Agenda, dwight jones, my counterpart with mcgraw hill education, who is not here as he is currently serving on his Civic Responsibility of jury duty. 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 urban Superintendent Academy with asa, and with the opportunity to introduce our next keynote speaker, dr. Mark fidel. You see the role that dwight jones and i work is 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, aasa, with their work on Digital Learning and transformation and as a result of this alignment we took a lead role, an active partial with their digital and personalized learning symposiums. So our partnership continued and quite honestly maybe that part of me being a proud an 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 recognize the significance and issue and addressing needs of equity and access within our districts. So three years ago the concept of urban Superintendent Academy with asa was launched and we, mcgraw hill education, immediately said, yes, count us in. We want to work with you. I personally had the pleasure of attending the year two cohort module for the first time. While i was sitting in the back with a table of elders and for those that do not know what i mean, my cohort three, i turn and i look at mort, i say, and i ask, did you feel that . And come to think of it, that was an awkward question with me just asking that to a table of the elders at that moment but i look at him and say, did you feel that . I said, that was a fire burning inside after one of the sessions. That ignite, that spark, that enlightenment of the purpose of why we are here. As we continued our conversation and planning for this weekend event, reviewing amazing list of speakers we had the opportunity to identify someone else. Dwight jones and i looked at each other, immediately said and thought someone who thought at its core vision and passion of what we do to ignite that fire. That someone is dr. Mark fidel from Kansas City Public Schools. I dont want to go into too much specifics or take away from dr. Bidels presentation the amazing work he and his team are doing but i ask if you havent done so already, look him up. Take a look. Look at current event. See his recent Strategic Plan released a month ago. It is shortest, yet the most honest 36page Strategic Plan i ever red 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 sas. Before i hand it over to our next speaker i would like to close with a quote from dr. Martin luther king, jr. It says, for our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter. Rain, it is my honor to introduce our next speaker, dr. Mark fidel, who is clearly someone who will not be silent. Thank you. [applause] thank you, michael. Well get right into it. Listen, i stand up here hine this podium, and usually im not the type of person that get nervous. But i think as part of it is because im humbled and i think about how far ive come, having the 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, experiencing it as a teacher. Im thankful that im here today, that i get to talk to you all about what youre getting ready to go into. Oftentimes i come up to the podium and i will start to talk about the journey that i took to get here. But today isnt about the journey that i took to get here. Everybody learned a lot about that last year, and as michael said, there is a lot of Information Online regarding my journey, regarding my life story but what today is about, today is about preparing you all for what i have just walked through and 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 here to know that its a doable job and often times when people come up and they speak, they often approach it from a deficit lens and it is sometimes scares people off because i know people that i currently work with, who were telling me after going through some of the experiences of what they have heard, theyre not interested in becoming a superintendent. That is actually okay too. But if you want to last in this profession, i just simply think there are just some common sense things that you just have to be able to do and so what this presentation will do today is to really help take you through the journey of what weve experienced in my first year in the Kansas City Public School district, but i want to just give you just a brief history. This is a school distribute, in its 150th year, of existence. Its a School District that has 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 lived in a lot of cities, right . Were not afraid to talk about it because the reality is, we have to address that elephant in the room. If we dont, i dont see how you can continue to advance and heal a city. But, what we said we would do differently, and when i say we im talking about my team and i, we were going to make a commitment that we were going to be here. That we were going to give this district the care and the compassion that it needs. And that we were going to be relentless in that. Everybody that i have recruited or, that i have hired, i clearly said to them, there are no safety nets when you get into an executive position. There arent any. If youre going to be a superintendent youre an assistant superintendent, deputy, many of you are executives right now, there is no safety net. If youre taking this job because you are 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 with the product that i have right now, with the kid that i have right now. And if i can educate these kids properly, develop them in three areas, socially, emotionally, and academically, then the safety net takes care of itself but at the end of the day i told my people you have to be willing to be a martyr. You have to be willing to be a martyr for kids. What does that mean . Now to come into the politics, and politics is a very big part of this job, not succumbing to an adultcentered agenda. That very well may mean you have tough negotiations with your union because we want everything to be focused on students. And at the end of the day the bullseye as michael said, is simply around student achievement. That is what weve done. So, let me see if we can move in here. Slow down. I will share this with you. Last year i remember when i was announced and they called me and said, we have unanimously voted you as the next superintendent of the Kansas City School distribute and in my mind i was just sitting here and i was thinking about all the things that i needed to do. How i was going to come into this distribute, one year, basically turn district. Basically turn everything around. I was working with a superintendent, a prominent superintendent in this country. I want to say he has roughly 65 to 70 superintendents nationally right now, dr. Terry grier. And terry grier taught us that that you are to plant seeds in the morning and cut grass in the afternoon, right . I talk about that a lot. And ultimately i came in with that same approach. But every school districk is different. You have to make a decision how fast or slow you are going to go. Michael talks about how slow or fast. Sometimes you have to do that. If you go too fast, not only are you not moving the School District, youre working on moving yourself out in a very fast way. I learned over this first year that i needed to slow down. And that is the first thing im going to tell you. Slow down, when you get this job. Some of you are in here now, and i know a couple of you are first year superintendents. 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 market, can be overbearing. So you have to be able to slow that down because you have a lot of control. But i also talk about reminiscing on the days of being a teacher. We often take control of our classes and when we do, and i saw myself doing this with the community, a couple of weeks ago, had to have everybody clap. If you can hear my hands, can hear me, if you can hear my voice, clap. [laughter]. Just messing all up, but if you can hear my voice clap one, if you hear my voice, clap twice. What we do then, we slowed 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 share this video with you. And this talks about at the very beginning what happens as you go into this role. [inaudible] great day for me. Can not sleep last night. Im ecstatic about this opportunity. There is so much that needs to be done for our children and im simply up to the task and i i wt to thank our board. I want to thank the you for giving me this opportunity to serve [inaudible] breaking down mistrust and frustration you have had with [inaudible] so. That was my first day, everybody. I had a press conference. It was regarding providing Early Childhood education, tuitionfree, to roughly 1100 students. It also was a day full of just getting around, finding the opportunity to meet with people but one of the things that i did that was different, we have this area called the jazz district and it is on 18th and vine, right . Yeah, many of you, those 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 just hung out on 18th and vine. It gave me an opportunity to get to know the community better. It gave me the opportunity to show the community im just a regular guy, right . Because often times as superintendent, many people who are here that are superintendents will tell you, you tend to be viewed as bigger than life. They see you on the news. They hear you on the radio stations. They see you online. There is a lot of things that people just, they think youre bigger than life. I want people to know that im just a regular guy, right . Im no bigger or better than anybody else, right . And so what i did, was i remember someone told me, they said one of the things you did dr. Bedell you came in initially, you went and shook hands of every single custodian, every single cafeteria, you made them feel like they were going to be a part of the team. This year, we rolled out our Strategic Plan and i have trained everybody in my system on the Strategic Plan. We had a cafeteria worker who told me, dr. Bedell, weve been in this School System for 33 years. This is the first time anybody has invited us to come and to understand what direction the district is going in. This is the first time that i have been able to sit in front of a superintendent and feel like im an actually a part of the plan. And so ultimately everybody, it is all of us in this together, right . And you have to make sure thaw maintain that perspective. I think that is very, very critical. In addition, people are going to make a lot of demand on your time. And, this job will eat you alive if you dont know how to manage your time. And 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. Some people it is just, hey, i want to spend time with the superintendent, i can say, hey, i have been in front of the superintendent, and it is not the work that needs to be done. Youre focusing on the wrong things. You have to be able to have somebody who will not allow for you to be moved off of the path of really focusing on students. All we have is time. We dont, i mean it is resource, only resource we have time. How do we utilize it correctly. Often cases for superintendents, its a short period of time. So on my website you can go to our website. Everything weve done is posted. I actually had the opportunity to borrow an entry plan from self people. I went through a cohort like this in chicago several years ago. I was able to learn a lot about entry plans, about leadership stories, about a postentry plan. It is great to learn about it, but when you actually have to be in the position of being a person to execute it, it is a lot different, right . Because ultimately this is your product and ultimately when people take a look at that they will make a judgement on you. Is it a polished document . Does it make sense . Does it speak to what the people in the community are asking for . The entry plan was a simple entry plan. It gave me an opportunity over the first 100 days to get into every facet of my community. Including listening and learning towards and things of that nature. That is on the website, everybody. If you need a copy, we are free, we are open, we are willing to send you whatever we have. I have a peer that works in hickman mill. She is in her first year. I didnt share this with yolanda, i told yo land today, youre a next door neighbor of mine. Everybody that i have you have, because i know how hard it is. I remember how hard it was last year. And going into that seat, even if you are in your current School District and youre moving up into the role of superintendent, it doesnt prepare you for it. It is very doable, like youre a glorified high school principal. That is what it is. Youre interacting with mayor and billionaires and people with a lot of political influence. No different than running your high school. You are over your community. Youre over your area. That is what this job is. Right . But it does require you to be a lot more critical, a lot more tactical. A lot more patient and you cant do it all on your own. 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. It is a complex job. There is a lot of Historical Context that you need to learn, which means, to me, it is 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 did not get rid of anybody until past 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 part of our team going into the reorg. We have situations folks will come in, blow it up, reorg right away. You catch some heat from the community sometimes. You catch heat from your Board Members. If you take your time, you get to know, you get to listen and learn of people, it makes it a lot easier when it is time to make those moves. People feel you have given them a fair shot. Seven months, from february 1, until rest of this year, we worked with a limited staff. We have a full compliment now of a staff. We were able to get some strong people within the organization to move up. And then some strong people from our side. Here is the advice i would give you. I feel like your cabinet should be 50 50. 50 of people who have been there, 50 of outsiders, that gives awe wellrounded balance, right . I believe the cabinet should be representative of the district that you serve. So having a very diverse population of cabinet members that replicate your district from both racial and gender, gives you a true balance of a team that can Work Together. I think that is very critical. I think as you look at your principles, because that is a very critical position, i have this belief that 70 should come from within. We should have pipelines established and 70 of people moving into the rank of principle, should be people that you developed because you created a strong pipeline. 30 from outside. Of some of those people can be experienced. Some can be brand new. They have just potential to be a strong talent. But that is the advice i would give you on that component as you think about how you want to reorg size your reorganize your school distribute. So we think about an ecosystem. We know, in an ecosystem there is a lot of factors at play. Whether it is working with elected officials. Whether it is churches. Whether it is faithbased organizations. So i want to share with you just a short video of what this, what this looks like for us. On my way to sans city to get uncomfortable to explore how reality is realized. [inaudible]. [inaudible conversations]. Last year with class of 2012, with brain group, he has projects with including your fellow americans and redream project. He interviewed on the mayor on the street where he grew up. So as, uncomfortable as i am here, were about to get more uncomfortable. Needs to be pointed out in the 20th century, kansas city forever alter the physical and Cultural Landscape of the country. One of them built the magic kingdom, a fantasy world offered nonstop wholesome family fun and escape from reality. The other one moved to hollywood and opened. Last one is walt disney of course. Then we have t. J. Nichols, creator of the plaza, first shopping mall. Surrounded by multimilliondollar homes and luxurious country club. Nichols created oasis for the wealthy and Award Winning [inaudible] we have just been awarded first place in the National Association of homebuilders because of the fastest Opening Development in the