This past year was not an easy one for school people. “Recovery” from COVID was slow and complicated, getting back into a groove with frequent disruptions and plenty of uncertainties. Returning students brought complicated social and academic challenges as schools everywhere struggled to adapt to the social-emotional load. Just putting one foot in front of the other, as they say, was all too typical in many schools and districts. Often times, important pre-COVID plans that had been postponed were more or less abandoned. School leaders struggled to help teachers emerge from an in/out of school imbalance, an unsettling remote world, to get back to the relationships and engaging teaching that young people rightfully demand.

A key factor I’ve heard over and over that contributes to the malaise is that we’re repeating ourselves -in our instructional practices, in our planning, in our professional development. People see the future as resembling the recent past and its hard to find leaders stepping up, looking, daring to try something new. In many places, it’s been hard to take in the levels of demoralization, even with people I have known to be hopeful and future-oriented. Often, it’s been downright discouraging.

I needed some uplift and decided it was time to follow my own advice for leaders I work with --let’s look for the bright spots, the big ideas, and the inspiring people among us.

Sure enough, it turned out to be easy to find four people who bring their best every day –Dan Hubacz, Tony Spagnuolo, Gabe Cordova, and Kimberly Brownell. Here are their stories in brief. They’re worth a read and I hope they can inspire you and help you to find the “stars” in your own school orbit.

DAN HUBACZ: CONNECTING TO THE WORLD

When I met Dan Hubacz, he was a rough-and-ready science teacher. A climber and outdoorsman, a student of rocks, glaciers, water and the forces that shape their interactions and results. Dan was a new addition to a STEAM team I was coaching in a high school in up-country New Hampshire. I remember from the start that he puzzled in a good way over big-questions and issues, mysteries we learned to call them, but he could also “go granular”, designing detailed yet flexible plans for activities that engage students and connect them to the world beyond the classroom.

Dan was also naturally interested in forming relationships with students as people, an asset that makes a big difference in so many ways. Dan is an avid reader, a student of a broad variety of topics, and to me, the quintessential “adult learner”, as the phrase goes. As we know, being open to and enjoying learning across the professional (and one might add, human) life span is a sure indicator of success and high performance.

**Dan Hubacz with ERC coach, Dr. Katrina Kennett**

The next thing I know, he was starting to help three students build a robot from a discarded wheel-chair after school (and often at lunch), building a core of inspired learners who dove in to the concepts of robotics and its hands-on work, not all of whom were quite as eager in traditional, sit-and-listen classrooms. Soon he was leading an informal club, meaning there was no real budget or school recognition going into the effort. With a STEAM colleague, they gave volunteer after-school time and began to connect their small but growing team to regional websites and activities. As it gained momentum, school administration gave the robotics team some formal recognition and funding to allow them to be a part of FIRST Robotics competitions and activities.

Meanwhile, Dan was also exploring programming and related learning opportunities in science and industry. He taught himself how to code and did some certificate work, and not too long after, as if by some magic of the technology learning gods and goddesses, a CTE position opened up at the school. Dan was clearly the man for the job. He hustled to make sure of acquiring the technical requirements for the job and immersed himself in the CTE world and what it had to offer him and his students. Bringing all his knowledge of science and math into his new domain, he jumped into a new world of programming with both feet.

That summer when he relocated to a new room in the CTE wing, he found the space dusty and largely barren of working programming equipment, but with some tables and boxes of unused devices. On his own time and with the help of a few friends and colleagues his space, although hardly complete, was largely up and running for the opening of school. Dan wasted no time in connecting concepts and skills in programming with opportunities for his students to put them into action. He worked with a local STEM outreach provider, White Mountains Science, Inc. to connect with Arduino and use his classroom as a test bed for IoT hardware and software in an education setting.

Dan and his students designed, prototyped, and implemented a “Smart Greenhouse” at the school with the goal of using technology to improve their school community. This project was unique in the experience of Arduino and pushed their expectations of educational uses for the IoT boards from lab projects into permanent installments mimicking professional applications. As a result of the general excitement around this project he, his school and students demonstrated and interacted with a world-wide network. Presenting to a virtual international conference of educators hosted by Pitsco Education and local partners and schools. His students were also able to provide feedback to Arduino talking directly with their engineers and software designers, from across Europe. One of the most exciting moments was when Dan’s students invited the Arduino folks in Italy to adjust lighting and climate in the school’s greenhouse, located down the wing from his own room, through the IoT dashboard. Check it out: https://www.arduino.cc/cloud/building-automated-greenhouse.

His students also presented their work in a bevy of local events, learning how to organize and display their work at a high level and demonstrating to community partners what could be accomplished for their dollars, both in terms of human capital and workforce readiness. Dan invited collaborators from the education and business fields to tune and view his student’s work, a Tufts University graduate student planning to implement a similar project, among others. This school year’s finale was his students' involvement, on their own and his summer leisure time, in creating the Farmbot Exhibit at the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center.

Dan is the kind of person you’d want to take your students’ learning, your colleagues’ enthusiasm, and your school community to the next level – a level of excellence. Here’s to someone who kept moving and learning through the pandemic and who shows what is possible.

Note: Dan will be at St. Johnsbury Academy (VT) starting this fall. Email me here for a connection: larry@educationresourcesconsortium.org

TONY SPAGNUOLO: ALWAYS ON THE MOVE

Tony Spagnuolo is in his fifth or sixth, some say seventh career. And some middle school students in Central Falls, RI have become the big winners. After stellar careers and recognition in a range of fields, including a major position in the New England dairy industry, he made the move to public education, wanting to serve young people and to capitalize on a wealth of knowledge and experience in science and nature studies.

In order to join the teaching ranks, Tony did the “going back to school” thing to gain the licensure he needed, absorbing key concepts and frameworks for becoming a solid teacher. He threw himself into it, relishing a chance to be a student again and found as much pleasure in art and design (things he has always kept up in his spare time) as he did in courses about teaching methods and materials. Once he had the degree and the licensure he began a series of settings that ultimately led him to Central Falls.

Part of a military family, Tony lived in many places growing up, something that may have contributed to his ability to fit in while still being true to himself. His youth was spent all around New England, mostly in Vermont, some in Maine, where being outside in nature and on the playing fields contributed to his love of animals, skiing and snowboarding, all sports, and just being out in the fresh air. Criss-crossing New England in his 20’s, he worked in the glass industry, outdoor education, youth services, retail, and more, before signing on to help one of the large regional dairies to modernize and grow. He spent a long, upwardly-bound career learning and modifying key aspects of that industry, all the while finding time to coach youth soccer at many age and competition levels.

To know Tony is to be amazed at his energy. He’s always on the move. A multi-sport athlete, Spagnuolo become a fixture in youth soccer in RI and beyond for years. Still, these days, summer always finds him instructing at soccer camps, just as afternoons and evenings during the school year have him coaching clubs and doing clinics, finishing just in time to sit and make sure his lessons are ready for the next day. He takes evening time to find a short video to make topics come alive, or group task to put kids together for something hands-on.

He pays particular attention to the many new learners of English and Central Falls has many of them. He took some courses to learn Spanish, pays regular visits to Spanish-English glossaries and prints them for his new learners of English. Often times he reviews assignments for the next day first in English, then in Spanish, inviting students to correct or add to his version.

Another of the things I’ve learned that makes Tony special in school is his strong belief that positive behaviors and students supporting each other are as important as school lessons, probably more so. He’s a walking “character education” class. Leading by example, he takes a personal interest in young people and their outside-of-school lives and background, even with the large classes that are routine in the district. He is quick to connect kids with each other for social as well as academic support and it’s no surprise that during lunch and after school his room is crowded with kids.

Tony routinely forgoes a quieter lunch in the teacher’s room or on the patio to make his room a gathering place for students. The room buzzes, almost as full as his classes. They may be there to work on the model racing cars they build with him to learn physics concepts, to take care of the fish, rabbits, gerbils, turtles, hamsters, and other wildlife that he has rescued or grown at his home, or just to be around him, to enjoy his positive energy and the interest he shows in each and every student. With “Mr. Spags”, you earn that attention by being a good citizen and supporting other students. His love of animals comes through and spreads among the young people, whose new urban environment may differ from where they grew up in another country.

These are not easy times to be a teacher, and Tony likely faces more challenges than most by virtue of his setting. But, he is rock solid, a great colleague, and the kind of teacher that you’d want for your own youngsters. Thanks to good fortune, our field gained a role model and a great contributor.

GABE CORDOVA: A GROWTH MINDSET

I’ve been working on and off with the Albuquerque Sign Language Academy for almost ten years. I met Executive Director Rafe Martinez when he was Dean of Student Support at a small re-engagement high school in the Duke City. I followed him to a new job and have been a fan and friend ever since.

That new job was at the Sign Language Academy, ASLA is its often known, a tuition-free public charter school with a history of breaking away from unsatisfying status quo situations and clearing new ground. The school was created by progressive educators and parents and caregivers of deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing children who wanted an option that would allow families to remain together and thrive.

As a certified ASL-English dual language school, they provide direct instruction in American Sign Language to all students, resting on a strong belief that American Sign Language has a deep power to unify people and improve quality of life. In a unique move that builds on their beliefs, the school has chosen to offer a rich, side-by-side experience for students with hearing challenges as well as for others who could choose a traditional classroom, with a one-to-one ratio of deaf to hearing students Ninety-five percent of ASLA students have a link to the deaf community, either by being deaf or hard of hearing themselves or by having a deaf sibling, parent, cousin, or other family members.

The Albuquerque Sign Language Academy is a special and demanding setting. I don’t know of a more hard-working school anywhere. One of the people whose job it is to promote a healthy culture and solid social-emotional care is Gabe Cordova, Coordinator of Student Support, now in his third year. Having come out of a state university with a B.S. in psychology and a Master’s in clinical social work, Gabe first signed on with the Department of Children, Youth, and Families. As fortune might dictate, in that graduate work he also dug into American Sign Language, leading to an internship at ASLA, a part of cementing his social work degree. Being a local guy interested in helping others, he gravitated toward the ASLA vision that includes mental health and other support services as fundamental parts of the design.

He also was drawn in particular to the notion of taking a hard look at antiquated practices in “traditional school” and the prevailing traditions for deaf and hard-of-hearing. ASLA struck him as different in the school’s encouragement of all staff to bring new expertise and try different approaches, recognizing something special, that ASLA goes out of its way to foster a growth mindset in the staff, as well as the students. Gabe is quick to express his commitment to the school’s mission and he’s not shy about his gratitude for being called on to serve the ASLA community, starting with the students and extending to the faculty and caregivers.

Cordova’s Student Support Team helps with interventions for individual students, provides classroom support, and consults with academic staff about a range of behavioral and motivational issues as they arise. Another big part of his work at ASLA is to help employ an array of data that includes robust qualitative subsets other schools might miss. This includes both the PEAR Institute HSA and a self-developed functional assessment, called the FQSS, to help shed additional light on the social emotional status of students, their outlook on the world, their school, and their learning. Integrating academics with mental and behavioral health provides unique insights. As a new leader, Gabe promotes the idea of giving students a voice in advocating for their own needs, personal or academic.

Not surprisingly, he’s also a fan of the side-by-side method of programming, having hearing and Deaf/HH students learning together, arguing that the best way to teach multiculturalism is to immerse students in the vast array of experiences that will be their lifestyle. His approach, and the school’s, is that D/HH students will need to learn to navigate a world that will not always accommodate them as it should, and that hearing students will benefit from learning how to accommodate the needs of others. By truly embracing a growth mindset, something many schools proclaim but too seldom live out, these young people can make their world a better place.

KIM BROWNELL: A NATURAL FIT

A few years ago, I had the pleasure of being invited by then-Superintendent Ken Facin, a superb public educator, to help him make his district’s schools as safe and supportive as possible for students of all ages to develop as thoughtful, alert, and kind young people. Part of my involvement there was to work with a team of teachers and counselors to assess how some possible new programming could help adults get to know students more deeply, serving as a preventative layer and supporting them through challenges and growth.

I recalled specifically how one of the teachers often seemed to put it all together, connecting ideas, drawing conclusions, broaching hard topics when necessary, and suggesting action steps. She understood that social/emotional and intellectual growth were not distinct from each other, that building relationships with students should not be optional but rather essential, and that a school that was willing to reflect, change, and grow was a healthy school, good for all involved. So, I was not altogether surprised when that teacher, Kimberly Brownell, reached out to me a year later asking for advice on how to grow into a leadership position. We spent almost a year, her doing by far the brunt of the work, researching and connecting with a variety of school leadership programs in the northeast and helping to select the right one.

As I advocated for her as a graduate student, I was taken with her drive to contribute, to make schools a better place, and her openness to new ideas and possibilities. I learned that she, in a rather brief time span, had served in a variety of school settings, traditional and alternative, and carried forward lessons learned about kids, teaching, working with colleagues, and engaging families. Before too long, she was completing her internship for her licensure and our conversation moved on to teaching practices, youth development, and leadership essentials. Kim always seemed to find the core of the arguments, and what I particularly appreciate, is her willingness to challenge the status quo, exploring why we often continue to do things in schools that we don’t really look at, even if they don’t work that well.

As she completed her internship, conducting internal and external research and presenting to the district board, it was clear to me that she was ready to find and step into a school administrative position. She began a quiet search. Little did either of us know that in a nearby district a new superintendent was looking for a new 6-12 school principal. It seemed a big step, but I viewed her as more ready than many, and more of a natural fit character-wise, to join the principalship right away. We spent some time anticipating questions she might be asked, her take-away’s from her varying experiences and her coursework, and her vision for a good school. She spent time daily preparing, researching and visiting the community and its schools, and genuinely probing for how she could help the school grow while building on its existing assets and culture.

Well, she got the job, obviously convincing a new and intent audience that she had the heart and mind for the work. I’ve had the pleasure of coaching her this past school year, a year full of listening and watching, but also a year of doing new things, of thinking differently when needed, and in following through with new activities and new conversations. Kim has a way of getting people to think hard, but not with a sense of worry. Her default position is one of supporting and reassuring, but also being clear that getting better is part of her leadership roadmap

One of the first investments that paid off was building out and refreshing a Student Support Team. What could be more valuable in a pandemic than taking good care of people, and supporting the caregivers charged with that work? Meeting regularly, assessing systems and practices, and leading activities with colleagues, that team takes pride in being a vital part of school culture and capacity. Wellness is an achievement strategy, so goes the ERC mantra, and her team is striving to make that a reality.

Another milestone for Kim and her school was a first-of-its-kind activity: an assembly where rather than sitting and listening to the rules and consequences, students at each grade level were invited to discuss and comment on those rules, climate, and things they might want to keep or change. Kim was concerned that it be a truly authentic activity, with students speaking their mind, yet she understood that it was new for them, and for the school’s adults, and it needed to be safe and well-organized. Students representing themselves poorly could discourage future chances while having a “canned” activity would send the message to students that adults always know best. Kim and I spent almost a month, first imagining the event at its best --its most exciting and engaging-- then taking time to think about what could go wrong, and finally coming back to create a plan that elevated the activity into something special. That way of thinking and planning I owe to my work with two giants of school life and leadership, Vito Perrone and Roland Barth. Don’t let the worries rule the day. Always come back to the initial vision of excitement and uplift, and let that be the target.

A good deal of communication about the event and trouble-shooting for a full day of “student voice” filled the next weeks for us. I found myself wondering on the day of the event how something so unfamiliar would go, one orchestrated by a first-time principal, one new to the school as well. It turns out that, with help from the Student Support Team and Teacher Leaders, the event, actually seven different events grade by grade, was a big hit. Students, initially surprised at such an opportunity, were thoughtful and engaged listeners and fully represented how they viewed key issues that shape school life. They asked for more such activities, and Kim’s debrief with teachers also included positive reviews and requests for more. Teachers who were in the habit of paying attention to student voice said that the event affirmed that way of engaging. Others offered support for more listening to students on problem-solving and quality of life. Not long after, some of the school handbook’s arcane rules were modified and endorsed, with Kim being careful to keep communications with all stakeholders regular and descriptive. As a rule, she makes sure that she is letting everyone know what’s going on, as well as committing to careful planning and follow-through, secrets to success in administration.

Despite a grueling schedule, Kim stays remarkably positive and energetic, much of which I attribute to not just completing administrative tasks and keeping the trains running, but really looking and listening, and making time for not shying away from hard questions, new ideas and exploration. She was, it seems, built for this job.

A first-year principal can be great, its clear. No one starts out as a veteran principal. School leadership is not one-size-fits-all. Schools at different times need a healer, a listener, a manager, a scientist, a cheerleader, a model teacher, maybe a brother or sister, mom or pop. All schools are different, year to year, sometimes month to month. A good fit is essential --something we don’t pay enough attention to in our leadership searches. When it happens, watching it unfurl, as it seems is underway for Kim, for her students, families, and professionals, is a beautiful thing.

NOTE: I’m happy to connect you to Kim – just email me at larry@educationresourcesconsortium.org.

Coaching for school and district leaders and teams is a specialty. It makes a big difference. Come on down!!