Season Finale: Big Thanks & Big Things Coming at Winter GAEL

Ready for a clear look at what leaders need next? We close the fall season with Cindy Flesher and a practical preview of Winter GAEL, our three-day gathering in Athens that puts member voice at the center. From the first survey response to the final agenda, every session is built to solve problems you face right now—recruiting talent, leading change, raising student outcomes, and reclaiming time.

We dig into four focused strands that make the conference easy to navigate and hard to forget. Building the bench shares how districts grow great educators and future leaders with real systems, not slogans. Leading forward highlights innovation, agility, and strategic change, with examples you can adapt. Driving student outcomes brings proven leadership moves you can use on Monday. Reclaiming time explores practical tools, including AI, to reduce friction and keep attention on what matters most. You’ll also hear why we expanded breakouts in response to your feedback, how we selected 39 sessions from a record 88 proposals, and what materials will be available afterward.

Keynotes bring depth and humanity. Kaitlin Roig-DeBellis focuses on resilience and moving forward after crisis. Joe Sanfelippo, former national superintendent of the year, shares how to champion people and culture. Brandon Fleming, author of Miseducated and a Harvard debate coach, offers a powerful story of second chances and high expectations. We also preview live Q&A opportunities with the presenters from our popular finance webinar series, plus anticipated updates from state leaders and the Department of Education.

If you’re new, we’ve got your back. We talk through how to make the most of affiliate meetings, hallway conversations, and the Sunday reception to build a network that actually helps when the job gets tough. Registration is open, and hotel rooms at the Hyatt and the new Marriott near the Classic Center go fast—book early to stay close. Subscribe, share with a colleague who needs this community, and leave a quick review to help more Georgia leaders find us.

Transcript

Meet Cindy And GAEL’s Mission

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Welcome back, Gail family. This is the final episode of the fall season of Gail Unscripted, and we're very happy to have you with us today. We've had an exciting uh fall season of podcasts. We've had some wonderful guests, and we're we've already got a packed schedule uh for next semester, the spring semester of our Gill podcast. Uh if some of you are are watching uh online, whether you do whichever platform you do, you may be thinking that you have some wonderful ideas that you're doing at your local school or in your district. We would love to have you as guests, so you can fill out some information, send Ivy Young, an email at Gill or me, Ben Wiggins at Gill, and we'd be glad to reach out to you and talk to you about the possibility of doing a podcast. We certainly prefer those to be in person. They seem to just flow better. Uh, but we do have the capability if you're if you're way off to do a remote version, but uh we do have that capability, but we have found that the face-to-face works so much better. So thank you for joining us during this first season and uh look forward to seeing you in the spring. I've got with me Cindy Flesher today. Uh Cindy, why don't you introduce yourselves? I know everybody knows you, but we probably have some new Gill members that may not know you and tell them what your role is here with Gill.

Member Feedback Shapes Programming

SPEAKER_01 1:48

All right, well, I am Cindy Flesher, and I'm the professional learning coordinator for the Georgia Association of Educational Leaders. Part of my heart and soul. I was a former uh Gill president back in 2013-14, and uh when this opportunity came available when I retired in 2021, it was an obvious choice for me to apply and um essentially be chosen for the position. We have three parts of our mission. One is to provide quality professional learning for our members, uh, one is networking opportunities, providing those for our members, and then uh promoting public education uh through advocacy uh during the legislative season and all year round. Uh so my job is to help create and um decide upon what kind of professional learning opportunities we're gonna have for our members, but I need you guys. You guys help uh us decide on those kinds of things by completing the needs assessment that we send out every year in February. We'll do that again uh this February, immediately after the Winter Gale conference, which will be February 1st through uh 3rd. So please be looking out for that and be uh willing to give your uh input on that because we definitely want to make sure that our programming aligns with the needs that you have.

Wintergale Overview And Goals

SPEAKER_00 3:06

Yeah, and you do a great job of not only putting those surveys out, but you go through those meticulously. We sit down as a Gale staff, we talk about those, and we take the feedback that our members give us, both for the per professional learning opportunities that we have, but even at our conferences. We make changes based on what our members share with us. And so uh like Cindy said, we really do value your feedback and input. It it helps us to know exactly what it is that you want as Gale members so that we can provide it. Cindy, you mentioned Winter Gale uh is coming up February 1st through 3rd in Athens. Why don't you tell our Gale members a little bit about what's in store for Winter Gale and maybe we'll even talk about uh lodging and hotel rooms and some of those logistical things too?

Four Breakout Strands Explained

Keynote Speakers And Themes

SPEAKER_01 3:54

Well, I think it's gonna be a great opportunity for networking, of course, which is one of our goals, is to provide opportunities to network with others and hear about some of the great things that other people are doing in other districts through the breakout sessions and just the downtime between sessions. Be able, you know, meet some other people and talk to them and ask them what they're doing and how they're dealing with some of the same struggles that you have because everybody deals with a lot of the same struggles, and some people have figured it out and some people haven't, and so that's a great opportunity to do that. We also have um our breakout sessions that um we have four strands for this time. One is um on building the bench, uh, growing quality educators and leaders, and so districts and schools have been selected to share how they're doing that, how they're recruiting uh teachers and leaders for their schools and districts. Another breakout session is leading forward innovation, agility, and strategic change. And we have quite a few uh breakout sessions and as far as that strand goes. We have another one on driving student outcomes with intentional leadership. So these are proven strategies in other districts that they're gonna share that you can take back and replicate or tweak a little bit to make it fit your needs in your school or district. And then the last one is reclaiming time for what matters most. That seems to be one of the hardest things uh for us as administrators sometimes is uh keeping the focus on the main thing. Uh and you know, some of those presentations in that uh category deal with AI and how to use um use AI to make your job easier, to work smarter, not harder. And uh so those are some things that you can anticipate as far as the breakout sessions. But our keynote speakers, I'm really excited about. We have Caitlin Roy Deballis. She was a kindergarten teacher at uh Sandy Hook Elementary School when that terrible event happened a few years ago with the shooting. And um she's not gonna spend so much time talking about the actual um event that happened at their school, but you know what happened afterwards and how you move forward from that. Uh Joe San Filippo, he um was a superintendent in Wisconsin and was actually the national superintendent of the year in 2019, and he'll be coming to share with us uh some of his thoughts. And then lastly, we have Brandon Fleming, um, who is the author of the book Miss Educated, and he's a worldwide renowned speaker. Um he was an at-risk youth uh college dropout who has totally turned into uh a successful educator, speaker, entrepreneur. Uh he has been uh a debate coach at Harvard University. So look forward to hearing what Brandon has to share with us. Um it's gonna be a great three days full of professional learning.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

That's great. You know, you mentioned those breakout sessions. That's one of the things that our members shared with us in the in those surveys and feedback is that our members wanted more breakouts. And and you've done a great job of of making sure that the breakout sessions are relevant to every educational leader's current position. Uh, but one of the magical things about Gale is, you know, the the turnover of leaders is so fast and furious now that not only are you able to come to winter and summer Gale and be able to get information and breakout sessions and professional learning for your current job, but you get it for your future job that maybe you don't even know about.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

Uh so you've you've done a fantastic job. And I think you shared with me that this was a record number of breakout proposals this year.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

I think that's we had eighty-eight proposals that were submitted, and there were so many of them that were so good, and we only have 39 spots for breakouts, uh, and that's across three rounds of 13 each. And uh so we did our best to pick um a good variety from small districts to large districts, small schools to large schools, elementary, middle, high, uh personnel focused ones. So there's a lot of variety in there. And I know um uh in recent feedback, what we have heard is please do some repeated session of the breakouts. We do not have any repeated sessions just because we did we hated to turn so many people away that had submitted great proposals. But what we do uh provide is after the conference, we'll we have a link to the presentations that are shared with us. There are a few of the presentations that we won't be able to share, like with our keynote speakers, we can't share those, and there may be a few of the breakouts uh depending on the the content of what they're sharing. We may or may not be able to share them, but that'll be available to everybody. So even if you can't attend every breakout session that you want to, you will have access to the presentation that was shared.

Hotels, Registration, And Logistics

SPEAKER_00 9:00

Uh we had a fall finance webinar series that was so popular, and we got so much feedback from our members that we've invited those folks to come to Wintergale, so they'll be doing breakout sessions. So if you uh saw those webinar series, which they're still available to our members, um, and you want to get more information, more details about that, those presenters will be at Wintergale and you can have the opportunity to ask questions right there. So that's a wonderful opportunity as well. Um let's talk a little bit about the hotel rooms. You know, all that information can be found on the website. Yes. Um first thing is make sure you're registered for Wintergale, but then if you haven't already, I would really start taking care of your hotel accommodations because those rooms fill up very, very, very quickly. And I know for the vast majority of our Gale members, they prefer to be at a hotel where they can walk across the street.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

Yeah, and the hotel situation is not as much of a crisis situation as Summergale. But for Wintergale, yes. If you want to be at the Hyatt that's connected to the Classic Center or right across the street at the New Marriott, you definitely want to go ahead and get those room reservations as soon as possible. And you can go to our Gale.org website on the events page, scroll down to Wintergale Conference, and if you click on that, you should be able to see the hotel links there.

Building Your Network With Affiliates

SPEAKER_00 10:22

Yeah, so we really look forward to seeing you at Wintergale. Cindy mentioned the networking piece being one of our three pillars. I can remember Cindy, the first Gale conference I went to, I felt very out of place. I didn't really know anyone. Uh I remember thinking, do I really belong here? Um why don't you talk about that a little bit? And maybe from your experiences, but what I found is coming back the next year, my network began to build, and it was amazing how my um network of colleagues around the state began to grow, not only in my current position, but for the other affiliates. Why don't you talk a little bit about that?

Newcomer Confidence And Community

SPEAKER_01 11:03

Well, and I would speak from my experience. Um before I um was in my final role in Houston County as the deputy superintendent of HR, and my my affiliate at that time was GASPA, I had been a part of GACES prior to that when I was the instructional coordinator for our school, and then I had also been a part of GAESP, which is the Elementary School Principals Association. In those affiliate groups, when I would go to the meetings, I know you think sometimes, oh, this is a business meeting, I don't know anybody, I'm not gonna go there. That's an opportunity to meet people in your like role that you can get to know and find some people across the state that you can reach out to, you know, as a support network for you, uh, especially those of you that are in small districts. If you may not have another elementary school principal in your district or middle school principal, that's a great way to start building that network. And um just don't be afraid to reach out and talk to people and ask questions. Um, and you do belong there. You are an educational leader in the state of Georgia, and that's what we're here for. And um, you know, take advantage of those opportunities to get to know people at the reception on Sunday afternoon immediately following the conference. Um, on that day, you can come in and uh have a a a nice little beverage if you would like, and um, that might help uh give you some liquid encouragement to reach out to people that you don't know about.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Thank you to Coca-Cola for being our sponsor. That's right. Our main partner.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

Um But yeah, just don't be afraid to get out there and reach out and don't feel like you have to know it all because none of us know it all. If somebody had all the right answers, they'd be making a million bucks and selling it online somewhere. I promise you that. So, but we can I I feel strongly if we can all come together and work together, put our brains together, we can come up with some great solutions in in our field.

SPEAKER_00 12:55

Yeah, and on the networking piece, I just strongly encourage you to put yourself out there, reach out to people, introduce yourself. Because what I've found over my career, Cindy, is every educational leader that I've come across has been more than willing to help me over the years. Uh, and I think that's what our our veteran leaders um they really understand that being their role as veteran educational leaders, and so they want to help you. Um, so reach out to them and and begin to build that network. Is there anything else you want to add about Wintergale before we sign off on this uh fall kickoff?

Final Invites And Holiday Signoff

SPEAKER_01 13:32

I can't think of anything. We just look forward to seeing you there and um you know, just to get registered if you haven't gotten registered, so we can go ahead and make plans on uh having everything that we need ready for you.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

Perfect. We've got the governor invited, we've got the chairman of both the House and Senate Education Committees, we've got DOE, you'll be there giving us imported updates. Uh it is a great conference that you don't want to miss. So we hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas and holiday season. We will be back on January 5th for our spring uh fall uh spring podcast series of Gail Unscripted.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

Merry Christmas