Involving citizens in the life of the district is a grading question that often receives low marks on patron surveys. They feel like they are not part of the conversation when the district is making decisions about things like new buildings, renovations, boundary changes, etc. The problem is districts are still using 1950s practices when…
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If you Google the word “leadership,” you’ll get more than 4 trillion responses, with many of those focusing on the meaning of “leadership” or the definition of “leadership.” With so many pundits weighing in, I thought I’d add my two cents. For me, leadership is all about three things: Vision. If you are a leader, you…
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How your district approaches communicating all the good work happening in your schools determines how much support you will receive from staff, students, parents, and the community as a whole. The best way to determine this is through a communications audit. The process includes: Conducting 20-minute telephone interviews with 20 Key Opinion Leaders from around…
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Looking to do a “deep dive” into what is really happening in the various buildings around your school district? Now, is the time to do a climate and culture study. These surveys provide you with contextual data, so both students and staff may perform at optimum levels. Topics include leadership performance, teacher/staff performance, building atmosphere,…
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By Rick Nobles I recently celebrated my birthday, and it was not a big deal. Although it was a milestone birthday – 65 – which means I get $2 off my next haircut at Great Clips and some other swell discounts, it still was not a big deal. To me. Or to anybody else. Want…
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We recently were hired by a long-time client to conduct internal research about employee perceptions on a variety of topics. We used virtual Listening Sessions via Zoom combined with a real-time online survey to hear from 19 different leadership and staff groups. And the findings have been remarkable. First, we were pleased (and a bit…
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By: Matt Deichmann, APR One of the things I do know – is you don’t know what you don’t know! District administrators and Board members often make assumptions about the thoughts and feelings of all stakeholders based on the feedback from a small group of individuals they know well. To extrapolate results from this extremely…
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If you are planning a ballot issue for your school district in spring 2022, the time is right to do pre-election research. Pre-election research will tell you three things: What your patrons are willing to support. How much they are willing to pay.  How the district is perceived by the voting public, which will help…
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