Welcome to AACTE PRESENTS: Preparing & Sustaining School Principals, the podcast shedding light on the often-overlooked heroes of schools and universities – our principals. In our final episode of the series, we delve into preparation and the transition from teacher to assistant principal and principal roles with insights from Jennifer Castor and Don Kotnik, both recently minted school leaders. They share experiences, emphasizing the importance of communication, problem-solving, visibility, and vulnerability. They reflect on how their experiences relate to the Wallace Foundation’s 2023 report, A Culturally Responsive School Leadership Approach to Developing Equity-Centered Principals, exploring the challenges and skills needed for effective, equitable educational leadership.

Explore the pivotal role of support systems in retaining and empowering school leaders in the latest episode of AACTE PRESENTS: Preparing and Sustaining Principals. Uncover insights from experts at Colorado State University, featuring Dr. Wendy Barnes, Dr. Donna Cooner, and Dan Seegmiller including their innovative School Leadership Institute designed to address challenges faced by new administrators. This episode serves as a compelling call to action for universities and school districts to collaborate in nurturing resilient school principals and is grounded in the best practices seen in Wallace’s Principal Pipeline Initiative. Listen to Episode 4 now for practical solutions and valuable insights.

Explore the challenges of principal retention in the face of crisis management on the latest episode of AACTE PRESENTS: Preparing & Sustaining School Principals. Four out of ten principals anticipate leaving the profession within three years, a trend exacerbated by the pandemic and political tension. With guest experts Emily Asqueri and Kathy Mackay, the episode emphasizes the need for tailored crisis management. Guests discuss best practices for preparing principals to be crisis managers, spotlighting research like the Wallace Foundation's University Principal Preparation Initiative. Discover crucial support systems for school leaders, advocating for servant leadership, resilience, and adaptability.

Explore the unique skills needed for principals in rural and mixed districts in this episode of AACTE PRESENTS: Presents and Sustaining School Principals. District leaders highlight their challenges, chief amongst them hiring and retaining trained principals. Learn about successful programs preventing burnout, including an aspiring administrator initiative, gain insights from one superintendent’s experiences in a small rural district, and reflect on applications of principal pipeline research like the Wallace Foundation and Policy Study Associate’s Report: Planning and Developing Principal Pipelines: Approaches, Opportunities, and Challenges. For resources related to principal pipelines, reference this episode’s show notes or this show’s webpage at aacte.org.

Guest, Daniel Melendrez is the Superintendent of Genoa-Hugo School District in Hugo, CO. He has 20+ years in education and 11 years of administrative experience at both middle and high school. His leadership style is team oriented, worldly, innovative, and hardworking with a think outside the box mentality. He is dedicated to his district’s “we are in this together” culture that creates a safe and positive environment for students and staff loaded with quality educational opportunities.

Traci Gile

Guest, Dr. Traci Gile is currently the assistant superintendent of schools in Poudre School District (PSD) and has served in this role since January 202. As the assistant superintendent, she was a leader on the PSD Learning Services team, consisting of seven district departments. She also developed high-quality educational opportunities for PreK-12 students and supervised leaders of PSD’s 30 elementary schools and the PSD Early Childhood Education program. Dr. Gile was previously the principal at Lopez Elementary for eight years. During her time there, she collaborated with school staff to become Colorado’s first Leader in Me Lighthouse School. She also championed student leadership and student-led community service projects. Dr. Gile came to PSD from Thompson School District, where she was a principal at Mary Blair Elementary School and the professional development coordinator. Dr. Gile also has a long history working as an adjunct faculty member at Colorado State University (CSU) in the school leadership program at the Center for Educator Preparation. As an adjunct faculty member at CSU, Dr. Gile co-developed the School Leadership Institute alongside faculty members from the Center for Educator Preparation to provide mentoring and professional development for novice educational leaders. Dr. Gile has a doctorate in Philosophy with an emphasis in educational leadership and human resource studies.

The Wallace Foundation's Knowledge Center on School Leadership released a report, Developing Effective Principals: What Kind of Learning Matters, that synthesized two decades of research on principal pre-service preparation and professional development. In this episode, we discuss the critical themes of the report with experts and practitioners, including lead author Linda Darling-Hammond, all of whom emphasize the importance of equity and diversity throughout principal preparation and how students, families, communities, and districts benefit when it's centered.