HOS Highlights
December 16th, 2015
“We succeed only when students succeed. That is our goal. That is our passion. That is our work.” Nate Davis
What's New!
- The next HOS Highlights newsletter will be published on January 6, 2016.
- Pre-work for HOS Summit: Click here to open the primary pre-work assignment for the HOS Summit. We will discuss this further on Friday's HOS call. If you have any questions or thoughts, please reach out to your RVP. Note: HOSs will submit their pre-work assignment to RVPs by January 4th.
- Pre-Work for HOS Summit (Reading) - Change Management resource for HOS Summit. A key focus of this year's summit will be on key programmatic changes for K12 schools in the coming school year and how school leaders can ensure that changes have meaningful impact at the school level. In preparation for the summit, we are recommending you read "Buy-In: Saving Your Good Idea from Getting Shot Down" by Kotter. According to Kotter, the #1 reason for change initiative failure is employee resistance—76% and the #2 reason is communication breakdown—72%. This book addresses those two factors. because getting employee buy in overcomes employee resistance and you get buy in through effective communication. Please click here to download the audio-book through Skillsoft.
Click on link
Click on download
Download the 4 MP3 files
Listen on computer or audio device--perhaps on the plane!
- Summit Room Reservation - As of today, about half of the HOSs have already reserved rooms for the Summit at the Sheraton- thank you! If you have not yet reserved your room, please make your reservations this week. Here is the link for you to reserve and pay for your hotel room. The hotel is selling out and rooms cannot be guaranteed after Friday so please reserve yours today. Should anyone prefer to call instead and make a reservation, feel free to call Central Reservations at 1-800-561-9186 and ask for K12 2016 Meeting room block. Per our contract with the hotel, we need you to book your room no later than December 18th. If you need more logistical information about the National HOS Summit, please scroll below the cheers section to find it.
- Please RSVP to the HOS Summit Kick-Off reception by 12/18 using the following link. This survey takes less than 30 seconds and will help us order an appropriate amount of hors d'oeuvres for our HOS Summit Reception at the hotel on Monday evening from 6pm-9pm. This casual celebration of our time together will be provide opportunities for food, drinks, friends, games, photo ops, and special guests from the corporate office. We hope you will be able to join us.
- Exciting news! Leadership Focus at Promising Practices Conference - We are excited to add a Leadership Development track for School Leaders during the Feb. 25th Promising Practices conference. Please consider submitting a proposal. This year’s theme is "Engaging the Learner, the Parent, the Teacher". This will be an excellent forum to showcase leadership practices that are working for you. If you would like an academic administrator or other school leader to present in your place, please reach out to them and invite them to present. Proposal Submission: Please complete the short session proposal webform: http://tinyurl.com/K12Proposal2016
Head of School in the Spotlight
Katrina Abston
Schools: California managed programs-15 programs
Began: 2002
Superpower: Perseverance
Fun fact: Advanced scuba diver
Advice To Leaders: Always, always, always keep your students the center of your heart, even when the adults frustrate us. Keeping the kids that your center will allow you to love what you do each and every day.
Leadership Video: Lessons from Star Wars
Questions to Ponder
1. What is your "cause" and how do you rally people around you to work toward the cause rather than just showing up everyday?
2. “Do, or do not. There is no try…” Yoda sagely tells us. The single greatest thing you can teach your team is the right attitude. And the right attitude is that they are going to make it happen. How do you teach someone the right attitude?
HOS PD - What's on the Horizon?
Our next HOS meeting is Dec. 18th.
School Services/Department Updates
Operations Mentoring Program
The SMS Operations team is excited to announce the rollout of the Operations Mentoring Program, coming this spring 2016! The Mentoring Program will provide support to new operations managers by leveraging the expertise of our seasoned operations managers. You can review the summary of the ops mentoring and support program initiatives on the ops SharePoint site.
K12 Promising Practices Conference
Engaging the Learner, the Parent, the Teacher
Thursday, February 25th, 2016.
This February, K12 will host our 5th annual Promising Practices conference showcasing the promising practices of schools and individuals across the K12 network. Last year over 1100 participants attended representing over 40 schools with a 98% satisfaction rating. This year we are going to offer an iLead strand and we would like to invite our school leaders to attend. Look for more to come!
The K12 Promising Practices Conference is an opportunity for school practitioners to share their current evidenced based programs and activities targeted at improving engagement in schools. The event will include opening remarks by a K12 school leader, short presentations, workshops, and a poster exhibit hall.
All sessions are led by the experts in the field.
Now Accepting Proposals!
This year’s theme is Engaging the Learner, the Parent, the Teacher. How do you engage your learners, your parents and/or your teachers/staff?
Proposal Submission: Please complete the short session proposal webform: http://tinyurl.com/K12Proposal2016
Proposal Review: Session proposals are reviewed on a rolling basis until January 8, 2016. Proposals will be selected to provide a wide range of topics and audiences. Selected participants will create a speaker, workshop, or poster session using the template provided to selected presenters.
Final Presentations are due January 29, 2016.
Questions: Please contact the Academic Services team at our HelpDesk https://K12AcademicServicesSupport.com
Praise for Promising Practices
I loved this format, it is amazing how much it has evolved in the past few years.
This was my first year attending the conference. Overall, the conference was very well organized. I appreciated that there was a wide array of session topics and workshop types to choose from.
I liked the number of sessions offered and that you could drop in and out of sessions as it worked with our individual school days.
Very enjoyable with tons of great info to practically apply
This was a wonderful conference! I especially appreciated all of the best practices and file-shared documents that I can share with my team. Thank you!
I was very pleased with the conference. I really learned a lot.
Cheers to You!
Cheers to all of the people who are helping behind the scenes to make the HOS Summit Successful. We appreciate these committee members.
We would like to highlight your Cheers in the next HOS Highlights newsletter. Feel free to cheer for regional teams as well as your fellow HOS's. Please submit your cheers on the form below.
Past issues of the HOS Highlights
National HOS Summit Essential Information--Reoccurring Information
We are excited about this year's National HOS Summit and look forward to a meaningful week together in Herndon, VA! While we continue to build out details of our time together, below you will find essential information to assist you with travel plans. We will continue to update you via the HOS Highlights between now and the Summit. As always, please let us know if you have additional questions.
In Partnership,
School Leadership Development Team
Booking Travel & Accommodations
As you book travel for this event, please note that the Summit will officially kick off on Monday, January 11th with a social welcoming event that includes food, fun, and connecting! We will be joined by Allison Cleveland, Todd Goldthwaite, our CEO Nate Davis, and others to help welcome you all to Herndon! We will offer appetizers and drinks at our social event on Monday night. Summit sessions will begin early Tuesday morning, January 12th and will end mid-day on Friday, January 15th. Feel free to schedule return flights for Friday, January 15th afternoon after 1:30 PM EST.
Airport
It is recommended that you fly into Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) which is only a few miles from the K12 Corporate Offices.
Hotels
We have reserved a block of rooms at a hotel as we would like everyone stay at the same location. We have arranged for a social event at the Sheraton Reston on Monday evening from 6pm-9pm and this would save everyone the hassle of traveling to a different location. We have arranged shuttle service from the Sheraton to the offices and back each day and breakfast is provided.
· Sheraton Reston 11810 Sunrise Valley Drive Reston, VA, 20191
You will need to book your hotel no later than December 18th to get a discounted rate of $139 per night. Note: A call number will be provided in next week's newsletter so you can reserve your room with a credit card. Please call the reservation line rather than booking through the K12 travel agent.
Meeting Location
The meeting will be held at the K12 corporate office. The address to the K12 corporate office is below. The rooms at K12 can get cool sometimes, so if you have a light jacket, bring that to be on the safe side. We will be meeting on the first floor. When you walk in the front doors, the meetings rooms will be behind the reception desk on the left side of the lobby.
K12 Inc.
2300 Corporate Park Drive
Herndon, VA 20171
Food
Dinners - Please plan to attend a fun night out for dinner on Wednesday, January 13th. HOSs will be able to join K12 executives at “group dinners” to be held at various restaurants in the Reston Town Center. HOSs can sign up for the group and restaurant of their choice. Restaurants and K12 executive table leads will be shared with our detailed agenda that is forthcoming. Note that dinner will be on your own Tuesday and Thursday evening.
Breakfasts and Lunches – Breakfast will be on your own each day as the hotel offers various breakfast options. Lunch will be provided for you each day on-site.
*Dietary Restrictions: Please send an email to Brandi Maynard if you have any dietary restrictions.
Leadership Academies and HOS meetings Dates
Leadership Academy #2
· October 9th
~October 23rd *HOS Call and Leadership Academy
· November 6th
~November 20th *HOS Call Only
~December 18th *HOS Call Only
~January 22nd *HOS Call Only
~February 12th *HOS Call Only
Leadership Academy #3
· February 26th
~March 11th *HOS Call and Leadership Academy
· March 25th
Leadership Academy #4
· April 15th
~April 29th **HOS Call and Leadership Academy
· May 13th
~May 27th *HOS Call Only
Leadership Academy #5
· June 10th
~ June 24th *HOS Call and Leadership Academy
· July 8th
~July 29th- *HOS Call Only
Reoccurring Information Below
Leadership Academy Titan Pads
Amanda Conley,
Cassie Barton,
Josh Williams,
Katrina Abston,
Lynn Barr,
Mark Christiano,
Matt Arkin
Faith Shanholtzer,
Kelly Van Sande,
Kendall Schroeder,
Josh Williams,
Marcus Moore,
Nicholaus Sutherland,
Nicole Tiley,
Lynn Barr,
Sara Baker
Pam Jonidis,
Beth Lorigan,
Caroline McIntosh,
David Crook,
Ryan Clepper,
Stacey Hutchings,
Steven Hoff
Laurie Erdman,
Brandy Osborn,
Byron Ernest,
Elizabeth Roth,
JD McMahan
Joel Medley,
Theresa Gallagher
Scott Sides,
Sheryl Tatum
Sheila Sheibler,Cherry Daniel,
Jeffrey Bush,
Jessie Thoman,
John Huber,
Kelly Edginton,
Monti Pittman,
Theresa Gallagher
Suzanne Sloane,
Theresa Gallagher,
Veronica Clemons
The Leadership Academy Basics
- Weekly Leadership Academies begin at Noon EST every Friday afternoon and run for 90 minutes
- Here is the participant link.
- It is highly recommended that you participate in the weekly academies via BBC because the classes are going to be interactive. Your experience will not be as rich if you join via phone only
- Pertinent school services information that was typically presented during Friday HOS calls will be shared via regional calls, the weekly HOS newsletter, or monthly national HOS calls
- This newsletter will have all of the information you need for the upcoming training and will arrive in your inbox every Wednesday morning
iLead@K12/School Leadership Development & Support Team
2015/16 Leadership Academy Content and Focus
2015-2016 Leadership Standards and Practices
Leadership Academy #1- "Explore U": YOU are the focus of Leadership Academy #1 entitled, Explore "U". Throughout the first seven weeks we will focus on your strengths as indicated in the Myers-Briggs assessment most of you took in January, 2015. Throughout the cycle you will build upon your strengths and learn to leverage those strengths to minimize weaknesses.
Leadership Academy #2- "Build It and They Will Come": Your knowledge and expertise will be leveraged to build out content for one of the leadership strands. Each School leader chooses one standard to work with over the course of the 7 week cycle. The goal will be to codify your expertise within the leadership strand to build a complete leadership Academy cycle in your area chosen area.
Leadership Academies #3-5-: Once the content is built, you will choose one strand to focus on for the remaining cycles. Choice is built into the process and we would like you to choose two standards. We suggest you work with your RVP/DRVP to choose one leadership strand that you would like additional support in. The strands include: Strategic Leadership, Instructional Leadership, Community, Human Resources, and Organizational Management.
iLead@K12 Team
The iLEAD team leads the design, development, execution, and evaluation of national programs that build exceptional school leadership across K12’s network of managed schools. The team coordinates school, regional and national efforts to improve leadership practice and school outcomes.
Mike Kazek
Board and Partner Relations