Recy Benjamin Dunn, CEO of Ascend Public Charter Schools | CEOs You Should Know

Recy Benjamin Dunn, CEO of Ascend Public Charter Schools | CEOs You Should Know

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Well, hello, reci We're withrec Done, CEO of a Senn Public
Charter Schools. Welcome to CEOs youshould know. Thanks for having me.
I'm excited to be here. We'reexcited to have you in as well,
So Reese, you know, asCEO of a Senn Public Charter Schools,
you oversee a network educating students fromkindergarten through the twelfth grade, schools that

(00:23):
are dedicated to providing rich and joyfullearning experience. Can you tell me more
about what inspires you to lead thatinitiative and how as CEO you're leading that
vision for the Brooklyn community. Yeah, this is a great question. I
have been the privileged to be inthis role for the last four years.
I was in the New York Citypublic schools before that. I live in

(00:45):
Brooklyn and my wife from Brooklyn.My kids think they're from Brooklyn. So
originally, when I looked at theopportunity to lead assend, it was really
seen there as kids that looked likeme. So there was an opportunity to
serve heavily black and brown population throughoutBrooklyn. We had started in Brownsville almost
sixteen years ago, and when Isaw that and saw the communities. This

(01:07):
is the communities that I wanted tobe a part of. That is originally
what attracted me. The other partwas just thinking about how can we serve
kids in these communities that historically wehave failed to serve well with education especially,
And that drew me into thinking aboutwhat could Ascend be. And that's
really how I first got to Ascend. And I'm happy to talk about kind
of what we've done kind of sincethen after I got there. Yeah,

(01:32):
before we get into what you've donesince you've gotten there, it sounds like
your background has almost all the yearshas been in education. I was a
career switcher, like early on,I was in finance for two seconds.
But education really is your passion,and you know in various other education institutions

(01:53):
such as new Leaders, Prince George'sCounty Public Schools, District, Humbly Public
Schools, it's probably shaped your visionfor you know, how you want to
approach leadership in the CEO role.But I guess how have you innovated yourself
from prior rec to rec CEO ofAscend public charter schools. Yeah, that's

(02:15):
a great question. I think contextmatters tons, so understanding the needs of
Brooklyn and the schools in Brooklyn,I think is one thing I've had to
think about more deeply. I've hadthe opportunity to work in DC and Maryland,
but also in Houston and also inthe New York City schools. I
think the other thing is just size. We are seventeen schools currently. We

(02:37):
serve a little under six thousand students, So thinking about what do those communities
need and what does that look likewas very different than the New York City
public schools, which is much larger. I think the things that I have
adapted part of it is like myown growth, Like my kids have gone
through the public school system. Onesnow about to be a senior in high
school right and one's a college justfinished being a college freshman. So I

(03:00):
think being a dad has definitely influencedhow I lead and thinking about are these
schools I would send my kids to? And so I think that's definitely been
with me throughout my trajectory as aleader. But I think good schools are
good schools, like you know,schools are schools all over the country,
and I think, you know,how we work with kids each and every

(03:20):
day, how important it is,how a great teacher in front of kids.
I think that's like a universal truthall over the place. Right,
it sounds like the heartbeat of aSIN really is about the Brooklyn community and
super serving the people of Brooklyn.You had mentioned commitment to diversity, equity,
inclusion, anti racism. Can youshare some specific instances, strategies,

(03:45):
initiatives that ASCENT is implemented to upholdthose principles and ensure that all students feel
value and supported. Absolutely. Sothis is another major reason that attracted me
to a Scent. A Sin hadthis commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion,
anti racism, and when I wasfirst looking at joining, the opportunity

(04:08):
to make it really part of whowe are and really part of the ethos
and how we move the you know, the board and the org was ready
for it. And so that's somethingI've loved to be a part of in
lead since i've been there. Theway we do it, one thing is
I think doing this well, it'smessy, you know. I think it
means not just having representation, whichwe've worked up very hard to have a

(04:30):
very diverse staff, but it alsomeans how do we think about our policies,
how do we think about how dowe talk to families, how do
we think about accessibility to our buildings, how do we think about you know,
the calendar, Like these are allthings we think about when we kind
of think about DEIA and how it'ssort of a lens with which we look
at all the work and we wantto do it in service of the students

(04:51):
that are in front of us everyday. So some of the examples have
been we have stipended roles at ourschools for DEI Champions, essentially to turn
key some of the work that's happeningnationally and make it make it come to
life in the school. The otherthing we've done is we've hired a practitioner
who works for the network team,who works with those school leaders to do

(05:14):
some of that work. And theother thing is just it's always having this
lens when we're looking at policies tothink about what's possible and what are the
things we need to change and alsolike asking ourselves. We use it when
we review, when we interview staff, and we use it when we're thinking
about what's right for kids. Yeah, that was going to be a follow
up question. You had mentioned theboard. You had mentioned your faculty.

(05:36):
With nearly eighty percent of your staffidentifying as people of color, it must
be a big belief that diverse representationfor the faculty and staff insures and gives
the nutrients for the students. Iwould think one percent. And I think
knowing, especially in the communities thatwe're in, when kids and parents can
come in and see teachers that looklike them or maybe from the same background,

(05:59):
that definitely goes a long way.And just seeing the identity like themselves
in front and making those relationships withkids and parents. I think that goes
a long way. And then alsojust thinking about as we roll out curriculum
and as we think about literacy,thinking about like who are the authors,
who's what are the subject matters?How what is representation folks are seeing?
We're always thinking about that in ourschools. That's great, that's great.

(06:21):
I wanted to dive a little bitdeeper about as send public charter schools commitment
to growing and expanding. What aresome key goals and initiatives you're aiming to
achieve this year and maybe within inthe next couple of years. Yeah,
we right now are committed to organicgrowth. So we opened four new Lower

(06:43):
schools right before the pandemic. Thoseschools have now have grown out and we're
at the point where we want totransition them into new school buildings from middle
school and so we are excited thatwe're opening two brand new buildings this summer
for those middle schools, and sohaving the opportunity for those students who are
currently incubating in other schools to cometo the new middle schools, which are

(07:05):
going to be amazing buildings, bothin the kind of Cypress Hills in East
New York area, but also inthe Flatbush area. And we're excited for
the families and communities just to openup a new building. And so those
are two things we're doing to committo that growth for the next few years.
So that's one big part of ourgrowth right now. The other part
is making sure that the schools andcommunities that we're in we want to continue

(07:27):
to provide opportunities for students where wehave space, and so I think we're
continuing to do some of that workin East New York and cybers Hills,
but also in Flatbush as well.Right, that's excellent. Can you share
success stories or notable achievements of studentsor alumni from Assent public charter schools that
demonstrate the impact of the school's educationalapproach. Yeah, so we're sixteen years

(07:48):
old. We only have one Howmany years have you been I've been there.
This is my fourth year, fourthyear CEOs CEO. That's great.
We only have one high school,so we've only had I think we've had
six or seven graduating classes so far. I think this is a place where
we still need to get better.As we've grown, we've definitely focused a

(08:09):
lot on K to eight over ourlifetime. We're continuing to think about what
could make our high school better andhow can we pride opportunities for our lums.
So I think some of our alumswe see our lums both as folks
who have left our K to eightand gone on to like amazing other schools,
but also kids who have gone withus all the way through twelfth and
then have gone on to college.I think we think of this as not

(08:31):
just a college option, but wereally think about boundless choice. And one
of the pivots we made a fewyears ago was thinking about we want to
educate kids and serve them well andensure that they can live lives of boundless
choice, and that choice may meancollege, but it may mean some other
pathway. That could be an apprenticeship, that could be some other career and
technical field, it could be military. So those are other places that we're

(08:54):
thinking about. And so that's someof the work we're going to continue to
do at the high school level tothink about what could they do after high
school? Wow. So support forthe students even outside of sen public drug
Yeah, that's our hope. Yeah. I think there's still some work we
need to do to do and Ithink running high schools is difficult, and
but that's some of the resources andfocus we're looking at for the next couple

(09:16):
of years as well. That's great. That's amazing support for the children and
and certainly some big goals that thatI think a SEND can accomplish under your
leadership. Let's talk about leadership andspecifically with your faculty. Now that we've
kind of talked about the kids SENDpublic charter schools fosters a culture of continuous

(09:39):
improvement and professional development, can youshare how you encourage the faculty to really
embrace the fact that they're there fora reason to develop themselves as educators.
Yeah. One thing we've always embracescontinuous improvement. We've we've gone through our
own changes over time. We youknow, how we are founded is different
than how we are today, andI think some of that's been changing with

(10:01):
the times of community, our approachto how we think about how we talk
to kids, our discipline approach.We run a restored or basically something called
responsive classrooms where we get to knowour kids well, really think about the
wars we're using with kids, andthat was a big shift we made several
years ago and I think that's beenfantastic. I think the other part when

(10:22):
we think about our faculty and thethings they need, one is resources.
So when I first got there,a number of our staff said that they
needed better curricular resources, especially postpandemic. And so one thing we've been
able to do this past year,we were able to invest in new curriculum
K twelve, especially in humanities,English language, arts and math. With

(10:46):
that, we know we can't justdrop off new curriculum. We knew that
they needed some professional development to gowith that, so that was making sure
we could provide not just materials,but also opportunities for them to learn.
So some of that was during thesummer. So last year we had a
literacy institute, just aocus on thesigns of reading and think about literacy as
a essentially as a civil right,and why it's so important to be in
front of kids and focus on readingand writing and problem solving. But then

(11:09):
also how do they have the supportto do that right? I think that's
an area we could still invest morein And one of our big pillars for
next year is making sure we're providingnew teacher development because we have a lot
of staff who are either new tothe profession or new to teaching or first
job potentially, So I think there'sa lot of work we could do to
think about what are skills that theyhow can we support them either through our

(11:31):
assistant principles, our network team,our principles. So that's some of the
work we're committed to doing as wellto ensure people can grow with us.
That's amazing and you speak with alot of conviction and passion for your staff.
You sound like a CEO that peoplewould want to work for, so
sometimes I hope so I always tellpeople I want this place to be a
dope place to work, Like weall know what it's like to work at

(11:52):
places that suck, right, Solet's not emulate that. Let's come together
and think about how do we greatthe environment that we want to be at
and how do we think about andwe're doing this on behalf of kids,
Like, we don't have to bea stuffy bureaucracy. We can think about
if we're focused on you know,a higher bar for education, and we're
focused on getting to know our kidsand community as well, and we're focused

(12:13):
on diversity, equity, inclusion,anti racism, we can do those things
right, And like, wouldn't thatbe dope if we could do it together
and have a good place to beas well and grow And I think ultimate
culture, let's do it. Andso I think that it's not it's not
perfect. We have not like fullyyou know, realized this, but and
like everywhere, we have our ownwards and I think it's work that we

(12:35):
continue to do to try to getbetter. Right, speaking of not always
perfect, And I'm sure within yourindustry, you know there's many challenges.
Can you speak to us about challengesthat educational institutions, particularly charter schools are
facing today. I think in NewYork City, everybody's facing concerns about enrollment.

(12:58):
So I think that's been something definitelypost pandemic where this is not just
charters, but charters and the traditionalschool system have seen and even private schools
have seen issues with enrollment, eitherpeople moving or justification or the migrant influx
as well. I think there's beena lot of like movement patterns of population

(13:20):
and trying to think about how dowe how do we work, especially in
a choice environment where every every parentcan choose what's right for their kid.
So I think that's how do youtell your story and tell how your your
school is a different offering and writefor your kid versus some other school.
So that's been a big one.I think the other piece is funding,
Like we get funded largely on publicdollars, students who enroll, we receive

(13:45):
funding for those students. However,are our funding is not one to one
with what a traditional school system receives, especially when it comes to facilities,
And so that's an area we're continuingto think about, how do we get
funding that's level and that we canthen invest in our school buildings but also
our program and maturing all the kidshave what they need in front of them.
Yeah, a new funding would comeup. Of course, there you

(14:09):
go, so thinking about some ofthe challenges that you've just kind of addressed,
you know, what kind of advicewould you give other educators administrators,
maybe here in New York City ormaybe you know, back from where you
started in Texas about challenges for theirrespective institutions, especially regarding the maintaining focus

(14:31):
on student development, community engagement.What you're doing here in Brooklyn, what
advice would you give to other educators, again here in New York or maybe
even outside. Yeah, I think, and I think, I know that
you made me think of another one. And obviously talent. Talent is always
going to be an issue, orI know we talked a little bit about
that, but maintaining the war fortalent is huge. Having a teacher or

(14:52):
a staff in front of a student, it makes all the difference. So
I think thinking and adults have choices, especially post pandemic folks have choices and
win and how they work. Andmany of our schools are still five days
a week, so trying to makesure people want to do that. The
advice I would say is, youknow, it's you know, it's I
often try to take the long view, right, Like what can we change

(15:16):
over time? How can we thinkabout systemic change, not just the incremental
change. So I often think about, you know, if you came to
my offers, you would see likeprobably a whiteboard that has like world peace
up in the corner, and they'dbe like a list of all the things
that probably are going to be worldpeace. But those are things that I
don't think I'm going to achieve inthe next ten years. But it becomes

(15:37):
noise. So everybody wants to changeall the things. So I'm often tell
advising people and leaders to think aboutget that out of your head. Let's
focus on what we can do rightnow. What can we fundamentally change the
work the lives of kids, andwhat are the things we can put in
place. Let's focus on that now. If we knock those things out,
we can pull things over from ourworld peace column to think about then tackling

(15:58):
those one at a time, Soplay the long game. I think that's
one thing I would definitely do.And I think the other thing is that,
you know, I think I oftenasking people to challenge the paradigm of
like, you know, what itis we're doing. We've been running schools
the same way for like hundreds ofyears and like we don't have to.
And so I think, what arethe things that we can change to make

(16:19):
sure we're providing a fantastic education forfamilies, and like, let's do it,
Like and there are things we cando and how we serve kids,
what we teach, how we teach, those are all that. How we
leverage technology, those are all thingswe can change. And I think but
people often have their own mental modelof like it has to be this way,
it has to be teacher in front, it has to be thirty kids.

(16:41):
It doesn't have to be that way. Like we can tweak around and
be a little bit more innovative aswell, and I think it's time we
should as well. Yeah, andyou live and breathe in the same communities
that the kids are that you're thatyou're educating. You feel like it's important
to have that sense of community,to maybe be from the area that you
were responsible for. I think ithelps me. I don't know that it's

(17:03):
like the right thing for everybody,right, not everybody can do it.
I think it helps me being workingand living in Brooklyn, it's fantastic.
I think it helps me understand alittle bit more on what's going on in
our schools and our communities. Ithink you can work, you know,
work in other places, but Ithink there's something to being closer to your
schools that that can be can beright. It's not for everybody, and

(17:26):
not everybody has the privilege to doit, but I think for for me,
it helps me be more effective andI think it helps there are.
We have a lot of staff wholive near some of our buildings as well.
I think it helps them as well. Before we wrap up, tell
me you know something that your bestfriend would tell us about you, Maybe
something that your students and faculty don'tknow that you want to share that they
don't know. Oh my god,I love food. I'd love I also

(17:51):
love to cook the time, SoI think I enjoy that immensely, spending
time with my family, cooking.My wife and I take long walks.
People don't. I don't think peoplesee me as like a walker, but
like I do that as well,and I am a sucker for like ice
cream and cookies any day. Sothose are some that you know, those
are some passions outside of work.I think people don't know what else The

(18:15):
other thing is, Like I don'tthink people know, like I grew up
in Texas, I grew up playinghigh school football. I did like all
the traditional Friday night lights, allthat good stuff. That was a big
part of my life growing up.And then college I ended up playing rugby.
So I think people don't know thatpart about me, But I think
that team sports environment definitely helped shapea lot of kind of like how I
think about teams, how I thinkabout winning, how I think about like

(18:36):
discipline. That definitely influenced me aswell. Those were the two words I
was thinking as you mentioned that,winning and discipline and making you into who
you are today. If you weren'tdoing if you weren't an educator, what
would you be doing? Hopefully I'dbe a DJ running a coffee shop,

(18:56):
Yeah, on the beach whereinever youto open, like the Hawaii station,
like I'm happy to like that wouldbe probably something I would do. That
would probably be something I would do. I think, you know, I
didn't initially. Education was not myfirst career, so I definitely like stumbled
into it. But I think sinceI've been in it, I've loved it,
you know, all since, andI think it's like ended up being

(19:18):
you know, part of my callingand my path once I got in.
Yeah, that's amazing. You candefinitely tell with our discussion today, what
are the what are the kids callyou mister dunn often mister Dunne. Sometimes
I don't. They don't all knowdepending on the age, they don't all
know what a CEO is, right, So like sometimes I think I'm the
owner. I'm like, I'm notthe owner. But they'll ask all the

(19:41):
questions, right, They're like they'llthey'll ask like how much do you make?
And like you know and where doyou live? You know, and
like you know, are you running? Are you running this? So I
think, like it's hilarious, butit's it's great to also look like many
of my kids and show up andtell them like, yes, this is
the work I'm doing and I'm leadingthis organization. I think that's import to
both for our kids and our families. Yeah, it sounds like my kids

(20:03):
asking me the same questions. Well, it's been a pleasure talking with you
today on CEOs. You should know. I did have a final question,
if you're open to it, sure, what message would you like to convey
to parents, students, the widercommunity about the mission and values for as
Send public charter schools. I guessmoving into the future, if you leave

(20:25):
our listeners with a final thought,yeah, I think the things I would
say about us Send specifically is thatlook, Ascend is in Brooklyn. We
want to be Brooklyn school of choice. That's our goal in the future.
Just the way you think of Brooklynand you think of the Brooklyn Library,
the Brooklyn Museum, the Brooklyn Nets, we want you to think about as
Send as well. So we wantto be part of the community and that's

(20:47):
something that's very important to us andwe are proud to be in and of
Brooklyn. That being said, weknow that parents have choices, and I
think wherever you send your kid,I think it's it's it's a responsibility of
whoever is providing services that you askthe right questions to ensure that they're providing
everything they can and think your kidscan achieve anything. And I think that's
something that's the best thing I wouldsay, is just like making sure you're

(21:08):
asking those questions, because I thinkit's fundamentally it can fundly change the directory
of kids' lives by their school experience, and that's something I'm excited that we
get to do every day, andI hope that everybody else is excited to
think about education in the same way. That's great. Well, thanks for
joining us today, and thank youRec. It's been a pleasure to get
to know you a little bit.I appreciate the time. Thank you,

(21:29):
thank you.