A Purposeful Leadership Journey: Building Relationships, Distributing Leadership, Re-imagining Education
Bob Maxfield and Suzanne Klein continue the series of conversations with educational leaders about the issues facing public schools, emerging from the pandemic. Their guest, Dr. Chris Delgado, reflects on his experience completing his first year as Superintendent of Farmington Public Schools, having spent more than a decade as Deputy Superintendent in the Walled Lake Consolidated Schools.
The Fit
“Farmington has always had a very special place in my heart. I've looked at Farmington as very reminiscent of my wonderfully diverse childhood growing up in the city of Southfield. I’ve always kept my eye on Farmington and when the opportunity arose, I threw my hat in the ring and was fortunate enough to be given the position. In my interview, I articulated my desire to finish my career in Farmington and commit fully to the community to make a difference in the lives of children in this community, and to support families.” The diversity of the districts in which Dr. Delgado previously held positions enables him to navigate different worlds and to help bring people together, was another facet that made him an attractive candidate for this superintendency.
Building Relationships
Dr. Delgado noted with pride being able to live into “the vision of the superintendent that I wanted to be and envisioned being. It's very rewarding to get to know so many people personally, not only in schools but in the community. I've been able to be in schools, in every classroom and supporting children and supporting families, and really showing my commitment to everyone in the organization. In my first state of the city speech with over a hundred community members in attendance, I knew almost every individual and organization. In a very short time, we've really been able to establish some pretty solid relationships, both in the community, in the schools, and in the community at broad and so that's very satisfying for me."
Reflections on his first year
"I actually haven't been surprised by anything procedurally or managerially, and I attribute that to my time as a deputy superintendent, where essentially I ran the day-to-day operations of the entire district. Because I had so much experience as a deputy superintendent, leading others, implementing systems, collaborating with a board, with the community, that aspect of the job has made for a very smooth transition.”
“I am surprised at how difficult it's been for me to find a balance in how to contribute when people are asking for my ideas and help, and needing them to develop as well in the same way that I was given the opportunity to develop as a deputy. I have a lot of knowledge and expertise that I want to offer to people but the art of leadership is very tricky in trying to listen more and be silent, and not introduce my ideas and allow people to develop their own ideas.”
“One of the challenges and the things that keep me up at night is the whole dynamic of social media in our lives and the amount of falsehoods and vitriol that can happen very quickly on social media, the judgment out in the community over a school issue without the context. Things are taken out of context and it starts to gain some traction on social media. The damage control is something that you really have to work hard to get out ahead of so that's a unique challenge for modern administrators in general, but certainly a first superintendent.”
Distributing Leadership
“In my first leadership team meeting, I talked about the theoretical framework behind distributed leadership and shared a clip from Dr. Alma Harris, talking about the difference between delegation and distributed leadership. Distributed leadership starts with the belief in other people and a belief that other people have something to contribute. Your status, whether you're a teacher, paraprofessional, secretary, or assistant principal, is irrelevant to leaderful schools. You can distribute leadership by tapping into the expertise and the interest of people and then supporting them.”
“Distributed leadership is modeled in strategic planning work or other committee work. When you as a parent or a teacher or a secretary can contribute in a meaningful way, where your ideas are valued and they turn into action steps or action plans, then you're more committed organizationally. We have five overarching goals, eight subcommittees, and over a hundred community members including teachers, parents, paras, custodians, and secretaries, on these committees working towards our vision and our profile of a learner in Farmington Public Schools.”
Re-imagining Education
“We have a board of education goal for innovation in education. Our vision for what we call our RVPR (Remote and Virtual Program) includes: flexibility of things like hybrid classes in the future; rethinking how we do high school; FLEX and hybrid schedules. We're maintaining our K-12 virtual program as well as a remote program; one being a live synchronous daily schedule and then asynchronous ‘learn at your own pace’ for those learners in those subjects where they may be able to pursue that on their own. When given the options students may choose to do an asynchronous class for history or an English class, but for some of the hard sciences, like math and science, prefer a synchronous model.”
“There's no reason that we can't rethink education and now that we have the skill set, the ability, the infrastructure with the Chromebooks and the technology, we can really start to re-imagine this. That's exactly what our strategic plan in Farmington is doing, rethinking that. A board of education subcommittee exploring pupil accounting flexibility met with state officials on how we might be able to provide flexibility to get us away from the 1098 hours that we all had to fit the box in. So we're very excited about those possibilities and we're better instructionally I think, having gone through the pandemic. We have a broader and deeper skill set.”
Recruitment and Retainment
“I think that some of the efforts that we've heard from the state as well as on regional level on loan forgiveness could be a huge incentive in young people being able to go into the public professions.
I think we need to do our best to re-change that narrative to promote to young people that it's a wonderful profession, a wonderful career. We should encourage teacher leaders to look at administrative leadership because we need good people in every single position along the chain.”
“If you look at the research on incentives and merit pay, salary alone doesn't validate people; it's recognition, acknowledgment, involvement in their organization, and being able to contribute in a meaningful way. At every school and district building, Dr. Delgado met face-to-face with staff to learn about their experience and asked the question, why would anyone want to work in Farmington Public Schools, and why would you want to stay here? That feedback will be shared with the Assistant Superintendent of Talent Development to talk about recruitment and retainment.”
Advice to aspiring superintendents
“The first piece of advice I would give them is to experience central office before you jump into a superintendency. It's not that you can't come from a building level leadership and go to a superintendency, but the value you will gain from being in central office from being able to work shoulder-to-shoulder with the board of education, to have kind of a broader 10,000 or 50,000-foot view, to make connections with the community members; you will better understand the position before you assume the position.”
“Second, research the districts that you think match your skill set. How do your skill set and experience align with what you know about the district that you're applying to? Your fit is so very important. Research the philosophy of the district, and the individual perspectives of the board members. Before I applied for Farmington I watched hours of board meetings to understand who the people are, where their hearts were, where their minds were. Pick a district where you think you can make a meaningful contribution. Just don't run quickly to the role.”
Personal testimony to the power of public education
“My wife and I are both first-generation college students. Our parents were wonderful blue-collar workers and didn't have the opportunity to go to college. When we moved into our home we took our dining room and made it into the office. Around all four walls, we have hung not only our diplomas but also our children's diplomas. Ever since they were little kids in order to walk to the kitchen they had to come through this office. In as little as one generation we changed the narrative from poverty to opportunity and the perspective about not just university pursuits but post-secondary pursuits. So public education changed our lives and changed the trajectory of our children's lives. That's why I think it's so important for people to go into this field as teachers, as leaders, and as superintendents. I wanted to share that story just to highlight the power in my mind and in my heart of public education.”