Dr. Paul Marietti: Lancaster School District

What does it mean to lead when you’re accountable for everything—but in control of very little?

In this episode of School District Superheroes, Nick Telford sits down with Dr. Paul Marietti, Superintendent of Lancaster School District, to explore the realities of leadership at the highest level of public education.

Dr. Marietti shares his journey from a blue-collar upbringing—where college wasn’t the expected path—to becoming a district leader responsible for thousands of students and staff. Along the way, he reflects on the power of mentorship, perseverance as a struggling student, and the defining influence of his mother’s belief in education.

At the heart of the conversation is a powerful reframing of leadership: the superintendency isn’t about doing the work—it’s about owning the responsibility for it. 

Together, they unpack:

•  The emotional and professional weight of leading a school district 
•  Why leadership becomes less about control and more about trust 
•  How to build alignment through clarity and consistent communication 
•  The growing challenges of AI, misinformation, and student behavior 
•  The expanding role of school districts as essential community support systems 

This episode offers a grounded, honest perspective on what it takes to lead in today’s educational landscape—and why the best leaders focus on building people, not just systems.

Transcript

Paul Marietti 0:00

The idea of a superintendency, it's not about the work, it's, it's about the responsibility for the work. and that's something that is very stressful. when you carry the weight of the decisions, you make the decisions that other people make, the actions of other people, you carry all that on you. I'm held accountable for the actions of our, of our staff, our teachers, our directors, our assist, everybody, ultimately if things go well, we celebrate together. if things go poorly, that falls on me

Speaker 0:31

You're listening to School District Superheroes, a podcast that puts the super back in superintendents. In each episode, you'll learn how today's most innovative superintendents are re-imagining what's possible for students, staff, and their communities. And now for your host, Nick Telford.

Nick Telford 0:50

Well, welcome to, our school district superheroes. Paul, the podcast, highlight the super in superintendent. Uh, thanks for thanks for being part of this.

Paul Marietti 1:00

Absolutely. Thank you for having

Nick Telford 1:02

Great. So, yeah, today I'm joined by, uh, the wonderful Paul Marti, superintendent of Lancaster School District. Uh, and, uh, I've known Paul for quite a while. Uh, one of the most genuine and, innovative folks that I've had the pleasure of getting to know over the years and, uh, looking forward to this conversation today. So yeah. Welcome. Welcome, Paul. To kick things off, who was your favorite superhero growing up

Paul Marietti 1:31

Uh, growing up I used to read a lot of Marvel comics. and so I would have to say my, my first favorite superhero was Captain America. And I, I read a lot of that and I read a lot of Spider-Man. But yeah, I was, I read comic books as a kid, so absolutely.

Nick Telford 1:47

Okay. What was, uh, what resonated most with you about Captain America? Was there any particular qualities he had that resonated?

Paul Marietti 1:56

Uh, you know, I, I like the, uh, I, I like the backstory, you know, him being a, a World War II soldier and I ended up, I was very interested in history. I ended up becoming a history teacher, so that, that piece of history, that World War II history and his backstory and, yeah, and, and a, and a little guy turning into a superhero. I was, I was a pretty tiny guy back. I'm not tiny anymore, but I was a pretty tiny little guy back then.

Nick Telford 2:20

could you maybe talk us through, through your background, maybe just talk us through your, your early days and, Any, anything in particular that maybe shaped your, uh, path to, uh, a life in education.

Paul Marietti 2:33

Absolutely. You know, I, I come from a pretty blue collar family. My father was a plumber and so, um, I grew up, uh, kind of around the trades and around the unions and, um, my brothers are all plumbers. So there's, there's five boys in my family. Really growing up there was kind of, you, you, you grow up and you went into the trades and you took the family business. But, uh, I had a mother who wanted something different for me and she really wanted, um, me to get an education. Um, and so, she really, Put those ideas and those beliefs in my head that I could go to college and I could get a degree. And that was something that, I ended up pursuing and I was the first in my family to, to get a college degree. Having brothers who are plumbers are very capable. They, they didn't under really understand why I needed it. I, I went to college four years and I came out and I really didn't know how to do anything right. I couldn't, couldn't fix a car or, or change out plumbing or do anything. But so they kind of made fun of me for it for a while, but, uh. I really found my home. I wasn't the best student in the world. I struggled, uh, academically. I had, I had some attention deficit growing up, but you know, I just stuck to it and worked hard and and, uh, pursued a degree and pursued a career in teaching.

Nick Telford 3:53

you you mentioned your mother saying that sense of confidence in you that you could go and, you know, go to college. You're the first one in your family, as you mentioned, Is there anything, there must have been something, she would've presume, treated all your siblings the same. Was there anything that you think was different about how you, how A message that you, you took from her or, anything else that, a reason that you were the one to choose that kind of, that college path?

Paul Marietti 4:18

you know, my mother was a fighter. My mother really did believe in servant leadership. you know, I, I saw my mother through her faith in the Catholic church. She worked, you know, she, she taught, uh, catechism classes. She's LEC at at mass. she was a teacher herself in her own way through, through the church. She was a, she was a paraeducator, a special education paraeducator. so, she really was a role model for me growing up in in every, in every aspect of her life, whether it was her faith And whether it was her family, or whether it was working in, in the community.

Nick Telford 4:50

And you mentioned you weren't, um, the best student and, your words now, not mine, but you hear that, I hear that a lot from people who've gone on to, to be very successful in their lives is that, you know, in elementary school, they weren't top of the class or achieving the grades that maybe they. They would've wanted to, or their parents wanted for them. What is it that you think if, maybe if there's some, you know, young students this into this podcast what are the traits that you think are, foundational to maybe long-term success? 'cause they, they couldn't all be just academic. Right. so could you maybe just give us your insights on. What skills you did think you, learned during your early days in school and that maybe has stayed, with you to this day?

Paul Marietti 5:35

So, you know, I'll tell you, you know, my story I always tell is that, uh, when you, when you come across educators. They tend to have been good students. So when you talk to teachers they'll say, well, I love school. I did. I was a good student. I loved school. I enjoyed it, and I decided to pursue uh, a career in it. Uh, you don't too often find someone who says, I really hated school, and because I really hated school, I went into education. That doesn't happen very often. Uh, in, in my case I did struggle in school and I, and I was, um. Like I said, I had a little attention deficit, a little hyperactivity, and I was outta my seat a lot and I was always moving around and I couldn't sit still, and I got in trouble a lot. And so that was a struggle for me early on. And um, it wasn't until later as I, as I got older and I, I calmed down a little bit. And, and then I had certain people in my life who were role models, uh, teachers, that I, I looked up to that actually, you know, said I could, like my mother said I could do and be something more. And so, um, that's when I had the idea of maybe I could, you know, maybe I could pursue a, a, a degree and my degree was in a history. And so there's really not a lot you can do with a history degree. Uh, uh, education obviously is a, is one of the openings there. So I thought, well, maybe I could be a, I could be a teacher and, um, and so that's what I pursued.

Nick Telford 7:01

Yeah. Uh, so that, that love for history, I think it'd be, you know, you find one thing that you are really good at you really, it, you're drawn to it. And, and I think that's sometimes the, uh, the catalyst for opening up with the doors in terms of, you know, what, what will continue through that path in education. so when, when you, you know, you're taking a quickly moving forward in terms of being a superintendent, Your first superintendency position, when you took on that role, uh, was it what you expected? could you maybe tell us a little bit about the journey and the lessons you learned at there?

Paul Marietti 7:40

So, you know, I, I worked my way up, uh, through education. I sat in all the chairs, the various chairs, and, you know, I decided well, maybe I can do that. Maybe I can become a superintendent. And, um, I remember my superintendent at the time, Angelica Ramsey, telling me, well, Paul, if you, if you, if you pursue this and they offer you a job, you have to take it. You, you can't really say no. And I said, well, I'm just gonna put my feelers out there and, you know, I'm gonna go to a couple interviews. And, and I, I went up to a Fowler, which is, um, up near Fresno. Um, had a great conversation with the board and got offered a position and really didn't hit me till, till they, after they offered it to me and I said yes, that I had to call my wife and say yeah, I just got, got a job in Fresno and all that entails because I was living in Ventura County at the time. So, um, it kind of hit me, wow. This, this is for real. I, I didn't, I really, it was my first interview. And, uh, and, and the challenges of going to a small, uh, district. small districts, I think in a lot of ways are far more difficult than larger districts in that there is a, a brighter spotlight on you. and there is a lot of, of people around you who have been, in that district, in that community for a very long time. They're very influe influential people and you really have to pay a lot of attention to kind of the poli the politics, uh, what's going on in the community. And, you know, anytime you, you're, you're new to an organization, there's a learning curve. And, um, you know, and Fowler was going through some significant changes at the time, and it didn't help that COVID hit in that first year, that I became superintendent. So it was a very diff it was very difficult. Uh, I, I, it's, it's, um. My old boss, Roger Rice, used to call it yeoman's work. It's yeoman's work. It's, it's backbreaking hard labor. but, but it's very worthwhile. It's very rewarding.

Nick Telford 9:45

were there. Were there, you said it was, you know, you learned hard lessons there. What were the hardest lessons that you, what were you, what were the lessons that you have taken to, uh, your role in Lancaster? A bigger district? Um, but. What did you learn there that you're like, okay, that's, that's something that, I will need to pay close attention to in my next role whenever that was. And can you remember any of those? particular.

Paul Marietti 10:11

I, think as you come up through administration, you, there's a lot of lessons to be learned coming out of the classroom. I think when you're in a classroom, you have a union you, you have control of your space. You have control. of the work you're doing. I think when you, when you move up to administration, you, you, you go into an area where you have, you have a lot less control. And the one thing I learned coming up through assistant principal and principal was that, there are you, there are times where they're gonna be difficult. There are gonna be people that don't agree. There's gonna be situations that are hard and you become a focal point at times for the responses to those situations. Those responses aren't always accepted by other people, and you begin to feel as though. You can't please everyone, and then you feel as though maybe there's a bullseye on your back where people can kind of take shots at you and come at you, and that's part of the job. And I always tell people, if you can't live with that. If you can't live with people being upset with you or disagreeing with you or saying things about you that may be seeing you in a, in not so great a light. If you can't handle those things, then you probably shouldn't be in administration. Because that, that's a piece of it. It's, it's a wonderful job. There are some great parts of it 'cause you can really serve people and do wonderful things for kids and communities and schools, but there's always a part of it that you are responsible and. Decisions are tough, and when you make those tough decisions, you're not gonna please everybody. And so, you know, as you go through the principalship, which I think is the most important, uh, uh, chair to sit in as an administrator if, if you've run a comprehensive school of any type, you as a principal, you could pretty much do anything in my book. Um, I was lucky enough to be a high school principal. The, the greatest job in the world is being a high school principal. It's like being the captain of the ship or the mayor of a small town. The sports, the music, I mean, the academics, the, it's so much fun, but it's so hard and so difficult. Uh, there's so much going on and you kind of have to have your head on a swivel, right? You have to have eyes in the. Back of your head and the sides of your head and things that are going, I'm making decisions, decisions all day long but it trains you up really well. And, um, then going from then it's just about going from chair to chair and learning the different aspects. I was lucky enough to move into student services and learn all about student student services, and I was lucky enough to move into HR and learn all about hr. So then it's just a matter of accumulating that knowledge that when you become a superintendent you know, I don't have the answers. I have the experience. So if, if I make a decision, it's based on all those experiences I've had over my 34 years in education that I draw upon and make those decisions which makes, which makes the job a lot easier than if you didn't have those experiences.

Nick Telford 13:10

Sure. Yeah, So I think it's some really good advice, uh, with 2020, the aspiring superintendents out there to, to learn your trail across the different disciplines within administration. To understand those hard lessons, the decision making at, at at at evolve, like a high school principal. Uh, I can I can see that Friday night lights, you know, you wouldn't wanna be anywhere else, but there's probably a lot of other, uh, uh, things that come with that. I was interested in one thing you mentioned where almost the higher you go in the administration to a superintendent that you mentioned, the less control you have, which is maybe a little bit of a oxymoron in terms of you think that, you know, you're a superintendent, you've got full power right. Over everything. So, but, but I, I also understand maybe where you're going with that in terms of, like, there, there is a lesson, obviously you've learned that maybe that's not the case. I just wanna tease that out a little bit more. with you as a super, the kind of control or lack thereof, uh, in that, in that role.

Paul Marietti 14:08

Yeah. so, managing, you know, managing, uh, 30 students six periods a day that's not a lot of people, but managing 14,000 students, 2000 employees, uh, and the larger, and then working within the larger community that, that is you, you cannot do that by yourself. I don't manage the district. We have a whole teams of people but with highly skilled people who are exceptional at what they do in in their specific areas. And as a superintendent, I have to trust them to, to be great. I have to trust them to, to be creative, innovative, mindful service oriented. Those. I cannot micromanage that. I cannot what I do, you know, is I try to find the best people people that are far better than me, far smarter than me, and put them in positions for greatness. Put them in positions where they can excel and achieve. And then my, what I do is I make sure they have everything they need, uh, to, to do their work. And so, but ultimately, you know, uh, you know, I'm the face of the district, so it's my responsibility if they fail, I fail. You know, if they succeed, we succeed. And so, um, I think the. The idea of a superintendency, it's not about the work, it's, it's about the responsibility for the work. And, and that's something that is very stressful. When you, when you carry the weight. Uh, of all those decisions that other people make, when you carry the weight of the decisions, you make the decisions that other people make, the actions of other people, you carry all that on you and you are held accountable. I'm held accountable for the actions of our, of our staff, our, our teachers, our directors, our assist, everybody, you know. ultimately if things go well, we celebrate together. Uh, if things go poorly, that falls on me and I think. That's, that's the difficulty of the job. That's the hard part of the job. Yeah.

Nick Telford 16:14

Yeah. Thanks for that. That Paul, I think it's, you mentioned it's about the responsibility for the work as opposed to the work itself. I think that's a, a really good way to, to, to sum up the superintendency role, Um, in terms of leadership itself, What do you think, what do you see Bold leadership. being in education today, uh, might, maybe it's different in the last 20 years, but today, what, what is bold leadership to you?

Paul Marietti 16:43

So, you know, my, my idea is, you know, I'm a builder. And and I wanna surround myself with builders. I, I really feel people fall into two camps. There's, there's builders and there's maintainers, right? if you're a maintainer, you want to keep everything the way it is and just keep it functioning. But for me, I'd rather come into work every day and I want the people around me to come onto work every day and think about how we can do it better. Where, where we can grow, where we can improve, where we can make changes that will, you know, affect change and affect children, affect, uh, our schools. So I wanna surround myself with people that are innovative and I think, you know, today, we are facing some really challenging things in education in regards to social media and artificial intelligence. And, um, you know, up and down the state of California, we've seen students' behavior really struggling with their behaviors, how they, how they treat each other, how they, they treat adults and, um. We need to be bold in coming up with new ideas and new ways of addressing the needs of our students to ensure that they're meeting their educational goals. I think, I think employees have changed. You know, it used to be people worked for school districts for 30 years. You'd go to the cafeteria at the local school. And the, the, the head of the cafeteria had been there for 25, 30 years. That's just not how it works. And our turnover, especially in our classified staff, it's constant turnover. So how do you address, you know, how do you address the challenges of, of, of training people, constantly training people because they're new to the job every two or three years. Those are huge challenges that, that we face. So.

Nick Telford 18:30

And how, how do you build trust then? Because I, I'm presuming with, with the team you, have, you, you're with, especially when you talk about turnover and all the challenges that are facing you every day. to bring people along with your vision for the district. How do you build that trust with, with your team?

Paul Marietti 18:49

So, you know, it's the same thing as when, even, like I said, if you've, if you've run a, a school, if you've run a comprehensive school, you pretty much can do, can do the job. You know, one of the things, one of the things I always, uh said was, you know, people have to know where you stand, as a leader, people have to know your vision and people have to know your beliefs. Uh, people have to understand where you want to go, and the only way they're gonna know that is if you tell 'em. And so you've gotta be pretty consistent about your messaging of who you are, what you stand for, what you believe in. You're where you want to go. And, and you have to build that communication with them and build that trust with them. You know, people, if I, if I walk down a, a corridor at my high school, people would say oh no. Here, here he comes. He's gonna talk about PLCs again. You know, or here he comes, he's got, he's gonna, he's gonna talk about the science of reading again or whatever it is, because they know. If they know where I stand they might not agree with me, but they sure. do know where I stand on things and they know where we're going. They know where the, uh, they know the bus is going down the road and they can either get on it with me or, you know, they can get run over, uh, because this is where we're, because this is where we're going. And so, whether it's, whether it's at a comprehensive school or whether it's at the district office, you know, people have to know where my heart is, where, where, what I believe, where I believe we should go. And it's up to me to set that tone as a leader. Um, it's up to me to set the vision. It's up, up to me to be clear about the expectations. people do it in different ways. You know, I, I I have a, my friend Tom McCoy, who's a superintendent, he's a a, he's a, a person of, uh. He's a person of few words, but when he speaks, people listen. Because, uh, he has something to say. I'm a person of many, many words, so I'm a little more demonstrative a little, a little more loud. There's different styles to leadership, right? You can be, you can be somebody who's a cheerleader and screaming at the top of their lungs, or somebody who's very stoic and wise and says few words. Both of those systems work. But the point is that the message gets across, right? We get that message across, and if we're not, if we're not conveying that message, then who is

Nick Telford 21:18

Yes. Well, Anna, it sounds like in the clarity of the message is important, but also the consistency of it. Is that from what you were saying, that, you know, you said walking down the corridor, people know what you're gonna say to 'em. They, they hear the same message over and over again, but they also, this trust and comfort in that. In, like, I know it's expected of me within this district. I know where we're going as a district, I know the strategy for success as a district and, and I think that does build a lot of trust. And I, it sounds like your style, it's like you set the vision, you own it, you're responsible for it. It's clear to everybody and you keep consistent with it. And I, that, it seems like a recipe for success. to Me.

Paul Marietti 21:56

that's the way, that's the way I've, I've learned how to do it. That's what's worked for me like I said, over the past 34 years. So I'm sticking to it now. It's too late to

Nick Telford 22:05

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Uh, switching to the students, uh, I'm just curious from what you've seen, uh, you know, you've been your 34 years to education, modern day. What do you see the important skills that students need going out into the world post, uh, their high school education?

Paul Marietti 22:25

Yeah. Uh, when, when I started teaching I was, I started teaching 1994 and I received a, a grade book and attendance book. And I'm gonna show my classroom. It was a chalkboard. There were no computers. and, uh, the world we teach in today is very, very different than that, right. And I think the, the students today, I, I think the, the biggest, the thing that worries me the most, or the thing that I, I see in our suit today is really being able to sift through the information and. Understand that whatever they're looking at or whether they're reading may not, not necessarily be the truth, right? It, it's, it's a version of, it may be a version of the truth, it may not be the truth. their ability to de determine facts and think for themselves and get other sides of things and get other opinions of things and construct their knowledge base. That worries me because we have so much disinformation that's out there now. And, and it worries me that, you know, information is at their fingertips. Um, I know I have two daughters and a daughter in college and a daughter who just, uh, came out of the university system and, you know, it's so easy to use the tools we have now, to not have to really think. For yourself, really it's about, it's, it's about finding information and putting information together instead of creating and building. And so that worries me a lot about our students today. So, you know, right now our big challenge is with artificial intelligence and how we as adults use artificial intelligence. Has, how do we as administrators use our, use artificial intelligence? Um, what are our guidelines for how we use those tools? And making sure that people understand what our guidelines are for us and then what are the guidelines for our teachers and how they use it, and then what the guidelines are for our students and how it's acceptable or not acceptable in our classrooms. So that's work we're doing now, and that's the work I think you refer to as something that really concerns me about, you know, education? in the modern world.

Nick Telford 24:35

so disinformation, I just wrote that down there as, as, um, something that is a real challenge for, it wasn't around when I was growing up in school wasn't around when people were growing up. what are you doing within the district? You, you mentioned there's, there's multiple AI initiatives or initiatives related to AI that are, are taking place or on guardrails you're building frameworks, et cetera. What are you doing in particular to help equip students to deal with disinformation and to use technology and AI in a way that is, in the right way?

Paul Marietti 25:11

Yeah. So, so kids are using it. They're, they're not asking for permission, right? They're just using it. And the only thing, the only, the only thing that really, that students, in my, my opinion, my view, That are really holding them back or giving them any sense of, of concern is, am I gonna get caught cheating, or is this cheating? Right? That that's where their, their line is. But we are doing a disservice if we're not talking about ai, if we're not communicating with the students about. This is a tool, this is in my classroom, in this assignment. This is how you can utilize those tools in a way that, uh, is appropriate versus not talking about it at all, or versus, uh, just say you can't use it, they're gonna use it. So it's, it's about establishing parameters around the use of it. It. Um, and then showing the students proper ways, um, that it can be leveraged and used. But that goes for adults too, right? So we put things out. I, you know, if I put out something, so this is a conversation we would have. I, I put out a community letter. I run it through AI to clean it up. Maybe I, I say take this letter I've written to the community and make it more friendly or make it more, uh, you know, official or make, you know, tweak, do the grammar and the thing, the, the letter goes out. The question is, should there, should that be noted? Should a notation be said that, uh, this was developed? Through the use of ai and really what we've come to as, as, uh, leaders in our district is yes, we, we, when we're gonna run something through ai, And we're gonna put that out. We should note that that should be noted. Uh, so people know that we're using that tool. And so we want, we need to create parameters for ourselves and kind of, uh, rules of the game for ourselves as, as administrators, as teachers, how teachers use it. 'cause there's wonderful tools for teachers that. I mean, I wish I had these tools when I was teaching. Wonderful tools for root, creating rubrics, creating lessons, and, um, but, but they need to also have rules of how they use it. And then, then of course, it's passed down to the students. So this is the work we're doing with our AI task force here in Lancaster, and I. There's lots of districts that are ahead of us in, um, really adopting a, a large language model platform. Um, because anything you put into these AI uh, platforms that's information that you've just given away. So really getting a closed system where we can keep our kids safe in their use and really getting them to understand the best way to use the tool.

Nick Telford 27:55

No, it's great. now. thanks. Thanks, Paul. You know, certainly it's a trade of yours that you run two problems, away from them, or not, not problems, but challenges. And I think AI is a challenge And what I hear you say is making it, it's gonna happen. So open up the conversation around it, not just with the A adults, but with the students and talk through it. Talk through how to be responsible with it. and. that really is the best, the most healthy approach, regardless of the actual initiatives taking place. The approach is really key, which is, which is, let's figure this out together. It's new. We're at the very, very early stages of it, and so much is gonna change over the next 10 years. so yeah, tha thanks for, talking us through it all. I wanna focus more on Lancaster school district now and, and laser in on any particular initiatives that you're most proud of within Lancaster school district across any, a broad range of topics. Is there anything particular that stands out to you that's current or even in the last couple years that you're most proud of?

Paul Marietti 28:55

Uh, so, you know, one of the things we're really proud of is, is, uh, we passed, uh, we passed, uh, measure Ls a, a bond measure a couple of years ago. And really putting that, uh, that the, those funds to work in reinventing, you know, some of our schools or some of our schools are, 60, 70 years old and really in need of, of a lot of work. So just create, just updating our classrooms, modernizing our classrooms, modernizing our schools, bringing some buildings back to life. Um, so really, really excited about the, the. The construction piece, uh, that's going on here. We're gonna open up a new early learning center, um, next month over at our elementary school, Sunnydale, which is great. I think on the academic side, we've seen academic growth, uh, this past year. Uh, with our test scores, with our cash test scores, um, we contribute a lot of that to our commitment to the science of reading, um, and our pH programs that we're, we've instituted and making sure all kids, uh, learn to read by the third grade. We've put a lot of emphasis on that program and we think those, that's really been paying off over the past five years. Uh, academically, um, you know, we've got wonderful staff here, uh, wonderful teachers working really hard. You know, we, we, we have a challenging community in Lancaster. And I always tell people the challenges you find in your community, you're gonna find those on your campuses. You know, those challenges don't just vanish when they walk through, when children walk through the school gates. So we have some we have over a thousand homeless students. We have. About 400 foster students in our schools. Those are huge challenges and we have done a, an amazing, tremendous job through our Community Schools grant, uh, to be able to provide our families and our, uh, our students with. All the needs they have, uh, whether it's food, clothing gas cards, housing vouchers backpacks, coats, it's just, it, uh, food, we just, it just goes on and on and on. All the support we provided which we're really proud of. And then, you know, uh, we have, uh, the L-O-E-L-O-P grant. So we've been expanding out our afterschool programs and I'm really proud of the work we've done in providing our. Afterschool programs for students. So lot of, lot of good stuff going on in Lancaster. Lot of good stuff. A lot of things we're really proud of here.

Nick Telford 31:20

yeah. No, I, I remember being really struck, you know, to through conversations with you of, especially during COVID. Realizing that the school district was the go-to place and the hub for the community in not just education, which is maybe the way it used to be, but in healthcare, in afterschool care, in, uh, nutrition the list code seemed to seemed to go on? Like it literally you came back, to you never anything and it was, well, the school district will take care of that for you if you live

Paul Marietti 31:51

Yeah, so a great, a, a great example of that is we were having students come to us who were struggling to get their vaccinations and they were saying, well, our appointment's in three months, so we're not gonna be able to go to school for three months. And we just said, that's just completely unacceptable. So we went ahead and we created our own vaccination clinics here at Lancaster School District. So a student that comes to register for school come in the office, they go down the hallway, they go. To, um, our vaccination clinic. They get their vaccinations and they're ready to, and they're ready to go to school. So they go in smiling, but they come out crying, but they're ready to go to school 'cause they got all their vaccinations. So, uh, really excited. But that's a, that's a good example of, of what we do, right? We see a problem. There's, there we're, we're limited up here in the Aloe Valley to a, for our, our, our families to get access to, uh, the healthcare they need. So, you know what? We're gonna become a healthcare hub. and then, and that's just what we're gonna do. We're gonna try to remove all those barriers, uh, for our students and our families.

Nick Telford 32:52

Well, yeah. I've always been struck by the commitment of the folks within the school district, the conversations I've had with various folks and how. It isn't just a job for them working within Lancaster School district, they, they see it as far more than that. And a testament to, you know, the, the culture you created, uh, within the district and with the community. And position the district as a place where you can come for really any need that you have. Uh, there's, there's someone there, uh, to care for you as a, as a parent or as a student, uh, at any. At any level, and it's really admirable, and I've walked those conferences with you. I've seen the new buildings that you've, uh, built out. Uh, it's, it's beautiful to see the new playgrounds, the new classrooms for the kinders. So yeah, uh, I, it's a great place. These, these kind of podcasts are great platforms to be able just to highlight, uh, the fantastic work that's been done, uh, across the state. And uh, yeah, kudos to you. You know, you deserve to be celebrated whenever, whenever anyone gets the chance to do that.

Paul Marietti 33:55

Well, it's, it's all the people, you know, it's 2000 employees all pulling in the right, in the, in the same direction. So,

Nick Telford 34:00

yeah, a hundred percent. You, you and the whole team. Um, kind of one of the last questions I have for you, Paul, is when your tenure is over, whenever that may be, uh, what do you hope your, your district says about your leadership?

Paul Marietti 34:15

You know, the, and that's getting close 'cause I don't have much more time left, but really, you know, anywhere I've ever been, I just, I wanna leave, I wanna leave it better than I found it, right? So if, if I can, if I can, if I can make an impact, make an improvement, leave things. Uh, better than I found 'em then, um, then I'll be happy with that and hopefully, you know, I, I can't solve all the problems. You know, it's, it's hard because when you leave, you, you, you. There are issues that you probably haven't tackled yet, haven't got to or have been working on, but haven't solved. Those will still be there for the next person. Um, but that's okay. You do the best you can. You make the best improvements and changes you can. You make you, hopefully you make decis the right decisions and good decisions and put the right people in the right positions and and you leave it better than you found it. And that's the best I can do.

Nick Telford 35:09

Yeah,

Paul Marietti 35:10

So that's my

Nick Telford 35:11

I think that's, that's very true to the kind of person I I found you to be over the years. Paul is, is straight as an arrow, uh, genuine, true to your word. And, uh, I'm very clear with the direction you're, you're, you're going. And, uh, so thank you for your leadership that you're providing to your school district, to the whole community in Lancaster, And so tha so, thank you for being part of this, uh, conversation today. Uh, to everyone else listening, behind every successful school system is a superintendent, making hard decisions, building strong teams, and fighting for students every day. They are the real superheroes shaping the future of education. Uh, if you found this conversation helpful, please tell a friend, follow the show on your favorite podcast platform and leave a review. We'll read it out in the next episode. I'm Nick Telford, and this has been another episode of School District Superheroes. Thank you very much, Paul.

Paul Marietti 36:00

thanks, Nick, appreciate it.