Host CT Leong sits down with Dr. Kory Kalahar, superintendent of the Wenatchee School District in Washington state. Dr. Kalahar shares insights from his 27-year journey in the district, highlighting both the community's transformation and the strategic initiatives that have been implemented under his leadership. From a focus on diversity and inclusion to preparing students for contemporary job markets, this conversation delves deeply into the heart of educational leadership and the importance of evolving with community needs.

Key Takeaways:

• The importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in creating future-ready educational environments.
• Strategic implementation of district-wide priorities to ensure aligned curriculum development and student engagement.
• Dr. Kalahar’s journey from a classroom teacher to a district superintendent, emphasizing continuous learning and adaptation.
• The role of mentorship and leadership that cultivates new generations of educational leaders.
• Addressing community transformation by aligning educational goals with regional economic and industrial shifts.

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

Connect with CT: linkedin.com/in/cheetung

Connect with Dr. Kory: linkedin.com/in/kory-kalahar-ed-d-885b7631/

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



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Welcome to the Engaging Leadership show today, a show where we talk about how to grow leaders and drive impact for your people. I'm your host for today, CT. And I'm the co founder of EngageRocket. EngageRocket is a leadership listening and insights tool that helps school district leaders improve teacher retention, engagement, and ultimately student achievement outcomes.

And today in the studio, it's a great pleasure and privilege for me to welcome Dr. Kory Kalahar. He's the superintendent of Wenatchee School District. Welcome to the show, Kory.

The great thing about Wenatchee is we're at the confluence of two rivers, the great mighty Columbia river, and then the Wenatchee river as well. And we're about 45 minutes away from Lake Chelan, which is a well known resort area. Beautiful lake, one of the largest lakes around.

We're also about 30 minutes from the Bavarian city of Leavenworth as well, that is also a tourist place, but I think what makes Wenatchee the most special is just our community. We have a great community of people that have grown from rural backgrounds and farming and agriculture into an area of industry, and we are in this place where we tap the Columbia River for hydroelectricity. And so we have a lot of data farms that are moving into the area and a lot of industry that are coming in for that cheap, efficient, and reliable power.

But the community has grown and embraced that. I think we know our roots are strong in agriculture, but we're also embracing technology and industry and bringing that in. And so it's had a great impact, I think, on our community. But I also appreciate the fact that as a school system, We're also recognizing that, and we are expanding our opportunities for our students.

So we're creating a new data center technician program in our high school so that students that live here and want to continue living here can have an access point that leads right to a family wage job.

If you think about all of the initiatives that you're particularly proud of as superintendent, are there any that immediately spring to mind that you want to talk about?

And then as a director of learning and teaching. So I live it, I own it. I love it. And our promise statement I think that our listeners will really appreciate. So it's all based on the promise of building a foundation of diversity, equity, and inclusion from which each student emerges future ready and so that's like our umbrella of everything that we do there with the strategic plan. We have three priorities that are that are hugely impactful for our district and guide our thinking. And we like to think of them as a blind spot eliminators. We want to eliminate our blind spots and what we're thinking about.

The third metric and the third of our big six is reading on grade level by third grade and beyond. And that is just, research based that if we can get kids reading on grade level by third grade, and we continue with that trajectory, using structured literacy and the approaches that we use in the one of School District, we can keep that pace moving forward.

You used a really interesting phrase earlier.

They came up with the big six future ready outcomes, our priorities and our values for that. And then as that grew, there was a series of iterations where the leadership team was able to help dive in, refine the language take out any semantical errors or things that had misrepresented the district in any way, shape or form.

And then the goal is that we bring this work back to our staff. And that's the piece I think that is the key for the next steps is growing as leaders, wrestling in kind of the difficult, maybe uncomfortable work and working through that and being okay with it and then helping our staff do that. So that's the next step for this year is we have a plan of how we're going to work, learn and grow, how we're going to collaborate.

And then we're going to ask our leaders to step out of their comfort zones and lead the work in their buildings.

And they're excited about the work. I think it's been more of having all of the tools in the toolbox to actually implement the work. So yeah, that's our plan moving forward. And I'm working with the team of folks to help bring this to life.

So I just did everything I did from the time I started teaching until I got my doctorate, which is wild, but that's just how that process went. Cause I didn't ever want to know what life was like without doing all these things.

And of course there was a bump in my salary. And so that kind of worked out really well. I did continue to teach some online grad classes along the way. Cause I thought that's always valuable. And then, yeah, then just continued through once I started my first assistant principal job, I have strong mentors in my life as well.

I was just like, I'm going to continue doing my thing. I'm going to love on our students. We're going to be a trauma informed school and we're going to just do great things. And in the background of my mind, if the Wenatchee school district ever gets to a point where my particular style of leadership is needed or there's an opportunity where I can come in and do something good for the district then I'm here, I'm not going anywhere, raising my family here in the Wenatchee area, then I will answer that call. And again, it goes back to that idea of opportunities. Opportunities came my way where we had a superintendent that saw something in me that he wanted to embrace and work closer with.

We did some great things, but I look over there now after being gone for four years. And they're doing amazing things as well. And so it's all about those opportunities that we choose to take. And again, for me, it was stepping out of my comfort zone. I was quite comfortable at Westside and rolled into some things that were less than comfortable. So it's good. It's been a great journey.

You took that step to prepare yourself. You didn't want to be complacent when you eventually took on that first leadership role. Did you feel prepared?

So I was like, wow, I can really help in some way, shape or form and and guide students on a more global way. And that's what I've fell in love with. And so if you would ask me when I first started as in my principal program, you're going to be a principal. No, I don't think so.

I love being a classroom teacher, but the impact, the work that individual one on one that I got for each kid was just fantastic. No, I don't think that I have felt prepared for any one of the leadership journeys that I've had opportunities to do. I went after them.

Yes. But when it came down to it, you're like, Oh, Okay, here we go. But what is so key? I think in my story and every leader story is the mentors that we have in our lives that see what we're capable of before we can ever see it ourselves and before we ever know it. And they are usually 100 percent confident in us when we're not.

And so I think about some of the leaders that I've grown, they have been in certain places and in certain times, or they've sought me out in one way or another, but I have not been the intentional one with it. So that's where I need to do some work and I'm excited to actually do some of that.

They need a little bit of space and then they need to be mentored basically, like that's what it's all about. And so for some reason, in my Westside experience, I had two of my English teachers at two different times in my career there at Westside chose to start their administrative journeys.

The consequences are going to be the same as my assistant principal down the hall or, the principal at another school, but we're going to do it with a gentle touch and we don't need to beat anyone over the head with their own decision making and things like that.

So that was the principal side of things. For the superintendency, I'm still learning. I'm still learning what I don't know. But I don't know if I feel like I felt prepared and I had watched so many leaders in that position. I think the hard part is the granular level in which we are under scrutiny as leaders and learning how to make sure I carry myself in a way that is with integrity in everything that I do, which is what I live by.

I walk all the way down the street an extra half a block to do the crosswalk. And then my colleague just runs across the street. There's no more running across the street for me. And it took some time to grow into that. I've embraced it and I love it, but it is just an interesting thing. Does that make sense?

And I think that's the magic of leadership, which I'm always very curious about and how as leaders, we're all human beings that are applying ourselves to sometimes impossible situations and trying to figure out a way through.

thank you for listening. I hope you have taken away one or two little nuggets from Kory's story that you can apply in your own leadership work. If you want the show notes for this episode and for all of the previous episodes in our archive, it is a treasure trove of wisdom, head over to k12. engagerocket. net and you will find the archives and the past episodes all in one place. So really appreciate you hanging with us today, Kory. Thank you so much.