Stories from the Field: The Superintendent Podcast

Colin Seale, Founder/CEO of Thinklaw and Jeff Anderson, CEO of Audio Enhancement join Doug to talk about the resilience of schools and district leaders, changes to the way districts are doing business, and their own leadership journey through this crazy pandemic adventure. 

Dr. Wilcox and Dr. Dance, emeritus superintendents, join us to discuss leadership strategies in difficult times and preview the reflection and self-care program they are planning, along with emeritus superintendent Traci Davis, for IEI's Las Vegas Superintendent Retreat Feb 25-28.  

Dr. Paul "Paulie" Gavoni joins Doug and two IEI member superintendents, Dr. Jason Andrews of Windsor CSD in NY and Dan Cox of Rochester 3a in IL, to talk about the power of relationships to get our schools through this pandemic challenge.  

The whole IEI team comes on to introduce this episode, which features Jeff Patterson of Gaggle, Jess Gartner of Allovue, Megan Harney of MIDAS, and Berj Akian of Classlink. We reflect on the good things that happened during an otherwise terrible year, and we look forward to 2021! 

This episode features a panel discussion from our final Fall 2020 IEI Retreat at Suncadia, WA, featuring: Dr. Susan Enfield, Highline Public Schools Ms. Heather Bybee, Director of Curriculum, Spokane Public Schools Eric Westendorf, Founder, Learnzillion and former principal Chris Blevins, iStation This episode has some holiday cheer and a little bit of festive spice, as these talented educators ta...

This panel from IEI's Fall 2020 Hybrid/Virtual Superintendent Retreat in Georgia examines the challenges of school finance during the pandemic, what we know and what we don't know.  Doug Mesecar of Strategos Consulting and Jessica Gartner, Founder/CEO of Allovue, give insight on the federal funding landscape and advice to district leaders and vendors for how to best ride out the fiscal uncertainty...

4 IEI superintendents discussed the challenges we slayed this year and the lessons we learned, originally recorded at our IL Fall Superintendent Retreat at Eagle Ride Resort in Galena, IL.  The panel was moderated by Dr. Andy Crozier, Superintendent of Central Lee CSD, IA.  The panel included: Dr. Tad Everett, Sterling Public Schools, IL Dr. Sarena Shivers, Superintendent Emeritus and Executive Di...

Panel discussion from IEI's Summer Symposium on social/emotional and physical health strategies being deployed in districts across the country, featuring: Justin Jennings, CEO, Youngstown Public Schools, OH Dr. Quintin Shepherd, Superintendent, Victoria ISD, TX Dr. Shai Fuxman, EDC Dr. Rob Darzienkiewicz, M.D., Hazel Health Stephanie Taylor, Presence Learning Alex Meis, Kinvolved

This discussion from IEI's Summer Symposium at The Biltmore is moderated by Ms. Traci Davis, Superintendent Emeritus and advisor to IEI, and features 3 great superintendents, Dr. Mark Bedell of Kansas City (MO), Dr. Luvelle Brown of Ithaca (NY), and Dr. Gregory Hutchings of Alexandria (VA), as well as Dr. Brian Kingsley, CAO of Charlotte-Mecklenburg.  

Dr. Jody Barrow, pioneer IEI member, sits down with Doug to kick off Season 2 of Talk Supes (and CEOs) with only 1 month left in the superintendent's chair. Dr. Barrow delayed his retirement 3 months to help his district through the pandemic and transition things to a new leader. We reflect back on a long successful career delivering results for students and their families. 

Dr. Howard Koenig, superintendent of Central Islip UFSD on Long Island, NY, reflects back on his 40+ years as a superintendent.  This is not Howard's first attempt to retire, but this time it may stick. Howard and Doug talk about Howard's long career as a champion for public school students and we reflect on the leadership challenge of a generation as Howard's colleagues carry into the fall with p...

Journey with Doug to Iowa, where schools had just begun resuming sports even though it as already summer break! Tim has been through many challenges in his career of superintendenting, and he shares how he is applying those lessons learned to this current situation.  Tim also talks about how the Black Lives Matter and anti-racism discussions have made their way to his mostly white rural district. 

2-fer!   Doug visits first with longtime friends and partners at Allovue with some thoughts to chew on related to the impending fiscal challenges facing schools due to COVID.  Then he sits down with Dr. Rob Darzynkiewicz, Chief Medical Officer at Hazel Health, about the slippery slope involved with minimizing exposure to COVID when we bring kids back into buildings.  

Mitch Weisburgh, Founder/CEO of Academic Biz Advisors and co-Founder of EdChatInteractive.org joins Doug to talk about some ideas fur utilizing Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality during this new age of forced distance learning in our schools.  

Consultant, former NYCDOE official and current NJ school board member David Irwin joins Doug to talk about his method for making big changes with tiny steps each day. Also: we explore how the talk of Blended Learning over the last 10-12 years failed to engage educators and educational leaders and why this should be a learning opportunity for everybody in the K12 ecosystem- you can't "reform" schoo...

TelAdvance and IEI team up to bring two leading experts on cybersecurity on to the pod to chat about the kinds of things districts are wrestling with as they quickly ramp up distance learning plans while maintaining student security on devices. 

We gathered the panel from Episode 17, with a couple of new guests, and of course our IEI Advisor superintendent John Welch from the Puget Sound ESC in the Seattle area, to talk about what's been happening on the front lines in districts as they continue to deliver education and related services to students amidst the Coronavirus pandemic.  The panel includes: Jennifer Money, Move This World Alex...

Just 3 people who've been at this a while in the education industry dishing on coping strategies, ideas for how partners can weather the storm, and discussing our ideas for positive changes that can come out of COVID, particularly for underserved kids in public schools.

Doug sits down with IEI members from rural and suburban NY Districts to talk about how they are managing to deliver instruction and services during COVID-19, and the impending school finance challenges they expect to face in the 2020-2021 School Year.  Panelists include: Mr. Ryan Pacatte, Avon CSD Mr. Matthew Cole, Livonia CSD Mr. Kevin MacDonald, Gennessee Valley BOCES Dr. Robert Molisani, Caledo...

Eric Hirsch of Ed Reports joins Doug to nerd out on curriculum! 

Doug visits with Dr. Susan Enfield, superintendent of Highline Public Schools (south of Seattle, WA) and we talk about Equity and what COVID-19 might be un-earthing in terms of the work ahead of us to ensure every student has access to education. We also talk about Susan's "Tweet heard round the world" about what vendors should NOT do as districts scramble to respond to a global pandemic.

Clayton Wilcox, former superintendent of a few places but most recently Charlotte-Mecklenburg in NC, and Traci Davis, former superintendent in Washoe County (Reno) NV, talk about leading a district during times of crisis, strategies for maintaining sanity, and advice to partners about how to work with districts during this difficult time.  

Larry Berger, Founder/CEO of Amplify joins Doug to talk about school in the age of COVID-19, how things might change, and how parents who've suddenly become teachers can survive this! Hang in there, everyone!

IEI member Dr. Danny Merck talks with Doug about leadership and the mentor who identified his leadership skills early on and encouraged him to work toward becoming a superintendent.  He also discusses the district's planning process for COVID-19.  

IEI pulled together a Zoom panel of some of its corporate partners and a member superintendent to talk about what is happening in school districts as they fight to continue to provide educational and related services to kids and families. Our corporate partners share some of the work they are doing to provide services at no cost and with light to no implementation lift, and IEI Advisory Board Memb...