It’s my job to drive coherence. I’ve realized in this seat that the organization will never get there if the superintendent can’t. What I focus on matters. It has this effect on every single person around me. And then that has an effect on every single person around them, like concentric circles. I’m focusing on our strategic plan, Jeffco Thrives, and what we are doing in our plan around instruction, operations, people, and community. And if I can keep that focus, our organization will move forward faster.

This is the most focused I’ve been in a district in my entire career. This year, my cabinet team and I have defined our strategic plan goals, which are goals that impact almost the entire organization, have high visibility, and are super cross-functional. Having a strategy team that collaborates with district leaders in an organization the size of Jeffco has been huge. We’ve brought our senior leaders in as thought partners to refine goals and execute the district priorities. I also feel fortunate to have a Board who wants to partner with us, who seeks to understand the challenges we face, who has strong governance protocols that help us do the work together, and who celebrates in the wins with us.

What early evidence do you see of the shifts you’re leading in Jeffco taking root?

We are committed to effective change management. In my experience serving in multiple roles in different districts, one of the early indicators of effective change is common language. I was pleased this year to hear people using the same language across different schools—particularly words we elevated in our strategic plan, like lesson internalization, instructional excellence, and standards aligned. It’s cool to see people begin to share language around our efforts and our path forward.

 

 

Of the three focus areas TNTP identified in “The Opportunity Makers”—belonging, consistency and coherence—you’re focusing on coherence at the district level so that school leaders can drive consistency at the school level. How are you ensuring students have a coherent experience in Jeffco Public Schools?

Curriculum. I’m a strong believer that teachers need tools so that they can focus on how to teach and not what to teach.

Also, we’ve spent a lot of time, energy, and effort norming on what we mean when we say instructional excellence. What does good teaching look like and how do we support every teacher to get there? We’re doing that by spending time in classrooms together and talking about what we see.

As the Superintendent, I am having conversations with our principals around their role in improving consistency across classrooms. I am asking them, “what are you doing as a leader to get your teachers focused on the right things?” Every school is at a different place, but there has been a shift in our principals’ ownership of instructional culture. That’s powerful.

 

One of the ways TNTP is supporting Jeffco right now is by ensuring principals and community superintendents spend the majority of their time on instructional leadership. How does that impact your practices related to principal hiring, development, and accountability?

If a principal is strong and supports teachers in the right ways, then kids have a better experience. But if the district doesn’t identify what the priorities are and put the systems and structures in place to get them done, what happens in classrooms is just going to be at the whim of every principal who’s in the organization. What gets monitored gets done. And if you don’t have somebody monitoring instruction with principals, they’re not going to necessarily be able to make the shift in their building.

We’ve worked a lot on how our principals are managed. To enable community superintendents (principal supervisors) and school leaders to be much more focused on instruction, we’ve put systems in place with the central office to take care of other issues, like parent concerns and many operational HR issues.

 

What do you want people to know about Jeffco? What are you most proud of?

We’re not afraid to do the hard work. Our school leaders have taken on every hard thing that we have needed to do. Change management is a whole heck of a lot easier when you have a Board and a district leadership team full of principals who believe in you, believe in the change you’re trying to drive, and do the work side by side with you.

I have an amazing cabinet team. They’re super committed and super talented. We care about one another, and we care about the work. I feel really privileged and honored that I get to show up every day and be part of a team that is thoughtful and focused on the right things.

 

To learn more about implementing trajectory-changing practices in belonging, consistency, and coherence in your district or system, contact us.