Superintendent’s Leadership Institute: Mission Possible 2

The 2nd annual Superintendent’s Leadership Institute, titled Mission Possible 2, was a tremendous success!  Kudos to our SLI planning committee, facilitators, and all of those who attended.  A special thanks to the leadership and staff at TCHS and TCMS for hosting the event.  Please find pictures from the event and our press release about SLI below:

There’s a serious message behind the lighthearted theme of this week’s second annual Superintendent’s Leadership Institute. Combining television theme songs with stark national statistics during his opening remarks, Fayette County Public Schools Superintendent Manny Caulk challenged roughly 250 school and district leaders to “change the world by changing the lives of students and families.”

His keynote speech kicked off a three-day conference at Tates Creek High School (July 18-20) packed with sessions to help principals and other school leaders prepare for the 2017-18 school year. Building on last year’s “Mission: Possible” movie theme, the 2017 event went old school, pulling from the classic television show and launched “Mission: Possible – Season 2.”

Caulk opened his remarks with the theme song from “Welcome Back, Kotter” and punctuated his presentation with other television theme songs ranging from “Green Acres” to “The Jeffersons” and “A Different World.”

To meet the district’s two moral imperatives – accelerating learning for students approaching proficiency while pushing students already proficient to be globally competitive – Caulk said leaders must be the chief learner and chief teacher for their teams. He challenged them to be both educational researchers and innovators.

“The climb is steeper,” he said, sharing research demonstrating the increasing difficulty for families in the United States to move out of poverty. The American dream that each generation is able to achieve more than the generation before has stalled since 1980. Citing a UNICEF report, he also noted that despite being the richest nation in the world, the United States has the second highest rate of child poverty.

“We’ve got to be bold and take big steps to drive dramatic gains,” he said. “Incremental gains are not going to move the needle forward fast enough.”

In an interactive session that highlighted compelling data, encouraged reflection, and drew spontaneous singing, Caulk laid out the case for education as the difference maker for children. He acknowledged that policy decisions beyond the control of local schools can exacerbate inequities.

Even though “the gaps are there before students cross the schoolhouse gate,” Caulk said, school and district leaders working together can and must eliminate disparities and ensure that every student has a path to success.

“Their road up runs through you,” he said. “You’re the ‘A Team.’ You are the change agents. The work you do will propel us forward.”

The three-day Superintendent’s Leadership Institute includes 20 breakout sessions aligned with the six principal performance standards: instructional leadership, human resources management, organizational management, school climate, communication and community relations, and professionalism.

The timely, informative sessions are led by school colleagues, district officials, and national consultants. In keeping with the TV theme, each is related to a show such as “The Amazing Race” paired with Measures of Academic Progress (MAP testing), “MacGyver” for Use Technology to Lead Your Mission, and “State of Affairs” for Legislative Updates and Charter Schools.