This is my final blog entry as a featured blogger at the 2026 National Conference on Education. I have thoroughly enjoyed this experience and am incredibly honored to have had the opportunity to share my reflections with colleagues across the country. A heartfelt thank you to AASA for providing this platform!
On the final day of the conference, I attended two outstanding breakout sessions before wrapping up with an inspiring closing keynote. Here is a look at my biggest takeaways as I prepare to head home.
Session 1: One-Degree Shifts in Central Office Culture
My morning kicked off with One Degree Shifts: Small Moves, Big Impact on Central Office Culture, led by Frederick County Public Schools Superintendent Cheryl Dyson and Chief of Staff Sarah Sirgo.
Their presentation tackled a fantastic question: How do we ensure our central offices aren’t just functional, but genuinely inspirational? They shared how they have intentionally shaped their central office culture to be rooted in transparency, integrity, and service to their schools. Grounded in values-driven leadership, they emphasized how small, one-degree shifts in collaboration and communication can build psychological safety and internal cohesion.
They introduced a brilliant "culture alignment tool" that challenges central office leaders to evaluate their culture across four areas: Psychological Safety, Clarity, Rhythm, and Symbolism. Within each of those areas, leaders must consider three key factors: People, Practices, and Priorities.
To give you an idea of how this looks in action, they broke down their approach to Rhythm (communication cadence and meeting patterns):
People: They maintain quarterly listening tours, bi-weekly principal advisory check-ins, and semiannual climate conversations with staff and student representatives.
Practices: They enforce formal "quiet hours" with a no-email rule after 6:00 PM. They also utilize a “School First” agenda rule for cabinet meetings, dedicating the first ten minutes exclusively to school feedback.
Priorities: They established a rapid-response micro-resource fund to address urgent school issues within 48 hours, along with micro-grants for school-based innovations.
(Note: They shared specific examples for the other three areas as well. If you are interested in seeing the full breakdown, please reach out to me via email or social media, and I’d be happy to share a copy!)
As they shared their experiences, I felt a deep sense of pride realizing that our district is already implementing many of these practices. For example, we utilize our "Know, Do, Share" memo for cabinet members and building leaders, which keeps our team aligned while drastically reducing email traffic.
We also leverage Asana to track communications and ensure my bi-monthly meetings with building leaders are purposeful and dedicated. Our district directors hold similar protected meeting times with building leaders. Furthermore, we are firmly committed to respecting personal time; we do not send emails outside of the workday. If a team member prefers to draft emails in the evening, they are expected to schedule them to send the following morning.
To keep us aligned, our district directors meet every Monday morning. As Superintendent, my own meeting rhythm is intentionally designed to support our team: daily touchpoints with our Communications Strategist; weekly meetings with our Directors of HR and Business/Finance; bi-monthly meetings with our Directors of Teaching & Learning, Food & Nutrition, and Community Education; and monthly meetings with our Directors of Buildings & Grounds, Instructional Technology, and Student Services.
This session was a great validation of our current practices, but it also challenged me to remain intentional. One immediate takeaway I plan to implement is consistently asking these three simple, powerful questions during my leader check-ins:
What are you excited about or proud of right now?
What are you currently struggling with?
How can I better support you?
Session 2: The Power of "Rounding" in Community Partnerships
Next, I attended Powering Strategic Priorities Through Trust, Transparency, and School-Community Partnerships. This panel featured leaders from Studer Education alongside superintendents from Wisconsin, Illinois, Kentucky, and California.
Instead of treating the community as just an audience to be informed, this panel explored how to turn families and neighbors into co-creators of school improvement. They discussed opening school doors for community walks and using consistent, multi-channel messaging to build a culture of shared purpose.
My biggest takeaway from this session was the concept of "rounding." In healthcare, rounding is how doctors check on patients. In education leadership, rounding is the intentional, systematic practice of getting out into the district to ask specific questions of staff, students, and community members.
To stay truly abreast of the district's pulse, a superintendent must proactively ask questions like:
What are we doing well?
What is one thing you’d change about the district?
What do you want to hear more about?
Closing Keynote: Dr. Marcelle Haddix
The conference concluded with an exceptional keynote from Dr. Marcelle Haddix, Dean of the University of Wisconsin School of Education.
She opened by sharing two things she does every single morning to ground herself: she begins with a gratitude journal (using the prompt: Today I am grateful for...), and she intentionally practices joy by listening to music.
Dr. Haddix shared her rules for predicting the future: learn from the past, respect the law of consequences, be acutely aware of your own perspective, and always count on surprises.
A major theme of her keynote was the profound impact of representation. What happens when students do not see themselves, their stories, or their language reflected in books or in the professions around them? Seeing oneself in literature and in leadership builds the confidence to dream. When we fail to provide those mirrors, we actively limit a child's imagination.
Leadership matters. It shifts cultures, drives change, and ultimately improves student outcomes. Dr. Haddix noted that she used to say "leadership chose her," but she realized she needed to be far more intentional about her why. Quoting Tony Robbins, she reminded us: "If you have some power, your job is to empower someone else." Her own leadership style is deeply rooted in community. She views her mission as building leadership pipelines, specifically for Black women, so that future generations are inspired and encouraged to lead.
She left us with a call to action on how we must lead now to prepare for the future:
Broaden our definition of literacy: We must uplift diverse stories and experiences so everyone sees themselves in what they read. We need to build a true, inclusive culture of literacy.
Reclaim the narrative on teaching: We have to fix the teacher shortage by strengthening our pipelines and changing how the education profession is talked about.
Work collectively: None of us can do this work in silos. As she often tells her team, "We are stronger together." True partnership involves not just those inside our school buildings, but our broader communities as well.
As I pack my bags and head back to my district, I am leaving with a full notebook and a full heart. Thank you again to AASA for an incredible conference, and thank you for reading along with me this week!
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