I mentioned who is not here but in my brief introduction, i would like to share with you how i, we, mcgraw hill education, got here. At the third annual academy, and with the opportunity to introduce our next keynote speaker. The role that we work is to identify Strategic Partnerships with National Alliances that also align to the core values and mission of our company. For example, as we began four years ago, our transformation from a 125yearold Publishing Company to a learning science company, we identified with one of our longtime partners with their work and as a result we took a lead role and active participation with their digital and personalized learning symposiums. Maybe its me being a proud and honored son of two cuban orphans that instilled in me the need of always. Wanting to do more and to do good. We continued our conversations with asa and our partnered districts and recognized the significance and issue in addressing the needs within our districts. So three years ago, the concept of the academy with aasa was launched. And we mcgraw hill education immediately said yes. We want to work with you. I personally had the pleasure after of attending the career two cohort module for the first time. I turn and look at mort and i say and ask, did you feel that . That was an awkward question at the moment, but i look at him and say did you feel that . That enlinenment of the purpose of why we are here. So as we continued our conversation in planning for this specific weekend event and reviewing the amazing list of speakers, we had the opportunity to identify someone else. Dwight jones and i look eed at each other and immediately said and thought of someone who represents at its core vision and passion of what we do to ignite that fire. That someone is dr. Mark bedell of kansas city Public Schools. I dont want to go into too much specifics or take away from his presentation of the amazing work of him and his team are doing, but i ask if you havent done so already, look him up. Take a look. Look at the current event. See his recent plan that was just release d a month ago. Its the shortest, yet the most honest 36page Strategic Plan i have ever read across. But more important, it did not lose sight of why. Because at its focus was Student Learning and people focused. Again, going back to the shared commitments of mcgraw hill education and asa. Before i hand it over to our next speaker, i would like to close with a quote from dr. Martin lieutenauther king jr. It says, for our lives begin to end, the day we become silent about the things that matter. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to introduce our next speaker, dr. Mark bedell, who is clearly someone who will not be silent. Thank you. [ applause ] were going to go ahead and get right into it. Listen, i stand up here, behind this podium, and usually im not the type of person that gets nervous. But i think part of it is because im humbled and i think about how far ive come, having an opportunity to listen to our last presenter and seeing those things play out over and over and over. As a student seeing it happen to my siblings and seeing it happen as a too mucher. Im thankful that i am here today and i get to talk to you all about what youre getting ready to go into. Often times ill come to this podium and talk about the journey that i took to get here. As michael said, theres a lot of Information Online regarding my life story. But what today is about, today is about preparing you all for what i have just walked through, i think some people would say, well, you have only been a superintendent one year, what is it that you can possibly offer me . Well, what i can tell you is, i know that one year of experience in going into my second year, that im much more comfortable doing this job, i want everybody in here to know that it is a doable job, and often times when people come up and they speak, they often approach it from a deficit lens and it sometimes scares people off, because i know people that i currently work with that were telling me after going through some of the experiences of what they have heard, theyre not interested in becoming a superintendent. And thats actually okay too. But if you want to last in this profession, i think theres just some common sense things that you just have to be able to do. So what this presentation will do today is really take you through the journey of what we have experienced in my first year, and the Kansas City School district. I want to give you just a brief history. This School District is in our 150th year of existence. Its a School District thats been through a lot of suffering, a lot of pain, the community is traumatized, students are traumatized, race plays out in a way, unlike any other city that i have lived in, and i have lived in a lot of cities and were not afraid to talk about it, because the reality is, we have to address that elephant in the room and if we dont, i dont know how you can continue to advance and heal a city. But what we have said we would do differently. We said that we would make a commitment, that we would continue to be here, we would give this district the compare and the compassion that it needs. Everybody that i have recruited. And higher, i said there are no safety nets when you get into an executive position. If youre going to be an assistant superintendent, there is no safety net. So if youre taking this job, because youre worried about a safety net, you wont last. Right, at the end of the day, i tell people my safety net is just doing right. If i can educate the kids that have i now, develop them in three years, socially, emotionally and academically, then the safety net takes care of itself. But at the end of the day, i told my people that you have to be willing to be a martyr for kids, and what does that mean . That comes into politics and politics is a very big part of this job, not succumbing to an adult centered agenda. And that may mean that youre having to have some tough negotiations with your union, because we want everything to be focused on students. At the end of the day, the bullseye, as michael said is simply around student achievement thats what we have done. Lets see if we can just move in here. Slow down. Will share this with you. Last year i remember when i was announced, they called and said we have unanimously voted you as the next superintendent of the Kansas City School district. And in my mind i was sitting there and thinking about all the things i needed to do how i needed to come into this district and in just one year turn things around. So i was working with a superintendent, that was a prominent superintendent in this country, i want to say that he has roughly 65 to 70 superintendents nationally right now. Dr. Terry greer. And dr. Terry grier said you are to plant seeds in the morning and cut grass in the afternoon. And i talk about that a lot. And ultimately i came in with the same approach. But every School District is different. Some are more stable, some are more fragile. And you have to come in and say how fast are you going to go . Michael fuller talks about slow down in order to go fast. And sometimes if you go too fast, then not only are you not moving the School District, but youre working on moving yourself out in a very fast way too. So i learned in the first year to slow down. This is like going from the ncaa to the nba. Thats what this position is. And the pace of being a superintendent, depending on your mark can be overbearing, so you have to slow that down too because you have a lot of control. But i also want to talk about reminiscing on the days of being a teacher. We also have to take control of our classes. And if we doif you can hear my voice, clap. This is just messing all up. If but if you can hear my voice clap one, if you can hear my voice clap twice. What we do then is we slow things down in order to regain focus, because it becomes chaotic. Youre allowed to do that. Youre allowed to take full control. And so i want to talk about the beginning as you go into this role. This is a great day for me, i couldnt speak last night because i was so ecstatic about this opportunity, theres so much that needs to be done for our children and i want to thank our board for giving me this opportunity. The mistrust and compassion i have had as a part of this School System. So, that was my first day, everybody. I had a press conference. It was regarding providing Early Childhood education free to students and it was getting out and finding an opportunity to meet with people. But one of the things that i did different is that we have this area called the jazz district. Its on 18th and vine. So many of you who have been to kansas city, understand that area. So immediately after the press conference, took off my jacket, rolled up my sleeves and we went and just honed out on 18th and vine. It gave me an opportunity to get the know the community better. It gave me the opportunity to show that im just a regular guy. Because often times as a superintendent, and many superintendents who are here will tell you, youre viewed as bigger than life. They see you on the news, they see you on television stations, they see you online and they think youre bigger than life. And i want people to know that im just a regular guy, im no bigger or better than anybody else. And so what i did was i remember someone told me, they said one of the things you did, dr. Bedel when you came in initially, you went and you shook the hands of every single custodian, every single cafeteria worker and you made them feel like they were going to be part of the team. This year, we rolled out our Strategic Plan and i have trained everybody in my system on the Strategic Plan. I had one teacher who said we have been in this School District 13 years, this is the first time anybody has invited us to come and understand which direction the district was going on in. This is the first time i have been able to sit in front of a superintendent and feel like im actually a part of the plan. So ultimately you have to include everybody and thats very, very critical. In addition, people are going to make a lot of demands on your time. And this job will eat you alive if you dont know how to manage your time. So you need to have a strong executive assistant who can help organize, who knows how to say no to people, right, because there are people you dont know what their motives are. Its just, i want to spend time with the superintendent, so i can say, hey, ive been in front of the superintendent. And its not the work that needs to be done, youre focusing on the wrong things, so you have to be able to have someone that will not allow for you to be moved off of the path of really focusing on students. All we have is time. I mean, its the resource the only resource we have. We have time, how do we utilize it correctly . Because often cases for superintendents, its a short period of time. So on my website. You can go to our website, everything that we have done is posted. I actually had an opportunity to borrow an entry plan in several people and i went through a cohort like this in chicago several years ago, i was able to learn a lot about entry plans, its great to learn about it, but when you actually have to be in a position of being the person to execute it, its a lot different. Because ultimately this is you product, and ultimately when people take a look at that, theyre going to take a look at you, is it a polished document. Does it speak to what people in the community are asking for . The entry plan was a simple entry plan and it gave me an opportunity during the first 100 days to get into every facet of my community including listening and learning tours and things of that nature. Thats on the website, everybody, if you need a copy, were free, were 70, were willing to send you whatever we have. I have a peer who works in hickman mill. I didnt share this with yolanda, i told yolanda, youre a next door neighbor of mine, everything that i have, you v because i remember how hard it is, i remember how hard it was last year, even if you are into that School District, and youre moving up into the role of superintendent, it doesnt prepare you for it. But its very doable. Its just like youre a glorified high school principal. Youre just interacting now with the mayor or some of the billion areas and some of those people that have you were over your community, you were over your area, thats what this job is. You need to depend on people. You have to have strong people who will help you. So the next piece is, you dont know what you dont know. You cant understand it all. Its a complex job. Theres a lot of Historical Context that you need to learn, which means to me, its not smart for you to just come in and blow up the place and bring your own team in. Without figuring out what assets are already available. So it took me seven months, i didnt get rid of anybody until after seven months, because i wanted everybody to show me whether or not they could do the work, but it gave me a fair amount of time to make a true assessment as to whether or not some of these folks will be a part of our team going into the reorg. And i know we have situations where folks will come in and they will just blow it up, reorg right away, you catch heat from the community sometimes, you catch heat from your Board Members, but if you take your time and you get to know, you get to listen and learn from the people, it makes it a lot easier when its time to make those moves because people will think that you have given them a fair shot. So seven months, from february 1 until the rest of this year, we work with a limited staff, we have a full complement now of a staff and we were able to get some strong people within the organization to move up. Heres the advice that i would give you. I feel like your cabinet will gives you a true balance of a team that can Work Together. I think thats very critical. Then i think as you look at your principals, because thats a very critical position, i have this belief that 70 should come from within. We should have pipelines established and 70 of the people that are moving into the rank of principal should be people that you have developed because you created a strong pipeline. 30 from outside, some of those people can be experienced. Some of them can be brand new and they just have a potential to be a strong talent. But thats the advice i would give you on that component when you think about how you want to reorganize your School District. So question think about an ecosystem, and we know in an ecosystem, theres a lot of factors at play, whether its elected officials, whether its churches, whether its faith based organizations. So i want to share with you just a short video of what this leeks like for us. Im on my way to kansas city to get uncomfortable and explore how reality. Him here with daniel from the class of 2012. And hes done some really interesting projects including your fellow americans and the redream project. So as uncomfortable as i am here, we are about to get more uncomfortable. In the 20th century, kansas city produced two uniquely american geniuses that would change the cultural and geographic one of those built magic kingdom. The other one moved to hollywood and opened a theme park. The last one is walt disney, of course, the first is j. C. Nicholls. Which has just been awarded first place by the National Association of home builders. All of this we are as we walk, we immediately notice something strange. People count about we walked past a world class facility. Gardens, ponds and just one mile to the east, everything changed. Everything you just saw, kids fishing, thats just two blocks that way. And now were cross over, and you can see behind me, theres bars on the windows and this is just the beginnings. Often called the truce wall, because theres a major dividing line here, that divides rich, poor, black, white and were going to explore the area and see how different it is. Its pretty ironic that tree sign. Signs of poverty are everywhere. We stopped by this place that our doughnuts come out in a steel drawer. Theres no place to sit down inside. So when white people move out and sort of follow the urban course, there are now fewer jobs for the people that are still in the inner city. There are no manicured lawns, Public Gardens or sidewalks. Im just going to stop you here just for the sake of time. Because were trying to catch up. This video is available, its online and i have my Communications Officer here and we can make sure we get it to you, its actually an 11minute video but we just dont simply have the time. But the fact of the matter is, going into this city, and really being able to develop an understanding of what we were up against, the environments of racism. And that dividing line is for real. Its for real. And my School District serves the inner city boundaries, my School District serves, so 92 of the children in our School District are on free and reduced lunches. And when you go there, its clear, the other area west of truth he was talking about was the plaza, that is real. And so at the end of the day, we knew that coming into this, this was not just going to be one of these jobs where you can just come in and everything eels together. Were going to have to do some serious work around addressing the truth. So were focussing on a truth and reconciliation project. And what we said we would do is we wanted to get a lot of our advocacy groups, some of our major funders to participate in this. I tell people, the School District isnt in the position that its in because of failed a minute administrators and failed boards, this School District was once 70,000 students and its down to 15. And then theres an emergence of charters. We have a charter that would make it the 14th or 15th largest School District in the state of missouri. So not only are we dealing with that competition of 23 to 24 Charter Schools