December 19, 2024 • 19 mins
In this episode of Build Momentum, we are joined by Dr. Sandy Husk. During her remarkable 48-year career, she has served at every level, from classroom teacher and school counselor to superintendent to interim CEO and executive director for ACSD (the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, a nonprofit with more than 125,000 members in 128 countries). She is currently the advisor to the CEO for MindPrint Learning; a member of the board of directors at Wayfinder and at Abl; and a board member and advisor for Husk Consulting. As a district leader, she has helped prepare students for graduation all across the U.S., including Oregon, Tennessee, and Colorado, learning each state’s idiosyncrasies.
Some Questions We Ask:
- Tell us more about your career. (01:22)
- What have been the most rewarding aspects of your work in education? (02:47)
- Do you agree with the RAND research showing that superintendents have one of the most stressful jobs in America, and how did you cope with stress in your own career? (04:05)
- How has scrutiny of the superintendency changed over the years? (06:03)
- How did you unify communities to see your vision for the district–especially during times of budget cuts? (06:51)
- How did your experiences compare with other superintendents across the nation? (09:28)
- How are you able to rally people around storytelling and communications opportunities? (11:05)
- What advice can you give to superintendents having difficulties building relationships within a divisive community? (12:21)
- Why is it important for the community to see superintendents as real human beings? (14:53)
- What can community advocates do better in supporting K-12 leaders? (16:25)
In This Episode, You Will Learn:
- About Dr. Husk’s career (01:31)
- Rewarding aspects of her career serving districts in multiple states (03:01)
- Her perspective on stress and coping strategies (04:30)
- Changes in scrutiny of the superintendency (06:12)
- How to promote a unifying vision for a district (07:12)
- Her personal experiences as a superintendent as compared to others (09:45)
- Different ways of rallying a community (11:24)
- Advice for superintendents today (12:29)
- The importance of communities’ viewing superintendents as real human beings (15:03)
- Suggestions on advocating for K-12 leaders (16:46)
Quotes:
“Every employee and every connected leader needs to be working towards the same communications so that you can get that confidence and the belief up. I have said this many, many times: I can get up and make a speech, and a whole bunch of people aren't going to believe it—but if the teacher and the bus driver and the secretary are saying it, now you've got momentum.”
“One thing I learned over the many years is I had to get some rules for myself on work-life balance.”
“You have to keep focusing on the vision. We want to feel good about each other even when we're making really, really tough decisions.”
Stay in touch with Dr. Sandy Husk:
LinkedIn
Stay in touch with Sarah Williamson:
SWPR GROUP Website
LinkedIn
Stay in touch with Chad Bolser:
LinkedIn
About "The Secret to Transformational Leadership," which Sarah co-authored with Dr. Quintin Shepherd:
Transformational Leadership Secret website
Purchase the print or ebook
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sarah Williamson (00:05):
Hello and welcome to Build Momentum for
Education, a Podcast where weexplore thought leadership and
education. I'm Sarah Williamson,the founder of SWPR Group, an
agency that supports publicrelations, communication
strategies and thoughtleadership support for school
districts, education companiesand nonprofit organizations.
Chad Bolser (00:23):
And I'm Chad Bolser, Chancellor at Ivy Tech
Community College in Indiana.
This season, we explore aparticularly unique perspective
in K 12 thought leadership,humanizing the role of the
superintendent.
Sarah Williamson (00:36):
Throughout the many conversations we continue
to have with superintendents, aclear theme has emerged about
the need to bring more humanityinto the role of the
superintendency. In this specialseries, we interview current and
former superintendents andresearchers to pursue the core
question, how can we better seesuperintendents as real people
navigating complex challenges toprovide the best possible
(00:56):
education for K 12 students?
Chad Bolser (00:58):
We dig deeper into how this important work can help
build community, invitecollaboration and increase
widespread engagement.
Sarah Williamson (01:08):
We can't wait to get started. So let's dive
in. We are so fortunate today wehave Dr. Sandy Husk on the show
with us. Welcome Sandy. Thankyou so much for joining us.
Dr. Sandy Husk (01:20):
Thank you, Sarah and Chad.
Sarah Williamson (01:22):
Will you start by telling us a little bit about
your career as a superintendent,your long career as a
superintendent, all thedistricts you've worked and what
you're doing now?
Dr. Sandy Husk (01:31):
Sure. So I came up the fairly traditional
trajectory, started as ateacher, was a counselor, and
then worked my way up throughcentral office. The first
superintendency was in AdamsCounty, one in Colorado. And
then I ended up going toClarksville, Montgomery County
as superintendent in Tennessee.
And then I ended up in Salem,Oregon as the superintendent.
(01:53):
And I was wrapping that up andtrying to figure out what I was
going to do next, and ended upbecoming the CEO of avid, which
is a large nonprofit fee forservice professional development
system in the US. Was wrappingthat up, and ended up doing the
interim CEO position for ASCD.
(02:16):
And had nine months of doingsome board work and some
consulting work when Portland,Oregon called and asked me to
come in and do the interim and Ifinished that in June. All
wonderful adventures, all reallyrewarding, but I will say the
interim in Portland did finallyconvince me, after 48 years that
that's enough of full time work.
So I'm currently serving on acouple of boards. I'm advising a
(02:38):
couple of CEOs and taking morewalks and don't have to go to
the gym so early. So life'spretty good.
Chad Bolser (02:47):
Sandy, that's awesome, and we're so
appreciative of folks who takeon those leadership roles. What
have you found to be the mostrewarding aspect of serving as a
leader of multiple schooldistricts throughout your
career?
Dr. Sandy Husk (03:01):
Well, I think the obvious biggest reward is
knowing that you're preparingstudents to walk across those
graduation stages fullyequipped, emotionally and
intellectually for the worldahead of them, for whatever post
secondary pathway that theypick. And so watching the
achievement scores go up.
Graduation scores go up is very,very rewarding. But the other
(03:23):
thing that I didn't know when Igot into the leadership position
is how rewarding it would be tobuild a whole community from
employees and parents, businessleaders, faith based leaders,
elected officials aroundsupporting mission, public
education. And I learned thatprobably throughout my
trajectory, but particularly inmy second superintendency. For a
(03:45):
variety of reasons, the way thatTennessee funds their school
districts is different thanColorado and Oregon, and so
getting community support andunderstanding behind what you're
doing became even moreimportant. And I really I liked
that. I liked working with theleaders and the employees of the
whole crew, the whole community.
Sarah Williamson (04:05):
Yeah, I'm curious, Sandy, I know you've
probably seen this study, theRAND study in 2023 where
researchers discovered thatsuperintendents have one of the
very most stressful jobs inAmerica, citing the intrusion of
political issues and opinionsinto schools as a source of that
stress. Do you agree with thisperspective, and how have you
(04:26):
been able to cope with thatstress throughout your different
superintendent roles in yourcareer?
Dr. Sandy Husk (04:32):
the 90s. I was superintendent and chair of the
Denver area superintendentCouncil. Roy Romer was a two
term governor, very successfulrancher, businessman, and in his
70s, he agreed to take the LAUnified School District
(04:53):
Superintendent job. He happenedto be back in town when we were
meeting, and so he came to ourmeeting to talk with us about
what it was like. And he startedby saying, before he even
started, he had negativeeditorials from both big
newspapers. He talked about thenumber of empty teaching
positions that he had, you know,positions he couldn't fill, the
(05:16):
number of kids, just all theproblems. And he said something
that was very comforting to allof us. He said, all the things
I've done in my career,including being a governor, this
is by far the hardest thing thatI've ever done, because the
complexities of it is you'rekind of combining a CEO role
with being a mayor or some otherelected official where there's a
(05:39):
lot of politics and publicopinion. I run the business, and
that's not the only story, butthere's several generals and
some other folks that have donethe same thing and come into the
seat and said, it's just it'samazingly challenging to do this
role, and I think for obviousreasons, political divisiveness
of the pandemic expectationsfrom the community. It just gets
(06:02):
harder and harder.
Chad Bolser (06:03):
Sandy, you kind of touched on this that there's a
lot of scrutiny on that role ofthe superintendent. How has that
changed for that position overthe years?
Unknown (06:12):
I don't know that it's changed. I think the way the
scrutiny comes to you haschanged. I think, you know,
letters to the editor used tobe, you know, the place where
you got the harshest review onthe editorial page, maybe an
editorial board review. And thenthe faster the social media
roles that the more that youjust get inundated with what can
(06:34):
be perceived as fairly negativefeedback. So my goal was always
to try to meet people, because Ifind if I could sit with them
face to face, we still maydisagree, but we could get that
civil discourse of trying tounderstand why we were in
different places with ouropinions.
Sarah Williamson (06:51):
Yeah, that's a good approach. I'm curious, when
you served as an interimsuperintendent for Portland
Public Schools, where you cutthe budget by $30 million how
are you able to build communityand bring people together to see
your vision for the district andunify them in a positive way, in
what could probably be a reallycontentious situation?
Unknown (07:12):
Well, and that was also following a week or more of
school closures, we had a monthlong strike, and I will say,
Guadalupe Guerrero, thesuperintendent that left he had
done a lot of the hard, hardlifting. He'd worked with the
board to get them through thestrike, get teachers and
employees back in schoolbuildings with students, and
(07:33):
he'd done a really nice joblaying out recommendations on
the budget reductions. But itjust takes a lot of
communicating, a lot of goingand meeting with a variety of
groups so they understand whyyou're going through it. And
there were really three factorscoming at Portland Public and
it's not the only state, theonly district, excuse me, in
Oregon, or the only district inthe nation that's facing this
(07:56):
level of budget scrutiny. One isdeclining enrollment. Two was
the ending of the Esser funds,which was the federal funding to
support schools during pandemic.
And then three, the expectationsfrom what parents and business
leaders want from the schooldistrict in terms of student
accomplishments. Portland has avery robust curriculum with lots
of highly specialized offeringsthat are wonderful, but they're
(08:20):
just not funded at the levelthat the state funding formula
comes to you with, and so youreally have to work hard with
people to get them to understandthat. And part of the thing
that's so hard, and I'veprobably been doing this talk
now for about 15 years or more,is that when you're trying to
communicate to the public, andyou're sitting on a $2.3 billion
(08:41):
budget, and you're short 30million. Well actually with 70
million over two years, so thenew superintendent now will have
to cut another 40 million. Thenumbers are so big that it's
hard to get the general publicto understand it. And so what I
did with employees, inparticular in Salem and also in
Clarksville, was to try to getthem to equate it to something
(09:05):
that they understand in theirhousehold budget, right? That if
you were using your savingsaccount to pay for your rent or
your mortgage, you're in deeptrouble. And when you use your
reserves in school districts topay for your operating costs.
It's the same thing. So it takesa lot of communicating. It takes
a lot of trying to break it downinto terms that you can actually
(09:26):
relate to.
Chad Bolser (09:29):
Those numbers are overwhelming, and it's amazing
when you say it out loud toimagine going through that. So
how representative Do you thinkyour own experiences are
compared to othersuperintendents in your local
area, the state, maybe even inthe nation as a whole?
Unknown (09:45):
I think it's pretty common. I think the only
difference is how many mediaoutlets or other places are the
conversations have happening.
You know, if something is goingto be on the nightly. News in
Oregon, and you live wherethere's a local news station,
you know, you stand a goodchance of being there. I used to
get up at four or 4:30 in themorning to get that newspaper
(10:06):
out of the driveway. Now I don'thave to do that. I can just pick
up my phone, but because Iwanted to see what was the news,
and they're going to report goodand bad news, but the bad news
is going to draw a headline,right? And people are going to
remember that. And so figuringout, how do you build a trusting
system with literally hundredsof 1000s of people so that you
(10:29):
can continue trying to raise theconfidence level. And a lot of
times, I'll say, people mightthink, well, that's what the
communications department does.
They may be experts at helpingyou, but it is every employee
and every connected leader needsto be working towards the same
communications so that you canget that confidence and the
(10:51):
belief up. I also have said thismany, many times, I can get up
and make a speech and a wholebunch of people aren't going to
believe it, but if the teacherand the bus driver and the
Secretary are saying it nowyou've got momentum.
Sarah Williamson (11:05):
Yeah, so in line with that, Sandy, I'm
curious how you've been able todo that. How have you been able
to rally people around thosecommunications and storytelling
opportunities, to get theeducators and families so that
on the Facebook page that angrymom, someone else is responding
to her with the messaging thatyou want to see. Like, how did
you build that?
Unknown (11:24):
Well, first, I think you've got to be really clear on
what the mission and the visionfor the school district is, and
it needs to be specific to theenvironment that you're in,
right? And once you get thatclarity, and again, keeping that
messaging at a very high level,you'll have the backup. You'll
have the details behind it, butyou've got to get people
motivated. And so my first styleis to make sure the board and I
(11:47):
are in agreement that that's jobone, and then the next is to
work through all theadministrators, and particularly
through principals. They carry avery strong voice of confidence
in the community, and they touchalmost all of the employees that
are associated with the schoolitself. You know, there are
other departments and thingswhere you'll be working with
(12:07):
different administrators, but ifyou can get those principals and
those key districtadministrators and your board on
point, they will help pull thecommunity forward.
Sarah Williamson (12:17):
Politics is local. Every
Dr. Sandy Husk (12:19):
Yes,
Sarah Williamson (12:19):
yeah, very local.
Chad Bolser (12:21):
So what advice do you have who are other
superintendents who might bestruggling to build a community
within divisive communities?
Unknown (12:29):
Well, one thing I did learn over the many years is I
had to get some rules for myselfon work life balance. When I got
to Tennessee and I met mycurrent husband, and we got
married and and we realized thatif we stayed in town every
weekend, it was all going to beabout work, because that's what
people saw me as. So we had alittle cabin we would go to on
(12:51):
the weekend, and that was mytime to kind of put some blocks
up and try not to think about itso much. You can't get rid of
all of it, but I think findingsome ways to trigger into your
happy place, whether it'sexercise or gardening or
whatever it is that gives you achance just to be who you are.
And then I also think it'sreally easy to be so concerned
(13:14):
about the negative things thathappen that you kind of get
drawn down instead of liftingup. And so finding ways to use
humor, finding ways to highlightthe positives of what's going on
on a daily basis, and continuingto describe that. And I don't
always have to feel it everysecond. I just have to be the
(13:34):
key person that says we're goingto get through this. I remember
back in 2009 and 10 when we wereall slashing budgets and the
only difference between what Iwas doing in 2009 is I had a
whole year to talk about itbefore I cut 50, 60 million out
of the budget. So by the timethe cuts happened, everybody had
(13:55):
been hearing about it for 12months in Portland. We didn't
have that luxury. But I remembersaying, you know, we are going
to get through this, we're goingto reduce budgets. It's going to
have an impact on employees.
Then the only thing we need tofocus on is, how are we going to
feel about each other on theother side? Because that's
important. You have to keepfocusing on what is the vision
and we want to feel good abouteach other even when we're
(14:16):
making really, really toughdecisions.
Sarah Williamson (14:19):
Yeah. You know, it's interesting what you
said about not really having apersonal, work life balance.
Because I heard from onesuperintendent how within the
contract, it required 100% ofher time. And she said, I'm a
human being. How is thatsupposed to work? You know? So I
think those are the expectationsput placed upon superintendents
(14:41):
today, I'm curious about really,the heart of the series that
we're doing, where we'reinterviewing superintendents and
former superintendents, isunderstanding how we need to
illuminate the humanity of theseleaders. Why do you think it's
important for the community tosee you as a real person who's
navigating complex challenges toprovide the besteducation for
our kids. What do you think? Youknow, how do we do that?
Unknown (15:03):
Yeah, I'm not saying it's easy. And I think everybody
has to work with life balance,right? You carry whatever you
were worried about. It doesn'tmatter that you just switched
your location. You still have atendency to think about it. I
think you just have to getbetter at having some habits.
You know, I really enjoywalking, and one of the things I
(15:26):
now do when I'm walking is Ilisten to books on tape, because
it forces me to think about, youknow, what I'm hearing, instead
of chewing on whatever it is I'mworried about.
Sarah Williamson (15:36):
Yeah. Do you think it would elicit more
compassion from communities andparents, and if they saw
superintendents, if theyunderstood the challenges they
were up against, and they sawthem as a human being,
Dr. Sandy Husk (15:48):
I think people do see you as a human being. I
just think when you're reallyfar away from the decision
maker, it's much easier to becriticized if I don't know
anything at all about a leader.
I might think that the decisionthey made is poor, but if I'm
closer to them, I've always hadthis theory that the closer you
get to people, this is me,anyway, you start to like them,
(16:10):
even if you don't agree withthem, you can still have
compassion for where they comefrom. And I really think,
honestly, as a nation, that'swhat we need to get back to
civil discourse.
Sarah Williamson (16:24):
Completely agree.
Chad Bolser (16:25):
Absolutely well we, Sarah and I, and lots of the
folks that around here are inthe community college world, the
K 12 leaders are so important,and we want to be supporters of
those k 12 leaders. How do we doa better job of supporting those
folks in the roles that we have?
Unknown (16:46):
Well, I'll tell you, the number one thing is, you
really need to have talentedpeople running for those board
seats. It is a very thanklessjob because it's an unpaid
position. It's a lot of hours,it's a lot of community input,
and it's so important to theschool district. So taking a
(17:06):
leadership position, beinginformed, even if you can't run
for a board seat, but beinginformed enough that you can be
a key communicator,volunteering, listening, asking
questions before you you knowcome to a decision that
something was a really baddecision, any way you can stay
involved, just from aninformation standpoint, I think,
(17:26):
is really helpful. And ofcourse, if you have the ability
to volunteer, getting insideschools and school district
offices is, I think, is alwaysvaluable and very welcomed.
Sarah Williamson (17:37):
Yeah, this has been incredible. Sandy, it's so
nice to have you on the show. Weappreciate it. Where can our
listeners connect with you andlearn more about you?
Unknown (17:45):
Well, I have a LinkedIn page that's fairly easy to find.
You know, I think that's theeasiest way has reached out to
me through LinkedIn, and that'swhere I primarily post things
that have to do with belt work.
Sarah Williamson (17:56):
Perfect. Well, thank you again. We appreciate
it and keep doing the greatwork.
Chad Bolser (18:02):
Sarah, can I ask one question?
Sarah Williamson (18:03):
Yeah. Go for it.
Chad Bolser (18:05):
What audiobook are you listening to?
Sarah Williamson (18:07):
Yes.
Chad Bolser (18:08):
Audio books. What is that book?
Well, the one I'm listening toright now is the story about
Lisa Marie Presley, the one herdaughter Riley wrote, and I also
just downloaded, literally, inthe last half hour, The
Undocumented Americans by CarlaCornejo, via vicencio. I kind of
(18:30):
go back and forth betweenautobiographies and then things
that tend to be a little bitmore current about what's going
on in the US. And you know, interms of reaching me, Sarah, if
you've got superintendents or upand coming superintendents in
your network that would like apersonal connection, encourage
them. Feel free to give them myemail. I'm happy to support
(18:51):
wonderful colleagues across thenation.
Sarah Williamson (18:54):
Absolutely, that's generous of you. I
appreciate that. We will passanyone along that reaches out.
Thank you again. Appreciate it.
Dr. Sandy Husk (19:00):
Yep, good to see you both.
Chad Bolser (19:02):
Thank you.
Dr. Sandy Husk (19:03):
Bye. Bye.
Chad Bolser (19:04):
Thanks for tuning into the Build Momentum for
Education podcast. If youenjoyed listening today, we
would love to hear yourfeedback, and we'd be grateful
if you could leave us a review.
Sarah Williamson (19:15):
This helps us to share these powerful stories
with even more people. If youliked what you heard, we'd be
honored if you could share thisepisode with someone in your
network. We look forward toseeing you next time on. Build
Momentum for Education.
Hello and welcome to Build Momentum for
Education, a Podcast where weexplore thought leadership and
education. I'm Sarah Williamson,the founder of SWPR Group, an
agency that supports publicrelations, communication
strategies and thoughtleadership support for school
districts, education companiesand nonprofit organizations.
Chad Bolser (00:23):
And I'm Chad Bolser, Chancellor at Ivy Tech
Community College in Indiana.
This season, we explore aparticularly unique perspective
in K 12 thought leadership,humanizing the role of the
superintendent.
Sarah Williamson (00:36):
Throughout the many conversations we continue
to have with superintendents, aclear theme has emerged about
the need to bring more humanityinto the role of the
superintendency. In this specialseries, we interview current and
former superintendents andresearchers to pursue the core
question, how can we better seesuperintendents as real people
navigating complex challenges toprovide the best possible
(00:56):
education for K 12 students?
Chad Bolser (00:58):
We dig deeper into how this important work can help
build community, invitecollaboration and increase
widespread engagement.
Sarah Williamson (01:08):
We can't wait to get started. So let's dive
in. We are so fortunate today wehave Dr. Sandy Husk on the show
with us. Welcome Sandy. Thankyou so much for joining us.
Dr. Sandy Husk (01:20):
Thank you, Sarah and Chad.
Sarah Williamson (01:22):
Will you start by telling us a little bit about
your career as a superintendent,your long career as a
superintendent, all thedistricts you've worked and what
you're doing now?
Dr. Sandy Husk (01:31):
Sure. So I came up the fairly traditional
trajectory, started as ateacher, was a counselor, and
then worked my way up throughcentral office. The first
superintendency was in AdamsCounty, one in Colorado. And
then I ended up going toClarksville, Montgomery County
as superintendent in Tennessee.
And then I ended up in Salem,Oregon as the superintendent.
(01:53):
And I was wrapping that up andtrying to figure out what I was
going to do next, and ended upbecoming the CEO of avid, which
is a large nonprofit fee forservice professional development
system in the US. Was wrappingthat up, and ended up doing the
interim CEO position for ASCD.
(02:16):
And had nine months of doingsome board work and some
consulting work when Portland,Oregon called and asked me to
come in and do the interim and Ifinished that in June. All
wonderful adventures, all reallyrewarding, but I will say the
interim in Portland did finallyconvince me, after 48 years that
that's enough of full time work.
So I'm currently serving on acouple of boards. I'm advising a
(02:38):
couple of CEOs and taking morewalks and don't have to go to
the gym so early. So life'spretty good.
Chad Bolser (02:47):
Sandy, that's awesome, and we're so
appreciative of folks who takeon those leadership roles. What
have you found to be the mostrewarding aspect of serving as a
leader of multiple schooldistricts throughout your
career?
Dr. Sandy Husk (03:01):
Well, I think the obvious biggest reward is
knowing that you're preparingstudents to walk across those
graduation stages fullyequipped, emotionally and
intellectually for the worldahead of them, for whatever post
secondary pathway that theypick. And so watching the
achievement scores go up.
Graduation scores go up is very,very rewarding. But the other
(03:23):
thing that I didn't know when Igot into the leadership position
is how rewarding it would be tobuild a whole community from
employees and parents, businessleaders, faith based leaders,
elected officials aroundsupporting mission, public
education. And I learned thatprobably throughout my
trajectory, but particularly inmy second superintendency. For a
(03:45):
variety of reasons, the way thatTennessee funds their school
districts is different thanColorado and Oregon, and so
getting community support andunderstanding behind what you're
doing became even moreimportant. And I really I liked
that. I liked working with theleaders and the employees of the
whole crew, the whole community.
Sarah Williamson (04:05):
Yeah, I'm curious, Sandy, I know you've
probably seen this study, theRAND study in 2023 where
researchers discovered thatsuperintendents have one of the
very most stressful jobs inAmerica, citing the intrusion of
political issues and opinionsinto schools as a source of that
stress. Do you agree with thisperspective, and how have you
(04:26):
been able to cope with thatstress throughout your different
superintendent roles in yourcareer?
Dr. Sandy Husk (04:32):
the 90s. I was superintendent and chair of the
Denver area superintendentCouncil. Roy Romer was a two
term governor, very successfulrancher, businessman, and in his
70s, he agreed to take the LAUnified School District
(04:53):
Superintendent job. He happenedto be back in town when we were
meeting, and so he came to ourmeeting to talk with us about
what it was like. And he startedby saying, before he even
started, he had negativeeditorials from both big
newspapers. He talked about thenumber of empty teaching
positions that he had, you know,positions he couldn't fill, the
(05:16):
number of kids, just all theproblems. And he said something
that was very comforting to allof us. He said, all the things
I've done in my career,including being a governor, this
is by far the hardest thing thatI've ever done, because the
complexities of it is you'rekind of combining a CEO role
with being a mayor or some otherelected official where there's a
(05:39):
lot of politics and publicopinion. I run the business, and
that's not the only story, butthere's several generals and
some other folks that have donethe same thing and come into the
seat and said, it's just it'samazingly challenging to do this
role, and I think for obviousreasons, political divisiveness
of the pandemic expectationsfrom the community. It just gets
(06:02):
harder and harder.
Chad Bolser (06:03):
Sandy, you kind of touched on this that there's a
lot of scrutiny on that role ofthe superintendent. How has that
changed for that position overthe years?
Unknown (06:12):
I don't know that it's changed. I think the way the
scrutiny comes to you haschanged. I think, you know,
letters to the editor used tobe, you know, the place where
you got the harshest review onthe editorial page, maybe an
editorial board review. And thenthe faster the social media
roles that the more that youjust get inundated with what can
(06:34):
be perceived as fairly negativefeedback. So my goal was always
to try to meet people, because Ifind if I could sit with them
face to face, we still maydisagree, but we could get that
civil discourse of trying tounderstand why we were in
different places with ouropinions.
Sarah Williamson (06:51):
Yeah, that's a good approach. I'm curious, when
you served as an interimsuperintendent for Portland
Public Schools, where you cutthe budget by $30 million how
are you able to build communityand bring people together to see
your vision for the district andunify them in a positive way, in
what could probably be a reallycontentious situation?
Unknown (07:12):
Well, and that was also following a week or more of
school closures, we had a monthlong strike, and I will say,
Guadalupe Guerrero, thesuperintendent that left he had
done a lot of the hard, hardlifting. He'd worked with the
board to get them through thestrike, get teachers and
employees back in schoolbuildings with students, and
(07:33):
he'd done a really nice joblaying out recommendations on
the budget reductions. But itjust takes a lot of
communicating, a lot of goingand meeting with a variety of
groups so they understand whyyou're going through it. And
there were really three factorscoming at Portland Public and
it's not the only state, theonly district, excuse me, in
Oregon, or the only district inthe nation that's facing this
(07:56):
level of budget scrutiny. One isdeclining enrollment. Two was
the ending of the Esser funds,which was the federal funding to
support schools during pandemic.
And then three, the expectationsfrom what parents and business
leaders want from the schooldistrict in terms of student
accomplishments. Portland has avery robust curriculum with lots
of highly specialized offeringsthat are wonderful, but they're
(08:20):
just not funded at the levelthat the state funding formula
comes to you with, and so youreally have to work hard with
people to get them to understandthat. And part of the thing
that's so hard, and I'veprobably been doing this talk
now for about 15 years or more,is that when you're trying to
communicate to the public, andyou're sitting on a $2.3 billion
(08:41):
budget, and you're short 30million. Well actually with 70
million over two years, so thenew superintendent now will have
to cut another 40 million. Thenumbers are so big that it's
hard to get the general publicto understand it. And so what I
did with employees, inparticular in Salem and also in
Clarksville, was to try to getthem to equate it to something
(09:05):
that they understand in theirhousehold budget, right? That if
you were using your savingsaccount to pay for your rent or
your mortgage, you're in deeptrouble. And when you use your
reserves in school districts topay for your operating costs.
It's the same thing. So it takesa lot of communicating. It takes
a lot of trying to break it downinto terms that you can actually
(09:26):
relate to.
Chad Bolser (09:29):
Those numbers are overwhelming, and it's amazing
when you say it out loud toimagine going through that. So
how representative Do you thinkyour own experiences are
compared to othersuperintendents in your local
area, the state, maybe even inthe nation as a whole?
Unknown (09:45):
I think it's pretty common. I think the only
difference is how many mediaoutlets or other places are the
conversations have happening.
You know, if something is goingto be on the nightly. News in
Oregon, and you live wherethere's a local news station,
you know, you stand a goodchance of being there. I used to
get up at four or 4:30 in themorning to get that newspaper
(10:06):
out of the driveway. Now I don'thave to do that. I can just pick
up my phone, but because Iwanted to see what was the news,
and they're going to report goodand bad news, but the bad news
is going to draw a headline,right? And people are going to
remember that. And so figuringout, how do you build a trusting
system with literally hundredsof 1000s of people so that you
(10:29):
can continue trying to raise theconfidence level. And a lot of
times, I'll say, people mightthink, well, that's what the
communications department does.
They may be experts at helpingyou, but it is every employee
and every connected leader needsto be working towards the same
communications so that you canget that confidence and the
(10:51):
belief up. I also have said thismany, many times, I can get up
and make a speech and a wholebunch of people aren't going to
believe it, but if the teacherand the bus driver and the
Secretary are saying it nowyou've got momentum.
Sarah Williamson (11:05):
Yeah, so in line with that, Sandy, I'm
curious how you've been able todo that. How have you been able
to rally people around thosecommunications and storytelling
opportunities, to get theeducators and families so that
on the Facebook page that angrymom, someone else is responding
to her with the messaging thatyou want to see. Like, how did
you build that?
Unknown (11:24):
Well, first, I think you've got to be really clear on
what the mission and the visionfor the school district is, and
it needs to be specific to theenvironment that you're in,
right? And once you get thatclarity, and again, keeping that
messaging at a very high level,you'll have the backup. You'll
have the details behind it, butyou've got to get people
motivated. And so my first styleis to make sure the board and I
(11:47):
are in agreement that that's jobone, and then the next is to
work through all theadministrators, and particularly
through principals. They carry avery strong voice of confidence
in the community, and they touchalmost all of the employees that
are associated with the schoolitself. You know, there are
other departments and thingswhere you'll be working with
(12:07):
different administrators, but ifyou can get those principals and
those key districtadministrators and your board on
point, they will help pull thecommunity forward.
Sarah Williamson (12:17):
Politics is local. Every
Dr. Sandy Husk (12:19):
Yes,
Sarah Williamson (12:19):
yeah, very local.
Chad Bolser (12:21):
So what advice do you have who are other
superintendents who might bestruggling to build a community
within divisive communities?
Unknown (12:29):
Well, one thing I did learn over the many years is I
had to get some rules for myselfon work life balance. When I got
to Tennessee and I met mycurrent husband, and we got
married and and we realized thatif we stayed in town every
weekend, it was all going to beabout work, because that's what
people saw me as. So we had alittle cabin we would go to on
(12:51):
the weekend, and that was mytime to kind of put some blocks
up and try not to think about itso much. You can't get rid of
all of it, but I think findingsome ways to trigger into your
happy place, whether it'sexercise or gardening or
whatever it is that gives you achance just to be who you are.
And then I also think it'sreally easy to be so concerned
(13:14):
about the negative things thathappen that you kind of get
drawn down instead of liftingup. And so finding ways to use
humor, finding ways to highlightthe positives of what's going on
on a daily basis, and continuingto describe that. And I don't
always have to feel it everysecond. I just have to be the
(13:34):
key person that says we're goingto get through this. I remember
back in 2009 and 10 when we wereall slashing budgets and the
only difference between what Iwas doing in 2009 is I had a
whole year to talk about itbefore I cut 50, 60 million out
of the budget. So by the timethe cuts happened, everybody had
(13:55):
been hearing about it for 12months in Portland. We didn't
have that luxury. But I remembersaying, you know, we are going
to get through this, we're goingto reduce budgets. It's going to
have an impact on employees.
Then the only thing we need tofocus on is, how are we going to
feel about each other on theother side? Because that's
important. You have to keepfocusing on what is the vision
and we want to feel good abouteach other even when we're
(14:16):
making really, really toughdecisions.
Sarah Williamson (14:19):
Yeah. You know, it's interesting what you
said about not really having apersonal, work life balance.
Because I heard from onesuperintendent how within the
contract, it required 100% ofher time. And she said, I'm a
human being. How is thatsupposed to work? You know? So I
think those are the expectationsput placed upon superintendents
(14:41):
today, I'm curious about really,the heart of the series that
we're doing, where we'reinterviewing superintendents and
former superintendents, isunderstanding how we need to
illuminate the humanity of theseleaders. Why do you think it's
important for the community tosee you as a real person who's
navigating complex challenges toprovide the besteducation for
our kids. What do you think? Youknow, how do we do that?
Unknown (15:03):
Yeah, I'm not saying it's easy. And I think everybody
has to work with life balance,right? You carry whatever you
were worried about. It doesn'tmatter that you just switched
your location. You still have atendency to think about it. I
think you just have to getbetter at having some habits.
You know, I really enjoywalking, and one of the things I
(15:26):
now do when I'm walking is Ilisten to books on tape, because
it forces me to think about, youknow, what I'm hearing, instead
of chewing on whatever it is I'mworried about.
Sarah Williamson (15:36):
Yeah. Do you think it would elicit more
compassion from communities andparents, and if they saw
superintendents, if theyunderstood the challenges they
were up against, and they sawthem as a human being,
Dr. Sandy Husk (15:48):
I think people do see you as a human being. I
just think when you're reallyfar away from the decision
maker, it's much easier to becriticized if I don't know
anything at all about a leader.
I might think that the decisionthey made is poor, but if I'm
closer to them, I've always hadthis theory that the closer you
get to people, this is me,anyway, you start to like them,
(16:10):
even if you don't agree withthem, you can still have
compassion for where they comefrom. And I really think,
honestly, as a nation, that'swhat we need to get back to
civil discourse.
Sarah Williamson (16:24):
Completely agree.
Chad Bolser (16:25):
Absolutely well we, Sarah and I, and lots of the
folks that around here are inthe community college world, the
K 12 leaders are so important,and we want to be supporters of
those k 12 leaders. How do we doa better job of supporting those
folks in the roles that we have?
Unknown (16:46):
Well, I'll tell you, the number one thing is, you
really need to have talentedpeople running for those board
seats. It is a very thanklessjob because it's an unpaid
position. It's a lot of hours,it's a lot of community input,
and it's so important to theschool district. So taking a
(17:06):
leadership position, beinginformed, even if you can't run
for a board seat, but beinginformed enough that you can be
a key communicator,volunteering, listening, asking
questions before you you knowcome to a decision that
something was a really baddecision, any way you can stay
involved, just from aninformation standpoint, I think,
(17:26):
is really helpful. And ofcourse, if you have the ability
to volunteer, getting insideschools and school district
offices is, I think, is alwaysvaluable and very welcomed.
Sarah Williamson (17:37):
Yeah, this has been incredible. Sandy, it's so
nice to have you on the show. Weappreciate it. Where can our
listeners connect with you andlearn more about you?
Unknown (17:45):
Well, I have a LinkedIn page that's fairly easy to find.
You know, I think that's theeasiest way has reached out to
me through LinkedIn, and that'swhere I primarily post things
that have to do with belt work.
Sarah Williamson (17:56):
Perfect. Well, thank you again. We appreciate
it and keep doing the greatwork.
Chad Bolser (18:02):
Sarah, can I ask one question?
Sarah Williamson (18:03):
Yeah. Go for it.
Chad Bolser (18:05):
What audiobook are you listening to?
Sarah Williamson (18:07):
Yes.
Chad Bolser (18:08):
Audio books. What is that book?
Well, the one I'm listening toright now is the story about
Lisa Marie Presley, the one herdaughter Riley wrote, and I also
just downloaded, literally, inthe last half hour, The
Undocumented Americans by CarlaCornejo, via vicencio. I kind of
(18:30):
go back and forth betweenautobiographies and then things
that tend to be a little bitmore current about what's going
on in the US. And you know, interms of reaching me, Sarah, if
you've got superintendents or upand coming superintendents in
your network that would like apersonal connection, encourage
them. Feel free to give them myemail. I'm happy to support
(18:51):
wonderful colleagues across thenation.
Sarah Williamson (18:54):
Absolutely, that's generous of you. I
appreciate that. We will passanyone along that reaches out.
Thank you again. Appreciate it.
Dr. Sandy Husk (19:00):
Yep, good to see you both.
Chad Bolser (19:02):
Thank you.
Dr. Sandy Husk (19:03):
Bye. Bye.
Chad Bolser (19:04):
Thanks for tuning into the Build Momentum for
Education podcast. If youenjoyed listening today, we
would love to hear yourfeedback, and we'd be grateful
if you could leave us a review.
Sarah Williamson (19:15):
This helps us to share these powerful stories
with even more people. If youliked what you heard, we'd be
honored if you could share thisepisode with someone in your
network. We look forward toseeing you next time on. Build
Momentum for Education.
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