Summary:

Dr. Jim is joined by Dr. John Asplund, superintendent of Galesburg 205 district in Illinois, to explore the challenges of leading a rural, underfunded, and diverse community with a high rate of low-income families. They discuss strategic initiatives to establish a "community of wellness" by addressing basic infrastructure and student needs, leveraging local resources, and developing educator support systems. Discover how Asplund's emphasis on community engagement and creative problem-solving fostered significant improvements in school and community connectivity. Perfect for leaders aiming to drive sustainable, impactful change in education.

Key Takeaways:

• Impactful Leadership: Dr. Asplund demonstrates how focusing on essential infrastructure and basic needs can create a foundation for improved educational outcomes in under-resourced districts.
• Community Engagement: Regular community feedback and involvement were instrumental in shaping strategic initiatives and fostering district-wide improvements.
• Creative Solutions: Innovative programs like "Keisha Cares" and Thrive 205 showcase successful strategies to address food insecurity and promote staff well-being.
• Educator Development: Support mechanisms for educators, such as executive coaching and building community within schools, are crucial for retention and effectiveness.

Chapters:

00:00

Creating a Community of Wellness in Education

02:34

Adapting Leadership from Wealthy Suburbs to Diverse Rural Schools

04:39

Innovative Strategies for Building Community-Centric Education Systems

12:00

Community Support and Strategic Planning in Education

14:40

Understanding Community Challenges Through Immersion and Volunteerism

17:12

Addressing Basic Needs to Enhance Educational Outcomes

21:24

Innovative Strategies to Combat Teacher Burnout in Schools

26:29

Voluntary Passion-Driven Presentations Foster Staff Engagement

28:07

Fostering Teacher Retention Through Leadership and Engagement Strategies

31:15

Building a School Community Focused on Student and Staff Wellness

Connect with Dr. Jim: linkedin.com/in/drjimk

Connect with CT: linkedin.com/in/cheetung

Connect with Dr. John Asplund: https://www.galesburg205.org/

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



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When you're weighing your options, you could look at options that are student centric, teacher centric, or family centric, and not really raise any eyebrows. What you should consider is how you can create impact across the broadest landscape possible. So that you can drive sustainable, long lasting results across your entire community.

What would a shoot the moon initiative like that look like? That's the story that we're going to tell in today's conversation and joining us today, we have Dr. John Asplund, and he's going to be sharing his story. So who is this guy?

Welcome to the show

[00:01:16] Dr. Jim: Yeah, I'm I'm glad to have you on. And I think this is going to lend itself to an interesting story because some of the things that you've done are actually a lot of the things that you've done are pretty unique. And it's a conversation that we haven't had before on the show. So I think before we dive into the conversation and the broad theme that we're going to be talking about is creating a community of wellness within your district.

But before we dive into that. I think it would be important and helpful for you to share a little bit more about some of the key experiences in your career that shaped your perspective as a leader

Was that one of the wealthiest school districts in the state, but I'm from here. And so my wife, who's also from here we moved back about 15 years ago to be closer to family. And we wanted our kids raised more down here where we were raised. I've been in very large districts, very small districts, very rich districts, very poor districts.

And and now I'm in a district that is, as you said, has 71 percent identified low income families and is very diverse, even though we're in West Central Illinois, which most people who have little or even some familiarity with Illinois would think everybody down here, looks like me.

It's really helped inform some of our decisions here because of things that I've been able to work through over the last 30 years.

So when you look at that transition. Thinking back to when you made that transition, what were the things that you were most unprepared for? And how did you overcome the shock of that shift in context?

And so if we decided we wanted to have a speaker come in or start a program or provide professional development or whatever it was a phone call away. And it was just, it was there. We didn't really have any thought about how are we going to acquire that? That really wasn't, that really wasn't part of the calculus coming back downstate.

That's, that is a big issue. I agree. We can have all these great ideas, but it always comes back to well, how are we going to afford that? Or how are we even going to get somebody here to help us with that project or that program or get something off the ground or get the idea started? And so that's probably been the biggest change.

For me.

Wealthy suburban districts that have a level of diversity into it in it and then you're moving back into a [00:05:00] rural underfunded community where there may be some conflict in terms of what the school district wants to do, what curriculum should look like, and then what the broader community might say.

Yeah, that's a good idea. Or that's a bad idea. We often hear about conflicts between school boards and communities about what is quote unquote acceptable to teach. I don't know if you encountered that, but if you did, how did you build bridges between the district and the community so that there could be more of a unified front?

In terms of how the broader community is serving its students.

what I want to say, coordinated effort to get us to alter curriculum or take out books from the library or anything like that. I, that's not, we've been very fortunate in that regard, we have not had to deal with that. We've had lots of other [00:06:00] issues, but that's one that we've successfully been able to avoid because our community is is not really built that way.

It's much more of a, we have a liberal arts college here in town. And so we have. A lot of liberal arts thinkers here in Galesburg. And so it's it's never really been something that's risen to the board level to even talk about. We have board policy that would deal with that if it were to come to that, but we haven't had to deal with it.

[00:06:57] Dr. John Asplund: Yeah, that's a great question. Through collective [00:07:00] bargaining with our teachers, professional educator union, we came up with some language to help promote our paraprofessionals. That want to become teachers and we have funds committed towards helping those folks become teachers and getting them into school.

And that came about through kind of happenstance. We had gone another route where we were using an outside agency to try to help us recruit teachers. We want, we still have a very big need for having our teaching staff. look like the student body because, we're largely a white teaching staff and our percentage of white students is only about 65%.

And so we would really like to see a much more diverse teaching staff, but when we try to go out and recruit for diversity, most of the hires that we've had have either Turned us down because they want to stay in a more urban setting like Chicago or St. Louis, or they come here and then immediately turn around and go back to Chicago or St.

And so that's been something that's, that started to pay dividends as we started it, Oh, three years ago, we've already had a couple of teachers move into that move into positions. Getting through school pretty quickly.

Now, when I think about the demographics of your district, the surrounding community the financial resources that exist within the community or lack of financial resources that exist within the community, are you thinking of [00:09:00] expanding that grow your own strategy into the community, pulling from your high school?

Population to bring them into teaching as well as other vocations. Is that something that you're doing when you're looking at the landscape of the surrounding community and the poverty levels that are there?

We have those relationships with some kids already because of that program, which we didn't start, but we are happy to jump onto.

And I'll be curious to see how other districts are taking up that sort of approach, because whether you're talking about education or I. T. or even skilled trades, there is massive gaps, and it's an opportunity to create multiple pathways, especially in communities where the, income base isn't isn't what you would see in a Chicago suburbs.

All of those things are on the table. When you came back into the district And you got the big chair What did you decide was your path forward?

If you really, if we just really focused on certain things, what do you want to accomplish? And we had 13 different meetings over the course of the fall of 2017. And at that time, our facilities were in terrible shape and I'll keep that part of it short, but I, but I do want that to be known because we spent the next.

But academic needs, social emotional needs, student behavior, adult behavior community engagement. And so we're going to focus on those areas now for the next what, 5 years and the other part of that, that, that happened in while we were finishing the buildings and moving out of the 1 plan into the next was the pandemic and the necessities, the mother of invention.

We had so many needs in the community already before the pandemic. And then when the pandemic hit and we didn't have the ability to provide lunch and breakfast and all the resources that we give to our kids every day, we felt like it was really important that we put our thinking caps on and figure out how are we going to do this to get there.

But Keisha Cares, we have a van and we take the, we take. Needed items out into the community, and we operate a food pantry for the community as well. So the pandemic created this huge need. We filled it with some parts of that. And then much of that Keisha cares and some other.

Programming that we'll get into here in a little bit was also wrapped into our strategic plan that has started and will go for another five years.

And then in the pandemic that was taken away. And it always strikes me as a little curious that [00:14:00] you have State and federal leaders and even some community leaders that always, push back against funding that is designed to feed kids. And it seems like an odd position for people to take.

And you have the benefit of being in a community that understands that problem. But if you're talking to those people who are in opposition, To those sort of services in the school being, a hub of those sort of services What would be the perspective that you would share to help pivot their thinking?

More towards the importance of those sort of services and the impact that it has on the surrounding communities,

And especially if you're old enough and you or never had kids or whatever if you have to have kids or live in certain parts of town, at least go to those parts of town to know that we have kids that sleep on dirt floors that don't have electricity. That, that have lived in generational poverty that don't really know how to get a way out.

But for anybody that really wants to understand it. We say all you got to do is just come to school for a while and walk around and talk to the kids. And we've had a lot of people actually take us up on that. And we've had, we have a really great cadre of what I would say are our older folks here in town who decided they want to volunteer at the school.

And they come in and talk to kids at the schools at the high school and junior high and intermediate level. And they come back to me and tell me, I had no idea kids were living these lives. I had no idea. It's yeah, and it's amazing that you guys are willing to volunteer, but everybody needs somebody looking out for them.

I'm like, these aren't problems like you don't, where I'm from, it's people can't find food. But if you're never around that, you just really don't think about it. And so you have to be immersed in that in that community or in that situation to deal with it every day to really understand the depths and the breadths of the problem.

And if kids can't get their basic needs met, nothing else really matters. And so for those people that are against those types of programs, the only thing I can think is they just really have no idea. How bad it really is for some of these kids.

Those are basic survival needs that you need to shore up before you can focus on the educate delivery of education. And then when you're talking about food insecurity and being a potential solution for that as a district, that's important as well. So the theme that I gather and I touched on this in the beginning of the conversation is that you're focusing on these bigger pillar items that create. Sort of safety and security, your basic needs being met across the community as part of your district strategy. Tell us a little bit more about some of the other things that you did to make sure that those basic foundational elements are being taken care of, both in the district and inside your schools that set you up for bigger issues that you wanted to tackle.

Because what we found is and it's through research and, there's a lot of research done in Baltimore schools back in the 90s, and then there's been other companion studies off of that since then, that. That schools writ large do a really good job of keeping the learning gap the same during the school year.

But over the summer is when it really grows. So that the kids that have opportunities to go to museums or to travel with their families or whatever their brains continue to grow and expand. Whereas the kids who are left to fend for themselves are in survival mode and they're not really learning anything.

So we've we've gone the summer school route. We decided this year we're going to try something different. So we're focusing on family. So we do these different. Family engagement nights during the summer where we pass out books for parents to read with their kids just to get books in kids hands so that they're reading and just to promote family involvement in schools.

Okay. So we've tried a lot of different strategies and this is the first year for this particular strategy. But the Keisha Cares van, as I talked about before we're on year five of that. and the food pantry, I believe we're in year three. And those have been very highly used, which is great and sad at the same time that the need is so great that we're able to provide so much to our families.

And so we're happy that we're able to fill that gap, but it's also heartbreaking that so many people need that, that much help. And so we, we have a lot of folks that give up their time to be able to volunteer for those programs. And we work with a lot of service organizations in the town as well.

We have a another example of that. We have a longtime radio personality in Galesburg passed away a number of years ago, and he left a large amount of his. Legacy in funds to a program that provides shoes for kids at Christmas. So we provide shoes, we provide coats. It, there's just the basic human essential needs so that kids can get to school, they can be warm, they can be clothed.

And, they can be fed. And so we provide all the school supplies for kids when they walk in the door the first day. We provide the technology for the kids, as much as possible. We provide all of the items that we can, because we were seeing so many kids going without and a small percentage of kids that could get whatever they needed.

Because. Like me, when I was growing up, my parents would provide whatever I needed, the school said I needed but we have fewer percentage of people that can think they're able to do that for their kids now.

So when you look at, your position as a district leader and you look at your employee landscape, what were the things that you noticed happening in the district from your frontline staff? And when you notice those things, what things did you do to try to make, mitigate that risk of burning out and just getting demoralized because of the situation on the ground?

And so we decided we would commit the resources to having roving substitutes in the buildings, each building. So to greatly lessen the amount of time that we're asking our teachers in the building to sub [00:22:00] internally. And that really. Seems like a very small thing, but for our teachers, it became a very huge thing, and that's been very well received.

And we're going into year 3 on that that arrangement so that we can have more substitutes in the building to try to prevent burnout. We try to do different social things with the teachers, mostly at the building level. But we're going into this year now in year 4. program that the state of Illinois is actually recognized.

And two of our central office folks, Mindy Ritchie, who I mentioned before, and Jennifer Hamm, our assistant superintendent for finance. Those two got to sit on a governor select panel just this last summer last month to highlight what we're doing with a grant in Illinois. That's called the teacher vacancy grant.

How to make how to make mixed drinks, not alcoholic drinks, how to make mixed drinks, how to how to do yoga just how to shoot a bow, things like that, that to focus on people's passions and their hobbies, to look at the humanistic side of what our staff is able to do as well.

And to let them tap into things that are, they're passionate about. And also have our staff focus on things that'll reinvigorate them because. When we are asking our staff to give and give and give and give at some point the tank runs a little empty and so we're trying to find ways to reinvigorate that the staff throughout the year.

But there's not as long of a summer break so that our students aren't losing as much information from the end of school to the start of school. We've tried to create as many different strategies as possible to try to address these things without. Throwing money at everything because we just don't have that ability.

We can't just, use money just to do these things. So we've come up with other creative ways to do it. And we have a calendar committee and it was, through that committee, it was staff members that really suggested, Hey, let's try this. And it's really worked out well. And Mindy Ritchie's committee that Is full of other staff members as well, came up with the choose to thrive program.

So it's been not just central office driven for sure. We've tried to be facilitators of good ideas, and just try to see anybody out there that has a great idea. We started a program last fall as well. That's called shine in 205 where we highlight two staff members a month and provide a short video for them before the board meeting.

And that's been a very positive. Change and enhanced level of support for our staff who are working every day.

To me. That sounds like adding another thing onto the plate that is already stretched beyond beyond recognition. So how did you navigate this in a way where it's not extra workload or extra stuff that is on top of the stuff that they're already doing?

And to pay them to present, we still provide a little bit smaller amount of money because the grants change. But. There is some payment of that, but it's really focusing on something that they're already passionate about doing. So it shouldn't have to take a lot of preparatory work for them. It's something that they're already doing.

It's not, Hey, learn a new skill and then teach others. And if you don't want to do it, don't, it is totally open. We do not require anybody to come. We don't require anybody to present, but we've gone 70, some presenters last year. I think we had 140. And that's just built just because people have found that they want, they have something to say and that they want to come in and they want to talk about something.

It's like a busman's holiday. You're going to come and teach on a day when you have the day off from teaching. But it really is meant to be a very positive thing. And it's very much received that way. Our staff is really. Been pleased that they are able to be paid to come. They're not required to come, but we do love it that they show up.

They're not required to teach a class, but we love it that people want to do it. It's totally voluntary and it's just grown each year. So the feedback's been nothing but please keep doing this. It's something that the staff just has really gravitated towards and really it's become part of a, just really part of the district.

[00:28:07] Dr. Jim: I can see the value of that particular event as a hedge or mitigation against teacher burnout and creating more of a a stronger community inside the school walls. But that's a one time event thing, and, I'm pretty sure that When you're thinking about educator retention or just retention in general, a lot of that is going to be driven by the relationship that they have with their immediate managers, which is typically the principal.

So what I'm curious about is what are some of the things that you've done to equip your principles so that they could be much more effective leaders at the building level as a hedge against your educators getting burnt out and leaving?

teachers in their building as well. And one of the key initiatives that we have done, it's ongoing and it's really ad hoc it's as needed, but we have a budget line item where we have a executive coaching for our principals, or they can work with a, an executive coach that we have an arrangement with that.

If somebody signs up for it we can negotiate a certain number of hours a month. For that coach to work with that principal and it's to work on items to, to build staff efficacy. We really want the staff to feel efficacious in their job that, that what they do matters. And we've spent a lot of time on that executive coaching front.

Does everybody have a best friend at work? That doesn't mean it has to be their best friend in the world, but you should have a friend that you look forward to seeing every day. We've been pretty active in the research that, that Gallup has put together on, on engaged. Employees and how to make sure that you are focusing on certain metrics of looking at the humanistic side of staff.

And as I said, looking at, do they have a friend in the building? Do they feel like they're part of this program? Do we feel like we're putting them in a place of strength? And really that last one I'm leaving last, but it was really probably the biggest focus we've had is making sure that we're giving Everybody, whether that's principals, custodians, food service, paraprofessionals, elementary teachers, high school teachers, whatever, are they being asked to build upon their strengths or are we asking them to mitigate weaknesses more?

Identified strengths.

Now what I'd like you to do is bring it together and help build a framework that other leaders can use when they're looking at creating a similar community or similar culture within their school. So what are the key things that other leaders need to pay attention to when they're trying to execute this themselves?

And so the focus has always and will always be on the students first. [00:32:00] But obviously, students are 1A, the staff is 1B. We love our staff and you have to get to know them. I think so for, to begin with, you have to really have a clear set of understanding of what's the focus? Who is the ultimate beneficiary of all this effort?

It should be the students. And really in what way are we trying to transform their lives? And so that's definitely one of the pillars. Secondly is really, Truly get to know the people you work with that. You have to understand what motivates them. What's important to them. Everybody is a person and that sounds like a very obvious statement, but it, I have found that many leaders forget that part that were people first.

And, it's really important that you get to know your folks so that they can, you can understand what's really driving them and what's really helping make them want to come to work every day and want to do the best job that they can and really see them as people. And get to talk to them about their lives, about their kids, about their families, about their interests, whatever.

We, when we go into these initiatives, we're always talking about why. What's the motivation always begin with the Y. And so I think those three items would be the most important to really focus on for any leader is that, the students should be the focus first and really make sure that any outcome has to be with students at the ultimate end of all of that.

Really get to know your staff, make sure you understand what drives them. And then how are you communicating all this to everybody outside of your buildings because they only see what you show them.

[00:33:47] Dr. John Asplund: My email. And I would be happy if anybody wanted to reach out to me to further a conversation, I'd be happy to give them a call to write back and forth, whatever they want to do. I've been very fortunate in my career in that I've had.

[00:34:11] Dr. Jim: Great stuff. So I appreciate you hanging out with us and and sharing with us your story. When I think about the conversation that we had. There's three things that stood out to me when it comes to creating this community of wellness that we were talking about the entire conversation.

I think one of the first things that stood out was your lens on what is the highest priority, quickest win that we can impact for our community. And that's when you stepped in and took care or at least prioritize the infrastructure across your district and shoring that up. The reason why it stood out is that when you look at your approach to creating this community from, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, you got to take care of those basic survival needs first, before you can look at the bigger picture.

How are students doing when it comes to, their learning? Okay. Their needs for food for clothing. How can we as a district support those things? That was the next thing that you took on is handling those basic needs at the student level and then understanding what Your educators are going through your leverage, your principles to get them more effective in leading your educators and being better stewards of their care and their psyche.

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