My first 100 days as Superintendent of Shaker Heights Schools have been a busy schedule of school and classroom visits, meetings with representatives from our various school and community groups, hiring panel interviews and an assortment of community events. This activity has been driven by one goal: to better understand where we are as a District so that we can thoughtfully determine where we need to go.
In our schools, we teach our students to be lifelong learners and the same applies to me in my role as Superintendent. I’m learning by meeting regularly with our Board of Education members, administrative staff, building principals and teachers, members of our bargaining units and, of course, students. I’m learning by reviewing enrollment trends and assessment data. And I’m learning by listening to members in the community.
So now, after approximately 100 days, it’s important to share what I’ve observed and experienced to be our strengths and areas for improvement during this critical learning period. Doing so speaks to what lies ahead, particularly as it relates to our work to implement the goals outlined in my updated Action Plan.
I will use the three goals identified in my 2019-20 Superintendent’s Action Plan as a guide to sharing some of the things I have learned from this first 100 days. The goals are:
Implement District equity policy and create future strategic planning framework based on District equity policy
Foster growth, improvement and stability in key student metrics, including those related to graduation rate and identified priority areas of focus
Address District long-term facilities needs and financial security through the implementation of intentional and proactive planning structures
By no means is the following a comprehensive list of everything that’s happened over the past 100 days, but it does provide insight into what I’ve learned and how our priorities have evolved during this period.
Goal One: Implement District equity policy and create future strategic planning framework based on District equity policy
Perhaps the most compelling conversations I’ve had since I began my role as Superintendent in July have been during a series of small-group meetings which have taken place in living rooms across the city. Each meeting has included a different mix of residents, stakeholders, District representatives and Shaker Heights Schools families, but the objective of each meeting has been the same: to continue moving forward with our conversations on equity.
One common theme that has emerged in all of these meetings is the idea of belonging—on an institutional level, a school level, on a classroom level and on a curriculum level. It’s made me wonder about who feels a sense of belonging in our schools and about the obvious and subtle ways that our environment—including teachers, administrators, staff, students, parents and even where a student lives versus where she attends elementary school—shapes a student’s sense of belonging. I also wonder what more we can do to make it a District imperative that when our students are in our buildings, they are all valued on an equal playing field.
Our District Equity Policy states: As a District committed to equity, we seek to disrupt societal and historical inequities and eliminate disparities based on student and family characteristics such as, but not limited to, race, color, national origin, citizenship status, ancestry, religion, sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity), economic status, marital status, pregnancy, age, disability or military status, so that all students thrive.
If we are to disrupt these inequities and eliminate disparities, then we must be deliberate in our work moving forward.
In late August, we announced a partnership with Erica Merrit of the Equius Group to support and implement our District-wide equity and inclusion efforts. What’s become increasingly clear to me as we work with Ms. Merritt is the importance of creating a long-term, dedicated District-level equity position so that we have a full-time professional to help lead and support the implementation of our equity policy. While we continue to shape the scope of this role, I’m confident that it is a necessity if we are to truly move forward with our equity work.
Our Board of Education, along with myself and other District leaders, recently completed an intensive equity training, led by Ms. Merritt. Collectively, the training provided us with the opportunity to learn firsthand how crucial it is to develop a true understanding of equity. Like our cohorts of community members who have completed similar trainings, this group will serve as a core of leaders who will advocate for educational equity and who can build outward from our school communities. They are among our champions of equity who will be responsible for bringing others along on our journey.
Equity, in the broadest sense, means giving everyone what they need to be successful. Introducing a 1:1 Chromebook environment for students in Grades 5-12 this year was an important step to leveling the technology playing field for our students at school and at home. In that sense, I think the 1:1 Chromebook rollout has been a success. But having Chromebooks at home also means that parents now have an additional screen to supervise. In a day and age when screens are a pervasive reality, I have learned that we, as a District, have an opportunity to expand our health and wellness curriculum to include healthy screen time habits. As screen technology becomes further embedded in our daily lives, it is increasingly important for students and families to understand the impact that screen time has on overall mental and physical health.
Visiting classrooms over the past few months has also reinforced for me the notion that technology by itself doesn’t change curriculum and instructional practices. So in classrooms where students already were engaged in collaborative, authentic, real-world problem-solving—even before we introduced Chromebooks—this type of learning continues. In the classrooms where this type of learning isn’t yet occurring, that’s where we still have the opportunity to grow.
Goal 2: Foster growth, improvement and stability in key student metrics, including those related to graduation rate and identified priority areas of focus
Through conversations with community members and other stakeholders during the transition to my new role, I became increasingly aware of how important it is for me to clearly articulate our District priorities related to student achievement. With that in mind, and after a thorough review of our data and practices, I announced our Priority Areas of Focus—black student excellence and school culture and climate—earlier this fall. These priority areas are a step toward improving all students’ sense of belonging, which I believe plays a key role in achieving the second goal stated above.
In making black student excellence one of our Priority Areas of Focus, it’s important that we engage all students, and especially black students, in rigorous learning experiences and surround them with high-performing peers. After all: education is not a zero sum game. I believe that being intentional about providing support and opportunities for enrichment to black students will benefit all students and, in turn, our student achievement data.
And now, as I consider our District through the lens of these Priority Areas of Focus, I understand that I must be direct about the impact of the message we send to our students when a classroom is either all white or all black. Inevitably, these segregated classrooms shape how our students see themselves, whom they choose as friends, what they do and don’t perceive to be their career possibilities and whether they choose, as adults, to live in integrated communities. We may tell our students that they belong, but if their experiences in our buildings do not mirror that, then we must do better. We must show our students that they belong so that they feel it and know it and understand that we value each and every one of them.
Also, as a District committed to educating the whole student, we recognize that growth, stability and improvement in academic performance goes hand-in-hand with a student’s social-emotional well-being.
From what I have seen so far, implementing Caring School Community, a comprehensive social-emotional curriculum, will help us to teach our children how to build relationships and to see each other as human beings. Our hope is that, immediately and over time, this curriculum decreases the number of serious discipline events that lead to out-of-school suspensions and other disciplinary actions. My experience with restorative practices as the principal at Shaker Heights Middle School taught me that in order to see a shift in behavior, this type of curriculum must be embraced by the entire school community and, just like any other learning, must be reinforced and made a part of each student’s day. I believe the same is true for our implementation of Caring School Community. As we continue to implement Caring School Community, and other social emotional learning experiences for our students, I hope to spend additional time visiting classrooms to see this curricula in action.
Lastly, I've learned over these past few months that our data must tell a story: we must be able to tell our community where our students are and where we are as a District. We have good people working on our data, but we need to continue to establish systems that enable us to be more clear about how we measure student progress and how we measure the effectiveness of learning and teaching in our schools. I’m not sure this is always readily apparent to our families, or frankly, to our teachers and administrators.
To that end, I believe that solidifying our data structures needs to be a part of our strategic planning process so that we can have a better understanding of what data we use to measure progress and why. Similarly, as we progress with creating a new strategic plan, it’s important that we articulate how we will assess our progress and incorporate that into our goal-making process.
Goal 3: Address District long-term facilities needs and financial security through the implementation of intentional and proactive planning structures
One of my highlights as superintendent thus far was attending the i3 showcase last month at Woodbury. The i3 Initiative advances opportunities for student inquiry, innovation and imagination through increased integration of design learning experiences, STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) curriculum for all students, and accessibility to and use of 21st century technology and tools. The initiative has been led by the Shaker Schools Foundation and a group of dedicated teachers, administrators, instructional coaches, IB Coordinators and community members. Collectively, this group has made it their mission to give our students the experiences and tools they need today to engage in the type of learning necessary for tomorrow’s jobs.
What impressed me about the showcase was how far the i3 Initiative has come in only one year. What was just a blueprint for a Makerspace in a dark corner of the Woodbury library is now a vibrant space filled with LEGOs and Ozobots that inspires and encourages students to be creative coders, designers and builders. Our elementary buildings are working together to design curriculum that engages students in solving real-world problems together. And, at the High School, students are enrolled in our new advanced manufacturing class where they have access to a FANUC robot and have the opportunity to earn an industry FANUC certification.
I walked away from this showcase convinced that anything can be accomplished for our students when we provide the structures and support for a group of people to collaborate toward a common purpose. I will remember this as we move forward with our facilities planning and with other strategic initiatives.
Also, my experience these past few months has reaffirmed my philosophy that hiring good people—with a willingness to wait for the right person—is a strategy that pays off in multiples. High School Principal Eric Juli, Chief Operating Officer Jeff Grosse and Director of Secondary Education Micki Krantz are excellent examples of new administrative hires whose experience and competence have already proven to be invaluable.
Beyond new hires, we’ve also been successful in making sure that our current staff are where their strengths can best help us. For example, former High School Head Custodian Sean Brown was recently promoted to Assistant Director of Buildings and Grounds, Dr. Erin Herbruck, former Director of Professional Learning, transitioned seamlessly into her role as Director of Primary Education, and finally, Dr. Marla Robinson, former Chief of Staff, is now the Chief Academic Officer.
In instances where a vacancy necessitated an immediate hire without the benefit of a full search process, we’ve been successful in finding talented individuals to help us in the short term. High School Assistant Principal George Clark is doing just that this year as the Interim Principal at Lomond. The Lomond community has embraced Mr. Clark and the opportunity has been a terrific fit for him professionally.
Positioning people in their areas of strength—whether that’s for the long-term or the short-term—speaks to our commitment to view our employees as long-term investments. We must be intentional about this and we must be willing to amend our hiring practices, and in some cases, to wait, in order to find the right person.
Innovative initiatives like i3 and our strategic hiring practices are two essential components to laying a solid foundation for meeting this goal. In addition, our Forward Together partnership with the City of Shaker Heights and with the Shaker Heights Public Library also will play a key role in addressing our long-term facilities needs as we work collaboratively to develop a long-term and sustainable plan for our school buildings.
Moving Forward
Clearly, in the weeks, months and years ahead, we have much work to do. We will soon announce our selection of a strategic planning partner. We also continue to review the District’s long-term fiscal health and planning, knowing that we want to continue to be good stewards of our community tax dollars.
Finally, as we begin to do the hard work of changing our schools and classrooms to positively impact the daily experiences of all our students, we must, without exception, uphold our commitment to educational equity with integrity.
I appreciate the time you’ve taken to read what I have learned. I invite you to reach out to me by phone, email or in person to share your thoughts and to ask any questions. Thank you for your support of our Shaker schools community and I look forward to continuing to work with you.