Transforming Rural School Districts with Big Picture Leadership

] Dr. Jim: Thanks for joining us today. This is your friendly neighborhood talent strategy. Dr. Jim, if you're a rural school district, you're probably grappling with answering the questions of how do we get more people to live here? And how do we get them to stay? These are questions that every business deals with.

The difference is that in the K 12 space, you typically don't have the flexibility to solve these issues in the same way that the private sector would. So what can you do to change the direction of your district with limited resources? You have to zoom out and take a look at the big picture, and you have to pull all the levers that you have in front of you.

In the case of the Wapaka school district, this effort required a complete transformation on how you view the landscape. It relied on a tight integration between the board, the chambers, a chamber of commerce, the community, and the district.

joining us. He's the current [: 00:01:00

He's been a classroom teacher. Coach, principal for 10 years, and he's been a superintendent for the last 17 years. He defines his leadership as strategic and focuses on the big picture. His big picture strategies have led to the development of successful strategic plans, building and maintaining balanced budgets, and several successful referendum outcomes.

Over his 17 years as superintendent, he has worked with over 55 board members. He Each coming to their role with different reasons and priorities. Ron believes that leadership is everyone's job from the board member to the team to the bus driver. We all play the role in effective leadership and role modeling for our students and our communities.

Ron, welcome to the show.

[: 00:01:49

[00:01:50] Dr. Jim: Your perspective is going to be pretty interesting because We're we've had a lot of tactical conversations on different lever levers within the district that you can [00:02:00] pull to impact educator retention and and attraction, but this is going to be a different sort of conversation because we're taking a much broader approach.

Broader view of how you pull this off. So I think before we get started, it's going to be important for you to share with the listeners a little bit more about your story and some of the details about the district that you noticed when you came in, and that's going to help set the stage for the rest of the conversation.

[: 00:02:25

Ways [00:03:00] to attract and retain talent be competitive, increase your resources as a school district and change that trajectory from declining enrollment to increasing enrollment was a focus coming in

[: 00:03:14

What was your process for identifying? Okay, these are the things that we can impact to have immediate. Results. These are some long term efforts. Walk us through the process for how you narrowed that down.

[: 00:03:43

As I'm coming in, I'm meeting a lot of people. I'm on a 100 day plan. A listening and learning to her and these individuals you're trying to build relationships with. So Aaron Jensen, the city administrator and Terry Schultz, the executive director for the chamber we hit it off. We all agreed that economic development was a win.

It's a win for the city because as we develop properties and add housing the tax base increases. It's a win for the businesses, because if there's more people living here, there's more people to be employed by our businesses, and it's a win for the school district, because if families are moving here with children that enroll in the school district, that will be increasing our revenue.

k a little differently. They [: 00:05:00

[00:05:10] Dr. Jim: So when you look at the emphasis on economic development as the first level that you wanted to pull you didn't just miraculously fall on this. What was your background that led you to this as one of the key things that you wanted to influence first?

[: 00:05:25

Kind of led me through the process of developing the relationships that we did here in Wapaka and exploring different avenues on how to increase housing availability, how to get people interested in selling real estate in order [00:06:00] to be developed and finding developers who are willing and interested to take that chance and start the process of building homes for people to purchase and move into our community.

[: 00:06:10

Because there's going to be some lead time before all of these things start happening and you have to solve. The the talent attraction problem and the talent retention problem now, so what were the things that you did to bridge? or give yourself space so that so that your existing problems didn't get worse as you're building this bigger bigger vision.

[: 00:06:48

This district had a very strong bond. Fund balance. So we weren't in that position. The other thing was focusing on staff and trying our best to work on continuing to grow the professional culture of our staff and role modeling that. That was the focus that continues to be the focus. I think when you talk about leadership and wanting everybody to truly believe in their heart that they are leaders and that they do have an impact on the reputation of our district on how we think about things overall as a district, you never are done with that work.

It's a continuous thing. That work continues and began at that point when I was hired, and hopefully will continue into the future even after I'm gone.

[: 00:07:51

The entire team, but especially new people that are coming into the district and I want to loop that first 100 days to some of the things that you mentioned when it comes to how you engage the staff and how you worked on advancing the culture. So when you think about the first 100 days of any school year in any district, if you're a leader within that district and you want to do some work to make sure that you're maintaining the culture you're giving the staff a sense of support, what was your process for building that into your cadence on that first 100 days so that you didn't end up in a situation where you're trying to put out too many fires across too many different types of things.

[: 00:08:45

And then there's a series of goals that I had for myself to learn about the finances, to learn about where we're at with the curriculum with teaching and learning to where we're at with technology, where we're at with special education and the different services that we provide. So it's a learning process that first hundred days.

It's interesting, Jim, because I think it was the first or second week of school during that first 100 days that we had a threat and that caused a lot of a lot of focus and a lot of attention as well. And It took, I bet you, once we started the safety committee meeting process after that threat, that was a focus for six months.

ght after that comes March of: 2020

[00:10:11] Dr. Jim: When you're doing this intensive listening exercise And you're listening to business leaders, community leaders. You're listening internally to your team and staff. What were some of the major trends that started popping up in those conversations and how did that influence your decision on what to tackle first?

[: 00:10:29

So starting to have those conversations about that, knowing that we have to be competitive with salary and trying to give every year the maximum amount [00:11:00] of a salary increase that we can for our staff. I started. At the very beginning meeting with all new staff members when you're in a school district with 2, 100 kids, you're not able to be involved as, as involved as a superintendent is in a smaller district in the hiring process, and I take a lot of pride in the hiring process and feel I've made the right decision.

Some good hires over the years always can improve but being separated from the hiring process at the end of the day, once the candidates are on board I take them out to eat and we have a sit down conversation, getting to know them what they like. Can where they're from and their interests and their hobbies and their family, and maybe sharing some about myself as well.

have that we could make our [: 00:12:00

[00:12:18] Dr. Jim: I like the fact that you spent a lot of time building the personal relationship and also seeking feedback from the people in your district from the staff in your district on what could be changed.

So after you did that, it's not enough to get the feedback. You have to actually put this into action. So what was your process for communicating what you were hearing from the people at the front lines to the community as well as the chamber so that they actually had a strong idea of what needs to be prioritized?

What needs to be fixed? Like, how did you present those learnings to those other stakeholders?

[: 00:12:55

[00:13:18] Dr. Jim: It's good that this developed organically both from the district side and also the engagement that you had with both the community and chambers of commerce.

But at some point, you probably ran into situations where people were thinking either this is too big a task to take on, or we don't really want to do this. There's probably other things that we could be working on that are lower hanging fruit. So when you encountered those sort of things. What was your process or conversation that helped people to better understand why this is the priority that we should be focused on?

[: 00:13:52

Like I said earlier, Terry from the chamber and Aaron from the city we gelled very quickly and saw things very similarly and believe that economic development was the avenue for us to focus on as three different organizations in the community to grow our community, because what's good for the city is good for the district.

educate them or change their [: 00:15:00

And so we started meeting monthly and having those conversations. And really, what. What sparked a big part of this, Jim, was a grant, a gift from a philanthroper in our community. Tim and Joy Neville gave us a sum of money with the idea of hiring a grant writer. And we talked about that between the three of us quite a bit and thought this was a great idea.

So it was funded through this grant for The first year, and then after that, we made plans to fund it ourselves between our three organizations into the future, and it has been a very positive part of the solution in our community, as far as increasing revenue that we never would have been able to tap into before.

[: 00:15:53

[00:16:06] Ron Saari: That is a million dollar question there, Jim. We talked about it. We talked about it ahead of time and came to an agreement that. If the city gets 800, 000 for a splash pad, and the school district only gets 70, 000 for a mental health grant, it's a win, win for us, we can't get caught up in one entity is getting more of the grant resources than another entity, because if there's a splash pad in our community, that's going to attract people to want to move here.

g that we're going to handle [: 00:17:00

And especially if it's 2 municipalities within the same school district, I was fortunate. I was we are blessed that the 3 of us just saw eye to eye on it. And I think, we were talking about this a couple of weeks ago. The 3 of us and Aaron said We had good people and when you think about it, they are people of integrity and character and everything was on the table.

There were no hidden agendas and it worked well for us.

[: 00:17:39

Now you mentioned earlier that one of [00:18:00] the things that happened within your district that was unique is that you have a local philanthropist that gave you a sum of money and you decided to allocate those resources towards a grant writer. Tell us a little bit more about why you chose that course of action and the impact that it had.

[: 00:18:16

So we came up with a contract and an agreement and had goals and we learned and we're fortunate that our grant writer is a very gifted individual, very intelligent, very personable, a total package, creative, a great writer, a quick learner. When I say training, we didn't train, but we gave him access to training and he took it and [00:19:00] ran with it.

[: 00:19:01

So tell us a little bit more about What that spend level look like and then when you look downstream from what you spent, how did that show up in terms of return to the district, to the community to the chamber, walk us through that.

[: 00:19:29

The contract has evolved. Initially we weren't sure if we were going to get 100, 000 in a year. And lo and behold, there were [00:20:00] several hundred thousand in, in, in the first year and right now when we look at it in four years, it's over 5 million. dollars. The school district has almost three quarters of a million.

So when you think about an investment of approximately 30, 000 from my organization a year in getting almost three quarters of a million from that investment there, there's a big return there.

[: 00:20:25

What's the process that they should be looking at? What's the spend that they should be looking at? What's really even what are the types of grants that they should be looking at? Because you know that's a pretty large impact that you realize but it wouldn't have happened without that that benefactor or that philanthropist making the recommendation so You [00:21:00] know, when you're looking at other districts that probably don't have that sort of person sitting around, how would you pull this off without that infusion of cash?

[: 00:21:08

There's going to be a return on the investment. Part of the risk is, are you going to be able to find somebody with the talent to be successful in writing grants? The other part of the risk is everybody going to be able to play nice in the sandbox together? How long have you had a relationship with them to see if they will work together as a true team player when you work through challenges and opportunities and difficulties?

, what you'll get out of it, [: 00:22:00

[00:22:10] Dr. Jim: Let's. Spin this forward, so you have the grant writer. The district and the the other stakeholders started realizing some revenue out of it. What was the impact of those additional funds that came into the district or came into the municipality? How did that impact the surrounding community and your overall vision for investing in economic development within the district?

What was the relationship there?

[: 00:22:36

Be more effective and be better. And some of these things that we took grant money in for Jim were things that we probably were going to spend from our budget anyway. So it helps the budget. It isn't like it's growing your budget it or it is like it's growing your budget. It's it. Helps free up other monies that you can then invest in other areas, whether it be putting it into salaries and benefits or programs for students. I

[: 00:23:32

[00:24:05] Ron Saari: believe that the starting places with your board of education. They have to be on board. They have to understand the vision and believe in it in the school district of what Packers case our board was I. Didn't have to do a lot of educating. I was worried about that, but they saw the vision right away.

And so that was a blessing. I think another challenge is just being patient. You have to be patient through the process because it takes time. It takes time for the grant writer if they don't have experience. To get caught up to join a grant writer association. There's a national association to network, get contacts attend some seminars.

that chance, you have to be [: 00:25:00

We meet every month. We were meeting sooner than that, earlier on in the process, but now it's just a one monthly meeting for an hour. Possibly to one of the fruits that we've we've been talking about for the past year is a grant that we received to do a landing page for our community. When I say a landing page, it's like a relocation resource for people who may be interested in moving to the Wapak area.

We're a beautiful place. We have The chain of lakes, which is a chain of 22 lakes, there's other rivers and lakes in the area. It's a vacation wonderland. So it's attractive for people. And then the other amenities that have been added over the last 5 years to the community from the grant writer and the other work that the city has done make it even more attractive.

d things like the splash pad [: 00:26:00

[00:26:16] Dr. Jim: Really interesting stuff, Ron. And I think, what I think would be helpful is when you look at all of this stuff that you've done over the years within the Wapaka school district.

What's What is the district look like now? What does the community look like now? What's been the fruit of all of this effort?

[: 00:26:32

So yeah, it's helped greatly are for the first time. Our school district enrollment has changed the trajectory instead of just going down, down a couple of years ago. It started slowing down. It's downward growth. And now for the first time, we've had an increase in our student population. And we anticipate that this is going to continue to happen into the future years as more housing units are available.

But, when you talk about the foundation of how to move forward with this, I think you have to identify the individuals in your community that are going to be stakeholders to that you can partner with, and they have to see the same vision. They have to have the same focus and same mindset. They have to be good team players and willing to work together.

to grow and increase revenue [: 00:28:00

What's necessary to attract and retain and keep talent and continue to grow and provide additional resources for our students.

[: 00:28:08

What are the key things that they need to get in motion to get the ball rolling on what you were able to pull off during your tenure there?

[: 00:28:39

For instance, in my case I joined rotary and became active in that community organization and networking. I was able to do that through the chamber and became part of the board of directors and I'm a past president of the chamber of commerce as well. And. Building relationships within the city and within the city leadership, doing those types of things is the type of thing that I believe a school district administrator should be doing.

It's these big picture things, especially when you have a staff that can help support you and keep the focus on teaching and learning and maintaining your budget. We have to be out building relationships, helping people understand the strengths of our school district areas that we can grow and improve on because we are not a finished product as individuals.

and what you're doing about. [: 00:30:00

[00:30:09] Dr. Jim: Great stuff. If folks want to continue the conversation, what's the best way for them to get in touch with you?

[: 00:30:14

[00:30:18] Dr. Jim: Really appreciate you hanging out with us, Ron. When I think about this conversation, there's a few key things that stand out to me in terms of best practices when you're looking at pulling off this sort of transformation.

I think one of the first things that stands out is that first hundred days of your time within your district needs to be focused across three different areas. And all of it involves building relationships. So you're building relationships. And having meaningful conversations with your internal and district staff, and then you're also having those conversations with community leaders as well as business leaders.

district, and that helps you [: 00:31:00

But if you're facing a situation where you have much bigger resource constraints, you need to take a shoot the moon approach. I appreciate you sharing your insights on what you pulled off from a big picture perspective that had some really meaningful impacts within your districts.

For those of you who have been hanging out and listening to this conversation, we appreciate you checking it out, checking out the conversation. Make sure you leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. If you haven't already joined the HR impact community, make sure you do that. And then tune in next time where we'll have another great leader sharing with us, the game changing insights that help them build a high performing team.