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P1 / Executive Message

A Message From Executive

Director Gale Hulme

P1 / IIC Profile

How to Prioritize When

Everything is High Priority

P2 / BCLS

2013-2014 Base Camp and

Leadership Summit Dates

P2 / GLISI News & Events

Tools for Collective Impact and

High School Feedback Reports

ISSUE 1 WINTER / 2013

Message from the Executive Director

Welcome to GLISI’s new and improved quarterly newsletter.

My pledge to you is that this newsletter will be brief and use-

ful.

Each issue will feature district leaders like you who are im-

proving teaming and learning. For this first issue, we turn to

Mitchell County in Southwest Georgia. We will also highlight

resources, tools, and upcoming events that can help you be

a better leader.

As always, I welcome your feedback and questions about

GLISI or education leadership. I look forward to working with

you to build great school and district leaders for Georgia.

GLISI’s mission is to develop world-class

education leaders who advance student

achievement and organizational

effectiveness.

The Leader

www.glisi.org

How to Prioritize When Everything

is High Priority

After the excitement of Base Camp and Leadership

Summit fades, how do districts that improve student

achievement maintain their focus? Three letters: I-I-C.

The Improvement Implementation Coordinator is integral

to driving and sustaining change on the ground. This

feature will shine a light on the important role of the IIC

in districts with promising student achievement results.

Christy Wray is a former high school math teacher and

academic math coach. Currently, she serves as the

Mitchell County’ School System’s Curriculum Director

and has been a GLISI IIC for the last five years. Here,

she offers a glimpse into her life as an IIC.

(Continued on page 2) Gale D. Hulme, Ed.D.

Executive Director

2

Q: How often do you meet with the teams that have at-

tended Base Camp and Leadership Summit?

A: It depends on the team, and it depends on the issue we

identified as our focus. We ask ourselves: Is this something

we need to act on immediately? Is it something we need to

find a program to implement or find some resources to help

our teachers? So we meet monthly, but it just depends on

the team and the need. We also created a cohort team that

meets annually in the spring and includes all the teachers

and leaders that have ever attended Base Camp and Lead-

ership Summit, everyone that’s ever been “GLISIfied.” It can

be hard to squeeze these meetings in, but the one meeting I

know we will have is the monthly principal director’s meet-

ings. We always have these before school from 7:30 to 9:30

a.m. and our principals, sometimes assistant principals, our

superintendent, and of course I attend. We come together

once a month and we talk about any particular challenges

www.glisi.org

Registration for 2013-2014 Base Camp & Leadership Summit will

be open in March. To be placed on a priority list for registration

next year, contact Nanci Foster at nanci.foster@glisi.org.

Save the dates now!

Cohort 40 (Secondary) September 9-11 and October 7-9

Cohort 41 (Teacher Leader) October 28-30 and December 9-11

Cohort 42 (District) January 13-15 & February 24-26, 2014

In January, GLISI launched a research brief series, de-

signed to help school and districts leaders learn about

trending innovations in education. The first brief focused

on collective impact, a strategy that shows promise in

helping organizations join forces to bring about long-

lasting positive changes in education. To read the full

brief, click here.

In conjunction with our celebration of successes among

the ten pilot districts participating in the Data Utilization

Project, GLISI invites you to join us in being among the

first to see the newly developed Georgia High School

Feedback Reports. The event will take place on March

18, 2013 from 10:00am - 2:00pm at the Evergreen Con-

ference Center located in Stone Mountain, Georgia. At-

tendance is by invitation only; however, limited addi-

tional seats may be available for a nominal fee. Learn

more here.

our schools are facing. But at every meeting, we devote time

to look at two things: 1) how we are doing on our balanced

scorecard and 2) our progress on our priority areas.

Q: What advice would you give someone who is stepping

into the role of an IIC?

A: I think one of the most important jobs an IIC has is helping

each team member understand the purpose of attending

Base Camp and Leadership Summit - particularly why they

were selected and what they are supposed to be gaining from

the experience. For every cohort, I put together notebooks for

every single team member. I mean, these notebooks are

complete with divider tabs so that every team member has

the same information. The notebook includes our system im-

provement plan, our balanced scorecard, and our strategic

plan. Since some teachers may not have ever seen some of

these documents, I make sure to go over each of these docu-

ments with every team member. This helps us to link back all

the work done at Base Camp to our district strategic goals. I

have found that taking the time to get organized and prepared

for Base Camp and Leadership Summit not only improves our

teams’ experience during the three days at the mountain, but

it helps them to continue the work when they return to Mitchell

County. To read the full interview, click here.

Christy Wray is Mitchell County’s curriculum

director. She also serves as the system’s test

coordinator, professional learning director, grant

writer, pre-K project director, and about half a

dozen more positions whose hats she wears

more or less equally.

The Mitchell County team is pictured here working together on data

analysis as part of Cohort 37 in Fall 2012

GLISI is an independent non-profit organization providing train-

ing and consulting to school and district leaders throughout

Georgia.

Georgia Leadership Institute for School Improvement

1755 North Brown Road, Suite 200

Lawrenceville, GA 30043

770-464-9299

HS Feedback Reports Coming Soon!

Tools for Leading