriculum experts to help emphasize the connection between the classroom environment and the learning that happens within. CEO Bill Latham, who purchased the business with his partner in 2001, is co-author of “Humanizing the Education Machine,” leading MeTEOR to become a company with a mission.

“We’re trying to make learning better across the country,” Horne says. z z z

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PEPPM STARTED ITS WORK conducting sealed competitive bids on your behalf in 1982, when we awarded contracts to low-price bidders on four lines of microcomputers.

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24 California School Business Spring 2022

INTERVIEW

Joe Sanfelippo, Ph.D. Award-winning superintendent, author, on telling your district’s story, creating new leaders and staying focused

By Julie Phillips Randles

There’s more than one Joe Sanfelippo in the state of Wisconsin. A state politician shares this name, as does a dentist.

You can also find a voiceover artist in California when you search this name.

But only one Dr. Joe Sanfelippo is fast becoming a household name, and that’s because he knows how to get his message out.

The superintendent, who’s also a keynote speaker at the CASBO 2022 Annual Conference & California School Business Expo, has a lot in common with the leaders filling the seats at his presentations. He graduated from St. Norbert College and started out teaching in a kindergarten classroom. He graduated to second and fifth grades before taking a position as an elementary school counselor and eventually landing in the principal’s chair.

S i n c e 2 0 11 , h e ’ s b e e n t h e superintendent in Wisconsin’s Fall Creek School District, where his house is a one-minute walk from his office.

It’s a humble setup, and yet Sanfelippo will not stop talking up what’s happening in his district – to his staff, his community, his social media followers.

“When they don’t know what you do in school, they make up what you do in schools,” he has said. “And when they make up what you do in schools, it’s not what you’re doing in schools.”

His focus is as uncomplicated as a country schoolhouse: 1. Be intentional. Every interaction matters because every interaction could be the one they talk about forever.

2. Open doors. When people outside your walls know what you are doing, it gives value to those inside.

3. Build people. People who feel that their work has value will go well beyond anything you asked them to do.

For Sanfelippo, the key to this leadership approach is storytelling, and he walks that talk in the most literal way.

His #1minwalk2work leadership challenge, where he records immediate, do-

able, mind-changing advice to followers while he braves the Wisconsin weather to hoof it down the sidewalk and into the building, cuts straight through to the problems administrators will face in the next couple of minutes.

His messages: Be proud of your work. See the great things that happen today and don’t let tough moments steal joy. Leaders don’t need permission to lead. New doesn’t always mean better.

Change makes you strong.

It’s enough to fill three books that he’s authored: “Hacking Leadership 101: 10 Ways Great Leaders Inspire Learning That Teachers, Students, and Parents Love;” “The Power of Branding: Telling Your School’s Story;” and “Principal Professional Development: Leading Learning in the Digital Age.” Education Dive named Sanfelippo one of five K-12 administrators to watch in 2018 and its National Superintendent of the Year in 2019. His selection as a Future Ready Superintendent and a

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Joe Sanfelippo, Ph.D.

The first thing people need to do is come up with an identity.

26 California School Business Spring 2022

Personalized Learning Leader last decade has earned him a seat at the table during White House summits.

Not bad for a small-town guy with a plan. As Sanfelippo says, “Go Crickets!”

People are familiar with the idea of branding when it comes to products like cars and clothing, but you’re an expert on school district branding. What is the first thing district leaders should do to establish a brand?

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received and who gave it to you?

The first thing that people need to do is come up with an identity. Whatever that identity is, it acts as an anchor that you keep coming back to, and if you always pull that piece back and know why you do what you do and what that identity is, it’s a lot easier to build a brand.

Brands evoke emotion. Nike, Disney, Apple evoke emotions when you see their logos. What we want to do with our schools is turn our brands into an emotion that people want to talk about. We took a lot of ideas from major marketing companies and colleges that have a lot of supporters across the country. People will tell you, “I went to USC” or “I went to Texas” and they’re so proud. They wear the swag all over the place. How often do we do that with the high schools and school districts we went to?

We wanted to normalize that for the people that we serve because we want them wearing our stuff when they leave here. We want people talking about us in a positive light, and if we can do that through volume, there’s a better chance for the story that’s happening here to be told on a grand scale.

The thing about leadership in terms of branding is that you’re going to take a ton of negative heat for things that people perceive are going on in school districts, and if you can combat that with great stories that are happening, and they always come back to a brand, then there’s a conversation that can be had to move things forward.

There are still going to be people who are upset about what happened to them at school 25 years ago, when something happened at recess or they got a grade

The best piece of advice I’ve ever received is from a former administrator who hired me to be a principal and then a superintendent. He told a story in front of a large group of people before he retired. He’s standing up there and he pulls a sock out of his pocket and says, “This is my granddaughter, Nora’s, sock.

She’s 2 years old today, and when I look at the sock it immediately reminds me of her. Every time I look at it, I’m going to be reminded that she’s 2 years old.

And when she’s 12 and makes a poor choice and when she’s 14 and makes a poor choice and when she’s 18 and I’m wondering what’s going on with her, I’m still going to look at her as if she’s wearing this sock.”

The parents in our school districts, no matter what happens with their kids, they’re always going to be looking at them like they’re wearing that tiny sock.

So understand that when you have conversations with them, they still see their kids crawling, walking for the first time – no matter what kind of situation they’re in. And I take that to heart in two ways.

The first one is that’s what I want our teachers to see all the time. But I also want to look at it from a leadership lens to understand that everybody is part of somebody else’s story, and we don’t always know those stories. So we not only want to treat people how we want to be treated, but also treat them in a way that when they walk away from a conversation, they always feel like they were treated fairly, they were valued and they were understood.

they didn’t think they deserved, and then that becomes a story that’s also associated with your brand. Being able to not only create the identity but to continuously promote the identity is critical. Then people feel good about the identity and want to talk about it, putting you in a better position to move forward.

T h e o t h e r p iec e th at’ s really important is the idea that all interactions with that identity and with that brand are important because we never know which one is going to be the one someone talks about for the rest of their lives. If we understand that, it makes us treat conversations about the brand differently, because all of a sudden we can build momentum through it. We just never know which story it’s going to be.

That’s a big deal because every one of those interactions builds up social capital for the organization. So when we take a huge hit, when something bad happens, the hit isn’t as big as it would be if people don’t know about what you do or are still reflecting on what happened 25 years ago.

Education is facing a massive loss of experienced leaders due to burnout and stress. What are the first steps superintendents should be taking to create a pipeline of talented, capable school leaders?

First of all, it’s important for us to create value in the workplace for all areas of the organization. We do that by making sure that all of us in the central office understand what’s happening in other places in the building and other locations.

It’s being able to help out or take over for a custodian, or being able to serve in a classroom or being able to spend time in the bus garage.

These are places that we really need to be really cognizant of, and I think we can change our behaviors to put our-

selves in places where we’re finding people are starting to say, “I’m out.” Then we can understand what their world really looks like and why they’d want to be out.

The other piece is that there’s a tremendous number of people in districts who say they don’t know what the district leaders do, that leaders don’t understand what’s happening or they’re never here. So when we create opportunities by being around and being invested in people in their particular space – not just a once a month meet and greet with the superintendent – but you’re there on a Tuesday morning just talking to a bus driver before they go on their route or on a Wednesday before they start shoveling snow, we can begin to really understand what they do.

What this does for people is break the script of what school leaders have been in the past. It’s important to break the script to make sure they see a new side of the work you do, but also to give them an opportunity to lean into the fact that you’re willing to be in their space and try to understand what they’re going through.

It becomes an opportunity for a conversation in terms of succession planning, or making sure that we can build a pipeline for success. Part of being a leader is to create more leaders. And part of being a leader is understanding that building capacity to lead doesn’t mean that people are going to lead the way that you lead. It’s just giving them an opportunity. We’re not trying to create clones of ourselves as leaders, we’re trying to create better spaces. So if we allow people to lead from where they are, to lead the way they want to lead, there’s a much better chance for them to move forward and seek out more leadership opportunities.

We do have to be careful about the perception that there will be a leader who will take someone aside and say, “You should be a principal because you

Part of being a leader is understanding that building capacity to lead doesn’t mean that people are going to lead the way that you lead.

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The thing about building people is that we need to understand that everybody’s A to B is different.

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have great leadership capacity.” If we don’t know them well enough to have that conversation, it turns into the person saying, “I have no desire to do that. I love teaching. Why would you devalue what I’m doing because you think I should be doing something else?”

We have to remember that it’s not your journey, it’s theirs. So the question becomes, how are you helping them on their journey and whatever they’ve decided to do? And then you need to be there to support what they want to do.

You frequently speak about “building people.” Can you share what you mean by this and why it leads to people going above and beyond in their roles?

The thing about building people is that we need to understand that everybody’s A to B is different. If we don’t value where they start at point A, they’ll never even take a step toward point B, even if point A isn’t where we want them to be. They won’t move unless we value where they start and build on what they do. When you do that, there’s a better chance of them saying, “He valued where I started, so now I’m willing to move a little bit forward.”

It’s about starting where they are and knowing what they’re looking for from the position they’re in, or whether it’s just about getting better across the board.

The second thing is knowing and understanding that everybody’s got some sense of influence over another group within the context of your district.

It’s about knowing what that looks like and how you can make connections for people, because if we build some selfefficacy through that point-A-to-point-B mentality, we can build collective efficacy because people are now pointed in the right direction and can pull together.

Building staff means starting with valuing where they’re at, but it doesn’t

mean that’s where it ends. Building staff also means providing time, resources and opportunity to show we want you to get better, but we also want to provide opportunities to connect. If you keep that at the heart of what you do – we’re going to ask you to get better but we’re going to give you time, resources and opportunity to do so – then they feel valued in the work they’re doing.

Fall Creek School District was twice named an Innovative District by the International Center for Leadership in Education. What makes a district “innovative” in your mind, and what do you see as the most important innovation that districts should pay attention to in the next decade?

The reason we’ve received awards for being an innovative district is because we allow adults to own their learning, which then translates into student ownership of learning. I believe innovation in our district comes from our professional growth model where we allow staff to pick a passion project for the year and we then give them the time, resources and opportunity to invest in their passion.

At the end of the year, we do a street fair where all of our teachers get together in the gym and they go from table to table, like at a vendor fair, and talk to their colleagues about the learning they did over the course of the year, what it looked like and what ended up happening.

Some teachers will go to a table and hear about the learning of a colleague who they may not get a chance to talk to often and think, “Oh my goodness, I did something very similar. We should connect to do that next year.” Or they may go to a table and talk to a colleague and say, “My students are really into that.

Can I send them down next year to have a conversation about what it looks like at your grade level or in your department?”

We’ve made these connections across the board where people can really invest in each other, and that creates value for the work they do and opportunities for them to move that work forward.

As far as what innovation looks like over the course of the next decade, I’d say that if you’re always thinking about what’s possible, there’s a better chance you can get to something that’s better.

It’s like that saying about shooting for the moon and if you miss, you’ll still land among the stars. We can pull people together and say, “Nothing is off the table when it comes to your learning. If what

you’ve chosen to learn makes you a better educator, I trust you.” And we can move forward from there.

When we do that, we allow people to advance their own learning, but they also become willing to take risks from a curriculum standpoint, from a technology standpoint, from a process standpoint.

They’re not afraid to try something because they know they’re not going to get slammed for trying. I would rather that people try and fail, and then try again, and that approach has translated into multiple opportunities for risk-taking and innovation for us.

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Joe Sanfelippo, Ph.D.

You authored a book on leading learning in the digital age. In your opinion, what are the biggest differences between education in the pre-digital era and now? In what ways has education remained similar?

Leading digitally is really not only about making connections, but finding ways to solve problems, to think critically – it’s not a contentonly conversation because content is everywhere.

30 California School Business Spring 2022

I think the idea that we’ve really flattened the walls of classrooms and that now we’re able to look outside for any kind of education we need is a big difference.

It kind of mimics how television has changed. Fifteen or 20 years ago, everybody was talking about how they needed to be home in front of the TV at seven o’clock on Thursday for “Seinfeld” and “Friends.” It was “appointment viewing,” but that has turned into being able to watch any show anytime as many times as you want. Historically, the purveyors of knowledge were in schools – that was where knowledge was given out. Now all that knowledge is stored in places that are accessible to everybody and that has changed how we do things.

It can’t be content regurgitation anymore.

It’s got to be focused on problem-solving that lends itself to critical thinking.

We’ve really taken that on here because if what we’re providing kids here in classrooms can be Googled, then what are we really doing? When we went into the pandemic, we ended up essentially flipping the entire model of how we did school. We put videos out for kids that they could watch multiple times, but then the classroom conversations were about the content that was delivered in the video. The conversations in class became about critical thinking and problemsolving and really deep discussions on the content. That did a couple things for us. Previously, we were essentially teaching way too much in a way that wasn’t connecting to everybody. Now we really drill down into the important content, and it has given us more time for conversations.

We also started thinking about professional development differently eight years ago, and we’re starting to see the fruits of that now. In a world where it’s easier to get information and content every day, it’s harder for teachers to get away from how they started out in their teaching careers, so it’s a huge shift. After all, the technology we have today is literally the worst technology we’ll ever have in our lives; every day, technology gets exponentially better, and we have to find a way to work within that model.

Leading digitally is really not only about making connections, but finding ways to solve problems, to think critically – it’s not a content-only conversation because content is everywhere.

In your work integrating the use of social media in your district to tell its story, what is your advice for addressing, in a positive and constructive way, the inevitable negative comments or community backlash on a specific post?

That’s a really delicate balance because the more you respond to the negative, the more you give it fire and that can end up burning the whole thing down. I think the issue becomes what information needs to be celebrated, what information needs to be clarified, and what information just needs to be left alone.

If there’s negative stuff that’s out there that’s impacting the day-to-day operation because the information is just flat-out wrong, then you can absolutely address that and feel good about making a statement to clarify things. But there are also things that you should let go because if you try to take on everybody all the time with everything, you’re never going to have a chance to lean into what you should be doing, which is helping people navigate through not only the craziest time we’ve ever been in, but also a new way to teach, a new way to connect, and

with a group of people who are having more mental health struggles than ever before.

The more time we spend on the negative pieces online, the harder it is to concentrate on those great things. That doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be addressed, they just need to be addressed in a way that’s really productive.

For example, if there are some negative things happening on our Facebook page, for me it’s easier to just call them and say, “Hey, I saw this and I just want to let you know that you may not have exactly the real story in terms of what’s going on, but it sounds like you’re really mad. Let’s have a conversation about that and then move on from there.”

The second that you put a response online, it turns into a huge deal. I was on the wrong side of that this year when I should have made a call to a parent. I decided to send her an email, and that email was then cut and pasted on her Facebook page. It was then picked up by a super PAC on the other side of the state and became the basis of a federal lawsuit against our school district. The response could have been a phone call.

What’s really interesting is that when we start talking about social media, social capital and the storytelling pieces for districts, as tough as the email I sent was and where it went, the opposite is true as well. We’ve been talking about what’s going on in the school district for almost 10 years and we’re very active on social media telling great stories, which creates this social capital with people so that when something like this happens, the response from the community is generally positive.

We did have two people show up at our board meeting after this incident, but both of them spoke to what they loved about the district. And we received cards from the community thanking us for the

work we do. People could have come and said this place is a disaster, but they didn’t because of our social capital.

You’re quoted as saying that educators are “never just a teacher.” What do you mean by that?

As educators, we tend to be our worst critics. And when we’re our worst critics and talk about the work we do, we tend to do it in the most inopportune times and places. So what can start happening with us as educators is that we stop being proud of the work and we start defending the work.

You can tell what people are proud of if you look at the photos in their phones. You can tell what people are proud of when you see pictures of their kids, pets, houses, cars, activities they participated in – it’s all on their phone and they can tell stories about that stuff all day long because they’re proud of it.

But when we’re always defending the work that’s happening in schools to the same people or group of people, at some point, you start avoiding conversations with that person or group because you know you’re going to walk out of that conversation a little worse than when you walked in.

And that’s when people start talking about being “just” because they feel devalued in that spot. So if they say that they’re just a teacher or just a custodian or just a paraprofessional or just a bus driver or just a nurse, they’re devaluing the work they do. And not only do they devalue their work, but they give the person they’re talking to license to do exactly the same.

Until we start talking differently about the work we do, nobody else is going to talk differently about it. And that’s huge in terms of how people perceive the work. If we’re the ones saying that we’re just a teacher, then anybody

Until we start talking differently about the work we do, nobody else is going to talk differently about it.

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What we need to keep in mind is not just being sure that we provide time, resources and opportunity for our teachers, but also how that is translating to kids.

32 California School Business Spring 2022

who hears that says, “Well, that’s how they feel about it. Why should I talk about the work that they do?” And that makes a huge difference in terms of how people are perceived in whatever space they’re in.

In this day of blended learning, with kids learning remotely or in person or both, what is your advice for building/ maintaining a district’s or school’s sense of culture and identity?

That’s really tough because I’ve found that the more disconnected people feel from the work, the harder it is to talk about the work. So when we talk about, for example, developing a sense of pride, it really kind of goes back to valuing where everybody’s starting and making sure that there’s an identity to go back to.

What we need to keep in mind is not just being sure that we provide time, resources and opportunity for our teachers, but also how that is translating to kids.

Are we valuing what happens outside of school in terms of time, resources and opportunity for students to not only get better with the content and the work, but also still be kids and still be connected to each other and still be part of a family?

For us, it’s a big deal to value people’s time outside of this place and know and understand that everybody’s situation is a little bit different. And if you value where they start, it gives you an opportunity to move them forward.

An example for us is when we went to remote learning, we were very cognizant about telling our teachers in the first three days, “There will be no content given out at all. What I want you to do is I want you to take three days and call every kid on your roster and every parent on your roster and ask them how they are doing and what they need.” We started from there.

We needed to figure out how everyone was doing and what they needed to make sure everyone had what they needed to be able to be successful in whatever that rollout looks like moving forward. And I told our staff there’s never been a better time for us to prove to parents that we love kids and we like content, and there’s a difference between the two. z z z Julie Phillips Randles is a freelance writer based in Roseville, California.

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COVER FEATURE

Strategic succession planning 7 PROACTIVE STEPS TO TAKE NOW TO ENSURE YOUR STAFF CAN ASSUME CRITICAL ROLES LATER

By Jennifer Fink “There’s no doubt that we are seeing the greatest exodus of leadership at the district level that we have seen in this country,” Dan Domenech, executive director of The School Superintendents Association (AASA) told Newsweek in late 2021.

That’s probably not news to you. Your local education agency (LEA) has likely experienced numerous resignations over the past year, and you’re very likely looking to fill a few positions right now.

In California and beyond – across all kinds of industries – resignations and retirements are occurring at near record-breaking levels.

“We’re seeing probably the most turnover, top to bottom, that we’ve seen in my entire 20 years,” says John Gray, president and CEO of School Services of California, Inc. (SSC), a CASBO Premier Partner. “And it’s not just some positions; it’s most positions. We’re seeing turnover at the superintendent, cabinet, assistant superintendent and chief business officer level, but it’s also hard to attract and retain general business workers like accountants, purchasing agents and food service employees. It’s never been tougher.”

The causes of the so-called Great Resignation will be debated for years to come. Here and now, the exodus of experienced employees has starkly revealed the importance of succession planning, or proactively preparing existing employees to assume critical roles within your organization.

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Strategic succession planning

Proactive succession planning vs. replacement hiring

Who has time to think about succession planning when all efforts are focused on figuring out how to feed and educate students in a constantly changing climate?

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In a 2014 report entitled, “Best Practices in Succession Planning,” Hanover Research noted that “Current hiring practices often rely on ‘replacement filling,’ which entails waiting for a position to become vacant before searching for qualified candidates.” In contrast, “succession planning, or ‘proactive filling,’ is used to build a supply of leaders by anticipating future needs and preparing for vacancies ahead of time.”

Obviously, it’s most effective to have a qualified candidate waiting in the wings, ready to step into action when the time comes. Practically speaking, it can be extraordinarily difficult to recruit, train and retain talent, while also managing the daily operations of your LEA. Not helping matters is the fact that the average tenure of a district superintendent is approximately two and a half to three years, says Michael H. Fine, CEO of the Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team (FCMAT).

“The cycle of identifying a district’s needs, planning to meet those needs and implementing all of that typically takes longer than two and a half to three years,” Fine notes. “Few superintendents go through the entire cycle in a single district, so they don’t necessarily have the long-term mindset that succession planning normally entails.”

The COVID-19 pandemic, of course, created additional complications. Who has time to think about succession planning when all efforts are focused on figuring out how to feed and educate students in a constantly changing climate?

It’s easy (and sometimes necessary) to get distracted by immediate needs, but school leaders – whether they plan to stay in-district or not – must intentionally reserve time and energy for succession

planning. After all, human capital typically accounts for more than 80% of an LEA’s operating budget. Managing that capital should be a top priority. Failing to allot time and energy to succession planning can create additional costs and burdens, as initiatives can lose steam while you search for and train new employees.

7 strategies for successful succession planning STEP 1: Outline essential roles and review human capital Review your LEA’s organizational charts.

Make sure they accurately represent current roles and responsibilities. (If not, update to reflect reality.)

Then, consider the strengths, talents and capabilities of everyone who is currently part of your team. Whitney Johnson, CEO of the human capital consultancy Disruption Advisors and author of “Smart Growth: How to Grow Your People to Grow Your Company,” encourages leaders to leverage the power of what she calls the S-Curve of Learning, a model of personal growth.

Envision a rising s-shaped curve, like a wave. The first approximately one third of the curve, the slow, gradual rise, is the Launch Point. Individuals who are at the Launch Point are new to their role, still learning, and require support while facing challenges. The second one third of the curve, a rapid rise, is the Sweet Spot. Individuals at the Sweet Spot are invigorated by the challenges before them; things are not too hard and not too easy. The final third of the curve, a slight plateau at the top, is Mastery; here, growth slows and individuals may become bored.

“Think of the people on your team as a portfolio of S-Curves,” Johnson

says. “At any given time, you want approximately 60% of your people in the Sweet Spot, and you really don’t want more than 20% in Mastery or at the Sweet Spot.”

Identifying team members’ positions will reveal succession planning opportunities. Begin planning (if you haven’t already) to fill the positions of those at Mastery; these people need to move on to additional challenges. Recruit and hire some new Launch Point-level employees, if needed, and set aside some time to further develop those in the Sweet Spot.

Yes, this process can be timeconsuming. Effective succession planning, though, starts with a solid understand-

ing of your LEA’s needs and assets.

Review needs and assets annually.

STEP 2: Identify team members to develop “Leaders often approach succession planning through the lens of, ‘who’s next for the organization?’ I recommend flipping it. Ask yourself, ‘What’s next for every individual inside of my organization?’” Johnson says. “That way, you start succession planning with people who are already working for you.”

According to Hanover Research, “The single most effective way to identify potential candidates for succession training is by pinpointing the people

Ask yourself, what’s next for every individual inside of my organization?

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Strategic succession planning

who have sought leadership responsibilities that exceed their primary job descriptions.”

Which brings us to Step 3 ...

STEP 3: Build on pandemic disruption

Districts can invest in training programs and provide financial support to employees willing to attend a CBO training program.

38 California School Business Spring 2022

In an effort to meet community needs during school closures, LEAs redeployed human capital as needed. Some used bus drivers to deliver meals. Child nutrition employees placed check-in calls to students’ families. Colleagues covered for one another during absences, and nearly everyone took on responsibilities that exceeded their primary job descriptions.

“Take a look at how your employees stretched and stepped up,” Johnson says.

“Think about how you can leverage those skills even more deliberately.”

Organizations that fail to acknowledge and encourage employees’ growth and development may lose them. “They may think, ‘If I can’t use my new skills here, I’ll use them some-

where else,’” Johnson says. (Johnson, in fact, argues that the Great Resignation may be more accurately called the Great Aspiration: “People are taking stock of their lives and experiences, and many are resigning because they’re aspiring to something new.”)

STEP 4: Invest in professional development Give promising employees additional opportunities in your LEA. Consider cross-training. Assign a special project, with mentorship and guidance as needed.

Make it clear that you value the employee and are interested in investing in their growth.

“As a chief business officer, you can invite and bring your staff with you to the CASBO conference,” says SSC’s Gray. “Districts can invest in training programs and provide financial support to employees willing to attend a CBO training program. It can make all the difference to say, ‘The district wants to

invest in you. Here’s this program – and we’re going to pay for it.’”

STEP 5: Hire people who are ready to grow Don’t look for the perfect candidate; look for people who are looking to develop their skills.

“Hire people who view working with you and for you as an opportunity to grow,” Johnson says. “Don’t hire someone who can do the job in their sleep; they’ll get bored. Hire people who are excited to tackle a challenge.”

Consider candidates transitioning from other industries.

STEP 6: Budget for gradual transitions Gordon Medd, former superintendent of Loomis Union School District, began discussing his intended retirement with the school board nearly two years in advance of his planned retirement date. These open conversations allowed Medd and the board to thoughtfully create a transition plan. Ultimately, the board hired his successor, Erika Sloane, an internal candidate who most recently served as the district’s director of curriculum and instruction – and allowed Medd and Sloane to work side by side for nearly six months before Medd officially retired.

“By the time I was done and turned in my key, I had introduced her to most of the key folks in our district,” Medd said. “We had many meetings with community leaders and some of our consultants, so we don’t go backward on any of our initiatives. She’s hitting the ground running.”

Right now, such gradual transitions are a rarity.

“Funding often gets in the way,” says FCMAT’s Fine. “But good succession planning provides for that overlap. You

bite the bullet with respect to cost because it’s a priority to have consistency and move forward.”

STEP 7: Set successors up for success Retired Lieutenant General James C. Vechery, U.S. Air Force, advises setting up a “handful of quick wins” for successors.

These “can be areas you’ve been working that are close to meeting a key milestone, but [are] not quite over the goal line,” he writes in “General Leadership.” A few early victories will help the new leader gain confidence and pave the way for further achievement. z z z Jennifer Fink is a freelance writer based in Mayville, Wisconsin.

Hire people who view working with you and for you as an opportunity to grow.

What does succession planning look like in your district?

Tweet us at @ CASBO to share.

California School Business casbo.org

39

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School Services of California Inc. (SSC) is the leading provider of consulting, governmental relations, and information services for K–14 educational agencies in California. Since 1975, SSC has been proud to provide services to nearly every educational agency in the state.

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44 California School Business Spring 2022

FEATURE

Small actions that pay big dividends

California School Business casbo.org

45

Small actions that pay big dividends

Remembering your why, plus a few simple practices, can help bring the joy back to school leadership

By Jennifer Snelling

Supporting schools so that students can learn should be a rewarding and joyful job. So why does it feel so challenging these days?

Even though we mostly work and attend school in person again, the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has made sure it’s still not quite like it used to be. Staffing and supply chain shortages leave many of us short-tempered. And we continue to deal with changing mandates regarding vaccinations and safe practices.

According to the World Health Organization and the Lancet Commission on Global Mental Health, employees are feeling unprecedented levels of stress and anxiety. Classrooms across the state are putting student mental health front and center. Perhaps school and district staff could take a page from that book.

How do we remember the intrinsic motivation that led us to our jobs? Can we implement intentional practices that bring joy back to school sites and district offices?

“It may sound cliché, but we have to show up and meet people where they are,” says Molly Schlange, school business manager at University Preparatory School and past president of CASBO. “We need to be empathetic to the individual experiences and needs through this pandemic and, at the same time, encouraging and hopeful for a better tomorrow. School business leaders have long said that it’s about finding the yes, not saying no, and that’s the same in the

46 California School Business Spring 2022

case of finding joy in our schools during these difficult times.”

Giving people what they need, celebrating the small things, working as a team and staying inspired are the keys, say these CASBO leaders.

Say yes!

Michael Krause, assistant superintendent of business services for Adelanto Elementary School District, hasn’t turned down one request for the last year. When custodial needed a vacuum cleaner? YES! When child nutrition services needed special food items to make the kids smile?

YES! “Whatever they’re thinking about doing, they’re getting supported,” says Krause. “Even if we can’t fulfill the exact request, we ask, what CAN we do?”

School leaders can also say yes to things like providing additional scheduling and planning time, or offering morale-boosting practices like fitness or nutritional counseling. Leaders should keep their ears to the ground, listening for the little requests they can say yes to that make all the difference.

Maintaining as much consistency as possible is also a way to give people the mental security to find happiness. For that reason, Krause goes above and beyond to keep the buses running on time, for the sake of students as well as staff.

“We are in a high poverty area,” says Krause. “Students need that consistency

and structure because they don’t necessarily have it at home.”

Krause encourages his staff to take time to do public service, such as volunteering at a food pantry or writing letters to nursing home residents.

Instead of taking things away due to the pandemic, find ways to make them happen, even if that means virtually, says Schlange. Her LEA has held virtual spirit weeks, pep rallies and a talent show with staff performances. Student clubs have held virtual events as well, and the student body organized contests and games where participation is through social media. Instead of a schoolwide assembly, University Preparatory School holds “student of the quarter” and academic awards programs in the classroom.

“It’s important for district leaders to focus on what we can do now versus what we used to do,” she says.

Little things make a big impact One thing that hasn’t changed is that a bit of acknowledgment can go a long way. Cultivating a culture of gratitude and appreciation is more important than ever.

Jocelyn Baldwin, an administrator at Guajome Learning Centers, made it easy for her officemates to support each other.

She made a flyer with rip tags on the bottom that included words of affirmation that staff could offer to a colleague. The affirmations were things such as, “You’re such a good listener,” or “Your smile

Photoy by Jocelyn Baldwin

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Small actions that pay big dividends

The best thing we can do is to support each other as educators through this challenging time.

makes my day.” Within a single day, all the tags were gone.

Baldwin says a whiteboard with affirmations on Post-it® Notes would also work.

“It doesn’t take anybody’s time,” says Baldwin. “They just look at the board and pick something that makes them think of a particular colleague.”

At the school site level, Guajome Learning Centers educators write positive letters to struggling students to let them know when they loved their essay or enjoyed a conversation with them.

“Kids never get mail, so a kind letter can be a huge boost for them,” she says.

“They might be struggling, and a nice word from a teacher can help them make a turnaround and become reengaged.”

In staff meetings, she takes a similar tack by asking staff to pick a name out of a hat and write a note to that person.

It was so popular that people kept their kind little positive notes displayed on their desks.

This type of positive feedback works best when the team knows each other well and personalizes the messages.

Baldwin implements a team-building exercise each day by sending out a random “question of the day.” The questions help staff get to know one another on a deeper level. Prompts might include, “Share one challenge you’ve had recently,” or “What did you want to be when you grew up?” Everyone replies to the group with their answer, and many continue the conversation throughout the day.

Krause recommends writing a thank you card to a student just for being a good student that day or a staff member who went above and beyond.

“We’ve gotten away from celebrating the small things like acknowledging birthdays and anniversaries,” he says.

“It’s important to celebrate those things.

People want to be recognized.”

Adelanto Elementary took this idea to heart recently when the transportation department supervisor retired. The bus drivers all gathered at 10 a.m. and drove around the block, honking horns and flashing lights, while the supervisor watched from the sidewalk. The celebration boosted everyone’s morale, says Krause.

Space to vent In the effort to find joy, some people cross the line into toxic positivity. Joy can’t be faked or rushed. “All of us have experienced the pandemic differently,” says Schlange. “It’s been a grief journey where nobody’s journey is the same.”

Keeping that in mind, Krause gives his employees the space to vent. In staff meetings, they start by ”emptying the cup.” Krause gives staff time to talk about whatever is on their minds in a safe space.

Sometimes, people share what they did

48 California School Business Spring 2022

Resources for getting and giving joy over the weekend or some excitement about a meaningful event. Other times, they share some of the challenges they face.

It also helps leaders keep a gauge on their organization. For instance, hearing from staff might make a leader realize their team is too stressed for a staff meeting and instead could use the time to catch up. Regularly checking in with staff helps you know where the pressure points are.

Krause also advocates for anonymous surveys. He keeps in mind that in this socalled “Great Resignation,” there is not a large pool to fill positions.

“We don’t want a massive retirement or burnout,” he says. “All feedback is good, but it’s not always positive. The safe space keeps the pressure from building. That’s important because happy employees are more productive employees.”

Be in it together Over the last few months, you could find Baldwin subbing for teachers or Krause riding the school bus with the kids. Rolling up their sleeves and helping out not only provides much-needed assistance, it also sends the clear message that these leaders are part of a team.

“We’re all in this together, leaning on other leaders, working closely with all the different leaders in this boat we’re in,” says Baldwin. “We have a lot to learn from each other. The best thing we can do is to support each other as educators through this challenging time.”

As we all worked from home over the last couple of years, the work-life boundaries became blurred. It’s hard for people to find joy in their work if they never take a break from it. Krause says his LEA highly encourages employees to take evenings and weekends entirely off

Check out the resources below to find a dose of joy for yourself and to discover how to share joy with others:

CASBO 2022 Annual Conference & California School Business Expo keynoter Joe Sanfelippo, Ph.D., knows a thing or two about joyfulness practices, and he shares them during his daily #1minwalk2work videos. Unpack his tips by watching his videos at jsanfelippo.com/leadership-challenge and reading our Q&A feature with him on page 24.

Check out the CASBO WorkWise Webinar and Slide Deck titled “Everyone Needs SEL Support” recorded on Nov. 18, 2020 (bit.ly/3ppHK5K).

Spend some time on the Post-it Notes® connections website where you’ll find numerous blog posts on “innovative ways to make your to-do’s, goals and dreams stick” (bit.ly/3v9qANm).

Read this CASBO Newsletter article on how to center your team’s emotions, as opposed to promoting toxic positivity (bit.ly/3saAP1Y).

Read this Inc.com article on how to best praise your team, and why that’s important (bit.ly/34Z4VNf).

and not check emails or cell phones.

In addition, there are more challenges than ever with helping employees manage their home lives. For instance, if an employee’s child tests positive or their school closes, they need flexibility. Schlange points out that school site personnel are hardest on themselves. They all want to meet the challenge, but it’s important to help each other understand the new normal.

“Where’s the priority? What’s the most meaningful thing to do today? If you need a minute, ok,” she says. “We’re here for you.”

Take note of nonverbal cues, too, says Schlange. For instance, if someone

in the hall pops their head up and says, “Hi,” that’s a check-in. If someone is shuffling along, they may need a little extra grace that day.

Staying inspired It’s easier to find joy when we connect with our intrinsic motivation for the job we do. One way to do that is to connect with and take inspiration from other people doing similar work.

Baldwin finds inspiration in business publications such as Forbes or Harvard Business Review, or Marcia Tate of Developing Minds Inc. She shares those articles with colleagues and

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Small actions that pay big dividends

The virtual access has given us so many more colleagues throughout the state.

50 California School Business Spring 2022

a personalized email when it reminds her of something they are doing in their classroom.

Schlange stays inspired by connecting with colleagues throughout the state through her work on CASBO’s Legislative Committee; worldwide through ASBO International; and on social media, where she regularly follows such leaders as Fall Creek School District Superintendent Joe Sanfelippo, Ph.D.’s, #1minwalk2work.

“The virtual access has given us so many more colleagues throughout the state,” she says. “When I have a question, I go to someone I know in my professional community who is going through something similar. I can’t be an expert at everything, but I can KNOW an expert at anything.”

Krause relies on TED Talks about education, management, balancing life

and leadership skills. His superintendent has a Google Doc loaded with TED Talk videos that he shares.

“It’s so valuable to watch those talks and discuss it with your staff,” he says.

“We unpack it and talk about how we can use these things in our daily activities.”

He also relies on professional development from within the organization. He encourages staff to present at luncheons or board meetings.

“I’m boring,” he says. “If you give them the opportunity, they shine. It’s about building that internal capacity.” z z z Jennifer Snelling is a freelance writer based in Eugene, Oregon.

What are you doing to make things more joyful in your organization?

Share them at LinkedIn/CASBO.

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We are too. IQAir has set a goal of bringing clean air to classrooms in California and around the country. The disadvantages of poor indoor air quality include a decrease in the all-important ADA from increases in airborne illnesses and chronic respiratory conditions such as asthma.

Monitoring your school’s air quality and providing high-quality filtration when necessary leads to an improved learning environment for students and staff.

To find out more about the advantages of clean air technology, contact us at info@iqairfoundation.org or talk to a Solutions Engineer at 866-760-8180.

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Our team brings experience, professionalism and integrity to financing K-12 school bond programs in the state of California. With offices in Los Angeles, Pasadena, San Clemente and San Francisco, we pride ourselves on providing creative solutions, top-notch service and low borrowing costs, supporting our clients’ efforts to act as true stewards of taxpayer dollars.

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Supplementing their pensions with a 403(b) has never been easier.

Empowering educators to prepare for the retirement of their dreams is one of the reasons why we continue to be ranked the #1 provider of 403(b) plans for K-12 schools.* Our financial professionals are dedicated to all of your educators, guiding them through the retirement planning process, staying by their side every step of the way.

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West Coast Arborists, Inc. www.WCAINC.com • (800 ) 521 – 3714 OFFICES Corporate: Anaheim. Regional: Fresno, Indio, Los Angeles, Riverside, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Stockton, Ventura

66 California School Business Spring 2022

Districts are using one-time dollars, excess reserves and/or ending balances to prefund into a 115 Trust.

With approaching reserve caps and a lack of STRS/ PERS relief, now is the time to consider prefunding into the PARS innovative combination OPEB/ Pension Trust and begin addressing these long-term liabilities.

For more information, contact us at (800) 540-6369 ext. 127 or info@pars.org www.pars.org

Choose a Partner Who Knows California Education Finance Piper Sandler California Public Finance Piper Sandler is a leader in providing financial services for California school districts and community college districts. Our team of dedicated K-14 education finance professionals has more than 150 years of combined experience and service to the education industry. We take pride in creating and implementing superior financial solutions for our clients.

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General Obligation Bonds

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Tax and Revenue Anticipation Notes

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Certificates of Participation

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Interim Project Financing

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Mello-Roos/CFD Bonds

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Debt Refinancing/Restructuring

Timothy Carty Managing Director 310 297-6011 timothy.carty@psc.com

Ivory Li Managing Director 415 616-1614 ivory.li@psc.com

Mark Adler Managing Director 310 297-6010 mark.adler@psc.com

Rich Calabro Managing Director 310 297-6013 richard.calabro@psc.com

Celina Zhao Analyst 310-297-6019 celina.zhao@psc.com

Pam Hammer Office Supervisor 310 297-6023 pamela.hammer@psc.com

Jin Kim Managing Director 310 297-6020 jin.kim@psc.com Piper Sandler California public finance investment banking offices are located in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento and Orange County.

PiperSandler.com /CAeducationfinance Piper Sandler & Co. Since 1895. Member SIPC and NYSE.

California School Business casbo.org

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FINANCING CALIFORNIA’S FUTURE Stifel is the leading underwriter of California K-12 school district bonds.* We assist local districts in providing financing for facility projects and cash flow borrowing, including new construction, modernization, renovation, and technology improvements. Our work with California school districts includes:

■ General Obligation Bonds ■ Mello-Roos Bonds ■ Certificates of Participation/Leases ■ Short-term Notes and TRANs ■ Refinancing or Restructuring of Previously Issued Bonds We give back to the communities we serve by providing college scholarships to graduating high school seniors through Stifel’s annual Fabric of Society essay competition and by supporting school-related foundations and functions with charitable contributions. * Source: Thomson Reuters SDC, Ranked No. 1 in California K-12 bonds by par amount and number of issues in 2021.

Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated | Member SIPC & NYSE | www.stifel.com

68 California School Business Spring 2022

Let us help you achieve your financing goals.

Visit www.stifel.com/publicfinance or contact a member of our School Finance Group:

Northern California | San Francisco Office Bruce Kerns

Erica Gonzalez

(415) 364-6839 bkerns@stifel.com

(415) 364-6841 egonzalez@stifel.com

Managing Director

Managing Director

Roberto J. Ruiz Managing Director

(415) 364-6856 rruiz@stifel.com

Southern California | Los Angeles Office Dawn Vincent

Robert Barna

Managing Director

Managing Director

(213) 443-5006 dvincent@stifel.com

(213) 443-5205 rbarna@stifel.com