Transforming School Leadership from Good to Elite - Engaging Leadership

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Transforming School Leadership from Good to Elite

Episode 336 • 31st December 2024 • Engaging Leadership • CT Leong, Dr. Jim Kanichirayil

That's one of the more challenging questions that you can tackle in the K through 12 leadership space. Think of everything you have to lose. You have people who are accustomed to a particular operating rhythm and you have delivered strong results sticking to that playbook. And now here you are as a new leader in the district looking to make an impact.

amore community schools since: 2021

He's been leading the district to impressive achievements during his tenure under his leadership. The district has earned a five [00:01:00] star rating on the Ohio State report card for two consecutive years and was ranked the number four school in Ohio by niche for best schools. Before becoming superintendent, Chad was the director of business and student operations for eight years and assistant superintendent in 2020.

He was overseeing key areas like child nutrition services, maintenance, transportation, and 127. 5 million bond issue to rebuild and renovate schools. Chad's experience extends beyond Sycamore, having served as an assistant superintendent at Fairfield. Fairfield city schools where he managed personnel decisions, union bargaining, energy management, and the bidding process.

He's a former teacher at high school and Chad holds a bachelor's degree in biological sciences from Northern Kentucky university and a master's in educational administration from the university of Cincinnati. Go Bearcats. So with that being said, Chad, welcome to the show.

[00:01:53] Dr. Jim: Super pumped to have you on chat. I think this is going to be a, an interesting conversation. I think getting to the next level in terms of [00:02:00] conversational themes is always important regardless of where your current state is.

So I think there's going to be a lot of things that we can pull out of this discussion. That's going to be valuable for folks that are listening. But before we dive into that conversation, I think it's going to be really helpful for you to. Clue us in to some of the key things in your career and in your background that helps shape your leadership philosophy.

Share with us a little bit more about some of your back story that we didn't cover in your bio.

And I realized, you know what, I still have more to give. And moved into district [00:03:00] leadership after eight years in education and have been in district leadership ever since, which is, really thoughtful about making those high level decisions and impactful decisions that you know are going to affect numerous students across your school district.

So I've worked in two different school districts as an administrator, one that had 10, 000 students and one that had currently has 6, 100 students. I know a lot. Our jobs every day is making an impact on the majority of those students.

[00:03:42] Chad Lewis: I will say from a building standpoint, the relationship part of being a building administrator was the greatest impact you could make, which is, engaging with students on a daily basis, getting to know them, getting to know, their needs and how you can best meet their needs engaging with staff, [00:04:00] making sure that you were.

There to support staff and their difficult challenges in interacting with students. And then, I looked at presence as the way that you really made an impact as being visible, being present for all of our students and our staff members. And I felt like my reputation got built upon that.

So moving into district administration, I didn't change much. I knew that Presence, visibility, and relationship building had to be at the core. It just looks a little different because you're not there every single day with those students and with those staff members, but you still have to find a way to make an impact.

What are the things that you did as a superintendent? To still keep your finger on the pulse of the staff and the students and even the [00:05:00] family is as you made the transition to higher level roles.

Things that are impacting their world in their days. With staff members, I really make opportunities available through whether it be a listening session, whether it be one on ones, whether it be we've done unique ideas like doughnuts with district office and cookies with central office, cookies and conversations, trying to engage people, bring them together and.

pportunities just this week, [: 00:06:00

They didn't realize why they were in the room. I just told him a special recognition. So a lot of fun. And again, you got to find those interesting ways to engage with students.

What are the things that you're doing to pass those lessons on to those other building leaders who are in that position so that they can be more effective in their roles?

I watched leaders that, took the job for granted and didn't do those things, didn't engage with students, didn't support staff members. Weren't present, weren't visible. And again, trying to share those unique perspectives and really the experiences with building administrators to help them not make those same mistakes, which, I think that's the best thing we can do as educators and leaders is give back to our profession and make sure that.

We're not making, repeating those mistakes. So I teach classes used to teach a class on my own at Xavier University for future leaders. Now I just engage one time a year and I teach them about some of those things. They bring me in as a guest speaker. To be able to continue to pass those along those lessons along.

[00:08:17] Chad Lewis: so I had a unique perspective, Jim. I had been in the district Sycamore community schools for the last 13 years, but the previous nine, I was not the superintendent. So I spent nine years just observing and working collaboratively with my team and trying to build our capacity for leadership and try to reach the pinnacle, which is, we want to be at the top.

Especially in the state of Ohio, but also in the nation, we want to be thought of as one of those districts that you can emulate yourself after. We struggled to get over that. And I, you've probably heard of the, the saying, good to great, we struggled to get to great. We were already good.

people just got comfortable [: 00:09:00

And we also had our district level team and really everyone was operating as their own silo. Everybody was running in different directions and all trying to do good things for kids. But the word that always comes to my mind, Jim, is there was a lack of alignment. There was a lack of, collaboration and care for how my decisions might impact my colleagues at each of the various buildings.

t has gotten us to the place [: 00:10:00

I

When you look at that temptation, how did you, what were the things that you did to fight against that? And really focus on big things that you could impact when you're already pretty good.

Really competitive world that we have here. The people that I hired and brought in, plus the people that were already here that were [00:11:00] focused on that they really strive to find the new innovative ways that we can make those things happen. And what we realized is. We already had all the tools. We had all the pieces in place.

We had to just get them realigned and reassigned. And you hear those terminologies or people talk about getting the right people in the right seats. In our case, since we're the aviators, we wanted everybody on the right seats on the plane. And it took some reorganization and reshuffling, but it also took Some honest conversations with some people of whether or not they saw themselves flying in the same direction as we were.

And when those conversations happen, sometimes people self select and they decide to get off the plane and that's okay. We board new members and we keep heading in the same direction. So I will say that was the biggest aha moment for me as a leader was you're going to have some uncomfortable conversations to help your team.

the store, so to speak, but [: 00:12:00

[00:12:04] Dr. Jim: So there's an interesting aspect of your comment about having uncomfortable conversations that I think we should dig into. So you have the benefit of having been in the district for a while in a different role. But then. You step into the big chair and even though people know you now that your role is different, they're not going to be as forthcoming and having the conversations that you would probably want them to have for you to make, reasonable changes or shifts in direction.

So what were the steps that you took to create the space to have those uncomfortable conversations?

And they knew I [00:13:00] had their back 100%, but I'd also tell them privately, if they were making a mistake wouldn't do it publicly, wouldn't do it in front of stakeholders, but I would tell them, Hey, I'm going to back you, but here's what I would have done differently. The other thing I did was when I came into, as you said, the big chair, and I've heard it called that you got to make room in the big chair for other people to sit in the chair with you.

And when I say that, You cannot do this job by yourself. If you come into the job with ego or a mindset that I know all and no one else can help me, I need to do this on my own, you are destined for failure. You have to make room for people to sit next to you that can guide you and help make you make good decisions.

And when I say that you have to be willing to tuck your ego in the drawer and have those people say honest, hard things to you. And you have to take it in as honest feedback and know that their feedback is a gift and pull all the brilliance out of it and say, okay, this is what I need to be able to move forward with our district.

So for me, I took all that [: 00:14:00

And you have to show people that you're listening and that they are seen and valued and heard, and that you're willing to make some of those changes. And I think that was our. Initial entry point to success was that people saw that change was really possible.

[00:14:56] Chad Lewis: It came out of a lot of those conversations and a lot of [00:15:00] those strategic communication components where we were trying to build our strategic plan. As we had those conversations, that word kept coming up as a lack of alignment in our district, a lack of alignment in our curriculum, a lack of alignment in our buildings Really a lack of alignment across the entire district in that leaders weren't paying attention to what was going on in other buildings.

They were just focused on their own. For us, it became a rallying cry for the team of people that wanted to see us move forward, that we have to seek out and really move forward with this lack of alignment and how were we going to do it? I will tell you the strategy that we used was we really focused in on the MTSS umbrella, the multi tiered systems of support and making sure that everyone was dedicated to that mindset.

s everyone doing and how are [: 00:16:00

[00:16:06] Dr. Jim: So when you talk about the multi tiered systems of success, How do you embed that con concept across the district so that it's effective and connects to your strategic plan ?

There's only one team and we're all focused on doing the best for that team. And really, the MTSS umbrella just gave us a structure and a mindset. It wasn't anything magical or special in that structure, so to speak. It was just having engaged conversations allowing people to know that they were in a safe space that they could talk honestly in front of me [00:17:00] and give critical feedback openly.

to the group and that it would be welcomed and again, celebrated versus shut down. And I do believe that culture and that climate development and constant attention to the culture and climate is what has allowed us to get in alignment quicker than, some of the other things that we could have done or brought in.

We've, and I know if this book that we read, other full. We became really close with the authors and I will tell you that one of the most engaging and important professional learning opportunities that I've ever been a part of is we brought the authors in from New York to engage with us in this professional learning.

move right along in the room [: 00:18:00

And during the in between session, and when I say in between session, we had them for two days in between day one and day two, we went out to dinner. And we were just sitting at dinner and he said, do you know why I keep saying that to you? Cause he said it multiple times over the course of day one.

And I said, I have no idea. And he said, because you are allowing your personal trauma to get in the way of you truly trusting your team. And I'm choking up just thinking about it. And thinking about the impact of that situation on me as a superintendent, because it allowed me to soak in that feedback and say, you know what, I am allowing my personal trauma with my father, with my ex wife to get in the way of truly trusting my team.

ng to do better. And I think [: 00:19:00

He's human. And I will say, Jim, some of the team members spoke up and said. We're here for you. We have your back and we will run through the wall for you if you need us to. And again, you can't create those moments. They're special when they happen because you're building a culture and climate where that is valued.

So I know that was long winded for that portion, but so impactful.

So you have line of sight of how well that's being executed at the building level. What were the [00:20:00] systems and processes that you put in place so that you can determine how effectively this is being embedded across the district.

If the things that we're working on are in place, if I'm not in there doing the work with them and walking the walk alongside them. So that was an immediate change that, and I think the assistant superintendent was like, I'm not going to do any principal evaluations. No, not this year. And then I think year two, I did them all again myself.

But I also felt like it was [: 00:21:00

So now myself and I have two assistant superintendents we share in that responsibility. And I think that immediate change was something that did help. The other things that, again, I made appointments every single month to be in the building not only to evaluate the administrators, but to walk the building with them.

To be engaged in classrooms, to visit classrooms, to read classes, to be engaged with student groups. Because again, you can see when you're visibly in the building, whether or not your principals have a relationship with their students and their staff by the way They engage with that principal. If the kids or the staff looks surprised to see that person in their room, they're not visiting classrooms enough.

inimum, the principal should [: 00:22:00

[00:22:10] Dr. Jim: What you describe makes a lot of sense, especially when I think back to what we talked about earlier in the show about how the value of relationships is what really drove you earlier in your career and that's carried you through more complex roles. When you talk about alignment across the district.

There are a number of potential behaviors or action items or things like that, that need to be mapped out. So how did you build out sort of the playbook of what a good alignment looks like across the district and what did that process look like?

And it was timely because at the same time, our state came in and said, we're going to make some curriculum changes right after our review. So it was the perfect timing because what our curriculum review showed is we were not in alignment. Here were some critical areas that we needed to work on such as math alignment English language arts alignment.

And we knew it was the perfect timing to do the work. So I think that was by far the most critical piece. The rest of it was cultural alignment, climate alignment, which is getting people to understand that we're going to do this work for the betterment of students. We're not going to resist doing this work, but we're going to do this collaboratively and with all of our.

ther, and we redeveloped our [: 00:24:00

That the state is measuring us by. And I don't think we were doing that. We had a lot of autonomy that was probably a little bit too great. And so what we say is we have autonomy with guardrails. Now we still want our teachers to bring the special sauce to the classroom. They are the magic that happens in the classroom.

And the only way we can do that is to provide them the guardrails by which they can operate. But, I don't expect you, Jim, if you were a teacher in one room and I'm a teacher in another room, I don't expect us to teach to some cookie cutter or very like robotic way. I expect you to engage with your students the way that you feel is best to reach the learners in that room.

at I see the needs are in my [: 00:25:00

[00:25:11] Dr. Jim: So I understand how you can build pretty strong alignment on the curriculum side. Tell us a little bit more about what you did on the climate and culture side to bring alignment across the district as well.

We recognize. Staff members every month with special gifts and special recognition on social media. We call them our awesome aviators. When we go [00:26:00] around and do that, we also didn't have when I took over, we didn't really have, we had one teacher of the year. Now we have a district of almost 900 staff members and about half of those more than about probably about 450 of those are teachers or a little more.

We had one teacher of the year and I thought that was a little bit hurtful to our culture because we have someone in every building that is absolutely. Setting it on fire. So it's let's recognize at least one per building and then we'll have a district overall teacher of the year. So we went from recognizing one person to eight people.

And then what we realized is we weren't taking care of our classified staff as well, which is our custodians, our bus drivers, our educational assistants, so we actually implemented. Departmental members of the year. And so we recognize at least one person from every category. And again, that changes your culture because they know that you care.

in, and they know that they [: 00:27:00

We're going to have an award show type feel instead of doing it at a board meeting or doing it, just me going around and recognizing people. We're going to have an award show. Cause we think it's special enough for teachers to win awards and for. Retirees that are leaving our district to be recognized.

We're going to make it more of an award show type feel. So I'll have to report back to you on the success of that one and how that went, but this will be a, we're always trying to think of new, engaging ways. To build that culture and climate. And I think being able to find these creative methods and letting staff know that we're going to keep pushing the envelope I think it, it allows them to continue to engage in this really difficult work,

I think the area that we're missing is what was the foundation of all of that built on? What were the things that you did to get yourself prepared as a district to make this leap to the next level?

These are some of my interests. These are some of my things that I'm concerned about that we need to work on. So those offsite retreats we went to a place called Full Throttle and Race Go Karts as part of our Overall work in a boy. You talk about educators being [00:29:00] competitive. There are some extreme competitive people in my team.

There were a lot of. people racing for each other. And then we went to a if you've ever heard of a rage room where you smash things together again, it gave people that outlet while we're doing all this good work. But probably one of the most fun ones that we ever did. We actually went and played laser tag together.

And I want, I'll say, Jim, I mind you that remind you that it's just, A portion of our day that we were doing this. We have, you have to have a little fun while you're doing hard, engaging work. And I'll say the day we did laser tag, we had a really hard conversation with our elementary principals about alignment, where we basically told them we are going to move.

this. If there wasn't a good [: 00:30:00

We're going to have a hard conversation. We're going to beat this thing to death and we're going to figure out a way to make it work going forward. And that's exactly what happened by the end of that school year. And so I think those offsite retreats, having people. Be able to have honest conversations and continue to build that mindset towards the one team, the common goal the focus, the relentless pursuit of mission and vision is what got us to where we are today.

So I am so thankful for the team of people I work with that are not scared to push that envelope. And push further beyond where they thought we could hit.

[00:30:56] Chad Lewis: Watching our seven building leaders [00:31:00] interact and care deeply about their work and how it impacts each other. Collaborating and sharing ideas, not being competitive against each other, but really being thoughtful about how can we all thrive as one team, one district that to me is when I walk in the room and I remember.

When I first came to the district, I watched some of these retreats happen and people were disengaged. They were on their laptops. People were not really focused on the work at hand. Now people have their laptops closed. They're engaged with their colleagues. They're having hard conversations. They're discussing difficult topics and they're really saying.

group of people that are so [: 00:32:00

And then when you get to number one, you have to stay at number one. So that to me is the other thing that they're focused on is how do we stay above all these other school districts and show that what we do here at Sycamore is special.

[00:32:34] Chad Lewis: Yeah. Number one is got to have relationships, got to have trust. It's the foundation of everything we do. If you do not have trust, if you do not have trust. The trust of your team, you cannot move forward. And I will say year one, we focused all on relationships and trust. Beyond that, then it's being able to have uncomfortable conversations.

erable and honest. And share [: 00:33:00

It doesn't make them a bad person. It doesn't mean they might not even be great at their job. It just might not be a fit for your organization. And what I see in education is that's the conversation that people are unwilling to have. Is that, someone's not a fit because in private business, it's a lot easier to have that conversation.

Cause there's a buyout package or there's a two week notice and they're out the door. There's education. You don't have that opportunity. They have a contract and you may have to live it out, but you have to have the hard conversation and you may have to reassign them. You may have to say, you know what?

a high level to continue to [: 00:34:00

Along with other full, and I will say those two books really changed my mindset about leadership going into superintendency. And I read other full before I was superintendent or right when I was coming on, I read the five dysfunctions of a team, oddly enough, after. I was already in it and watched our team transition and I, it was actually very affirming for me because I thought I wish I would have read this book at the beginning because I didn't know what everything was called, but we basically did everything in this book and it helped me walk through again.

The things that I would be thinking about.

[00:34:45] Chad Lewis: Absolutely. Always willing to have great conversations with other leaders. So very visible on Instagram. My my tagline was given to me by a student in our high school. I had a contest my first year. It's at flight intendant [00:35:00] is on Instagram. You can find me on LinkedIn just under Chad Lewis. But I'm always available via phone through our district website, www dot Sycamore schools.

org. I'm happy to always engage and have conversations with anyone. And they can always reach out via email as well.

If you haven't taken the time to build strong relationships at all levels in the organization, any change management or transformation effort that you're going to try to pull off is going to fail. Now, Assuming you've done the work of building strong relationships, there's a couple of things that you need to focus on.

re asking people to push the [: 00:36:00

If you don't have all of those things. Together and embedded in your district, you're going to have a hard time getting to that next level because you're going to encounter a lot of resistance, and you're probably going to demoralize your team as well. I appreciate you sharing that with us, Chad.

It's I think it's going to be really useful for the folks that are going to be listening to this conversation. For those of you who've hung out with us, if you enjoyed the story and the conversation, make sure you leave us a review on your favorite podcast player. If you haven't already joined our community, make sure you do that. And then tune in next time where we'll have another great leader hanging out with us and sharing with us the game changing insights that help them build a high performing team.