Episode 4 Interview with Mark Bielang, Superintendent of Portage Public Schools

Throughout his tenure, Superintendent Bielang has consistently displayed unparalleled dedication and passion for creating an educational environment that nurtures every student's potential. In this exclusive podcast interview, he candidly discusses the challenges, triumphs, and innovative strategies he's implementing to shape the future of education in Portage.  You can also learn more about his work by visiting the district website https://portageps.org.

Transcript

TD Flenaugh  00:04

Hello, thank you for joining falling for learning podcast. I am TD Flenaugh. I'm a veteran educator who's worked in several different roles in a large public school district. I've worked as an elementary, middle school and high school teacher, as well as an instructional coach for individual schools, such as elementary schools, high schools, as well as worked under the directors or the principals, supervisors, as an instructional advisor for English language arts for 39 schools, and then later for 20 schools supervised by a particular administrator. So I have extensive experience with working with schools and teachers and students from pre kindergarten all the way to 12th grade. And so as a parent, coupled with my experience, as a parent, I have extensive knowledge and how to make sure that students are prepared for the next level, and that they are on track for learning and to stay on track for success. So much for joining us on the falling for learning Podcast, the podcast is for parents, to really help them to understand tips and strategies and information that they need to make sure that their students are achieving at high levels, K through 12, right? And what they need to do on their site to make sure that they're setting their child up for success. So I'll let you Superintendent Mark Bielang kind of introduce yourself and tell us about yourself.

Superintendent Mark Bielang  01:56

Sure. My name is Mark. I'm not currently serving as superintendent of public schools. We're a district of just under 9000 Students located in Portage, Michigan, which is in the southwest corner of the state of Michigan. Our community is it we're a suburban community, just south of Kalamazoo. Mostly a typical of many suburban communities, high percentage of white students, we have some minority students and our demographics are changing. We, our family speak over 50 different languages in our community. So we're trying to meet their needs as well. But that's a little bit about the district. Myself, I'm been in this business for quite some time. And I started out as a industrial arts teacher, I taught middle school shop, and then moved into the high school level where I taught construction trades, our students build homes, out on a on a job site. And then from there, I decided that I really wanted to pursue administration. So an opportunity arose where I became an assistant principal, the high school, later moved into a high school principal shift and two different schools, and finally, took a superintendency in a smaller school district of about 2000 students where I served in that capacity for 18 years. And I'm currently in starting my 11th year as superintendent of schools in Portage, Michigan.

TD Flenaugh  03:41

So we're glad to hear and kind of lean in on some of that expertise that you've had for so many different roles within education. So what brought you into education? Like what was the reason that you decided to pursue this career?

Superintendent Mark Bielang  03:59

It was all because of a teacher I had in high school. There was a obviously my interest has always been around woodworking. And that got me into the construction trades. That got me into industrial education. But I had a teacher in high school who took a real interest in my abilities. He saw something in me that others didn't see. And he was the guiding force that that I got, I became passionate around not only the content, but yeah, and making sure or wanting to help others understand woodworking in this particular case, the same level of I did so as I did. So. This was a gentleman that that believed in me, gave me opportunities both in the classroom and outside of school to help him on some projects that he was working on. And that's what really ignited my passion for getting an education. I knew what I wanted to do from day one, like going into college.

TD Flenaugh  05:00

Wow, that's really fascinating. So that one educator really made a difference in your life as far as helping you to choose a path. And, and I, what really stands out to me from that is that a lot of educators are, you know, very academic and they really, you know, focus in on that part. But you came in from a trade aspect, I think. And so I think that is interesting. And how do you all how do you in the school district where you serve? How do you all foster that so not just, you know, maybe an academic, but also those trades as well, and maybe even business as far as students in their career path?

Superintendent Mark Bielang  05:41

Yeah, I've been a big proponent of career technical education, obviously, coming from that background back then we call it vocational education. Now we call it a CTE career technical education. We're very fortunate in our area, to have a very strong program and partnerships with the nine other school districts that belong in our county, we're organized around a county based system. So the nine schools have combined efforts, and we call it currently, it's been called education for employment, where different schools will offer different programs and our students are bussed back and forth or drive to other schools to get programs that we may not offer. Our community, our larger community, the Kalamazoo County community has supported a millage to support career technical education. And we had a an anonymous source who gifted us $100 million was the land to build a CTE center. Wow, that construction has just started. But we're putting pulling together many of the programs that the locals had, into a central site into a beautiful facility. So our students will have access to programs like never before. And we're hoping that by eliminating them kind of that, you know, that competitive nature that exists between students and schools, some kind of some some students from going to another school because they're a competitor in athletics, you know, and in the arts. So having a neutral site, we, we believe will increase enrollment in those areas, and provide state of the art technology that they'll be able to operate Merredin.

TD Flenaugh  07:35

Okay, that's really fascinating. So you are saying that, that money is for all nine of those schools, nine of those counties or something like is that right?

Superintendent Mark Bielang  07:46

It's nine different school districts, but we belong to a service agency. And so the kind of the vehicle that's receiving those funds, is the the ESC the educational service agencies, they're responsible for constructing the facility, and coordinating the programs that will be held at that site.

TD Flenaugh  08:07

Okay, that's really great to hear, you know, pooling of resources, people working together, and all of its for the, you know, promotion of students and making sure students have what they need, right, and not just thinking about the academic aspects, I've definitely been guilty of that, as a teacher that, you know, started off on really academic is really not always recognizing the importance of the vocational or career technical and education, and then also the business aspect of, of what students can do to contribute to the economy and our society. So I'm glad that you all are bringing that together. And that definitely sounds like something that people around the United States can take. Notice that there may be duplicate different type of programs like that for you. So that's really good.

Superintendent Mark Bielang  09:00

Yeah, not, you know, not every student is destined to go to college. And, you know, preparing students for whatever they believe their next phase of life will be, is so important to us. And that doesn't preclude the fact that students who go through a CTE program can go on to college. Many do. I mean, I did I was in, in vocational programming, industrial education in high school, but knew I wanted to be a teacher. But that was my content area. So I think kids need to find their own passion and dabble in different things. You know, this, it doesn't just start in high school, this this career technical center, we're already starting programming for seventh and eighth graders, exposing them to different careers where beyond just what their family might be involved in. And so many of our students don't see those, those trades and those activities going on so they don't even understand what the possibilities are. So what was in those The our youngest children to our younger I wouldn't say youngest, but our younger children to, to what's possible is so important to us as well.

TD Flenaugh  10:10

Absolutely, I'm really glad that you have this aspect that is really thriving and being nurtured in your school district and the surrounding districts that you work with. Yeah, I just think that's one of the missing links, right, we forget some of us forget students who aren't on the academic path. And I think there was a time depending on the school district or the area, that when they tracked kids, you know, like maybe you know, someone's, for trade or someone's for academic, that maybe at the end, that I wouldn't have the skills like, if I chose the trade, I wouldn't have the skills depending on my my other classes didn't prepare me to be able to go to college. But I think now, most of the districts have it normalized, where there's all the classes pretty much will prepare you of course, there's advanced level, but even the basic level, or the regular classes, still are going to be able to prepare you for college. And I don't think that was the case. Always. And so sometimes people don't really notice that because before you put were put on a track and you didn't have a college level courses that you need it. So

Superintendent Mark Bielang  11:23

we're very fortunate our community and I speak of Korean specifically, has been very supportive of education in general. I mean, they've been very generous with, with with providing us with new facilities, we're in the middle of a building project now, or replacing five of our oldest elementary schools, we've already built new middle schools. And that's all to support our students, we want to make sure that our students are in the best possible places they can be. And, you know, so we, we do offer things like the international baccalaureate programs who, for those that really want to push themselves that in that way. So again, that's a that doesn't happen without a lot of community support and understanding that it takes additional funds to run those kinds of programs.

TD Flenaugh  12:13

It makes me think, as well as about what your ultimate goal is, as a leader. And, you know, maybe like what are your five year goals as a leader of Portage schools?

Superintendent Mark Bielang  12:23

Well, I'm, I'm kind of towards the end of my career as a superintendent, five years from now, I'm I hope to be, you know, retired and doing some things that I haven't been able to do. So being our primary goal here has been to create the best possible environment for students success. And so our kind of our strategic commitments that we call them, are primarily focused on our students. But we also realize that they need to be in a culture that supports them. So as I look at what I'd like to see happen down the road is for that culture to continue to grow. So that we can be as best positioned as possible to support all of our students no matter what they bring to the table, when they come through our doors, is that we can create an environment that supports them so that they can be successful to reach their potential. And, and that's hard work because there is no end to that work. That's that's ongoing work. Just if you think there's an end to building culture, then you've got a pretty short sighted view of what has to happen. And culture is hard to change so much. I wouldn't even call it resistance there's so much pressure to maintain what is because people are afraid to change or unwilling to change are scared of change. I don't know how to frame that exactly. But change is difficult. And culture requires change. Changing culture requires people to change as well. So I just I hope that some of the practices that we'd begun to institute in our district continue to grow and, and become hardwired so that they happen all the time automatically.

TD Flenaugh  14:29

Listen, parents, it's summer. The days are flying by. You know, you need to buckle down and provide learning activities for the kids to prevent the summer slide. Let me help you out. Join our email list and an exchange you will get our freebie. 10 ways to squeeze learning into the busy days. Don't let another day go by without providing fun and learn words Have you tell us a little bit more about some of those practices that you have that you are cultivating and that you hope continue,

Superintendent Mark Bielang  15:09

one of the things that we really become good at is the rounding all of our leaders round on other people. So I'm using myself, for example, outside of the evaluation process, I meet with a members of my executive team. So there are there are nine people on that team. I meet with them. It's a quick, informal way of touching base with boats to find out what's going well, in their day, there are a set series of questions that take no more than five or 10 minutes, what's going well? Are you getting the resources that you need? What can we do to improve? And is there anyone who has supported you that you'd like me to recognize, so that gives us a chance to recognize employees who have had contributed, contributed to someone else's success. So rounding has been an effective process, I also run with school board members. So twice a year, I need to individually with each board member, and ask similar questions that gives me a sense of where they're headed outside of the boardroom, where we're not having that discussion, in a public way. And then the important part of that is closing that loop. So once I completed my browsing with administrators, we sit down together, and I report out, this is what I heard from you. And it gives everyone a chance to hear what everyone else is saying not individually by name, but I look for themes and threads, that I can share with them that, you know, that raises some issues that we've been further need to do it, I do the same thing with the school board, which means as a board, it's usually part of my evaluation process where we do that. And it gives them a lot of good feedback, it gives me a lot of input and feedback as well. So that's the practice of rounding our principals do that with their teachers, they can take a group of other employees paraprofessionals, our support staff, custodians, maintenance, food service staff. So it's not just limited to, you know, direct reports, but but anybody in the organization that you want to get feedback from the other, the other practice that that we've really institutionalized is surveys, we survey our students, we survey our parents, and we survey our employees. So we get ongoing feedback from those groups as to their perceptions about what we're doing. So the same thing holds true there, we get the information. And what, what many people what many schools don't do is, is report back what they heard. So for example, with students, I get a report after the after students take the survey, and I happen to have a formed a student advisory board, that means to me on a monthly basis, and at a high level, I'll share results with them. And then we focus on on the on the top one or two things that we're doing well, and we get feedback from all your students as an example. You know, what are we doing that we need to keep doing that gives us gives us these, these results in these categories? And then where were we scored lower? It's the same sort of thing, what what can we do? And what would what would cause us to get a higher score in these areas? What would we need to do, and get that same feedback. So it gives me a sense of the types of things we need to work on. That allows me connect with our students to know what's on their mind. And, and then we develop action plans from that, and then that cycle continues to go. So it's like that plan, do study act cycle, but we're making sure that we let people know what we're doing. So that next time they take the survey that we're reminded of what we've done to improve on what we said we're going to do, and that's built, I set it a bit at the district level, but each building level leader gets information for their building from their parents, on their staff, and from their students. And that's where the really the work takes place. So those are a couple things. I know that was a little long, but

TD Flenaugh  19:34

no, it was excellent, very thorough, and it really sounds like you have a lot that you can share with other leaders around the country. My last question is like what message do you have for parents, as they're guiding and helping their kids learn and grow? What message do you have for them that they could do or that will really be helpful and giving them the advantage? So?

Superintendent Mark Bielang  20:02

Well, that is that is a huge question because it you know, as kids change as they're going through an educational system, you know, I think the better you know your kids, and are able to share that information with their teachers, so that teachers had to help teachers build that relationship with kids, that relationship piece, in my mind is so important. I just I look at when my three kids were growing, going through schools, and I've used them as an example. When I think of the term rigor, relevance and relationships, I had three kids, each one of them was tied to one of those characteristics, our oldest was all about rigor, throw her as much as she could get, you know, and she would handle that. And the sheet that was that was tied to how she was able to thrive was his teachers who recognize that our, our middle daughter, was all about relationships, if you'd couldn't connect with her in a personal way, she wasn't able to produce what she you know, and reach her potential. And then our youngest our son was about relevance, if he didn't understand what he was doing, why he was doing it, he wouldn't put the effort forth to do that. So, so I think parents understanding their children's kind of their learning style, or where they really thrive, and being able to work with with staff members on, on helping support that aspect of it, or at least recognizing that I found to be very helpful. One of the things I wish I would have done in retrospect, was kind of forced them into certain opportunities, that that would help them develop skills that would help them later on, and that was, you know, things like forensics, or debate, or, or areas where there were there, there up in front of their peers or the public to perform. Because those are skills that develop confidence, and allow you to, to flourish outside of the classroom in the future. So those are just a couple things that come to my mind initially.

TD Flenaugh  22:25

Excellent, I think you have so many gyms, you know, to offer parents, you are a parent, you are a, you know, a leader, you've been a teacher. So, so many different aspects of your experience are, I feel like are very helpful for our audience, as they are trying to navigate, you know, the educational system for their child and what works best for them. And it really resonates with me as well, because as I talked to parents, I really talked to them about, of course, math, skills, reading, writing, but I also really stressed the speaking and listening, because that means so much when people have to go on interviews, or when they're articulating themselves and working together with people that missing aspect could really be a make it or break it for kids. So you recognize that you said the same thing. So thank you so much for meeting with us. So you, I don't know, like if there's a way, you know, if parents want to reach out to you, or if they want to find you or they want to see your speeches or your meetings, where can they find you?

Superintendent Mark Bielang  23:37

We just updated our website, I think it went went live last Friday. So there may still be a bugs, a few bugs in there. But we can be found at portageps.org. That's according to portageps.org. And that's our website. And people can learn a lot more about us. They're

TD Flenaugh  24:01

great. Thank you so much for your time. And I really appreciate you following up. And I'm very excited that you know I got to talk with you. And just hear some of your wisdom. And from all your experience.

Superintendent Mark Bielang 24:18

Well, thank you. Thanks for the opportunity. It was fun to do this. It's you know, you don't always get a chance to talk about, you know, your own personal journey and where you've been and where you still want to go. And so thanks for this opportunity. I hope there's a morsel or two that people will be really helped by this.

TD Flenaugh  24:37

Okay, thanks.

Superintendent Mark Bielang  24:38

Thank you so much.

TD Flenaugh  24:46

At the falling for learning podcast, we are here every week. Saturdays at 5pm is when we drop our new episodes. Please listen in every week for the strategies and tips to keep you and the next generation on track for success. You can also find us on YouTube by going to youtube.com/at fall for learning. Again, that's youtube.com at foul the number for learning. We really appreciate you and we are here on a mission to make sure that that next generation is on track for success and on track

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