Superintendent outlines multi-year 'Leading the Leaders' plan to boost district academics

Superintendent Mister Miklitsch presented the board with the district's "Leading the Leaders" professional-development initiative, saying the summer series of three meetings focused on leadership capacity for principals, assistant principals and deans.

Miklitsch said the program centers on a seven-step professional learning community (PLC) cycle that begins with "champion moments" and a focus question that asks, "what evidence do we have that our last meeting increased teacher and student learning?" He said the process will prioritize building-level SMART goals and that action steps developed at each meeting will be tracked at the start of subsequent meetings.

Why it matters: Miklitsch framed the initiative as a long-term, system-level effort to push the district academically. He described a timeline of about two to three years for the initiative to take hold and said the district is aligning norms, accountability measures and building practices to sustain continuous improvement.

Miklitsch highlighted that the first meeting emphasized leadership development with trained facilitators, the second focused on accountability language that had been finalized late in the previous school year, and the third brought building leaders together to report out and create immediate action steps. "We developed a culture of action," he said, adding that the work will go from district vision to building-level practice.

The superintendent did not propose new board action at the meeting; he said the administration will return with progress updates tied to the PLC action steps at future meetings.