We Love Schools

We talk with Dr. Matthew Montgomery, Superintendent at Revere Local Schools, in Richfield, Ohio. They are fully opened up, unlike his counterpart up in northeast Ohio, Dr. Lloyd, who went fully remote. Here is a link to that episode. He gives us a little perspective of what superintendents are going through, how they're handling being fully open, where their preparations are for being online if they need to go online, and the general challenges that they're now facing in this era of COVID-19. School districts are obviously facing tremendous pressure. School administrators have been under tremendous pressure since March with very little leadership at the gubernatorial and national level, as well as giving them kind of the support that they need. This hits the schools particularly hard. And this has put tremendous pressure on our school administrators. So we agree with Dr. Montgomery's suggestion that a little kindness does goes a long way when there is any discussion between parents and stakeholders, and school districts, administrators and teachers. We spoke with Dr. Montgomery in an earlier episode about about how to manage a school construction project. We Love Schools is a podcast produced by Joel Gagne & Carole Dorn-Bell that highlights and investigates success stories in school communications campaigns. Through interviews with today's educational and communication leaders address the issues, obstacles and best practices of communicating with your community in today's all-access social media-driven world.

Joining me in this episode is Dr. Jim Lloyd, Superintendent of the Olmsted Falls City Schools. What we cover is how their school district is handling the COVID-19 crisis that is affecting public education. He has a fairly unique story about going fully remote, and the fact that he needs to hold a standard to inspire and empower the district to what they call the "Triple-A" experience. OFCS is committed to providing our students with a comprehensive"Triple-A" experience that develops and fosters the district's Academic, Artistic and Athletic growth. And obviously, though they are doing it differently, that expectation has not changed. And learn what a "Blizzard Bag" is! We Love Schools is a podcast produced by Joel Gagne & Carole Dorn-Bell that highlights and investigates success stories in school communications campaigns. Through interviews with today's educational and communication leaders address the issues, obstacles and best practices of communicating with your community in today's all-access social media-driven world.

Chris McCully, Superintendent at EHOVE Career Center (Milan, OH), is our guest. EHOVE Career Center is a leading career tech school in Milan Township that offers advanced training for high school and adult education students in Erie, Huron and Ottawa Counties. The career center serves 16 school districts in the northwest Ohio area. In this era of COVID-19, vocational education, and how it is done, has taken a real hit. They're having to innovate on the fly. I get to talk with Chris about the impact they're seeing there and how viable career centers are in this era of the pandemic. And they are very much needed and in demand. One of the big takeaways you will get from this episode is one of the big takeaways is innovation that is going on, seen and unseen. And ultimately we all need to be patient with our administrators. And administrators and teachers need to be patient while working through unusual time together. More information is available at www.EHOVE.net. We Love Schools is a podcast produced by Joel Gagne & Carole Dorn-Bell that highlights and investigates success stories in school communications campaigns. Through interviews with today's educational and communication leaders address the issues, obstacles and best practices of communicating with your community in today's all-access social media-driven world.

The truth is, administrators start planning for the next school year in January and February. Here we are at the end of the 2019-2020 school year, a year stifled by COVID-19. And we are still in the dark on what the next school year can and will look like. We certainly encourage school leaders to some time off to take a breath, but not too long. In this episode, Carol and Joel cover four areas to focus on as you continue your school year planning. 1) What are the different scenarios schools are walking into for next year? We cover three scenarios that are being discussed. 2) Communicate your expectations and what you know. And it still may be "we don't know." Keep over-communicating, but keep this over many social channels and accounts - Facebook, Twitter, email, etc. 3) Plan out your communication. Expect it to be much different than in year's past. And expect it change, so be nimble. 4) Financial conversation. Ultimately, you will only survive this financial situation when you communicate what is going on to your stakeholders, your parents and community as a whole. We Love Schools is a podcast produced by Joel Gagne & Carole Dorn-Bell that highlights and investigate success stories in school communications campaigns. Through interviews with today's educational and communication leaders address the issues, obstacles and best practices of communicating with your community in today's all-access social media-driven world.

In uncertain times, how important is agile leadership? Our guest is Diane Egbers. She's pretty much our resident leadership guru here on the podcast. And she heads up a company called Leadership Excelleration. Why is agile leadership so important during times like these? Agile leadership, right now, means leaders need to move from uncertainty to clarity, from stability to agility. But overall, agile leadership requires us to be humble learners. Change can provide opportunities, if we seek them, that can be better for all involved. Through agile leadership, It can help guide decisions that were uncertain, to what really needs changed. How do leaders balance stability and agility? LEI Consulting is offering online learning Agile Leadership Virtual Series. Details here. We Love Schools is a podcast produced by Joel Gagne & Carole Dorn-Bell that highlights and investigate success stories in school communications campaigns. Through interviews with today's educational and communication leaders address the issues, obstacles and best practices of communicating with your community in today's all-access social media-driven world.