S05E13 - From the Classroom to the Whitehouse | Dr. James Lane, CEO, PDK International

In this episode of Build Momentum, we are joined by Dr. James Lane, Chief Executive Officer of PDK International, a nonprofit that supports those who work in public education, and its community-based movement Educators Rising. He has served at the federal, state, and local levels: in the U.S. Department of Education as Acting Assistant Secretary and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education; as Superintendent of Public Instruction in Virginia; and as Superintendent of three Virginia school divisions in Chesterfield County, Goochland County, and Middlesex County. Dr. Lane is also a former school principal and band director.

Some Questions We Ask:

• Tell us more about your career at all levels of K-12 education and now as a leader at PDK? (01:22)
• What is the most rewarding aspect of your career? (05:01)
• What insights from your time in the Department of Education surprised you—and were there any misconceptions about the superintendency that you experienced while working as a policymaker? (08:02)
• What are your thoughts about the 2023 RAND study, and do you have similar perspectives as other superintendents? (12:36)
• What are your strategies for bringing the community together to see your vision? (17:09)
• How have you been able to connect with the whole community to support you along the way in your career? (22:59)
• What is your opinion regarding humanizing the role of superintendents? (28:36)
• What advice would you give to supporters of K-12 education about advocating for district leaders? (33:13)

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

• About Dr. James Lane (01:32)
• Rewarding aspect of his expansive career (05:20)
• Insights he gained and misconceptions he encountered (08:21)
• Thoughts about the 2023 RAND study (13:06)
• Strategies for bringing the community together (17:34)
• How he connected with the community (23:13)
• His thoughts on humanizing the role of superintendents (28:51)
• Advice on advocating for K-12 district leaders (33:47)

Quotes:

“For me, the rewarding part of education is working with kids and preparing them for an amazing life and career and job and everything else. And I tried to remember that in every role I've ever been in.”

“The very best school districts I've seen have stability in the board and the superintendent, and then that leads to stability in the principalship, of the teachers, and of expectations around what we do in schools.”

“What your families want for their kids is important. Be willing to change what you want to do in that community based on the feedback of families.”

“The best thing that we can do to improve schools is make sure there's a great teacher in every classroom who's engaging parents and students.”

Stay in touch with Dr. James Lane:

PDK International
Educators Rising
LinkedIn 

Stay in touch with Sarah Williamson:
SWPR GROUP Website
LinkedIn

Stay in touch with Chad Bolser:
LinkedIn

About "The Secret to Transformational Leadership," which Sarah co-authored with Dr. Quintin Shepherd:
Transformational Leadership Secret website
Purchase the print or ebook

Transcript

Sarah Williamson: 0:05

Hello and welcome to Build Momentum for Education, a Podcast where we explore thought leadership in education. I'm Sarah Williamson, the founder of SWPR Group, an agency that supports public relations, communication strategies and thought leadership support for school districts, education companies and nonprofit organizations.

Chad Bolser: 0:23

And I'm Chad Bolser, chancellor at Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana, this season, we explore a particularly unique perspective in K 12 thought leadership, humanizing the role of the superintendent.

Sarah Williamson: 0:36

Throughout the many conversations we continue to have with superintendents, a clear theme has emerged about the need to bring more humanity into the role of the superintendency. In this special series, we interview current and former superintendents and researchers to pursue the core question, how can we better see superintendents as real people navigating complex challenges to provide the best possible education for K 12 students?

Chad Bolser: 0:58

We dig deeper into how this important work can help build community, invite collaboration and increase widespread engagement.

Sarah Williamson: 1:08

We can't wait to get started. So let's dive in. In today's episode, we're joined by Dr. James Lane, the CEO of PDK International and Educators Rising. Dr. Lane, you have such an incredible background in education. Would you mind sharing your deep experience as a school district superintendent for three districts in Virginia, your work with the Department of Education and more about your role as the leader of PDK?

Dr. James Lane: 1:32

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you Sarah and Chad, it's great to be with you all today and excited to be on the podcast. Yes, I've been a superintendent three districts in Virginia. The first was Middlesex County Virginia, which was a district out on the coast of Virginia. Actually, at the time I was there, the entire district had 1200 students, and it was an amazing experience. And I'm so glad I started my career there, first and foremost. Because when you're in a community that small, everyone knows everybody, it's like, everywhere you go is like, cheers. And so, you know, everyone knows your name. And I just loved the fact that I knew every student in the community. I knew every teacher intensely. And there was this amazing opportunity for us to move the school district together with a shared vision, because the community was so tight. And just absolutely loved my time there. And then I went to Goochland, Virginia. And Goochland is a slightly larger district, about 2500 kids in that district at the time that I was there, and was known already as being one of the most innovative districts in the state. And again, because of their relative size, we were able to galvanize the community around what we wanted to do. And really took that district to becoming one of the very best districts, not only in my opinion, in all of Virginia, but around the nation. We put together an amazing team there that was just passionate about student engagement, make sure every kid loved learning. And that spirit infiltrated the entire district. And I really felt like when I was there, we were on the edge of really building an amazing education system focused on students and their love of learning. And I just really enjoyed my time there. And I was lucky enough from the work that we did there in growing the school district, to become the Virginia Superintendent of the Year. And so that launched me to a position as the superintendent in Chesterfield. Chesterfield County in Virginia is the largest suburb of Richmond, Virginia. It's one of the 70 largest districts in the nation. I think they got to be approaching 70,000 students. Now, you know, nearly 70 schools. And just a real honor to go from, you know, growing up in rural school districts in terms of the superintendency to go into one of the largest in America. And we really, again, built an amazing district that got great outcomes for kids. When I got there, we had a few of the schools that weren't accredited, for the first time in the history of the district. Turned that around immediately, and that really, that district has been on a jet pack. They just hired a new superintendent who was one of the principals when I was in the district, and just impressed with what he's going to do with the district. And it was amazing time. And so there's three great experiences. When the governor got elected in 2018 you know, he called and asked if I would serve during that four years. Of course, I didn't know we were going to be in the middle of COVID and all of that, which was a unique part of that four years from 2018 to 2022, and in Virginia, we only have one term governor, so we knew we wouldn't be running for re election. So at the end of my term, that's when the Biden Administration called, and I led K 12 initiatives for the Biden administration. But it was an amazing experience. And, you know, being a kid from Corbin, Kentucky, where I just I never thought in my life that A, I would have these amazing experiences, but B, that I'd be sitting in the White House discussing policy with the top leaders, not only in the nation but the world sometimes. It's been an amazing journey, and I've enjoyed every minute of it.

Chad Bolser: 4:51

Well, we're thrilled to have you here and have a little time to talk and with that resume that you just outlined there quickly for us, we'd love to understand what you have found to be the most rewarding aspects of serving in educational leadership positions, particularly as you just stated, you've had tons of experiences and different capacities supporting the important work of education. So what do you think about the most rewarding aspects of that?

Dr. James Lane: 5:20

Well, every day I wake up and I think of myself as a teacher that has gotten to do some of these really cool things. I mean, I got into education. I was a band director. I got into education because I wanted to teach music. I wanted to teach kids a love of music, and I wanted them to be advocates for music education. Because, you know, that's always a challenge, especially during difficult budget years. And you know, I have a general rule that I don't follow my kids or let them follow me on social media, or as much as you're allowed to control that, unless they're like have gotten into their careers and are into jobs and now they're all young adults all these years later. And it's amazing to me how many of them work in the music industry, whether it's some of them are band directors. Frankly, in the band director of the high school that my middle school fed into was one of my former students. Some of them are university professors of music. Others are DJs. Others work in radio. Others are rappers and producers and all kinds of things. And so for me, the rewarding part of education is working with kids and preparing them for an amazing life in career, in job and everything else. And I try to remember that in every role I've ever been in that none of us would be here. We wouldn't have a central office, we wouldn't have a school district if we didn't have kids and teachers and teaching and learning. And so everything that I have tried to do has been in service of our teachers so that they can maximize the potential of our students. And so whether it was being at the US Department of Education, the 50 million plus kids in the nation, when we were making policy decisions that could impact the lives of that many Americans, I wanted to make sure that it was going to make a positive difference in student outcomes and students, you know, opportunities for economic stability in their lives and growth and opportunity. And when I was the state superintendent, and we were making some of the difficult decisions around COVID, I wanted to make sure that we were going to do everything in our power to make sure that we were moving our state's education system forward. And then obviously, as a district superintendent, a lot of the decisions you make on a daily basis impact kids from scheduling everything else, and so it's never been lost on me, the burden of leadership and that every decision you make impacts so many Americans lives, that for me, the reward is knowing when those outcomes come out, or I hear a story from a student later in life that made a difference, that I want to make sure that the decisions I make are ultimately in service of our kids, and I know that the closer I worked with kids, the better decisions I make, and so I spend a lot of time as a superintendent, as a state superintendent, as a US Department of Education official, making sure I spent time in classrooms. So it was never lost on me why we were there, and the rewards are making a difference for kids.

Sarah Williamson: 9:35

Yeah, that's so inspiring. I'm curious. When I was thinking about questions to ask you, one of the things I'm most curious about is any insights you've gleaned from your work with the US Department of Education that surprised you, or were there any misconceptions you maybe had as a superintendent that shifted after you had the experience of working as a policy maker?

Dr. James Lane: 9:54

Yeah, and I will say being a district superintendent is vastly different than being state superintendent. And state superintendent is vastly different from being an assistant secretary, Acting Assistant Secretary in the US Department of Ed. One of the biggest surprises for me is, you know, for lack of a better phrase, how the sausage is made. You know, I went from being the state education leader, State Superintendent Virginia, to the US Department of Education, and the levels of conversation and bureaucracy that you have to go through to get regulations done or issue grants, or, you know, we call them NIS, and all of these pieces, there's a clearance process where I just assumed that decisions were made solely in the Department of Ed by the leaders in that sector of the department. And truthfully, you know, staffers would put together policy briefings, and then ultimately, that would turn into regulations that we released, or notice for applications and everything else, or notice of new priorities or whatever it may be. And then that would, you know, filter through my team and various rounds that's known as clearance in the federal government. And then it got to me, and then I would clear it, and then it would go to the office of the secretary, and they'd have to clear and then it would go to the Office of Management and Budget, and then they'd have to clear it. Then it would go to the Domestic Policy Council, and then they'd have to clear it. And then if at any point of those steps they had comments or edits they wanted to make, it would go back through certain rounds of clearance. And you know, it just felt like things that we knew were great for kids, the process was laborious. Now, I think that's good in some ways, because you're getting a lot of policy makers eyes on it. And before we would release things, Congress would often require that we briefed members of Congress on what we were doing and why we were doing it. And so. So you know, by the time you actually release something, you had confidence that a lot of the stakeholders that were essential in making the decision had a chance to weigh in. And of course, we had public comment periods where parents and teachers and advocates and associations could write in. We had to consider all of that in the process. And so when everything scales up to this federal level, that was the part that was most surprising me is how big it all was, and that, you know, at the end of the day, we had to consolidate all that big information and feedback that we were getting. I mean, there would be some of our releases where 40,000 people would comment. We'd have to go through those one by one, and ultimately, once you got a decision made, you know, then it goes out and you have the chance to make a difference in kids lives, like I talked about, even at the state level, it was, you know, potentially easier to release policy than the way that I saw that experience in the federal government. And COVID gave me some unique insights, where we were granted waivers of certain regulations so that we could make things happen faster. It was fascinating to me to even see that same process that's at the federal level compared to the state level, where, you know, the General Assembly would pass laws, we would then, similarly, have a policy team react to that, but then we would take it to the board, and there would be public comment, multiple readings and all of that. But the process just the closer you get to kids, good decisions can happen faster for kids, and there is a need for process and making sure that people have tons of opportunity for feedback. But I think that those that work in school districts would be surprised at the level of bureaucracy you go through. And then the other thing I'd say I'm surprised about is when you run a State Department of Education, you know, you run Title One programs and all the various federal programs, and then, of course, you're issuing the dollars that come from the General Assembly for state and local budgets, and you really have a strong grasp on everything that's going on in your state. It's amazing to me that when I went to the federal level, how much more is going on, from competitive grants to policy briefings to events to executive orders and everything else that filters into it, there's just so much more involvement and intricacy the further you get from the student. And so that's as a policy maker, I've tried to always be a person, and I said this before, that stayed grounded with what kids needed, and that was the thing I think I helped with the most at the US Department of Education, as every idea came forward. Sometimes I agree with it, sometimes I didn't. I was able to give a really unique perspective on this is what it really looks like in the field. This is how you're going to impact people. And let's make sure that we consider that before we actually do something that's going to change the lives of that many Americans.

Chad Bolser: 14:09

At 2023, RAND study found that superintendents have one of the most stressful jobs in America, and we have been asking the superintendents that have come on this podcast series their thoughts about these findings. They have been super interesting in their response to that. Does this ring true for you as a former superintendent and in your work at the Department of Education, did you hear similar perspectives from superintendents across the United States?

Dr. James Lane: 14:39

Definitely rings true for me. I mean, obviously I was a superintendent and can speak firsthand to the I think I used this phrase before, but the burden of leadership, you know that these are massive, massive organizations in your communities, and oftentimes your school district is, you know, not only place where we educate our children, it's sometimes the largest employer in your community, and in Chesterfield, I think at the time I was there, we had, you know, between bus drivers and everybody, nearly 10,000 employees in our school district, and they're inherently designed with school boards to make sure that communities and parents are get a voice in education. And there are a lot of varying opinions, I wouldn't even say, on both sides, on all sides, of any aisle, of what could come into a superintendent's frame of reference when it comes to making a decision. And I'm a big believer in a shared vision for our school district. You heard me talk about that before. I'm a big believer in making sure that we have opportunities for everyone in our community to weigh in on what's best for our kids, and then we move forward. And you've also heard me say, I believe that the best decisions are made closest to the students, which is why I want to make sure there's a lot of voice for our parents and our principals and our teachers to make good decisions for our students. And so I remember reading a book in grad school all years ago about the tangled web of Educational Leadership, and now that I've seen it, not only at the local, well, you know, I went from classroom to building to district to state to federal leadership, having been in all of those seats, it's unbelievable how many people weigh in on a daily basis on the decisions that superintendents make. The federal government is coming down with mandates and compliance and grants. The state is coming down with regulations and new laws. We might pass 1 to 10 education laws in an entire administration. In the federal government. You compare that to the state, they may pass 200 education laws each session, and then that filters down into school board policy. And then, of course, you know, the principal and the teacher and the parents and all the stakeholders that have to be involved in this. And so the superintendent is doing an unbelievable juggling act trying to make sure that they're navigating all these differing opinions of the right thing to do with their district, side by side with all of these federal and state and local compliance mandates to ultimately make a decision. And then, you know, let's be honest, education has been at the center of politics over the last four years, especially coming out of the pandemic, and superintendents are facing a lot more pressures than they've ever ever had. And so it definitely rings true to me, and it's one of the reasons when I came to PDK, we started a network to support superintendents and help them, you know, navigate some of these issues and think through in a non partisan and bipartisan way how they can be prepared for the variety of issues that they're going to face in their school district. And I believe that the very best school districts I've seen are when you have stability in the board and the superintendent, and then that leads to stability in the principalship and stability of the teachers and expectations around what we do in schools. And the longer folks are there, if they're doing good work, hopefully that's being recognized by the community, the more that those good ideas can be institutionalized, whether it's thinking about new ways to make sure students love learning every day, or thinking about new metrics for assessment and accountability that we need to move forward, or how we might want a mastery based or a competency based education. You know, all of these things are constantly being filtered through the needs of the community, but my best advice to superintendents is, yes, your job is stressful. You can have a family, make sure family is first, make sure you're taking care of yourself second, but then make sure that you know what your community really wants, and don't try to make decisions in a silo about what you think is best for your district. Make decisions on what you think the families in your communities want, and ultimately that's going to lead you to success and probably reduce some stress on you, rather than pushing envelopes that maybe your community is not interested in.

Sarah Williamson: 18:42

I think you actually answered my next question. You did such a good job with that one. All right, so I would love to dig into what has been your strategy for bringing people together, other than what you just shared to help see your vision. And I've seen a lot of superintendents who don't just bring people together, but they actually help, they work with our community to build a vision together for a school district, or even, I guess, a state. You can think of it from that perspective too. Would you mind sharing a little bit more about that?

Dr. James Lane: 19:07

Yeah, every superintendency I had, I always started with 100 day plan, fascinatingly, never knowing I would end up here all these years later. PDK actually led my transition team when I was in Chesterfield to write that 100 day plan. And one of the first things that I believe are essential to, you know, bringing people together, to share your vision is actually bringing them together, right? And you know, it's not enough just to survey or ask people's opinions, but, you know, bring people together in a room and have a deep conversation about what the wants and needs are in your community. And I believe it's essential to do that in the first 100 days, and show people that you're going to be committed to the community and what you're looking for and spend a lot of time in schools. You know, some of the superintendents that I have seen struggle the most get mired in the politics and the, you know, the back office workings of this district, and sometimes get perceived as that they're not amongst the people or in the schools or whatever. And so I set aside time in my calendar every day, especially when I was in smaller school districts. And if it wasn't every day, at least, every day, at least every week, to make sure that I got to every school in my community on a regular basis, and knowing what's going on in my schools was essential. But it's not, you know, oftentimes the superintendent you might be dropping in for a specific purpose, you're going to see a specific classroom, or you see a project or something like that, make sure that you actually take that time to go into the offices and talk to the staff and ask them their opinions. And one of my favorite things to say to people is be curious, you know, ask people about what's going on in the school, and not in a way where they feel scared or it's accountability focused, but just so you know what's going on in the community, what they really need. And then I would sit down with my principals once a quarter and go through the needs of their schools and making sure that we were giving them the resources that they needed to be successful. But there are so many forms where you can bring people together, but if you expect parent engagement to live through school board, public comment and the surveys you offer, you're never going to have a shared vision for your community. And it really is about bringing people together. And so for me as a superintendent, I was just constantly thinking about new ways that I could find new opportunities to see people in my community that hadn't given me an opportunity to weigh in, and not only at the end of my first 100 days, where we released a report about what that said that then filtered into, you know,the next couple years of really developing new strategy and a new strategic plan. And I think that having a strategic plan as early as possible, while still getting that feedback is essential for a superintendent, because that becomes the roadmap for the district. And you should drive your school board meetings around the vision of what's in that strategic plan, and you should have the topics of the school board meeting be aligned to what's in your strategic plan, so everyone can see how you're moving your district forward, and constantly be pushing belief in those strategies and the outcomes that that could lead to maximize the potential of students. But the other thing I would say about building a shared vision and bringing people together is having the right team. I'm actually in the middle of writing a book, and I just finished one of the chapters. And you know, the phrase that I use at the beginning of chapter is, if you're going to be maniacal about anything, be maniacal about people. And I'm that way that, you know, I mean, until I got into where I had 10,000 employees, even now at PDK, or in my smaller districts, or when I was a principal, every single person that wanted to work in our school division. I wanted them to interview with me so that even if it wasn't about me making the final decision, if the team had done multiple rounds of interviews and they knew who they really wanted and all of that, yeah, sure, there was a piece of it where I wanted to make sure that they were the right person for our district. But for me, it was about using that moment at the end of the interview to make sure they knew what the vision, the mission, the values, the strategies of our organization were the goals of our organization, so that when they actually started working with us, that every person, not only that worked in our district, but everyone that was going to work in our district, knew where we were going and we were in alignment. And then I just spent a ton of time trying to recruit the absolute best talent to my school district. I don't know the number, but it's now dozens of current and former superintendents that have come through my school districts. Because once I hired, you know that being maniacal about people, once I hired someone I thought was really great, then it was on me to give them the autonomy, to learn, to lead and to lift up the things that we wanted to do, because I knew they knew where we were going, because we had that from the very first conversation that we had together. And I have found that when I can bring a community together with shared vision and put together a team that's amazing and that we are unbelievably rigorous around the way that we choose them to make sure they're the very best, those two things, along with knowing what our parents and our families want are essential to the success of a school district.

Chad Bolser: 24:00

By the way, if I was wiping a tear from my eye when you were talking about strategic plans and communicating and vision, and it's it was because I got emotional about that. It's great to hear great leaders talk about how they go about doing their business. And I think one of the cool things about our podcast in this series has been we've got to talk to a lot of amazing leaders. But folks, they continue at times, even with that too, they struggle with communication and how to do that and creatively do that. Can you talk a little bit about that, I think you've shared a little bit of how you did that, but about how storytelling and connecting to others, family members, community members, the folks that you needed to help support you along the way in your career.

Dr. James Lane: 24:46

Yeah, I can remember a time when I was a superintendent. Well, first, let me say I think that storytelling is huge, right? That another phrase I use, like the maniacal phrase I used a minute ago, is that if you aren't telling your own story, then no one's telling your story, right? And what came out of that is that when I was a superintendent, at the beginning of the school year, or frankly, throughout the school year, you can be absolutely certain that if something bad happens in your school district, it's going to be in the media, right? And I was always a big believer on we need to be in front of those things. We need to be honest and transparent, and we need to make sure that people know how we're addressing it, and that we have plans to make sure things like whatever that may be, never happen again. But the bad things that happen and that you see on the news and that really dominate the news, you know. Crisis in the classroom, I think, is, you know, one of the segments you often see on the news or whatever, that is such a small percentage of the great and amazing things going on in our school district every day, right? That, you know, there are kids who were literally putting them on a trajectory of success that they could not have seen if it wasn't possible for our school district. We're seeing teachers break through with kids in a way that are going to change their lives. We see families becoming part of a school community that are seeing their kids blossom into amazing humans in the future. And I want people to know that side of what we do as well, not just the fight that happened at school XYZ on Thursday that's all over the news or whatever, though, we got to address those fights and make sure they don't happen as well, right? And have a safe climate. And so I was a big believer in us telling our story. And so, you know, I used to call it the five for five, but when I was a superintendent, I tried to release five positive stories five days a week, you know, so essentially, a good news story about our school district every day. And I'll be honest, the media didn't always run those stories, but I can tell you, they would not have run a single positive story about us if we didn't give them opportunities to come see the positive things going on our schools. And in time, we were able to develop relationships with our media partners where, yeah, when we were doing a big positive announcement, they would be there because we would be honest and transparent with them around the negative things that they were also reporting on. And so I felt like I could call on our media to say, You know what, we're announcing a big new initiative today. We're going to do a press conference. I'd like to see you there, and they would be there. And then really, social media has changed the game here. I mean, you know, you have to be careful with social media, because a lot of people don't know how to be politically astute and the way that they speak in social media. They want to say their opinions on everything, and that's not what a government agency or a school district should be thinking about. You should be thinking about communicating your vision and the things that you're doing and making sure that parents know what's going on in your schools. Nobody cares about your personal political opinions, unless they disagree with them, and then they're going to care a lot. You're going to hear about it all the time. You're going to have political issues, and it's going to cause you more stress. But ultimately, what they want to know is, what do you believe in for our kids, and how are you acting on that to make a difference? And so we use social media. I mean, I mentioned we had 10,000 employees. Well, we had 70,000 students. Well, theoretically, you know, assuming two parents in every household, which you know, obviously is not the case in every single household. But you know that that means that we have up to 140,000 more parent and so, you know, that's 140,000 family members, maybe grandparents, you know, will make up for any numbers I might be off. But then you take that to the 70,000 students and then the 10,000 employees, you know, we're talking well over a couple 100,000 people that are in our communication channels every day. That's far more than the people that are watching the TV news or reading the newspaper or commenting on each post that someone says that's negative about you in social media. So you have an unbelievable reach to tell the good things are going on, but at the same time, you have to pair that good stuff going on with that same transparency around the bad stuff. So you're telling your story there as well. And so it's just really, really important to me to make sure that my teammates knew. We want you to tell the amazing stories of what's going in your schools, obviously, with student privacy in mind. And you know, rules and regulations, of course, but you know, I want our families to know what we're trying to do. I don't want there to be any secrets. And if parents disagree, please tell me, so we can change and align to the values of our community. And I think that when you're telling your own story, you have a great opportunity to really galvanize your community, but if you're always reactive and responsive, you know, in politics, we always say if you're explaining you're losing, well, then you're going to lose a lot if you're only focusing on the reactive side. But if you're telling your story constantly, you're using the channels that you have, you have a much better opportunity to make sure that families are trusting of the work that you're trying to do.

Sarah Williamson: 29:30

firming to hear you say that too, because this is what we coach every day, proactive media relations, telling your story before others do. So couldn't agree more about all of that. So one of the reasons we wanted to host this podcast series is we were also writing a book about in defense of the superintendency and understanding one of the challenges that superintendents are facing, and it's so complex, but that so many of all of you essentially are really are doing this job to support students and to help make a better world for the people that are coming into it next. So do you think it's important that we're having this conversation illuminating the humanity of superintendents? Is it important for your communities, as district leaders to see that you're a real person navigating complex challenges and you're really supporting K 12 students? That's your job. Is that important?

Dr. James Lane: 30:24

Well, a, yes, it's very important. But what I will say b is, no one will question your humanity in the superintendency if you're out leading amongst the people, like your teammates and your families and your communities. And you know, I talked about this before, but it you are the center of the education community in your county or district or state or whatever. You know, if I take the time to go to every Friday night football game in Goochland County and shake hands with everyone and answer questions that may pop up at the football game, or even just watch the team and celebrate the state championship we won when I was there. You know, all of that is just really important to people seeing you as a person. And you know, I mentioned that, you know, I'm very family focused, family first, and, you know, the health second, and all of those kind of things. But I was a parent throughout my superintendency. My kids went to the districts where I was superintendent because, you know, they make you move there now, Middlesex, I had been there since I was a principal, so I when I was superintendent in Middlesex, I was living in Goochland, but then I became superintendent inaudible. My kids went to Goochland schools. My kids went to Chesterfield schools. And, you know, I didn't just show up as a superintendent. I was showing up as a parent, and when I went to the Friday night football game, I brought my family, and when we went out to dinner, people would come up and say hi, and I didn't shy away from that. I wanted people to see me as a member of the community and that I have family, and that when I'm fighting for making a difference for our kids, I'm fighting for my own kids too, side by side with you, and my kids are in the same class with your kids, and we're having some of the same issues, of like, let's think through how we can, you know, work through some of this together. And I just think that's really important. But I think that if you lead from a perch, or, you know, an ivory tower, as they say, sometimes, then people are only going to see you as that person in the tower. And, you know, get out of the tower, be out there with your families, and that will help a lot. And it's not just enough to be there. Believe that what your families want for their kids is important, and be willing to change what you want to do in that community based on the feedback of families. That ultimately, you know, school boards are elected, and you know so are governors and presidents, and what you want to know is that the things that you're doing are things that your school board can support. And if you can't do that, then ultimately, either the school board is going to change or you're going to change, and that's not good for anybody. I told you, stability is important, and so you've got to be flexible, and you've got to know those components. And so I spent a lot of time in my superintendencies. And you know, the times in my career, where I had the most challenges were when I knew the community wanted something different than what the other leaders in my school district wanted, and I got pushed too far by the other leaders to do what they wanted versus what the community wanted. And I tried to limit when that happened as much as possible. And it happened, thankfully, very few times in my career, but the times that I went against my gut, and you know what my bosses told me to do, usually didn't work out in the way that my bosses thought that that was going to work out. And so I spent a lot of time coaching my boards or elected officials to also do that work, to be in the community and be listening to people and know what people want, because I think that that's essential. But ultimately, there are a lot of superintendents. I know that part of being human is I need time where you're going to leave me alone, and I'm going to be over here and I'm going to rejuvenate. And I think rejuvenating and taking care of yourself and all that is important. But when we take these jobs, we take on that burden of leadership, and part of that burden of leadership is being a face in your community and being the voice for kids in your community. And that's going to come with some of those political hot spots, and the way you counter that is by being there right with them, side by side, fighting for them. And remember, every time a parent complains to you, you've got to realize that that parent is fighting for the most precious and important thing in their life, which is their own child. They're not arguing with you, the superintendent. They're fighting for their kid. And every parent meeting I had, or every community meeting I ever had, I tried to never take anything personally, because at the end of the day, if the roles were reversed and somebody was doing something I thought wasn't right for my kids, I'd be fighting just as hard side by side with the other parents. And when I got that perspective, it allowed me to feel more human, because I realized, okay, I'm here to work side by side with these parents, and not for against or whatever other pieces of this folks run into from time to time.

Chad Bolser: 34:50

I think answers like that are why we've enjoyed this series so much, and we've talked to leaders, and when they express things like that, we were become bigger and bigger fans of the folks that are doing the type of work in educational leadership positions. So I think the question that we have tried to ask is, what as supporters of K 12 education and community members and parents, and what can we do better to be the support that you all need to guide and lead our organizations?

Dr. James Lane: 35:20

Yeah, I think that the most important thing that anyone can do is show up, listen and lift your voice right. And now I know there are anomalies out there, and there are districts that maybe don't offer opportunities for families to weigh in, but most of the district leaders I know in America give plenty of opportunities for folks to engage in the big decisions of the school district. And as much as I'm big on galvanizing people and bringing people together when it's like an open Town Hall type thing, unless there's a really controversial topic that's coming up or something that the community really disagrees with, I find that very few people actually come and so it's another reason that I'm very intentional about, okay, I'm gonna invite people personally to come to things when I want feedback, so that I make sure that I have the voices that I want. But I'm more than welcoming to anyone else that wants to have voice at that table. But showing up is the first thing when your district or your principal or your teacher is asking for your feedback. Be willing to give it, because we will hear from a small subset of probably the most concerned citizens, but we need to hear that side by side with folks that support are against maybe or mutual, just so we have a better sense of what's going on. And then the second piece I mentioned was, listen when you come to those events, make sure you take time to understand what the district is really trying to do. Because I can't tell you how many times a proposal will hit the news or the social media, and it's nothing like what we were actually proposing. But the rumor mill has taken over, and we spend more time trying to combat the rumor mill in the absence of being proactive, which hopefully we were proactive enough where that didn't happen. But if you come to our events, at least make sure that even if you disagree with it, you hear your superintendent's perspective on why they're going about it the way that they're going about it, and then lift your voice make sure the superintendent knows how you feel about it. I mean, I always a big believer in civil discourse and doing the right way, of course, or the best way, but then as a superintendent, make sure that you're open to hearing that feedback and willing to change based on it, because the one thing that I think disenfranchises a lot of families is when they lift their voice and share concerns and then nothing's done about it, or there's no response to their feedback. And so that's my advice to folks that want to support our superintendents, is just be there and be present. You don't always have to agree, but when you do agree, lift your voice then as well. And that is big for me. I can't tell you how many times I just got pressed and pressed and pressed to go after something by you know, we would survey 80 to 90% of people would agree with what I was trying to propose, but when it came time for implementation. We only heard from the five or 10% that were never really interested in that, and I lost the voice of the community that really had this groundswell. And we need you there as well, and we need people to stand up with superintendents who are having the courage to go after things their community wants. But at the same time, the superintendent has to be open enough that if 89% of your families are against you, you gotta be willing to pivot and go the direction of your community.

Sarah Williamson: 38:20

Thank you. Dr lane, where can our listeners connect with you and learn more about you?

Dr. James Lane: 38:24

Yeah. So you know, I'm the CEO of PDK International. Now our biggest work at PDK is we are. When I left government after 25 years of these amazing opportunities I had, I felt like we were constantly chasing silver bullets sometimes, right? Like, you know, what's the new type of school that we want to make a difference, or what's the new policy that's going to change assessment and accountability? But I have this belief in my heart the best thing that we can do to improve schools is make sure there's a great teacher in every classroom who's engaging parents and students. And so I've kind of dedicated my work at PDK to growing the next generation of teachers. And so we have a program here. We own the brand rights to future teachers of America and future educators of America, and we've rebranded that as educators rising. And we're putting programs in high schools all throughout the nation to try to encourage more kids to consider education for their life and then train them on the concepts to give them a leg up when they actually get into the classroom after they get certified, and in some cases, get kids right out of high school to consider jobs as paraprofessionals and then training them to become teachers. And so there are a number of ways to engage with me. I'm active on social media. I have accounts on X and LinkedIn. I tend to keep my Facebook more so I can put my kids in my pictures with the people that I see on a day to day basis, but LinkedIn and X are great ways to connect. You can obviously reach out to me through the PDK website, happy to come talk to you about the work that we do in educators rising but you know, y'all can tell I'm not shy. If you email me, I'm going to respond. If you reach out to me on social media. We'll engage. And I would love to continue this conversation around how we can improve education in America.

Sarah Williamson: 39:59

Thank you so much for joining us. This has been excellent conversation. Appreciate it Dr. Lane,

Chad Bolser: 40:03

Yeah. Thank you so much.

Dr. James Lane: 40:05

Chad, thank you. Thanks for having me.

Chad Bolser: 40:08

Thanks for tuning into the Build Momentum for Education podcast. If you enjoyed listening today, we would love to hear your feedback, and we'd be grateful if you could leave us a review.

Sarah Williamson: 40:19

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