SchoolCEO: K-12 Marketing + Communications

When the COVID-19 pandemic first rocked the country in March, nearly every superintendent was thrown into the hardest decisions of their careers. How can you keep students safe while maintaining high standards of learning? And how can you get the community on board? Hollis Milton has spent the last nine months considering these questions. As superintendent of West Feliciana Parish Schools in Louisiana, he’s worked harder than ever: building bridges with the community, supporting teachers, prioritizing health, and even overcoming COVID-19 himself. In this episode, we talk with Superintendent Milton about his approach to the pandemic, and how to strengthen your community in a crisis.Hollis Milton (@WFPSB)West Feliciana Schools (@WestFELSchools)Subscribe to SchoolCEO at SchoolCEO.com for more advice, stories, and strategies for leading your schools. And if you have a story you’d like to share, email us at editor@schoolceo.com. Follow SchoolCEO on LinkedIn or X/Twitter @school_ceo. Subscribe to SchoolCEO at SchoolCEO.com for research, stories, and strategies for leading your schools. And if you have a story you’d like to share, email us at editor@schoolceo.com.Learn more about SchoolCEO and all of our resources on our About page. SchoolCEO is powered by Apptegy, the maker of the leading K-12 communications and brand management platform. 

Thinking back on your own experience in school, when was the first time you had a Black male teacher? If you’re like most Americans, you never did. We know that students perform better when they have teachers who look like them. According to a 2017 study from the Institute of Labor Economics, when low-income Black students have at least one Black teacher during elementary school, they’re less likely to drop out of high school—and more likely to be interested in college. But while Black kids make up roughly 15% of America’s K-12 student body,  only 7% of teachers are Black. Just 2% are Black men. At Richland School District Two in Columbia, South Carolina, Dr. Baron Davis is working to change those statistics. Davis has been Richland Two’s superintendent for about four years—plus one year as superintendent elect—and throughout his tenure, he’s been working to recruit and retain male teachers of color. In this episode, we talk with Dr. Davis about his transformative work at Richland 2, from his ambitious Premier 100 initiative to recruit 100 men of color, to breaking down barriers to authenticity in the classroom.Dr. Baron Davis (@DrBaronDavis)Richland School District Two (@RichlandTwo)Subscribe to SchoolCEO at SchoolCEO.com for more advice, stories, and strategies for leading your schools. And if you have a story you’d like to share, email us at editor@schoolceo.com. Follow SchoolCEO on LinkedIn or X/Twitter @school_ceo. Subscribe to SchoolCEO at SchoolCEO.com for research, stories, and strategies for leading your schools. And if you have a story you’d like to share, email us at editor@schoolceo.com.Learn more about SchoolCEO and all of our resources on our About page. SchoolCEO is powered by Apptegy, the maker of the leading K-12 communications and brand management platform. 

Every year, around one in five kids in the U.S. experience mental, emotional or behavioral problems, from anxiety to depression to ADHD. But according to data from the CDC, only about 20% of those kids are getting the help they need.And those stats? They’re from before the COVID-19 pandemic began. In May, a Gallup poll asked parents how social distancing and school closures had affected their child. 29% said their child was "already experiencing harm" to their emotional or mental health. Now, even as some schools are open for in-person classes, kids may be facing continued anxiety about the pandemic and the readjustment process.When the pandemic closed Lake Oswego School District in Oregon, Dr. Lora de la Cruz knew she and her team had to rethink the role of the school counselor. In the face of COVID-19, kids didn’t need college recommendation letters and academic counseling as much as they needed mental and emotional support.In this episode, we’ll talk to Dr. de la Cruz about how she’s transforming counseling at Lake Oswego—and how she makes sure students know about those changes. When we connected with Dr. de la Cruz, Lake Oswego was dealing not only with the COVID-19 pandemic but also the 2020 Oregon wildfires. Dr. Lora de la Cruz (@DrLoradelaCruz1)Lake Oswego School District (@wearelosd)Subscribe to SchoolCEO at SchoolCEO.com for more advice, stories, and strategies for leading your schools. And if you have a story you’d like to share, email us at editor@schoolceo.com. Follow SchoolCEO on LinkedIn or X/Twitter @school_ceo. Subscribe to SchoolCEO at SchoolCEO.com for research, stories, and strategies for leading your schools. And if you have a story you’d like to share, email us at editor@schoolceo.com.Learn more about SchoolCEO and all of our resources on our About page. SchoolCEO is powered by Apptegy, the maker of the leading K-12 communications and brand management platform. 

College has become a culturally expected step in a student’s academic journey. In the US, an average of 66% of high school graduates go straight to college. But what about the other 34%?Not everyone can afford to go to college. Not everyone wants to. In fact, 33% of all young adults—about 10 million people 18 to 24—aren’t going to school. They’re working. But many find that their K-12 education didn’t prepare them for a life outside of school. A 2018 Gallup Poll of 1,500 adults nationwide found that only 5 percent of the respondents think high school graduates are “very prepared” to enter the workforce.Superintendent Matthew Miller is working to change that statistic. At Lakota Local Schools in Liberty Township, Ohio, he and his team are working to prepare every student for their post-high school pathway—whether that’s college, the military, the workforce, or even starting their own business.In this episode, we talk with Superintendent Miller about the options he’s creating for students and the unique and exciting ways Lakota sets them up for success.Matthew Miller  (@LakotaSuper)Lakota Local Schools (@LakotaDistrict)Click here to learn more about the Lakota 4E Pathways.Subscribe to SchoolCEO at SchoolCEO.com for more advice, stories, and strategies for leading your schools. And if you have a story you’d like to share, email us at editor@schoolceo.com. Follow SchoolCEO on LinkedIn or X/Twitter @school_ceo. Subscribe to SchoolCEO at SchoolCEO.com for research, stories, and strategies for leading your schools. And if you have a story you’d like to share, email us at editor@schoolceo.com.Learn more about SchoolCEO and all of our resources on our About page. SchoolCEO is powered by Apptegy, the maker of the leading K-12 communications and brand management platform. 

About ten miles south of Seattle sits a school district with a bold promise: to know each and every one of its students by name, strength, and need. This promise may seem hard to keep in an urban school system where the student body speaks over 100 languages, but Dr. Susan Enfield is making it happen.When she took the helm at Highline Public Schools in 2012, Dr. Enfield began working towards a seemingly impossible goal: virtually eliminating out-of-school suspensions. The year before she began, the district saw around 2,200 suspensions—most of them for students of color. In 2019, there were just 940—out of more than 19,000 students.But what Enfield calls the Highline Promise is about more than just discipline reform. It’s about seeing every child’s gifts and making them feel welcome in their school community.In this episode, we talk with Dr. Enfield not just about how that promise informs their discipline changes but also how it guides every person and decision in the district.Dr. Susan Enfield (@SuptEnfield)Highline Schools (@HighlineSchools)Check out more about Dr. Enfield's work on Equity at schoolceo.com/enfield.Subscribe to SchoolCEO at SchoolCEO.com for more advice, stories, and strategies for leading your schools. And if you have a story you’d like to share, email us at editor@schoolceo.com. Follow SchoolCEO on LinkedIn or X/Twitter @school_ceo. Subscribe to SchoolCEO at SchoolCEO.com for research, stories, and strategies for leading your schools. And if you have a story you’d like to share, email us at editor@schoolceo.com.Learn more about SchoolCEO and all of our resources on our About page. SchoolCEO is powered by Apptegy, the maker of the leading K-12 communications and brand management platform.