Productive Disruption

Go behind the scenes of a successful, 10-school rebrand with Dothan City Schools and Rhodes Branding! Get the scoop on this district-agency partnership from Dothan’s Public Relations Officer Meagan Dorsey and our Creative Director Michael Ho. Learn what goes into the creation, launch, and community adoption of 10 new visual identities that align Dothan City Schools’ elementaries with the district-wide Wolfpack pride!

Show Notes:

Connect with Meagan Dorsey on LinkedIn , and on Twitter (X) check out @MeaganDorsey17. Dothan City Schools is on Facebook and Twitter (X) at @DCSdothan.

Discover how leaders can create a supportive and inclusive online school culture. Dive into the digital realm of education with Alicia Hughes, an expert in organizational leadership in the virtual space – having pioneered a virtual public charter school that continues to thrive on collaboration and relationships. In this episode, Alicia shares tried-and-true strategies for setting professional and academic expectations while fostering a strong sense of community and belonging among staff and students in a fully virtual environment.

Alicia is a virtual space expert, having over 14 years in the remote workspace and over a decade in virtual leadership. She is the former Executive Director of South Carolina Connections Academy, the largest public school in the state of SC, a soon-to-be author, and founder of Sparking Up Leadership Consulting – where she uses her experience to empower and inspire others seeking to lead in the virtual space.

Connect with Alicia Hughes on LinkedIn, and for information on Sparking Up Leadership Consulting, check out sparkingupleadership.com and "Sparking Up Leadership" on Facebook.

To explore ways K-12 Human Resources and district leaders can utilize AI to maximize efficiency in their districts, we’re talking with a superintendent from Ohio who’s well-versed and proactive in modeling effective usage of AI in his district. Kirk Koennecke, CEO/Superintendent of Indian Hill Exempted Village School District, shares how to empower and inspire administrators, teachers, and staff to experiment with and utilize new technology.

A veteran educational leader with 20 years of experience in administration and 29 years of service to students, Kirk Koennecke is in his fourth year as CEO/Superintendent at the Indian Hill Exempted Village School District. Named the National Association of School Superintendents (NASS) 2023 Superintendent of the Year, Mr. Koennecke is also a certified leadership and executive coach, has been a featured presenter nationally, and published numerous articles within education publications.

Learn more about the Schoolwide AI Roundtables Virtual Series through the Butler County Educational Service Center where Kirk Koennecke will be speaking next, AASA's STEM Leadership Consortium powered by JASON Learning referenced on this episode, and get to know Mr. Koennecke in his Superintendent’s Message.

Connect with Kirk Koennecke on LinkedIn, and on Twitter (X) check out @ihsuperbrave. Indian Hill Exempted Village School District is on Instagram at @indianhillschools and Twitter (X) at @IHSchools.

February is Career & Technical Education Month, and we’re celebrating and elevating CTE with nationally recognized leader Dr. Sarah Heath! Recipient of Advance CTE’s 2023 State CTE Distinguished Leadership Award, Sarah is the State Director for Career and Technical Education in Colorado and Associate Vice Chancellor for Career and Technical Education (CTE) at the Colorado Community College System (CCCS).

In her current position, she leads oversight of all secondary and postsecondary CTE programs in the state, which train more than 230,000 students every year in fields as diverse as healthcare, construction, and aviation. Sarah has dedicated her career to advancing CTE, first as a high school business and computer science teacher, then as a state program director and local system administrator. Improving and increasing opportunities for workforce education and preparation is her life’s passion; she served as the national president of the Association for Career and Technical Education and continues to advocate for CTE on a state, regional, and national level. In 2023, Sarah was named Equity Champion (CTE) by the Colorado Association for Career & Technical Administrators, a branch of the Colorado Association for Career and Technical Education. A proud \"Triple Dawg,\" Sarah has a bachelor’s, master's, and doctoral degree from the University of Georgia.

For the resources for local, state and national leaders Dr. Heath references on this episode, check out Advance CTE’s Learning That Works Resource Center. Learn more about Colorado’s CTE strategic plan, and the national CTE Without Limits: A Shared Vision for the Future of Career Technical Education.

Connect with Dr. Sarah Heath on LinkedIn, and on Twitter (X) check out @Sarahheathcte, @GoCCCS and @CTEWorks.

Superintendents set the stage for how values and vision drive district culture, making them key players in educator recruitment. To explore the superintendent’s role in educator recruitment and retention, we asked AASA’s 2023 National Superintendent of the Year® and leader of the No. 1 ranked district for "best places to teach" and "best teachers" in the Rochester, NY area what’s made his district so successful in attracting – and keeping – educators.

Dr. Kevin McGowan has been the Superintendent of the Brighton Central School District since 2009, is the President of the New York State Council of School Superintendents, and Past President of the Leadership for Educational Achievement Foundation (LEAF).

For more information on the topics Dr. McGowan references on this episode, check out Diversity and Equity at Brighton, and the district’s human resources page.

Connect with Dr. Kevin McGowan on LinkedIn, and on Twitter (X) check out @KCMcgowan. Brighton Central School District is on Facebook and Twitter (X) at @BrightonBelieve.

Tyler Vawser brings his personal experience in recruiting, onboarding, and culture as Apptegy/SchoolCEO’s former VP of People to a conversation about SchoolCEO’s extensive research on educator retention and recruitment. Today, Tyler is VP of Marketing and leads Apptegy’s Marketing & Media teams, which offer a number of resources to school leaders including guides to school marketing and SchoolCEO, a suite of resources including a quarterly print magazine, conferences, and a podcast, SchoolCEO Conversations.

Connect with Tyler Vawser and SchoolCEO on LinkedIn, and on Twitter (X) check out @Tvaw and @school_ceo. SchoolCEO data referenced in this episode can be found here: 2023 Research on What Teachers Want, Teacher recruitment starts with strong job descriptions, 2019 What Do Millennial Teachers Want, andMarketing Your Schools' Employer Brand podcast.

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) expert and K-12 communications director Rebecca Bultsma joins Molly at Rhodes Branding to demystify AI in education, share practical tactics, and discuss ethical implementation of the resource in modern educational settings.

Follow Rebecca on LinkedIn and Twitter for more daily AI applications and insights.

In our second podcast featuring the Educator Perceptions and Insights Center (EPIC), we sit down with Dr. Luke Simmering, Owner and Director of Research. Luke is an experienced Industrial/Organizational Psychologist with over 15 years of experience leading talent assessment and development objectives for global organizations across multiple industries. Tune in to learn more about how Luke and EPIC use data to uncover employee priorities for individual school districts, and interpret these drivers into actionable strategies for K-12 leaders to improve educator retention.

American Association of School Personnel Administrators (AASPA) Executive Director Dr. Dale Fisher joined Molly McGowan Gorsuch to talk about this year's AASPA conference in Anaheim and current hot topics related to K-12 human resources, recruitment, and retention. An active AASPA member since 2012, Dr. Fisher is currently the Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources at Deerfield Public Schools District 109.

Check out the latest episode of Productive Disruption! We sit down with Dr. Bret Church the Owner and Managing Director of the Educator Perceptions and Insights Center (EPIC) and an Associate Professor of School Leadership at Emporia State University. Bret is joining me today to discuss how he and his business partner, Dr. Luke Simmering, are bringing the industry-standard practice of using data to drive retention strategies to the K-12 sector – and why it’s more important than ever before!