Being Leaders and Modeling Expectations For:

• Improving Student Learning,

• Operating Efficiently and Effectively,

•  Building Trust, Commitment, Ownership, and Accountability.

Before I came to New Hampshire and since I’ve been here, many people have asked me, “Why did you come here?”  I came to the Winnisquam School District because it was clear to me that the Board, administrators, teachers, staff, parents, students, and community members are focused on leadership for increasing student learning results.  In the short time that I’ve been here, I’ve seen evidence of leadership in the district and community that exhibits strong work ethics of genuine care and inspiration.  Everyone wants to do well in their jobs in order to provide an environment that influences student learning.  As I expressed on opening day to all staff members, 

Leadership is influencing people by providing purpose, direction,
and motivation while operating to accomplish the goals and
improving the organization. Leadership is creating a future that wasn’t going to happen anyway. 

Good leaders accept the status-quo of operating a school district.  Great leaders model expectations by what they focus on and pay attention to on a day-to-day basis.  One of the foci is to raise questions about what we need to do for getting the kind of results needed for continual improvement that enhances productivity in the school and/or entire district.  In order to find answers for better learning results, we have to look at evidence from assessments and data for making informed decisions that will be best for students and the entire school organization.   

Leaders must model this behavior to make it part of the culture as well as empower all individuals to delve deeper into the data and raise the questions that will guide us to reflect on what we do in the schools.   The questions are: 
 

• What are we doing?

• Why are we doing all this?

• How are we doing all this?

• Why are we doing it this way?

• How are our students doing?

• How do we know how they’re doing?

• What are we doing about those who aren’t doing well?

No Child Left Behind mandates that every student will be proficient by 2014.  Sometimes we feel overwhelmed and wonder how we are going to accomplish this goal if at all.  Since I believe in the type of leadership that is inspirational and believe in “creating a future” that many feel cannot happen; it is my job to lead, empower, and inspire others to do the same.  Our future is our students and our responsibility as leaders is to model for our students our expectations for the future.  To do that, we must walk the talk of what that might look like.  In doing so, we must continually raise questions and review data to reflect on the progress we are making for improving student learning, operating efficiently and effectively, and building a culture of trust, commitment, ownership, and accountability in The Winnisquam School District.