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Solution Tree Press would like to thank the following reviewers:
Gina Cherkowski Executive Director of Research and Development
Headwater Learning Foundation Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Jennifer Evans Principal
Daniel Burnham Elementary School Cicero, Illinois
Nancy Karlin Flynn Administrator
Saint Paul Public School District Saint Paul, Minnesota
Robert Mountjoy Former Principal West Side Elementary School Rossville, Georgia
Demetra Mylonas Research Lead
Headwater Learning Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Amanda Pfei er Assistant Principal
James Bowie High School Austin, Texas
Laura Quillen Principal
Fairview Elementary School Rogers, Arkansas
Tara Reed
Fourth-Grade Language Arts and Social Studies Teacher
Hawk Elementary School Corinth, Texas
Christie Shealy Director of Testing and Accountability Anderson School District One Williamston, South Carolina
Faith Short Principal East Pointe Elementary School Greenwood, Arkansas
Sandra Wright Social Studies Teacher
Adlai E. Stevenson High School Lincolnshire, Illinois
PART II 75
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Bill Barnes is the superintendent for the Howard County Public School System in Maryland. A past president of the Maryland Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Barnes has also served as a regional director and vice president for NCSM Leadership in Mathematics Education, and as the a liate service committee Eastern Region 2 representative for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
Barnes is passionate about ensuring equity and access for all students, families, and sta . His experiences drive his advocacy e orts as he works to ensure opportunity and access for underserved and underperforming populations. He fosters partnerships among schools, families, and community resources in an e ort to eliminate traditional educational barriers.
Barnes was the recipient of the 2003 Maryland Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. He was named Outstanding Middle School Mathematics Teacher by the Maryland Council of Teachers of Mathematics and Maryland Public Television and Master Teacher of the Year by the National Teacher Training Institute.
Barnes earned a bachelor of science in mathematics from Towson University and a master of science in mathematics and science education from Johns Hopkins University. He has served as an adjunct professor for Johns Hopkins University; the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; McDaniel College; and Towson University.
Erin Lehmann, EdD, is an associate professor and program coordinator of the educational doctorate program at the University of South Dakota School of Education. She brings a wealth of experience from her roles as an elementary principal at a Title I school, mathematics teacher, mathematics coach, and curriculum specialist. is diverse background has equipped her to support both beginning and veteran educators by facilitating content and pedagogy and implementing practical, data-driven instructional strategies.
Lehmann is highly regarded for her expertise in professional learning communities and professional development, contributing to the successful adoption of best practices in teaching and learning. She is the author of Teaching Mathematics Today, Second Edition, and coauthor of Instructional Leadership in Mathematics Education, in addition to numerous articles. Her research focuses on leading instructional improvement, mathematics leadership, and educator wellness, and she is a frequent speaker at national conferences.
Among her leadership accomplishments, Lehmann successfully guided a middle school through the transition from traditional to standards-based grading and was recognized with the Innovative Team Award in 2015 from Rapid City Area Schools. She has led initiatives aligned with the University of South Dakota’s strategic mission, including serving as a state-level facilitator for South Dakota’s Accountability Report Card and directing professional learning e orts that have led to measurable student growth in mathematics. She also received a publication award from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, which honors the outstanding work of a liate journals, during her tenure as editor of the Journal of Mathematics Education Leadership.
Lehmann holds a bachelor of arts in elementary education, a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction, and a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of South Dakota.
FOREWORD
By Tina H. Boogren and Timothy D. Kanold
Marcus Aurelius said, “If, at some point in your life, you should come across anything better than justice, truth, self-control, courage—it must be an extraordinary thing indeed.” is is what school leaders are called to do—to be extraordinary things, or rather, to be extraordinary people. School leaders need to pay attention. To be aware. To reach out. To demonstrate good judgment. To see the good in those they lead and then quietly (and sometimes not so quietly) help them see, hear, and feel that goodness, too.
Our profession provides a challenging mission. e teaching and leading of preK–12 students is lled with unique and di cult roadblocks as described by Bill Barnes and Erin Lehmann in this book. Teachers need to know that their work life and energy are essential. Vital. ey need you, as a school leader, to let them know that they, and their health and wellness, are indispensable.
In this era of education, you are called to curate and create a thriving and connected workplace. You are expected to lead with heightened awareness of others and to let those you lead know they matter. You show them that their growth, energy, and e ort truly make a di erence. Every one of your leadership actions is designed to support the stretching, growth, and professional intentions of those you lead.
Exceptional school and district leaders build into others a solid foundation and growth for the pedagogy of their educational eld and for their actions toward personal and professional wellness. In school cultures that thrive, these two types of professional development are understood as a synchronized pair. ey go hand in hand.
Exceptional school and district leaders become great at noticing. ey become skilled at the art and science of seeing and listening to others. ey show up, take notice, and take action that a rms the unique gifts of every person they lead. Great leaders recognize that the daily e ort, joy, energy, and emotional intelligence of those they lead make a di erence in the lives of the students they, in turn, teach and lead forward.
Here is a simple truth for educators who decide to bear the mantle of school leadership, a role in which one chooses to lead a team of other adults. First, you become a role
model yourself. You become a beacon of physical, mental, emotional, and social wellness action. is allows you to show up and notice what those you lead are doing and how those you lead are doing. Second, you recognize that the actions of the people you are leading shape the quality of your leadership life. In the end, what they will remember about you is the way you did or did not show up for them. Again, and again, and again—without fanfare. It is what leaders do. ey show up.
Great school leaders show up and create opportunities. Great school leaders show up and make suggestions. Great school leaders show up and allow those they lead to nd their path toward individual and collaborative teaching and a thriving life. Great leaders show up every day with the required energy, stamina, resilience, kindness, and courage to cultivate a thriving workplace for others.
In our groundbreaking book Educator Wellness: A Guide for Sustaining Physical, Mental, Emotional, and Social Well-Being (Kanold & Boogren, 2022), we designed a framework for professional and personal wellness. We realized emotional exhaustion, loneliness, and burnout lurk in the doorways of our classrooms and o ce spaces. ere is a daily razor-thin line between exhaustion and joy for those you lead. You hold that thin line between thriving at work and barely surviving at work in the palm of your hand.
We wrote the framework to bring the idea of educator wellness into an actionable reality. We de ned educator wellness as “a continuous, active process toward achieving a positive state of good health and enhanced physical, mental, emotional, and social well-being” (Kanold & Boogren, 2022, p. 1).
Sometimes, when it comes to leading the actions that create and improve a thriving physical, mental, emotional, and social wellness culture, the pathway can become a little muddy and muddled. It isn’t obvious or clear. e wellness pathway is literally built as you walk it. Even then, the direction can be di used, and when you look back, not everyone is following you.
us, we were intentional about educator wellness becoming part of a continuous professional and personal journey and not a singular event in your school or area of leadership. Wellness is a process of self-re ecting routines for a lifetime of continuous development, growth, and improvement—every day, every month, every season, every school year. In a sense, it is a lifestyle of pursuing improved habits and routines that enhance your levels of energy, your levels of meaningful engagement, and your ability to make great leadership decisions.
Leading a culture of sustainable educator wellness actions as part of intentional professional development is the reason to pick up this leadership book and decide to create a wellness structure with a clear pathway that will support the engagement and growth of those you lead.
Culture is revealed through action—your actions as a leader and the actions of those you lead.
Foreword
In Leading Educator Wellness: Six Critical Actions to Support All Sta , Barnes and Lehmann shine a light on how to build your leadership pathway. ey provide a road map, a structure, steps and actions, and tools and re ections to help you sustain a culture where those you lead build their self-e cacy, their competence, and their con dence and can feel a sense of belonging because they work with you. eir road map for leading a sustained wellness culture is built on a foundational structure of six successive actions that serve as a shared vision, with a clear direction for wellness goal setting as part of an ongoing professional development plan.
1. Engage in purposeful self-care: Begin by engaging in your own purposeful self-care practices, modeling what you hope to see in others.
2. Implement a shared vision: Create a school- or districtwide vision for educator wellness—a living document that guides future e orts.
3. Assess the current reality: Use tools to assess current wellness practices and align them with your vision.
4. Set goals and plan actions: Answer the question, What’s next? based on the current reality. Determine priorities and create an action plan.
5. Integrate professional learning: Embed wellness into your ongoing professional development structures.
6. Monitor progress: Do what is, perhaps, the hardest part—stay consistent. Show up. Encourage. Guide those you lead forward.
As we often point out, the wellness path toward improvement can be a bumpy one. ere will be growth and setbacks and more growth again as you determine how to lead, initiate, and then sustain helpful wellness routines in the professional lives of your sta .
It is important to note that Barnes and Lehmann are incredible school leaders. ey have demonstrated leadership excellence at every level of a school organization. ey are practitioners and researchers, walking, stumbling, and sometimes running along the pathway they write about. Along their unbeaten leadership path, they have not forgotten to notice others, bring themselves to the workday with the best of who they are, and model the actions they expect from those they lead.
e research-a rmed road map they provide will help you become an exceptional leader who forges your unique pathway, creates a thriving culture, and uses the right tools to become intentional about the educator wellness of those you lead. As you explore the tools and leadership experiences in this book, you’ll uncover more than a road map for wellness—you’ll nd a pathway to becoming a more intentional, courageous, and impactful leader.
Tina H. Boogren
Timothy D. Kanold
INTRODUCTION
You can’t really be present for the people in your life if you aren’t taking care of yourself.
—KERRY WASHINGTON
Since 2020, there has been increased attention on mental health and well-being. Global events, including the pandemic, worldwide con ict, mass shootings, and political divisiveness in the United States, have left people reeling. ese triggering factors are impacting schools and school districts, causing dysregulation (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2025; Correa & First, 2021; McMakin, Ballin, & Fullerton, 2022; Walter & Fox, 2021). Too often, we witness teachers and leaders sacri cing their own wellness for others, a practice that generates stress and may eventually culminate in burnout. Educator burnout is escalating due to the increasing misalignment between the demands placed on educators and the realities of their daily responsibilities (Taie & Lewis, 2022). Teachers in the United States experience some of the highest stress levels among all occupational groups (Greenberg, Brown, & Abenavoli, 2016). A surge in sta absenteeism, growing attrition rates, and a notable uptick in medical insurance claims are trends that should raise red ags for leaders in districts and schools across the United States.
Students and sta are reporting mental health challenges at higher rates, a trend made worse by widespread dependency on social media, cell phones, and other digital devices (Haidt, 2024). As a result, educating all students has become increasingly complex. School and district leaders have had to add “student and sta wellness” to their list of critical leadership priorities. Christopher Jenson (2024), author of Triage Your School, explains that poorly designed operations will create persistent, work-related stress that can eventually lead to burnout, noting that many of the root causes stem from ine cient work ow structures. Given the growing mental health challenges faced by students and educators, addressing wellness is no longer an ancillary concern—it has become a foundational component of educational leadership.
Supporting educator wellness is not just for sta ; it is closely tied to improved student success, as well. Research shows that when leaders prioritize the well-being of teachers, student achievement also improves (Granziera, Martin, & Collie, 2023). When teachers develop strong social and emotional skills, they are better able to manage stress, build meaningful connections with students and colleagues, and create supportive classroom environments. In turn, this strengthens student engagement, behavior, and overall school climate (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning [CASEL], 2020; Nappa & Hsieh, 2025). Recognizing the importance of teacher social-emotional competencies, leaders must intentionally create opportunities for educators to develop these skills as part of a broader wellness strategy.
While strengthening individual skills is crucial, addressing systemic issues is equally important. Operational ine ciencies can intensify stress and lead to burnout, but intentional wellness initiatives can counter these challenges by providing the structures and support necessary for educators to thrive. Leading Educator Wellness: Six Critical Actions to Support All Sta provides a road map for school and district leaders who recognize that leading for improved wellness—speci cally, educator wellness—is essential for stabilizing and substantially improving student learning, outcomes, and engagement. To achieve these outcomes, leaders must take care of the people who take care of our students. In this book, the term educator represents district and school leaders, teachers, paraprofessionals, custodians, school nurses, and any others who work in a school or district to support student learning. e term also includes educators working across a variety of settings, such as urban, suburban, and rural communities, and at all stages of their careers, from early-career teachers to veteran administrators. e book is designed to build a leader’s understanding of the impact wellness has on school or district outcomes. It is a practical guide that includes detailed structures, protocols, tools, and resources that can be used as is or modi ed to kickstart a meaningful and strategic wellness improvement initiative in your school or district.
A central framework guiding this book draws from authors and wellness thought leaders Tim Kanold and Tina Boogren (2022) and their book Educator Wellness: A Guide for Sustaining Physical, Mental, Emotional, and Social Well-Being. eir model identi es four key wellness dimensions—(1) physical, (2) mental, (3) emotional, and (4) social— and outlines twelve practical wellness routines that support sustained well-being. ese dimensions and routines serve as the foundation for the six critical actions explored throughout this book, anchoring the strategies and tools in proven, research-informed practices. As you read, these elements will surface repeatedly to help leaders develop their own wellness and model it meaningfully for others. Figure I.1 represents the six critical actions and is designed to be read from bottom to top. is graphic illustrates the building blocks of a strong foundation for leading an educator wellness improvement initiative and sustaining systems of positive well-being for all sta .
We present the six critical actions for leading educator wellness in two parts. Part I features the rst three critical actions, focusing leaders’ attention inward. In chapter 1, we ask leaders to engage in purposeful self-care; in chapter 2, leaders begin to implement a common vision for educator wellness; and in chapter 3, leaders explore how to lead a
Learning Goal Setting and Action Planning Needs Assessment Vision for Educator Wellness
Purposeful Self-Care
wellness team by performing a comprehensive wellness needs assessment. e actions of part I are all designed to take stock of the current state of wellness in a school or district.
Part II focuses on the last three critical actions, which are designed to bring the vision for improved wellness into action. In chapter 4, leaders set goals and plan actions to improve wellness; in chapter 5; leaders design and facilitate professional learning; and nally, in chapter 6, leaders explore ways to monitor progress and sustain wellness practices in the strategic plan. ese are all actions that will lead to improved wellness in your school or district. Each successive critical action builds on the previous critical actions and serves as a foundation for your school or district’s wellness initiative. For example, the key to all this work is focusing on the rst critical action, a leader’s engagement in purposeful self-care.
In addition to o ering a cumulative, from-the-ground-up approach to making educator wellness an important part of your school or district, we also share ways to make building in educator wellness feel doable and sustainable. Hanover Research (2023a) highlights the importance of creating a school-improvement plan, stating that it is a “systematic, data-driven process for planning and evaluating improvement over time.” Schools are required to create such plans, and much of the work we share aligns with this school-improvement planning process. Our goal is to ensure this work does not double the workload for educators. erefore, if schools are required to create a school-improvement plan, we recommend adding a wellness layer to ensure both the school and the district prioritize sta well-being.
By integrating wellness into the improvement plan, you will create a healthier and more supportive environment for all educators. A sample educator wellness schoolimprovement plan is built into chapters 2 through 6. Each step of the plan evolves as each speci c chapter’s focus is integrated. For example, in chapter 2, the focus is establishing a vision, so we include the vision and the mission of a sample school district in the educator wellness school-improvement plan. ere are other features included in each chapter designed with your practical leadership journey in mind. Leadership Tales present scenarios that highlight leadership pitfalls to avoid as you set out to improve
Figure I.1: Foundation for leading educator wellness.
educator wellness. Stories From the Field highlight advice and experiences from leaders in diverse educational settings and at various stages of their careers who have prioritized wellness in their personal life and at work. ese stories are sprinkled throughout the text so you can connect with leaders who are working to improve wellness.
E ective leadership practices are paramount in addressing wellness. Merely relying on the hope that educators will independently attend to their needs is not the answer and could lead to signi cant challenges. When teachers have adequate support, maintain a healthy work-life balance, and feel genuine satisfaction with their roles, students are the ultimate bene ciaries. Taking on the role of such a leader involves crafting a clear vision and describing speci c actions for the district or school, ensuring the actualization of this support system. If the goal is to cultivate thriving environments for both students and educators, establishing a culture of wellness must serve as the cornerstone of every leader’s e orts. By weaving wellness initiatives into district and school-improvement plans, we lay the foundation for a more resilient and thriving educational ecosystem.
Finally, focusing on improved educator wellness is heavy and complex work. We recognize that this work requires focus and support. Some schools and districts might nd they need to dedicate human and scal resources toward improving wellness to get this work done; others will rely on sta representatives who share an understanding of and passion for wellness work. Either way, give yourself grace as you work through the text and consider how to e ectively implement each critical action. Also, give yourself grace as a leader who is likely leading wellness work for the very rst time. You may not initially feel comfortable with the sensitive nature of the content; when we rst set out, we certainly did not. Take time to educate yourself. Consult with local health and mental health professionals before starting. In the end, this is work that must be done, because this work is critical to the well-being and learning outcomes of your students and the growth outcomes of your sta .
STORIES FROM THE FIELD
ADVICE FROM A PRINCIPAL ENGAGED IN AN IMPROVED WELLNESS
INITIATIVE
Daniel Phelps Principal, Winnebago Middle School, Winnebago, Illinois
How have you been able to gain traction with sta as you work to improve educator wellness?
Vulnerability and trust as a leader and colleague are crucial. Your faculty and sta generally know the importance of educator wellness, but they need to see that you’re genuine in your approach to make it a district or school priority.
What strategies have helped increase buy-in?
Providing multiple avenues, strategies, and opportunities makes educator wellness so much more accessible to a diverse faculty and sta . Regardless of the dimension you’re focusing on, giving options for how to explore one’s own wellness will increase buy-in.
What advice would you give a school or district leader starting this work?
Stay consistent in both your focus and your communication on the topic. Educator wellness as a school priority fails when it becomes a “ avor of the month” or just another spontaneous initiative.
