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Canyon Springs: From Promising Practices to Model PLC
Follow Canyon Springs Community School as it works towards Model PLC status through conversations about new and ongoing Professional Learning Community (PLC) practices at the school with the teachers inside the classrooms. Get invested in the student growth and learn the systems and practices that are having the greatest impact on student learning at Canyon Springs.
Canyon Springs: From Promising Practices to Model PLC
(Season Finale) Episode 17 - Superintendent Dr. Catherine Kawaguchi talks PLC Vision and Leading the District PLC Movement
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On the Season Finale and the 17th episode of Canyon Springs: From Promising Practices to Model PLC, listen in on the PLC journey with Canyon Springs as we work to be further recognized as a Solution Tree National Model PLC school. This week, meet the Sulphur Springs Union School District Superintendent, Dr. Catherine Kawaguchi, as she talks leading a PLC vision for 8 other schools alongside Canyon Springs, why everyone together makes it a movement and not a PLC Lite initiative, and how her experience both in the classroom and as a site leader is her PLC foundation for organizational leadership.
References:
PLC 4 Questions Flowchart - W. Richard Smith
Time For Change by Dr. Anthony Muhammed and Dr. Luis Cruz
Raising the Bar and Closing the Gaps
For more information on or about this podcast, contact Matt Gilpin:
mgilpin@sssd.k12.ca.us
Good morning. We hope you are having a very, very good start to your learning day. Welcome to the Canyon Springs from promising practices to model PLC podcast. I am your host and the principal of Canyon Springs Community School, Matt Gilpin. Okay, everybody. So today is the penultimate episode of our first season. We have worked ourselves up through this three-part season finale of leadership. We started with site leadership with our caps team, then we moved up to our assistant superintendent of ed services, Julie McBride, on the last episode. And here we are with our superintendent of the Sulfur Springs Union School District, Dr. Catherine Kawaguchi. She has been our superintendent for the last 12 years in our district. And prior to coming to Sulfur Springs, she taught in the classroom for 15 years, making an impact directly on students before moving into an assistant principal job as her administrative career continued. Then a principal of a low-performing school, which she led a turnaround effort on to great success, then stepping into an assistant superintendent of educational services for five years. Three years ago, she said yes to me bringing me to Canyon Springs. Thank you for being here. I will call her Dr. K, but Dr. Catherine Kalogucci, thank you.
SPEAKER_04Thank you so much for having me.
SPEAKER_00This is such a pleasure. Again, we have the last three episodes for listeners to be listening, we've been taking steps into from site leadership to organizational leadership. Um, and now we're at the top of our organization and really kind of the visionary and spearhead of what we're doing. And I always want to start everyone by asking this. Two years ago, we met, and we'll tell the story a little bit, when when Canyon Springs was identified as a school in need of comprehensive support and improvement, and you had a vision, and it had to do with PLCs, and I want to get there. But prior to that, I do want to just ask what was your experience with professional learning community prior to two years ago?
SPEAKER_04Yeah. So before we started the whole work with our professional learning communities and really developing it as a district, about five years prior to that, I actually had four of our teams already go through a beginning initial caps.
SPEAKER_02Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_04And um, we had written a school uh for a grant and we received it. And so we took four of our schools at that time. Um, it was fantastic work, but the professional learning community I noticed didn't develop and sustain because it was an online school.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that's interesting. I bet.
SPEAKER_04And so we worked, we learned, but then it began to fade away. And I saw that as a district, we were beginning to not grow like we needed to be doing. And so I remembered the work we had done with CAPS, and so I went back to Dr. Cindy Pillar, who started the whole work and asked her, what would it look like to bring all nine schools together? Because I truly believe in developing that professional learning. If we're gonna do it, we need to do it together, but we can't do it with just administrators. We need our teachers along the way and supporting us, and that's how the whole journey started.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Was it different? And again, and what's interesting, we've talked about this timeline is again, and maybe you remember the months, but we I remember that meeting with Cindy Pilar in the the district board board room. I don't remember if that was before we had the CSI meeting or after. I don't remember, it was like right at the same time.
SPEAKER_04It was before.
SPEAKER_00Okay, it was before.
SPEAKER_04Yes.
SPEAKER_00Okay, and so then when we had the identification and it was like an outside entity saying, improve. Yeah, you know, it's time to time to look in the mirror and improve. How did you know to couple both improvements at the same time? Cindy Pilar, we're investing all nine schools, Canyon Springs. We got to kind of double down. There's this, there's this, this, this gift of energy, money, and and momentum that we want to create. What was your thought press? How did you know to keep going deeper with PLC?
SPEAKER_04Because I had done a lot of work with the learning by doing book. So I'm gonna go back to even when I was a principal.
SPEAKER_00Please do.
SPEAKER_04And so the school that I had was a very one of the lowest performing schools in the district.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_04And we did deep work with the learning by doing book, which now has been rewritten, obviously. But I believe in that work and I knew the work worked when I was a leader. When I worked with Cindy Pilar the five years prior, working with the principals, she was bringing in Tom Manny and high-level educators that can really lead the work. And I know the work works as long as you have a system that's in place and you're very intentional about who you're bringing to the work. And so that's why I went to Cindy and I met with her because now in the process of working with CAPS, you have to be invited. It's not that it's it's open for all.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04But to get the expertise and the training with the highly, highly, you know, like Dr. Cruz, people like that coming to the table to work with you. You have to work with Cindy and show that you mean business and you want to support your teachers to get the end effect of supporting students, right? Yeah. To have those high levels. And so what I did is I met with Cindy and I said, look, we're kind of at a place where we're not moving. And I knew as a district we were not moving at the time, we were kind of just maintaining.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04But it wasn't enough. Okay. We had too many children that needed our support and they believed in us, and they were just waiting for us as the adults to get moving.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And so I met with Cindy and I said, I have nine amazing principals. I want you to meet them and I want you to talk to them about the work because she had already uh developed it more.
SPEAKER_03Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_04Let's get the principles behind this. We're going to do this as a team, and let's bring our teachers with us as well. And that's how the work started.
SPEAKER_00Which the structure of that, we we've talked a lot about it. That structure that it's not just the nine principals and some district staff. It is the nine principals. And if I can give a little bit more context to our CAPS room, it's often um, there's usually two schools per table, you know, myself with my teacher leaders, who you've heard, Cammy Sundy and Jessica Tobin, and then at a shared table with another principal with with her um teacher leaders. And then what's interesting is then you, as a superintendent, are there every meeting. And and our assistant superintendent, Julian McBride, you just heard, and also our director of curriculum, Stephanie Cruz, who will get here, you know, at some point. And how was that decision made? Because again, I'm not calling anybody out, but there aren't other schools from other districts. How did you make that internal commitment, external commitment? Stepping away from a day of being a superintendent is a big, that's that's a big thing to step away from. How did you find it to commit to six days to learn alongside of us?
SPEAKER_04So as a leader of a school district, I always go back to my teaching. I taught in the classroom for 15 years and I love teaching. That is where my heart and soul always goes. If I'm going to bring an initiative to a district, then I need to know it. Yeah. I need to learn it. And I how do I support it if I don't know what we're doing? So you will see, I will intentionally attend trainings.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I will go before if I have teachers going. So, like I shared with you, I know about caps. I knew about it. I went to them already before. Yeah. I just knew it had to look different. And so that's why I said if we're gonna move and we're gonna invest in our teachers to really develop systems and make a systematic change, I need to be there because I need to be listening to our teachers and see what they need. Where are the gaps? What do we need? What other additional training do we need to bring to the table and listen to our administrators so that they can see what's happening across the district and what supports I can bring in. The only way that happens is if I'm sitting at the table. If I'm leading from afar, it's a huge miss opportunity on my half. And so I don't want to have that happen to our district.
SPEAKER_00And again, if I can, I mean, you know, I it's there's nothing disingenuous. I am complimenting my boss at this point, but I want one of the fascinating things about you is your leading with curiosity, is as one of us principals reads about something new that's connected to the PLC unit or what we're experiencing with behavior solutions with the Hanigans. And I know that, you know, I attended, then you attended right after, and then Jimmy McBride talked about the fact that they did she attended with a different team. That vision to okay, I see the connection, I see tier one, like the language is lining up. I'm gonna double down on the investment again. Was that in your brain two years ago? Or is it this or is it the oh I the the curiosity aligns with the vision? Let's chase that that rabbit hole, or whatever I'm asking.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, two years ago, the vision was really focused on developing the professional learning communities, right? And I would say even deeper to the professional learning teams going through the five vessels, right? Really looking through those lenses and really looking at like when we talk about tier one, you know, instruction and support, what does that really look like?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04That was really deep two years ago, which is still continues today. However, now that we've become more knowledgeable as a team and with our teacher leaders, we get the opportunity to read additional books. We get opportunities to hear other presenters like, you know, Dr. Cruz and Paula Maker coming through as well and supporting our work and saying, Hey, did you read this book? Or hey, what do you think about this? To me, it all enriches the conversation and it allows us to continue to grow. And I always say this is a journey.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And those who think that we're on the PLC journey that it's gonna stop, one day it's not. We're gonna continue to grow and we continue to support each other as educators.
SPEAKER_00It's my favorite thing. Okay, so I want to tell a quick aside before I ask the next question. So, you know, my one of my favorite moments at CAPS is, and you just said it, when they preview a new book. Yes, Dr. K, it is within two to three minutes that all of us principals can pull out our phone and the text says, We just ordered this book for you and your teachers. It is creating just this library of knowledge for us that even just before we were, before we were talking, we were discussing the book Street Data, which I have not read yet. And you just said that came right out of caps, and it was like, okay, I just ordered this book. And I think it perpetuates the excitement, the energy, the learning that I'll deliver it with with our name labels on it. I'll take it to my teacher list. Like, okay, I'm ready to go. I'm not there yet, I'm still working on the other one. But um, it's such an exciting moment. I I mean, I love it in caps.
SPEAKER_04And I love learning. So the other thing I think about is I have the opportunity and the honor to have what's called a faculty advisory council.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So I meet with nine of our teachers every month. And for me to be able to engage in conversations around what we're doing as a district, when we're talking about essential standards and we're talking about tier one instruction and tier two and tier three, what looks like, we talk about these things at FAC as well. So it doesn't just happen at your school sites and your guiding coalitions and at your staff meetings. We also do it from a district perspective. The only way that I can keep and knowledgeable in those conversations is I need to educate myself and keep learning. And that's why you'll see when we got street data, I took that book. I already read the book, I marked it all up. Yeah. And I'm excited to then take that learning back to our ad co meetings with our principals. And that's another thing I do intentionally. I will lead ad co meetings and try to bring professional learning in that as well so that they're not what I call memo meetings.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And so that we're learning together. And then also you, as principals, see that I'm invested in your work. Absolutely. Right. I'm invested. I'm going to support you so that you can support your teachers. So what who gets the payoff of it? Our students, right? They're they're they're benefiting from it. And that's to me is the vision. I have to keep focused, and the only way to do it is through hard work. And I have to, I'm running to keep up with you guys.
SPEAKER_00It's an ex on your just a grander scale. I think I've said that in other episodes that, like, as my teachers get motivated, and and you can extrapolate out that your principals are, you know, teachers down to their classrooms, that yeah, I'm sprinting to keep ahead. Because while this teacher is inspired by assessment, you know, you've heard Alyssa Royal talk about assessment. Yes, you have another, another teacher, you know, fascinated with the feedback side of things and trying to research and keep up with both. It is a sprint. Yeah. But it's really fun. If I can go to our ad co agenda, right? Because one of my favorite things at the end of our the memo meeting, whatever, but there is a quote there from Time for Change. And I just want to ask why this one speaks to you. Because it's at the end of every ADCO agenda. You say this, we're done investing now. We would like a return on our investment because kids' lives are at stake. And that's written by Dr. Anthony Mohammed in Time for Change. Why that quote to define our ADCO agenda?
SPEAKER_04So it's interesting. So I put that quote, as you've noticed, not all year. Yeah. It wasn't there in the beginning of the year, but I kind of did it in springtime. And the reason for that is I'm like, hello, people. We've done two years of caps now.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04We've done additional trainings for the RTI conferences. The guiding coalitions are taking off, leading a lot of the work that's happening at our school sites. We've done investments. Now let's see what that looks like. Where's the return? And what I mean by the return of are the children thriving?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04What is your evidence? What data do you know that it's working? And just really holding us accountable for that, you know? And that's why I value that quote because I'm like, we can teach and teach and teach, but if people are not willing to take risk and not willing to try, and I always tell teachers and I tell them at FAC and I tell principals this as well, it's okay to fail.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04It's okay because as long as you're moving forward and you're trying, that's all we ask, you know, and just invest in our children.
SPEAKER_00Well, it's it's it's a demonstration of leadership with patience. You know, what is a return on investment look like at this campus compared to this campus compared to this campus? Because however you want to talk about it, I mean, people are in different paces or different spots or has a have a different identified need. So you're investing in there. But the idea is is we have to be gaining somewhere. And I think you identifying what the return on investment looks like is both comforting but also validating. As again, we were openly talking about this before I hit record, that sometimes I live and die by state test scores, right? And and um, that's hard for me. And I don't, I'm gonna get to a question here, as I am just simply one step removed from directly teaching students, yet still kind of live and die based on their performance on one test a year. And I can say all this as you've moved up the leadership ladder to superintendent now, and there's a couple of rungs between sometimes direct teaching of students, you know, there are times I've seen you directly teach students, but how do you grapple with, settle in, marinate, whatever word you want to say, with student achievement? You know, those those outputs of student achievement, and still look at all the success, find the patience to look for all the successes and the wins.
SPEAKER_04Because all the wins and successes look different. It is not one test that defines a child, it's not one test that defines a teacher or an administrator, it's multiple assessments. That's what I encourage people to look at. So I am very focused, and people have heard me say this for the past 12 years, I am focused on the whole child.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So I'm very focused and very intentional that if we make sure that our children are happy, thriving, they're not coming to school hungry, and we're making sure they're fed, then they're ready to learn.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And we have to focus on that. And to me, if a child is coming to school, and some of them don't have a home, they have a home life that is maybe very challenging for them. But we need to ensure when they come into our world that we are providing that nurturing environment. And if we're doing that to me, that's a win. See, I will count that as a win.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04If then maybe they didn't, they're not proficient in in English language arts, but yet they come to school and they feel safe, to me, that's a win. Now we'll work on the academics, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04But it's it's taking those steps and it's having patience. But as long as you're seeing growth, that's the main thing. And that's why I go back to what is the data telling you that you are moving forward? How do you know these children are thriving? What do you look at? And always go back to the multiple measures of you know, all the assessments we have. The state test is real right now. I know that our teachers are very much involved in it right now, vested, so is our administrators. But I will continue to say it does not define who we are. It is only one measure. It is something that we're striving for. It is serious, it's very important. Our LBAC assessments are very important. But we're seeing so much success in so many different areas this year. I mean, especially at Canyon Springs, how many children did you have reclassified?
SPEAKER_00We have 34 in counting, which is over 20% of our E. Yeah, we're excited about that.
SPEAKER_04Huge. The work that Ms. Eid is doing, right? And supporting the students, the work that all of your educators are doing on ensuring that you're really, really looking at what is designated ELD look like? Maybe with a different lens now, through the training that we've learned through our professional learning communities, really diving deep into what do all students really need to learn in Excel. To me, those are wins. And that's the way I look at it.
SPEAKER_00And I think again, and I love that because someone who does get hyper-focused and can, I mean, I always want to celebrate the wins, but as my staff often tea teases me, like I'm not always the most, and we've talked about this, I'm not always the most overt celebrator. Because I'm like, okay, great, we checked that win off. Let me go to the next one. And that can be, that can be hard, it can be await, but it also is very, very, very um comforting and reassuring to know that the the top of our organizate educational organization that we work in is seeing all of the wins and allowing for, you just talked about Miss Eid. Miss Eid, uh Hanini, who you have not heard yet, um, she is our English language development TOSA, our Ellett Learning Sport teacher, specifically geared towards our emergent bilingual students. And her entire year has been risk-taking. She's the first one in our district to have this defined role, and she has worked to develop cycles of intervention based on the LPAC, and it's all been an experiment to which she then said, hmm, okay, I didn't reach those five. Let me figure out what are the parameters for reclassification? How can I see she doesn't let them sit there?
SPEAKER_04No, she doesn't let them sit there. So that's the key. She moves them.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_04That's huge.
SPEAKER_00And again, and so that's where I want to go to another question, whether it's from Miss Eid moving the students. On episode four of this, when I got to talk to Dr. Cindy Pilar, right, who we we've referenced, she makes a comment about when she was first stepping into superintendency and talking about she she stepped. This is where the the conceit of caps came from, right? She's realizing that oh my gosh, her success is based so much on the success and effectiveness of her principals. I don't remember the number of schools she had. And then, so what is the support system for there? Is that something without getting into, I mean, whatever the effectiveness of principals, is that we often feel vague, I can I'll speak for all of us, all of them. You are an incredible support system directly to us, principals. I can call you on your multiple phones and you will pick up and say, is that something you again knew from Cindy Pilar? It was intrinsic. You you felt that as well stepping into this role that really investing in the principals leads to student achievement as well.
SPEAKER_04Absolutely. I from the moment, even through my whole administration going up, even as assistant superintendent, I used to supervise principals in a larger district. I had 20 principals during that time. Same approach. I truly believe as an administrator, our role is to be out of that district office and in the schools and in the classrooms because that's where the learning's happening. That's where the magic is taking place. As a superintendent, I can lead from afar very easily. I can sit and have all kinds of emails come at me all day. But I'm telling you, that's not where the work is happening. That's not where the magic is. And so I'm very vested. But you have to remember, I taught in the classroom for 15 years. That's my core.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04That is my love. So I will always lead from that perspective. And I have so much respect for teachers because they're doing the hard lift as well. And I also want to just remember being a principal, I loved being a principal. I I taught I was a principal for five years. I loved working with teachers and changing systems. I had a lot of much larger school and working to me, it's a challenge. I noticed that with myself. I like those challenges of how to create, and looking at our district, nine. I call them nine aircraft carriers that are floating on the ocean. And how do I keep them aligned and not let the aircraft carrier go off? Like it's okay if they stir off a little, but bring them back.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Because we need to be focused. And I think it brings us back to why did we, as a team, all decide, all nine, going to CAPS and learning together? I'll tell you something very interesting. At the professional learning community, at the CAPS trainings, and it happens almost every time that we're in the trainings. When we have to get up and talk to people you don't know, every time somebody sees my name tag and they see I'm a superintendent, they say, How did you get your nine schools to come together? And I say, Well, I just pull all the administrators out of the district office and I just put them in the schools. Like that's just what we do because if you're invested and you want to make sure and you're committed to the work, you will do whatever's necessary to make sure that teachers have the best resources and that the principals have the best resources. So our students benefit. Notice the people we're bringing to our district are like the top. Dr. Luis Cruz is going to be kicking off our school year as we're starting in the fall. Not everybody will invest that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04You know, but to me, I see the rewards already happening, right? We already see it because our children are thriving. We see the cultural shifts. We see people belonging coming together. And what I say to those educators that might like, I'm not sure yet. I don't know about this. That's okay. Allow us to still continue to educate you.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Right? Allow to be open to it. And we will work together as a team. That's always been my focus.
SPEAKER_00I love it. I will say, I thought you were going to say in the cast meeting, not the name tag. So whenever they tell us to get up and go talk with other people, most of the silver people, we all just find someone from a different site.
SPEAKER_03Oh, that's true.
SPEAKER_00Because again, it's not that they don't want to collaborate with other people in the room. I know the umbrella of learning that is taking place in this district. And so maybe I don't know how exactly it's being implemented at a pine tree or a fairks or one of our other amazing schools that I'll go to one of those teachers and say, like, okay, what does it look like? Not that I'm not interested in what it looks like at another district. I just then create a connection that I can say, okay, hey, that's interesting. Because you have the same, I mean it's the same everything. It's just a different building. And so I it's just something I've noticed that it's okay. So I want to go to something we do on this podcast is I try to pull from some research of quotes. So there is a book, um, Raising the Bar and Closing the Gap, Whatever It Takes, by um Richard and Rebecca DeFor. We quoted it last week um with Assistant Superintendent Julian McBride. So if you were looking at the book, which you're probably not, it'd be weird. Uh, but on page 188, there is a quote there. And I'm just curious your thought, because it struck me as it connects to our whole journey. And it says this launching the PLC journey will almost inevitably require tremendous personal energy and courageous patience on the part of school or district leaders. Ironically, however, the ultimate success of the initiative will depend to a larger extent on the ability of administrators to delegate authority and develop widespread shared leadership throughout the district or school. If the PLC concept is fueled solely by the energy and effort of a superintendent or principal, it will last only as long as the person remains in the position. When the concept is owned by the entire staff and led by people throughout the staff, the district, or school can endure in changes in key leadership positions without missing a beat. In the final analysis, the real effectiveness of school leaders in building a sustainable PLC culture will not be determined until they are no longer there to support it. Okay.
SPEAKER_04100%.
SPEAKER_00I love it.
SPEAKER_04100%. I believe that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And okay, but one of the things that's interesting is you are the energetic superintendent leading all of this, opening all of the doors for us.
SPEAKER_04I'm leading with others, though.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, okay. Tell me more about that.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. So if I came down and said this is what we're doing, but I didn't go back to when this started. Remember, I brought Cindy in, we had a conversation about it. I knew that we needed a commitment of nine principles with this, right? But it even starts further than that. I have five board members that I want to make sure that they understand why this is so important. Our board of trustees knows the work that we're doing in CAPS. Why? Because I make sure I tell them I share so much of the good work that's happening because easily in a school district setting, remember, I have all these contracts, I go to board meetings and they need to get approved. I always make sure our board of trustees understands why it's important to put all of these funds towards the work because we are exactly what that says. We're building a culture that if one day that I'm not there or you're not there, or a principal changes, the work still continues because it's infused into the system. Going back to remember, I told you we had gone to CAPS before. Perfect example. I didn't have everybody on board.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Right? So the work was there. Some of our principals who are in our district and some of the teachers were in that work. They remember it.
SPEAKER_00I think I've seen a notebook before.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. They they know the work, but it's different now because it's a cohesive system that's working together. I can go to any of our schools and have a conversation with a teacher about essential standards and they're gonna know what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I'm gonna have a conversation about what it means to do a common formative assessment and how does that work to ensure that we're having those deep discussions. They're gonna know what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04That might not have happened years ago like that because now we're together.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And so to me, I firmly believe that statement that you can't have, I don't want to call this as an initiative because initiatives sometimes go away.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04To me, this is a journey. This is an educational movement that we're committed to. And I always tease Dr. Cindy Pillar because she's like, you know, well, you know, this is you're going into your third year of caps. You know, maybe I'm gonna have to kick you guys out of caps. I'm already thinking as a leader as, oh heck no, it may look different after the third year. Maybe we invest in bringing those leaders now to our district and maybe it continues differently instead of us all going to see me. We'll see how that looks, right? We'll see what door is open, but we're gonna continue the work. And our teachers have the commitment that this is not something that's a flyby initiative that goes away tomorrow. No, we're like going into your three, but it's deeper than that. This is the work of digging deep as a community and holding ourselves responsible to say we're doing this for kids.
SPEAKER_00I love what you just ended with and saying that we're holding ourselves responsible and in going this vision. And it's it's really interesting the the fear of caps ending. I mean, because I'm so motivated.
SPEAKER_04And I've had teachers ask me that.
SPEAKER_00Oh, no, yeah, I was that's the story I was about to tell you was that both my caps teachers are like, what happens in a year? Because they love going. They love the again, talked a lot about you as like door opener, like, hey, go learn from this person. Cap you connect opening the door to caps and opening the door to other things, and saying, bringing this person in, just continuously putting us in front of the right people. Yeah, my caps teachers, I don't want it to stop, you know. And then I have other teachers saying, now that we've started this, this, this little project of the podcast and getting to talk to Cindy Pillar and hearing it saying, Well, I I never felt like I was missing out on CAPS meetings, but now I feel like I really want to be in that room. What is that, what does that look like? And so there's trepidation of like, where do we go? But again, I will tell you the vision of where we're going is you you've had it for two years, but I want to take you back further because you said something that I've been thinking about this whole time that I don't know how you when you were a principal and you were you took over you took over the leadership of a school that needed to improve, and you said you had read learning by doing what off a shelf? Did some you just picked it? Like where did that come from? Off of a shelf. And did you lead just through the book? Yes. How that is mind-blowing to me.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I didn't have the opportunities like this. Um that's district was very different, and I was the only I was I was by myself. I didn't have principals that I can collaborate with, but I did decided to develop my system with my teachers. And we did it.
SPEAKER_00It's amazing. And so there was there fear in there to like, okay, I found this book. I'm inspired by this book.
SPEAKER_04Because I didn't have anybody helping me.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04But I was like, well, it's gotta get better than this. You know, I mean, we were the lowest performing in the district. Yeah, there was no reason for that. Yeah. And so I was empowered to, and it was when we had year uh year-round different tracks. I had five tracks, so I had to be really innovative, and I realized right away from reading the book and looking at the systems, I had all my upper grade on all these different tracks, and you know about learning by doing, and you know about professional learning communities. You need teams to come together to talk. Well, nobody could ever talk because we're all on these different tracks. Yeah, and so I was a principal that went to the superintendent and said, I have a proposal to make.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_04My primary teachers were doing okay. My upper grade was not.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So I had to pitch to the superintendent and their colleagues of could I do a hybrid?
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_04And I created my own track.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And they let me do it. So in the district of 20, I had one track, it was called track E. There was no other school that ever had a track E, and we ran together, there were, they were not on multi-track anymore. Oh, interesting. So we went single track. I still had my primary and multiple track because I couldn't shift that right away. And my superintendent believed in that because he's like, okay. And I said, Look, I've never done this, I want to take a chance, but I've got to get these teachers together. They aren't coming together because the system is chaotic.
SPEAKER_00The system's beating good people.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, the system is not allowing us to even do that. And through that work, we shifted and created the change. And that's when we had program improvement and safe harbor and all that, which is very similar to CSI. They just changed the terminology.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04But I knew if I can believe in my teachers, the work was gonna happen. I'm gonna go back to when I came to your teachers and I remember their faces. And the one message I wanted to say with them was it's gonna be okay. Yeah, you know, and it's been fantastic. It's you know, but I'll never I'll never forget the look because I wanted them to trust me that it was gonna be okay. And that was another reason why, yes, we're gonna do casts, but that's why we brought in some additional support to help your teachers. And guess what? I made sure you guys got the best.
SPEAKER_00Well, and we, you know, yeah, again, that door opener is is, and it was you you did, and you were very good before I'd ever even heard in that specific meeting, right? You know, February 2024, I think it was. Yes, you were very good at using the language of caps or the language of PLC before I'd ever been a part of it. Again, we we we've taught I've talked about the fact that I'd been to a PLC institute, didn't have it just a one-off. So I'd read some books, I'd been to the PLC Institute, I knew I liked it, but I didn't have just the inundation uh of everything. And so then as I've been able to go through it, in that meeting to our staff when hey guys, California's identified you as being in need of support and improvement, don't panic. What you were simply telling everybody was it's the system, not the people. Yeah, it's the system, not the people. We will fix the structure, we will fix the system, not the people. And and our people are the same, you know. Not the and and I think two years later, I'm able to hear that message differently and better. At the time, it was teaching's emotional. Yeah, you put a lot of pride and energy into teaching, yeah. But you were just using language and saying we'll fix it.
SPEAKER_04And I think it's important that, and and I didn't share this with your teachers then, but I was a principal who had that told to me. Yeah, right. I had a staff of 48 teachers, and I had to tell them, guess what, guys? We're program improvement and we're going down deep.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So we got to do something. But I didn't have that. So that's when I brought the learning, I brought things off the shelf. Yeah. And I started to do that and build the system because I knew I needed to count on the people that are there because they're gonna make the difference. And I knew looking at your teachers, it's gonna be okay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Because you have a fantastic team here.
SPEAKER_00Ridiculous stuff. And again, the listeners have to be able to do that.
SPEAKER_04I continue to learn and question and challenge. And what I encourage them to do is take more risk and let it be okay. Just take risk.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I have so many more questions, but I I want to just finish with this thought. So the very last page of Learning by Doing, the book you pulled off the shelf, right, when you were transforming a school and have now come and brought it to a district in a in a just a giant cohesive program and vision. On the last page, page 307, it's there's a phrasing there that says, leading the courage to care. And I'm going to quickly read these two paragraphs and then just kind of go into some final thoughts with you. It says this developing a caring culture throughout a school or school district sounds simple, but simple does not mean easy. Creating and maintaining a culture of caring is a never-ending journey. And every journey has its detours, potholes, breakdowns, and unforeseen challenges. The journey is difficult, and success will not happen by accident. It takes strong, persistent, dedicated leaders at every level to create a district-wide, school-wide, or classroom-wide culture of caring. Success requires that leadership at every level, be intentional rather than merely hopeful. To paraphrase Richard DeFor and Robert J. Marzano, don't ask if you are creating a school culture. You are. Don't ask if the culture you are creating will make a difference. It will. The question is, what kind of culture will you as a leader create? When reflecting on the kind of culture students and adults need, leaders would be well served to remember Maya Angelou's observation that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you make them feel. That's the last two paragraphs of Learning by Doing, a book that transformed your leadership and is taking it. Where does that resonate with you today in terms of your leadership now?
SPEAKER_04Relationships. It always does. I am a very relational uh leader. Um it's very true. No matter what you say, they're not gonna remember, they're gonna remember how you feel and how you left them, right? When you're having those conversations. I'm gonna go back to what is the role of the superintendent. My vision is to get myself out of the district office and get into the classrooms. Start to be relational, really be with the people so that they see that I am trying to learn with you as well, so that I can be a better support. And to me, that's what that's saying. It's like develop your relationships, let people know you care, and that also let you let your organization know that this is an environment that it's okay to make mistakes because we're gonna pick you right back up. Yeah, right. We're gonna do the risk together because we're learning together. And the other thing I tell our educators is our children are changing every year from one year to the next, right?
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04When I started 12 years ago, it is very different. When I came into our district, we didn't even have any supports of social emotional supports in place. Yeah. Today we're sitting with over 11 social workers. It's it's today. We're sitting with social emotional supports from the heart, William S. Heart Union High School District with counselors. We have that in place. We have BCBAs in place, and yet we're still developing our professional learning communities, right? Because remember, it's that multi-tier system of support. We're gonna turn the learning, we're gonna do the academic, but how do people feel? How do people want to be here? Do they want to be here? Do they want to be working? I pay attention to that. Yeah, how do they feel about the organization they work in? That's important to me. And I love when I have teachers who take a moment to just email me and say, Hey, I just wanted you to know this. Yeah, I will have teachers email me pictures and say, I just wanted you to know this happened in my classroom. Yes. And you know what I do with those pictures? And and your teachers have seen me take pictures when I do my learning walks. I send those to our board of trustees. Why? Because I want them to know the great work that's happening in our district and I want them to celebrate with us as well. And they do, they love it, and then they support the initiatives, and it develops a stronger family bond that we have in our district around that relationship.
SPEAKER_00It's unbelievable. Again, I've had the privilege of working in four school districts for a number of superintendents. I will tell you, Dr. K, um, I've never worked under someone with such a vision, and and and this is where we're going. And the the leading with care, you talk about a lot about um, you know, the the the your vision, your plan is to get out of the district office and get here. And we were talking about this just I get confused in these conversations whether it hit record or not record. So I apologize if I've said this on here. But um you know my teachers. Like I mentioned a name and you you know them, you know the students in their room. I I observed this last year where there was an incident with a teacher, and I forget exactly all the details, but before we had a meeting, and before you got to me, she was back through, and you just went right to her and you said, How are you? Are you okay? And it had been four hours old. Like it wasn't a month's old thing. The the knowledge you have of it, which I think has it, it's it's it astounds me and and probably leads to your sleeplessness. But from that meeting in February along Canyon Spring specific journey, your knowledge and support of every single step of our way has been groundbreaking for us in your knowledge of every step. And it has allowed us to, and I think I made this comment before, not feel like we're going out on a limb. We have very strong branches underneath us as we decide what risk we're gonna take next. Hey, I want to go to this training, I think I'm gonna apply it here. And your patience and support for us to say, I don't remember all two and a half days, but I'm gonna do these three things. And you can go, okay, go, and then the results for it. It's it it is unimaginable that that this is the level of support we get. And all I can just publicly do is say thank you because it has opened the door for Canyon Springs to get the momentum that we have.
SPEAKER_04It's truly an honor. Yeah. I mean, I love our district when I say that it's totally in my core. Um, how I know people's names and children's names is because I don't allow our district office to work in a silo. Yeah. So Paul Forsena, executive director, right? He will tell me I he always knows I want to know what's happening.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04He'll let me know here are some of the struggles, here's what we're putting in place. Even the successes, yeah, right. Again, hey, this little one has her one-on-one fading off. They're doing fantastic. That's a celebration. Yes. We need to celebrate that. Those are the wins. These are what I'm talking about. But is that a win on a state test? No.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04But is it a win for the child developmentally? Absolutely. To me, that counts.
SPEAKER_00And I think, well, it does count. And I think it leads into going right back to all the thing we talked about is leading with the patients. Yes. That, yeah, the direct result of that fade out plan for the supplemental adult support. Yes. It may not lead right into a state test score that year, but maybe two years down the road, it will.
SPEAKER_04Yes, or when they're walking in high school, they're by themselves and they're doing their successful in life.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely.
SPEAKER_04That's the way I look at it.
SPEAKER_00Okay. So, Dr. K, um, really the last question I have here is, and I always ask people, like, what where are you excited by next? I know some of our district investments, I know we're kind of where do you see us going as a big organization next and and how and and where of which Canyon Springs will be a part of?
SPEAKER_04I'm just so excited about next year already. So we have so much great learning that's happening. But the one big focus area that I've heard and I really want to just thank our teachers is around how do we support all of us to understand what are some of the life skills that our children are missing that we need to develop and support them in. And so we're gonna have a lot of professional learning around behavior solutions. We know that, that's coming in. But I want to approach it around the life skills. And if we can really take a deep dive at tier one and look at when we're talking about life skills, we're looking at maybe we have a child who has high anxiety. You know, they're very stressed about whatever it is that's going on. A child's very shy. There's things that they need to develop. What can we do together? I'm excited about that. What are we gonna take that to another level? Because we focus so much on the academic. I'm excited to also go on the social emotional part too.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_04And how do we bring that common language together, right? So we talk about tier one academic. Guess what? We're gonna talk about tier one life skills.
SPEAKER_00And I love it because I think I I mean I'm I'm I think there's little bumps on my arms. I mean, I love the hair standing up because uh it's the reason I chose elementary school is you can, and I just said it on Julie McBride's episode that you're here. If you if you have the fortune that you're you you don't move around, or maybe you've only moved once, you're at an elementary school longer than any other school you'll ever go to. And if at the end of your sixth grade year or fifth grade, if your district ends at fifth, and you still love going to school, it still means something to you, that's a win. Yeah, you'll you'll step into the the junior highs and the high schools with the momentum you need.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_00I love it.
SPEAKER_01Exactly.
SPEAKER_00Thank you so much for not only everything, but for sitting down with me here on a Tuesday midday. We appreciate it. So thank you very much, Dr. Q.
SPEAKER_04It's so much fun.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. Now turn to your PLT for the next step in your PLC at work journey, and we'll see you out there. You can find more information about this week's episode in the podcast description. The intro and outro music provided courtesy of the Signors of Marseille, and podcast cover art provided care of Joel B.