Douglas School District collaborating with consultant group

Though the partnership is in its beginning stages, Douglas Superintendent Kevin Case is hopeful that strategies — such as meetings called rounding sessions — will lead to significant improvements.

“I think the nice thing about this is all the work we’ve done to date aligns very well with the work with Studer,” Case said. “So adaptive schools, or strategic direction, all talk about the importance of everyone’s voice at the table. Rounding simply helps add those other voices to the table, which helps us to make better decisions.”

Currently, Douglas is in the scorecard phase of the partnership. According to Casey Blochowiak, a member of Studer who presented in Monday’s meeting, scorecards are “an improvement tool that allows you to decide what matters most in terms of your success metrics for those strategic plan pillars that you’ve put in place as an organization.”

Over time, Case will identify which specific areas need to be fixed. And while it may sound simple, there are many complexities within it. For example, how does a school district with a wide variety of students and staff whittle down what needs to be solved? In the same vein, how can a large organization have effective and efficient communication?

Blochowiak said that the challenge in school districts is that “great work” happens, but it’s only in “pockets.” Often, what’s stopping great work from happening everywhere is that there aren’t clear systems put in place.

“(The goal is) elevating the practice of every department and school to really be quality, excellent places and not just have some department or some parts of an organization really experience that great feedback loop with staff, but really that it exists across the whole organization,” Blochowiak said. 

During a presentation at Monday’s board meeting, Blochowiak provided two illustrations that depict what can lead to a lack of organizational excellence.

One was “The Iceberg of Ignorance.” This shows how executives see 4% of problems, team managers see 9% of problems, team leaders see 74% of problems and staff see 100% of problems.

The other was called “Aligning for impact.” This shows a group of arrows pointed in different directions.

“Obviously we’re trying to turn those arrows and not just let good ideas run in random directions,” Douglas School District President Tanya Gray said during the meeting. 

A key part of ensuring that Douglas School District has a clear and aligned scorecard are the rounding sessions.

According to Blochowiak, “When we talk about leader rounding at student education, it’s really to help leaders get under that Iceberg of Ignorance, because we know that staff are closest to both the celebrations and the challenges in an organization.

“And if we can, in a very intentional way, create a system for all leaders to understand what’s working in an organization, that we should continue, what challenges or roadblocks exist, that we should work on, for you to be able to do your great work and then identify who’s been particularly helpful to you, who should be recognized for good work.”

While Douglas remains in the data and information accumulation phase to make the scorecard, Case shared tangible signs of improvement.

One principal shared that there weren’t enough trash cans, so Case helped them order more. Another was a teacher that lacked testing materials, so Case helped them order it.

From Case’s perspective, it’s less about trash cans or testing material and more about what it represents about the collaborative efforts spurred by Studer.

“So for me, it’s just been very helpful to gather this information, and then one of the things I’m trying to do is tie it to strategic direction. So I go in and look at all the roundings that get entered in,” Case said.