The episode delves into significant themes such as the evolution of the Lakeside community, changes in student engagement with the community, and cultivating homey, inclusive environments for diverse student bodies. Dr. Taylor discusses the importance of empathy in leadership and leveraging teacher and community involvement. She shares insights into fostering a thriving educational environment, regardless of rapid changes or shifting demographics. The conversation also touches on leadership development, the significance of technology, and the collaborative culture within the Lakeside district.

Key Takeaways:

• Community Engagement: Lakeside Union School District is actively involved in community events, fostering a sense of belonging and diversity.
• Leadership Evolution: Dr. Taylor emphasizes servant leadership, illustrating her transition from classroom teacher to superintendent.
• Diversity and Inclusion: The district has seen a growth in diversity, and schools have adapted to create inclusive and supportive environments.
• Innovative Education: Lakeside's emphasis on arts, sciences, and language programs highlights its commitment to student engagement and achievement.
• Leadership Development: Dr. Taylor talks about providing opport

Connect with CT: linkedin.com/in/cheetung

Connect with Rhonda: https://www.lsusd.net/

Music Credit: Shake it Up - Fesliyanstudios.com - David Renda



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And today, we have a great pleasure to be able to learn from Dr. Rhonda Taylor. Dr. Rhonda Taylor is the superintendent of Lakeside Union School District in California and she's joining us in the studio today to share her experience and her leadership story. So thanks so much Rhonda and welcome to the show.

We have five elementary schools, one K 8 school, two middle schools. We have a charter school on the Verona Indian Reservation, and then we have a sixth through twelfth grade charter high, middle school, high school that we also operate. So we have a wide diversity of grade levels and a whole lot of experiences.

Our district is the district of arts and sciences. If you look on our website, it says that the schools of arts and sciences. So we have a strong connection with many different types of arts or performing and visual arts as well as our sciences. We have a science week in February and then every school has a family science night where parents are invited to come in and participate in many science experiments and activities.

Our local woman's club has a woman's club art show. So we send in a lot of art for that. We have a strong community presence. So for example, we have the spirit of Christmas, which is run by our chamber of commerce. And so we also participate in that. We're kind of a smaller town, so it's got that small town feel.

So it's held on Main Street, and we have students that come out and perform and get the parents out and vendors that are selling Christmas gifts and things that they make and a lot of local companies that advertise there.

So we work the snack bars and concessions and the stands. And we greet the people and park the cars and all of the stuff that you have to do to participate in the rodeo. So that they don't have to hire employees to do it. So more money comes back to our students. So that's a really fun event that has kicked off with the rodeo parade.

So all of our schools have a float in the rodeo parade and it's just a good old fashioned parade. It's a lot of fun. So we have a very strong community presence and a lot of community support here in Lakeside. We also have an award winning FFA program at one of our middle schools. It's one of the only FFA middle school programs in California, and they do a really amazing job.

We have two schools we're known for our language acquisition programs as well. We have two schools that have Spanish immersion and one school that has also Mandarin. So they have Spanish and Mandarin at their school site. And we feed again into our local high school. We work very collaboratively with our local high school.

We're different districts, but we work together really collaboratively. And so our that are on the language immersion track, move into the high school on their track.

Some of our students can graduate with biliteracy seals in language, and some can graduate with triliteracy skills in language. And a lot of these students are accepted into higher level colleges Ivy League because of their triliteracy skills. So it's really something that we're very proud of.

And so they were on campus two days a week. The parents loved it. So this year we went five days a week. And in one year, this program has grown so much that we have a very large waiting list School is full. It's very unique in its location. It's on top of a hill and it's just a charming little campus.

And so it's all project based learning, standards based, but it's all through hands on. And a lot of these kids need that hands on activity and that engagement. So it's going gangbusters. We're really proud of that program. We are also one of the only districts left with a woodshop program.

We have a large Title 1 population here in Lakeside. So our nutrition program, to most of our schools, provides breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And the dinner is a grab and go situation and they take it home and eat that at home. So we're making sure that our kids they have good nutrition so that they can focus on their learning.

They're not hungry at school. We have a strong commitment to our student profile, which is to have our students, when they leave us, that they think critically, they learn continuously, they collaborate effectively, they communicate effectively, they persevere relentlessly, And they care deeply. So we work a lot with programs such as PBIS and then we have some other programs that we have in our schools to really address the social and emotional needs of our students.

And caring and kindness is very large in our discussions.

What are some of the key changes that you've noticed? In the community, in the way that students are interacting with the community. How do you think that community has grown with the interaction with the schools?

We also last year had lot of refugee families move in. So we're doing a lot of work with those communities and making them feel connected to the school system and hosting parent nights and get them dialed into resources that they may need. Just for survival while they're waiting for their permanent placements and things of that nature so. And those kids have been through a lot. So we work on trauma informed practices and things like that. And just really trying to get those kids connected to school, even though the language barrier, of course, is going to be large for them. But I think that we do a really good job in that area.

I always say that if one person serves in our services, the whole family serves. And so just being really empathetic as to what they're going through, the kids are missing dad. Our newcomers are probably scared to death when they first walk on campus the first time and just, we have other kids that welcome them.

We have greeting committees that make them feel welcome and take the buddy to lunch and all of that. So that they do feel like it's a place where they belong, even if they can't speak the language, they still feel like they belong with us. Our teachers are brushing up on all of their ELD strategies and they're glad training so that they can help these kids assimilate as quickly as possible.

If test scores are bad at the end of the day it's my responsibility if this isn't working out, it's my responsibility. I think what led me here to this particular seat is a strong love for this district. And in so much so that I student taught here, but I haven't stayed, I've been in education for over 32 years, 33 years.

I felt like maybe the classified staff had been left out a little bit, so I wanted to bring them back into the fold and make sure that they were also just as front and center as our certificated. We work hard here. I wanted to get back to bringing in some fun.

And so we have our annual school district wide pumpkin carving contest and we have the chili cook off and we have last year we made race and the year before was gingerbread houses. The management team kicks off every year with some sort of a crazy line dance and the staff just loves us to see us make fools of ourselves, and at the end of the year, we have our annual cornhole tournament.

We were bringing in, that's when technology was fairly new. And in my work with that, I took a strong interest in technology and we were one of the first districts in our San Diego County to become a complete iPad district. And got a lot of training around that. Trained the teachers.

They were very afraid of any new technology. So that was a lot of fun. I enjoyed that at that level. And so I was responsible for the technology committee for the whole district for quite a while. And then I moved into a principalship and I was a principal at one of our schools here and again, leading that technology work as well.

I was still a principal and just loved it. I loved that leadership role. I loved really creating strong bonds with my families and with other principals and just being a learning leader.

Yes, I can. I can give you the tools. But I want you to fix the issue or whatever's going on. You have my full support and everything, but I need you to use your leadership voice. So I think that's the biggest thing is developing that leadership voice in the adults that are working and still just really hammering home that we all are here for the kids.

I'm very passionate about people. That has stayed the same. What has changed? There's been a lot that changes and I have learned to be very flexible. So I will say that's probably the biggest thing is when I was a young administrator, I was pretty much thinking this is the way it is.

I was pretty rigid about instruction. And now I'm really open to embracing new ideas and researching, there's no magic anything in education, if there was, everybody would be doing it, we would all be highly successful no matter what, no matter the circumstances.

And this is I'm going to be the one to say how it's going to run. And there is a certain amount of that, but also letting others, turning over the reins to others to let them find their passion and find their leadership voice. And when people are doing what makes them happy, they're happy to do it.

But at the same time, you need to also allow that space for ideas to breathe and for them to try it out. Personally, how do you strike this balance in a way that allows you both the ability to attract and nurture new ideas while at the same time maintaining ensuring that some of your own earned wisdom is flowing back down into the system.

And then show me how this works. And I go and I observe, I'm very present on my site. So I'll come out. As a matter of fact, I have a teacher who's trying something new at one of our middle schools and she's invited me over to it's this idea theming thing. And so I'm going to go over and see how that works in the classroom tomorrow.

And so I like to hear it. I want to see it. And then, we'll have a discussion about it. And then if it's a great one, how can I make sure that we have the resources to support this? So I asked the questions about it. It has to be student centered. If it's not student centered, then it's not worth entertaining, in my opinion.

And have you found that there's been a greater willingness to surface these ideas because, just the fact that you're saying a teacher pitched this idea to you that's pretty progressive as it is because like in many other places, you might find that there's a lot of bureaucracy, a lot of hierarchy that gets in the way of these direct ideas coming straight to the superintendent.

Our principals, we're growing them and working with the PLC process, the professional learning communities, and many of them have found ways to release their teachers every single day for 30 minutes a day to come together and talk about student data and what they need to do to get their students over the net or move them to the next level.

So there's a lot of conversation about that. So we've put a lot of training into our principals and our site leaders on how to work with data. And we have some excellent administrators out there with that. We've also worked a lot with instructional rounds, which is the school will be a site host and then other principals will come.

What can we do? What are our next steps to increase that student engagement piece? So we've done quite a bit of that. We're also working really hard with looking at student, classroom observations through an equity lens. Is it equitable for all the students? Are all students able to access this material?

Does it need to be differentiated? And if so, how? So how do we do that? We've done a lot of work around that with our county Office of Education. The last two years, I would say we've spent all of our principals to the Deloitte training courageous principals in Texas.

And that has been amazing when we talk about problems of practice, creating culture and just so many things of that nature that it really hones your leadership skills, how to deal with difficult situations and how to be courageous when you're dealing with those situations. So most of our administrators and our coordinators and directors have had that training twice.

I had one who just finished HR Academy, thinking they might be interested in that down the line. I like to encourage that. I like to encourage learning and then just communication.

Do you find that there are specific avenues for upward mobility as well within the district that this leads to? For example, if you had a teacher who aspired towards becoming an administrator, is there something there that you could advise them this is the path that you can go and this would then make it more likely that you'd be considered for administration.

But then their finishing program can be done through the county office where they can actually work within their school setting to complete their hours where so that they can get their finished credential.

We know who's been here a long time and if they're encouraged in taking an administrative position, then we encourage them.

You've created the opportunities for the staff and you're then allowing them to decide to take these opportunities or not.

If you had one piece of advice for superintendents especially because you've had seats at both sides of the table. Basically, you're on the school board as well as now sitting in the superintendency.

How would you advise a new superintendent who's taking on a role on how they should view their leadership and their impact on district in relation to the board?

In our district, we do have some differences of opinions, but at the end of the day, we come together and we're focused on the students and don't take things personal. People will say things about the superintendent all the time over things you have no control over. You can't take it personal.

Once again, thank you so much Rhonda for joining us today and my name has been CT. It's been a pleasure hosting you today.