Instructional staff highlights Aspiring Leaders program and student services update

Instructional services staff outlined the district's Aspiring Leaders program and recent student-services initiatives during the meeting.

The staff member (S4) said the program is in its second cohort and split into two levels: Level 1 for teacher leaders interested in administration and Level 2 for current administrators and instructional coaches preparing for principal roles. "They completed a district, authentic leadership project" and focused on projects such as virtual learning communities and a model classroom hub, S4 said.

S4 described concrete activities the cohorts completed over the year, including leadership discussions, case studies, a book study, shadowing principals and mock interviews. The Level 2 groups developed implementation plans to address problems of practice and shared those plans with district leadership, S4 added.

The board and staff recognized participants by name. S4 and the Chair (S1) called up groups and named participants including Kara, Lauren and Joey and teams led by Jennifer Bingham, Ashley Mapple and Melissa Lard to acknowledge their work on collaboration and instruction-alignment projects.

Separately, the Chair (S1) summarized changes in student services and the LASER program, noting it was the program's first year, holding roughly nine to ten meetings and engaging 10 students from Western Hills High School who had not previously planned to pursue college. S1 said LASER has provided sustained engagement and planning for those students.

The staff framed the work as part of a broader effort to increase collaboration, align instruction across feeder schools and expand transition-readiness work between middle and high school.

Next steps: staff said project pilots will expand next year and shared plans will inform district-wide implementation.