Behind the Scenes: Operational Secrets of High-Impact School Districts

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That's what we'll be chatting about today . We often talk to K through 12 leaders and have them reflect on what they wish they would have known before they landed in the big chair. Today's conversation takes a look. Back and we'll share our key lessons from the perspective of someone who is winding down their k through 12 leadership career So who's going to be sharing their perspective with us?

Today we have bruce law joining us and he's got over 30 years of experience in education And he's dedicated his career to fostering academic excellence and the success of every student He served as a superintendent of high school districts in Hinsdale, in Highland Park, Deerfield all in Illinois for the past 11 years.

th, in: 2024

Bruce, welcome to the show.

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[00:01:15] Dr. Jim: Yeah, I'm I'm looking forward to picking your brain a little bit and with the benefit of a lot of years under your belt and having been through a lot of rodeos, I think this should be a pretty interesting conversation. Yeah. I think before we dive into the meat of the discussion, it's going to be important for us to learn a little bit more about your career trajectory and defining moments beyond the three or four sentences that I just talked about in the bio.

So why don't you share with the audience a little bit about some of those key moments that shaped your perspective that you're going to be sharing with us in a little bit.

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And that was significant because that's really where I saw. I corporation and how it approaches things like human resources and operations and finances and really got an understanding of how organizations work from that managerial perspective. So that was a key. Key moment for me. And I think the second key moment was in 2013 when almost every senior administrator in Hinsdale district 86, where I was assistant superintendent left and the board of education came to me and said, We want you to be acting superintendent.

So I went from assistant role to the superintendent role overnight and not expecting it and not even trying to get that role.

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[00:03:11] Dr. Bruce Law: Because I worked for K 12 as a K 12 employee I saw how they ran budget. I saw how they run, ran finance. I saw how they approached human resources even operations. And I was learning all of those things, not knowing that I would need it later. It's just that when I became superintendent in Hensel 86, and I began examining the operations of the school district, how it worked.

HR function, finance function, operational, all those functions. I began to realize that there were there was a lot of work to do in that public school space but then I also realized that the background that I had from K 12 really helped me think about how how to run an organization, all the structural design decisions, how to organize the work and how to make the district work better.

that's why I said that was a [: 00:04:00

[00:04:13] Dr. Jim: The second part of what you laid out that was interesting was the fact that when 2013 rolled around, you got your first superintendency role and it was unexpected.

If you're not actively in in pursuit of that sort of role and then you just get plopped into it what was the context and then how did you get up to speed on something that was completely unexpected?

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Then in August of 2013 I had just gotten back from vacation [00:05:00] and school board president called me to, and she wanted to meet. We met. She told me that the superintendent had just resigned. I didn't know he was going to do that. He never. He didn't tell anyone he was running, resigning.

ent. So this was in August of: 2013

So they, schools can function quite well without district administration. But as a, as far as the operations of the district that I had to get up to speed on,

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[00:06:04] Dr. Bruce Law: I worked with a search firm who was able to. Connect me with retired administrators or administrators who, for one reason or another were available. And so that's how I was able to staff up. I don't know that it would've been possible for me to have all those, to post a position and consider candidates.

I really relied on a search room to do that screening and bring me candidates for consideration. So that's how I got that part done.

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[00:06:49] Dr. Bruce Law: There were really two things. One was a short term issue that I had to deal with. And the other was a longer term, the short term issue was obviously when you have that kind of [00:07:00] exodus from the district. By high level administrators in the district is going to be in a state of uncertainty at the least.

I don't know if it was turmoil, but there was certainly a lot of uncertainty around what was going to happen. So I had to try in the short term to reassure. Students and parents and teachers in the school community that, that, they're, it's going to be rocky, but we're going to get through this and everything was gonna be fine.

And so that was the short-term issue. Long-term issue I was facing, of course, is it's one thing to start the school year and to get it off the ground. And I did that I should say we did that school started, it was fine and everything started moving. But the longer term issue was how to start working on.

The operational issues that, that I began uncovering in the district. And for me personally one of the biggest things was trying to get up to speed on this, on the state of the school district's finances, that, that was probably the biggest challenge I faced.

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So what was your process for going ahead and building at least some sort of stability or sense of stability and calming everything down across the various constituencies that you had to deal with?

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So I made sure that on that first day that, Everyone came together and that was really when the communication started. I had to acknowledge, of course that this was there was turmoil that there are a lot of churn and people might be [00:09:00] feeling anxious. But really began communicating the, the assurance that there was a lot of strength in the district at the school level.

They could rely on and that the the district would, begin to stabilize and we would all get through this together. So I would say that it was a huge communication and visibility effort. It was certainly no time to adopt a, a. Bunker mentality. I had to be visible. I had to be out and I had to be communicating with confidence that we were going to get through this so that as people are watching me, and of course, everyone is watching what's going on because of the the churn that what I was projecting was, Confidence and not just in the, in, in me, but confidence in the future of the district based on the strengths that the district already had.

idence in that. And together [: 00:10:00

And we did.

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[00:10:19] Dr. Bruce Law: One, one of the forums, if you will, for us superintendent is at board meetings and in a mall in times of uncertainty and people pay a lot more attention to board meetings. So that that was also an opportunity to show continuity to show stability to show that the school district is functioning and operating and.

hink it was around October of: 2013

And so [00:11:00] there those kinds of, that was a very important way of communicating, to the school committee was at school board meetings that, we were going to be there was going to be stability. Now that said the school board had some very specific ideas of things that they wanted to do, which also created.

Controversy and stress and anxiety in the community. So I was also having to deal with that at the same time. But that idea that the district is operating and can function, close to normal and that people can, have confidence on a day to day basis that there's not going to be another shoe drop that, that was such an important goal for me in the first few Months of the school year that year,

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[00:11:58] Dr. Bruce Law: Administrators have [00:12:00] a lot, especially at the district level, especially at the superintendent level, have a lot of ability to make decisions about organizational design that will. Impact the effectiveness of the organization. And by that, it's ability to create value. And also then put the organization in a place where it's able to make changes that it needs to make.

So I, as I was trying to organize, the how the district function first of all, of course, I was doing it with a lot of interims, I had an interim principal, interim finance, interim HR And, an interim assistant superintendent for curriculum instruction. So I had a lot of interims in key roles, but began engaging in some organizational design that would allow the district to function more as a unit.

districts, it's important to [: 00:13:00

So that's one thing I can pause there or I can go on to the next parts the couple of, then one other thing is that how the organization where I, just to get to it I was very interested in the internal controls of the organization is one of the things I learned from K 12 the importance of internal controls to ensure that things are done as efficiently and effectively As possible.

And it was, all given all the things I was doing, there was no way I was going to be able to, do that kind of review on my own. And I thought it would have a lot more weight with the board and the community. If I brought in an external auditor to do an internal controls audit just.

ion, but most of it we could [: 00:14:00

Here are the things we need to do to improve it. And so that allowed me to begin work on that part. And then with respect to finances I had a retired superintendent. I was talking to a retired superintendent and I was expressing concern about getting up to speed on school finance.

And he told me the only thing that you need to know is if there's money in the budget. For what you're trying to do. And I remember thinking to myself, I think there's a little bit more to it than that not least because I want to make sure that when the CFO is reporting to me on a state that we're in or a challenge that we're facing, that I knew enough that I could engage in that conversation critically.

cally but in when it came to [: 00:15:00

And it's going to be a lot more effective.

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And here I am as a superintendent now, I don't know if you would react the same way, but if I was in that position, my instinct would say, I need to make sure that I have a fairly high degree of control in all of those different pieces. So I know what's going on. So I might be stretching myself thin by doing that.

So how did you resist the urge to get. Too far deeply involved in all of those different functional groups. So you're not you're not exerting too much control in those areas and you're letting those things run.

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But I do think that whenever you have interims, I think they're, There's the need for a lot more attention being paid to what that person is doing, unlike when you have really good people in those roles. And now, instead of being a micromanager, you can take a micro interest in what they're doing and just really let them make the [00:17:00] decisions, run their function while you are fully apprised of what's going on.

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That I want to dig into, which is, you want it to be in a position where, especially on the finance side, you know enough to ask the critical questions necessary to understand the actual health of the financial health of the organization. So when you look at that need. How did you bridge the gap?

Because not very many superintendents come through the business side of an organization to understand the financial controls or financial health. So what was your process to get yourself up to speed so you could have an intelligent and critical financial conversation with the CFO?

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There's [00:18:00] talk that. There may be a pension cost shift, which is to say the burden that school districts have created on the pension system, some of that burden might be shifted back to the school district to pay for but the way the bud, the way the levy season or schedule works in Illinois, we would always have at least two years.

Of notice before there was any such pension cost shift. That would give us time to make the financial decisions to absorb that into our operational budget. But I remember once a the CFO told me that when it comes to creating a a budget, we had to be mindful of potential pension cost shift.

I know this is a minor example, but I knew enough about how these things worked. To know that I was being gaslighted, that, that is just not true. We would, we can do a budget based on what we know. And of course, there are a lot of things you don't know when you're creating a budget, but a pension cost shift is not one of them.

It's that [: 00:19:00

That's really important. And then I've had school business. The people who run the school business office tell me that, I've learned a lot and I'm able to engage with them in ways they've not experienced with other superintendents, which was gratifying to me because I know how important that is to be able to have a handle on the financial operation and state of the district.

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What would you advise them to do

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If they are in the district level administrator hopefully their superintendent, when it comes time to have a levy presentation to the board or budget presentations to this finance committee or the board that the superintendent is going through those presentations with senior level and administrators in the district.

trict and over time as we're [: 00:21:00

So aspiring superintendents should be doing everything they can when, even if they're not in a district level role the board has finance presentations, the board has adopts a budget, the board adopts a levy. It is really important to start understanding how those things work. And obviously they work differently in different states, but you understand that part into an HR, of course, there are a lot of HR functions that you're not going to be able to see because so much of it is confidential, but as far as the process of determining the number of employees who are needed, how those employees are evaluated, how those employees are onboarded.

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A couple of things. One is find people who understand that you can talk to, the retired superintendent who told me, I just need to know if there's enough money in the budget. That's all I really need to know about finance. Okay, he's off the list, but find some, but find someone who knows who understands it, who's done this for a while, not just who's been in the position for a while.

That doesn't mean they understand, but to find people who know what they're what they're doing and. Just talk to them and help, let them help you understand. The other thing is there's a lot that is out there. I'm sure every state has publications on different aspects of school finance.

d Harvard business review, I [: 00:23:00

There are some organizations that put out high quality information about how organizations work. And I've, I learned a lot from Places like that

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What were the resources that you tapped to build? That support structure around yourself. Where did you go?

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And the ones that don't seem to be run as well. And so it was actually easy. To [00:24:00] connect with superintendents that I came to know as really understanding, really being on top of things and I could call them for advice or call them and just ask them what do does this sound right to you?

This is what I'm being told. Does this sound right? And that, that was very helpful. So that. Superintendent, it's, and on the one hand, a lonely job because, you, you don't have anyone horizontal to you in an organization. But on the other hand, there are other superintendents who form a community.

At least that was my experience

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[00:25:00] Once that team was built out, what were the things that you did as a leader of that district to make sure that the people that you put in place didn't have those gaps if they decided to get to the next level as a superintendent in their own careers? So how did you build that learning capacity into the organization once you had it built out?

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My key for me were coherence across what we were doing. There are all these different functions. We're doing different things, but we're doing them in the same district. And so how do you coordinate those activities? And how do you build a coherence across what we're doing at the district level?

function. On their own, but [: 00:26:00

It's an amount then that direct, translates directly into property taxes. And so as we were building that out I would take the time in, in, in weekly meetings to go through this go over this with people who, were, and what we called cabinet to make sure that they understood it to the greatest extent that, they had interest in understanding it and were able to But that's how we worked on all these things.

e were making those staffing [: 00:27:00

So even if there was someone who was not directly related to that function, I wanted to make sure that person was aware of the issues that we were trying to work through on our way to making a recommendation to the board. And I, one of the things that I should mention is that I, Once you get it to be in my role, then you begin to, hear from other people and understand how things work in other districts.

And there are so many other districts and I was in one before I became superintendent in which that kind of thing is not done. The door is not open to all the decisions that have to be made, the recommendations that we need to make issues that we're facing. It's worked on in whatever Function.

So that to me was the most the second most important thing, trying to build a team when we were facing issues, working on them together, but then exposing everyone to the details of the issues, even if it wasn't in their function, so they could begin to learn how to think. Think about the things that have to be thought about when you're a superintendent.

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Are they not getting burnt out? That's where I would have my line of sight when you're talking about all of this inside baseball stuff behind the scenes operation stuff. Why is it important for superintendents to have a good handle on that?

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Or in other words, you're not gonna be able to create as much value as you otherwise. So there are the reason it matters is that in, in uncertain times strong financial health of a district just as in your household budget a strong financial state allows you to do things that, that you want to do.

And operationally, the superintendents have so much ability to create the conditions that will allow the capacity to grow and that such that these the, these outcomes can be improved. I don't, I think a lot of people who talk about improved outcomes for students, and that's right. And that's what we do.

But there has to be a lot of work going into the organization, how it's structured, how it's designed in order for it to become as effective as possible to create a culture that allows people to get better at what they do so that students have better outcomes.

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So that they're set up for success when they step into that big chair. What would be the things that you would suggest they do?

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They're not the same in every district and decisions have been made to design how the organization works. And those decisions have a big impact on effectiveness and culture. So they should start familiarizing themselves with how it works in their district, [00:31:00] and then they should look at how it works in, in, in other districts.

And there are I don't know how you do that if you're not at the superintendent level, but if you start talking to people in other districts and you start asking them, how are decisions made, how is the communication go, what level of involvement do teachers have in the decisions made that affect their day to day lives?

I think there are a lot of things that they can begin to see how other districts work and then compare that to how their district works. That's really important. The other thing that they should do. To do is depending on their level in the organization, they need to pay as much attention as they can to all the financial presentations and to all the presentations that have to do with HR backfilling positions, staffing decisions not the, not the discipline part that's another thing, but just how the HR function works, how does it integrate with the financial function?

el, I can go into, into more [: 00:32:00

That what is normal and natural, and it works the same way everywhere, but to look at decisions that have been made and the impact those decisions have, I think even just becoming aware of that would be really helpful.

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The easiest way to reach me would be through email. Be law. And I'd be happy to correspond with people, talk on the phone whatever works, I I'm very committed to helping people flatten the learning curve that was so steep for so steep for me.

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