The prevention of opioid misuse is a part of SAMHSA’s Strategic Initiative to Prevent Substance Abuse and Mental Illness.

The following is a list of programs:

Strategic Prevention Framework Partnerships for Success State and Tribal Initiative Grants (SPF-PFS): Provides funding to eligible states, territories, and tribal entities to address two of the nation’s top substance use prevention priorities: 1) underage drinking among persons aged 12 to 20; and 2) prescription drug misuse and abuse among persons aged 12 to 25.

Drug Free Communities (DFC) Support Program Grants: This ONDCP program is a collaborative effort between ONDCP and SAMHSA. It aims to establish and strengthen collaboration among communities; public and private non-profit agencies; and federal, state, local, and tribal governments to support the efforts of community coalitions working to prevent and reduce substance use among youth. Another aim is to reduce substance use among youth and over time, reduce substance abuse among adults by addressing the factors in a community that increase the risk of substance abuse and promoting the factors that minimize the risk of substance use.

Strategic Prevention Framework for Prescription Drugs (SPF Rx): This program is designed to raise awareness about the dangers of sharing medications and work with pharmaceutical and medical communities on the risks of overprescribing to young adults. SPF Rx will also raise community awareness and bring prescription drug abuse prevention activities and education to schools, communities, parents, prescribers, and their patients. In addition, SAMHSA will track reductions in opioid overdoses and the incorporation of Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) data into needs assessments and strategic plans as indicators of the program’s success.

State Targeted Response to the Opioid Crisis Grants (Opioid STR): This program aims to address the opioid crisis by increasing access to treatment, reducing unmet treatment need, and reducing opioid overdose related deaths through the provision of prevention, treatment and recovery activities for opioid use disorder (OUD) (including prescription opioids as well as illicit drugs such as heroin).

To complete the list, SAMHSA also has grants related to the reversal of opioid overdoses:

Grants to Prevent Prescription Drug/Opioid Overdose-Related Deaths (PDO): The purpose of this program is to reduce the number of opioid related overdose deaths and adverse events among individuals 18 years of age and older through the use of SAMHSA’s Opioid Overdose Prevention Toolkit. The program will educate key community sectors and implement secondary prevention strategies such as the distribution of naloxone.

First Responders ��������測 Comprehensive Addiction & Recovery Act Cooperative Agreement (FR-CARA): Grantees will train and provide resources to first responders and members of other key community sectors at the state, tribal, and local governmental levels on carrying and administering a drug or device approved or cleared under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act for emergency treatment of known or suspected opioid overdose.

Improving Access to Overdose Treatment (OD Treatment Access): Will be awarded to a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), Opioid Treatment Program, or practitioner who has a waiver to prescribe buprenorphine to expand access to F91心頭-approved drugs or devices for emergency treatment of known or suspected opioid overdose.

Source: Jennifer Fan, public health advisor at the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services 91心頭istration

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The three brothers, who grew up in the small town of Tiskilwa, followed in the footsteps of their father, Bob, who spent his career in the rural community’s public schools and retired as superintendent. Even their mother, a former school nurse, followed the family tradition in education.

And that’s why when they get together for family dinners, which happens about four times a year, they act as each others’ sounding boards and confidantes. “We’ve joked that if we throw enough [questions] at us, one of us will get it right” Todd Prusator says with a chuckle.

Managing Editor Angela Pascopella spoke with Todd Prusator about the family business and his proudest moments.

Apparently, K12 education is a family business. How did that happen?

My dad was a teacher, coach, and then administrator and superintendent for 33 years at Tiskilwa School District in Illinois. It’s a rural district with about 600 students. It was a place where he probably thought it was going to be a first job and move on. But he really enjoyed it and ended up spending his whole career here.

He was a very successful coach. He’s in the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association’s Hall of Fame. He won over 500 games. He had an unbelievable coaching career. And we grew up in that environment. It’s something we wanted to do and knew we would enjoy.

We went from teaching and coaching to administration. Bob, the oldest, is the superintendent at Dakota Community Unit School District, and Jeff, the youngest, is at Mendota Township School District.

We grew up in Tiskilwa, where we had great teachers and coaches and mentors who really created a culture of excellence and treated people with respect. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Tell me more about the culture.

In 1995, Tiskilwa shut down as an independent district and was annexed into a nearby district.

Last November, a group of people put together a “We Are Tiskilwa” reunion. They invited back not just my dad, but also the football coach, track coach, volleyball coach and music director, and others who were at the district then. They gathered everyone together to celebrate what we had there. That’s very unique to me, that people had such a good feeling about what they went through.

With having my brothers in the business too, it has been a great built-in support system for us. We’re dealing with the same things. So it’s really nice to have two people you can really trust, call up and say, “Hey, I have this issue, What do you think?” Because being a superintendent can be a very isolating position.

Superintendent Todd Prusator

Rochelle Community Consolidated School District 231, Illinois

Students: 1,661 (K8)

Staff and faculty: 225, including teachers

Per child expenditure: $6,000

Students on free or reduced-price lunch: 61 percent

Yearly budget: $70 million

The topics will vary depending on what we may be going through at the time. Usually it is about an unusual situation測�������it could be about complex dynamics of relationships in a certain situation or a complicated series of events that have created an issue.

I guess our discussions are more for relating the complexities that only people doing the job would really understand or appreciate, rather than the technical aspects.

What are you most proud of regarding the Prusator family in education?

I think what is important is: What is the overall environment and culture being created? It’s really about caring about the people you work with, being honest and transparent���caring about your teachers, your staff and your students, and making them feel valued. I think that’s the basis of any quality educational program���it’s the investment in the people.

You should run your district the way you should run your life.

What does caring look like to you?

This is my 12th year here as superintendent. We’ve gone through quite a few changes over the past 10 years. You know Illinois is in a financial disaster. We’ve had our state aid pro-rated. When the economy went down, our local revenues also went down. We went through significant staff reductions. Our resources are more limited, and we’ve also gone through changing demographics. We have about 50 percent low-income students compared to 30 percent when I started. And we have an increasing ELL population���we’re at about 20 percent. When I started, we were about 8 or 9 percent.

And then we had changes and mandates over accountability and the increased pressure on test scores. It’s the most difficult time we’ve been through in education.

But we just settled our collective bargaining with our teachers’ union and it was the easiest and least stressful negotiation we’ve ever been through���at a time when people could be very dissatisfied. Collective bargaining can get really nasty.

It was a four-year contract for a 1 percent increase on base salary. One percent is not as much as we wanted to give, but it’s where we are at. Working conditions and benefits pretty much remained the same. We try to be transparent with the association. This was the limit our district could do and the teachers understood that.

I think it’s the culture here, and it’s not just me. It goes to the credit of the board and the teachers. Everyone understands we’re all going in the same direction. I would hope I’ve had some influence over that.

Given such challenges, many would-be superintendents, who are intelligent and would be quite successful, shy away from the job. What would you say to them?

The job is difficult. Particularly the mandates and the finances put a strain on things. It puts more of a premium on getting more good people in administration to navigate through that.

The job is not for everyone. But it’s for people truly invested in making sure students have every opportunity and for those who want to provide support for teachers and staff to be able to work with students.

I still believe education is the most noble profession anyone can get into because of the impact, and because of who you are serving. The influence you can have is beyond what any other profession could have.

What are the best successes you’ve helped create at Rochelle CCSD?

We have a growing ELL population and Hispanic population. The credit goes to our teachers and staff to embrace our diversity and view it as an asset.

And it’s about understanding that we have a wide range of needs for those growing populations, and making sure we’re meeting the needs of all kids, including the traditional population of high-achieving kids.

We’ve progressed from a full ESL program and started a bilingual program, which is a better model for kids. And next year we’ll start a dual language initiative with English and Spanish speakers in both languages in kindergarten, so the students can become biliterate. That’s taking diversity and making it an asset.

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Unlike last year, which showed that more readers would implement new reading and language arts programs (at least in elementary schools), nearly half of all readers say they will focus more heavily on STEM.

Only 31 percent of the readers say they will give more attention to reading and language arts programs this year.

Career readiness and faculty PD also ranked highly. Forty-two percent of readers say they will add new or additional attention to career readiness and 35 percent say they will do the same with PD. About 28 percent of readers say they will emphasize college prep programs.

Respondents cite other areas that will be stressed this year, including improving student attendance and creating a culture of wellness and positive behavior.

A total of 288 leaders participated in this curriculum survey, which was part of a broader set of trend surveys deployed to readers in late 2016.

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In the 2015 survey, about 50 percent of respondents say that new testing techniques will be a top priority, compared to only 40 percent in the latest survey.

And 36 percent of leaders plan to add new instructional technology to their classrooms.

A little over a third of leaders say they will devote a lot of attention to new learning standards���that’s down from 51 percent. Just over 10 percent say coping with larger class sizes will be a priority, compared to 13 percent in 2015.

And only 17 percent of leaders plan to focus mainly on blended or online learning, compared to last year’s 36 percent.

Other priorities that readers note include: implementing the third new state assessment in three years, enhancing response to intervention programs and updating STEM curriculum.

A total of 277 leaders participated in 91心頭’s classroom instruction survey, which was part of a broader set of surveys deployed to readers in late 2016.

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Like last year’s responses, in which 66 percent of leaders reported having construction plans, 64 percent of readers say some degree of work will be underway in 2017.

Athletic fields or facilities will get improvements at many districts this year. Just under a quarter of survey respondents say they expect to devote construction funding to their sports facilities, compared to last year’s 16 percent.

Only 11 percent of leaders say that they won’t build or repair buildings because they have no funding, compared to last year’s 25 percent. And 9 percent say this year that they have already built or renovated what they needed.

A total of 287 leaders participated in 91心頭’s construction survey, which was part of a broader set of trend surveys that was deployed to readers late last year.

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Much of the harassment was directed against immigrants. Black, LGBT, Muslim, female and Jewish students also have been targeted. Anti-Trump harassment has also been reported, though on a smaller scale.

In a suburb of St. Louis, students walked out of a high school twice to protest racist comments made at school after Donald Trump was elected. Two students were disciplined for telling black students boarding a bus they should sit in the back. In Bethesda, Maryland, swastikas were drawn in a boys’ bathroom at a middle school that has many Jewish students.

The greatest problem for students is not so much the actual hateful comments or actions, but the perceived lack of protection in schools, says Howard Stevenson, a psychologist and professor at University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education.

“The most hurtful moment isn’t an actual threat, but it’s when they realize the adults who are supposed to protect them stay silent” says Stevenson, director of the graduate school’s Racial Empowerment Collaborative, which teaches racial literacy, and author of the 2014 book Promoting Racial Literacy in Schools.

Response and prevention

Stevenson recommends that educators get 20 hours of training in what he calls “racial literacy” which includes building teachers’ confidence in their abilities to handle racist or hateful threats. “Just staying silent during such acts is incompetent” Stevenson says. “It can put undue stress on students, who will then shut down and stop learning” he adds.

Many adolescents who harass others are seeking power because they feel like they have no identity and don’t matter. Such feelings need to be discussed with the teacher. “It’s about the teacher communicating with students and being self- aware” to help a student feel better about him or herself, Stevenson says.

Understanding a student’s mindset doesn’t mean educators should excuse their actions. The school’s code of conduct is still relevant and punishment is likely. But it leaves the door open for teaching, and a potential path for an offending student to be re-accepted by the community. Teachers should also assure students who feel bullied that they will be taught how to combat the sense of inferiority the bully was hoping to create.

Let students who are acting out be angry. “By not using your power [to immediately punish the student] in the beginning, you communicate that you are secure enough to handle others being upset” Stevenson says. “You let students know their pain and anger is OK, and that you can safely handle it without rejecting them or their feelings.”

Questions that teachers can ask students who bully

Stevenson suggests certain questions and considerations when dealing with harassment or bullying in school:

During training, teachers should be encouraged ask themselves the following questions:

What am I prepared to say?

What am I prepared to do?

How do I connect it to the pedagogy?

If I am teaching history, for example, how is this connected?

How do I make this a moment not just for now?

While educators should never ignore an immediate threat to a student, they also should seek outside help from supervisors, the school principal or community members if they need it.

When an incident occurs, Stevenson recommends that teachers do not condemn the student accused of bullying.

Instead ask, “What was behind your action? What did you expect to get out of writing a racial slur or such a symbol on a public wall?”

Then explain that the N-word or swastikas are used to make minorities feel inferior, which is wrong and hurtful.

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Superintendent Yolanda Valdez takes messaging seriously.

Not emoji-filled texts or IMs, but messages that convey a goal for 4,000-plus students at Cutler-Orosi Joint USD in rural California: That they will attend college.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a vocational school or an Ivy League university, she says.

Valdez’s district is in the heart of California’s agricultural region, where top crops include grapes, raisins, pears, plums, citrus fruits, corn, cotton and alfalfa. And it’s the leading area in the world for dairy and milk production. Most of her students are children of migrant workers.

Valdez graduated from high school at Cutler-Orosi, which is about 30 miles southeast of Fresno. Her parents did not encourage higher education because they were new immigrants working in the fields. But her friends did, and that made her think big.

���I was fortunate to hang out with a good peer group who were middle class kids,��� Valdez says. ���In their homes they were given messages about college. And one of the realizations I had was: Raise your kids with no other option but to go to college.���

But a wave of crime and violence struck the community about eight years ago. After four gang members were killed in 2008, Tulare County passed a law to try to eradicate the hold that gangs had on youths.

Gangs still lurk today, but the schools and surrounding residents have come together to make the community a safer place where students can dream of better lives beyond high school. Managing Editor Angela Pascopella spoke with Valdez about that transformation in her district.

Six years ago, you came to the district, when the graduation rate was 76 percent. It’s now 92 percent. What happened?

It’s been a real community effort. You had a school board that wanted transformation. You had a community that was tired of that type of outcome. You had a teaching force that bought into and believed in their ability to make a difference.

We’ve implemented the federal Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports in our schools. We’ve added counselors. We’ve added psychologists.

Our board asked that our district begin reporting data disaggregated by males and females. We found a glaring disparity in male achievement. So we researched exemplary programs addressing high-risk males. We found a local program on which we modeled our Men’s Alliance Program. It begins at our middle school and then moves into the high school. These groups provide high-risk male students with a belonging. They work on self-esteem and self-worth activities and lessons. They do community service throughout the year. And students learn discipline and respect through the coursework. As a result, students are passing their courses and staying in school.

The Latino commission also has an organization called, Nuevo Comienzo, which means new beginning. It hosts meetings at Orosi High School that focus on parenting young ladies and men. It’s a comprehensive six-month program where kids meet once a week and learn how to cope with their challenges. It’s also teaching them self-esteem and how to reach for success.

This sounds like a lot of different non-profits coming together with the school community. Yes?

It’s been a real concerted effort. Have you heard of the Simon Sinek book, Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action. [Sinek uses what he calls ���The Golden Circle��� to provide a framework upon which organizations can be built and people can be inspired.] And from that, we asked ourselves what is our “why”?

So we described our why���which is to prepare students for college and career and to be community-ready.

And what does that look like?

We came up with six graduate outcomes. It started with our school board and administrators, outlining our vision and mission. Our mission is educating minds and inspiring futures.

All students will be college and career ready and be prepared to compete in a global economy. In part, we want them to be scholars and master core academic content and be prepared for post-secondary career options. We want them to be critical thinkers and collaborative problem-solvers.

We started with sending our kids to compete in all kinds of competitions.

Last summer, our students at Orosi High School Academy of Engineering and Green Technology developed one of the top six apps in the Lenovo Scholar Network National Mobile App Contest.

And four Orosi High School students were the first in the county to compete at the National Speech and Debate competition last June in Salt Lake City.

This is part of the transformation we’ve been creating. Just because we’re a disadvantaged community and we’re a small district, we need students to understand they can compete against others���and we need them to understand what and who they are facing in the real world.

What does “being prepared” look like in a Cutler-Osori classroom?

Our district has nurtured a college-going culture. Thursdays are College Thursdays, and all students learn about different colleges that day of the week.

In first grade, kids learn what different careers look like over a nine-week period. They learn about dentists, for example, and what the working conditions are for a dentist. Teachers could invite local dentists to speak to the kids. And students are writing about what they’re learning, watching videos about it, reading about it.

The end product is a career day. Kids write an informational piece on different professions that they learned about and why they want to be or pursue a particular profession.

And in sixth, seventh and eighth grades, students take an inventory test to learn what their strengths are. Someone might be really good with numbers, and they can explore the different professions around that. They might want to pursue accounting, for example.

In sixth grade, students also write about which jobs appeal to them best, and why they would be good for that job. In seventh grade, they learn about the different types of colleges���community college, vocational schools and universities���and what they do.

And in eighth grade, students take that skills test again to learn what they are strong in. What college might you attend? This is the type of learning that happens throughout the grade levels.

How else do you promote the message to students about achieving more?

Every morning during student announcements, there is always a message about the future. One of the schools closes the announcements with this: ���After high school comes college.���

Every school highlights a college, such as Stanford University, and teachers inform students what it offers. Throughout the district, every Thursday, kids wear their college shirts.

A few years ago after Sunday mass, where many of our parents go, I was standing outside and a parent came to me and said, ���You guys are brainwashing my children.’ I thought ���Oh my God.’���

Yikes.

It didn’t sound good initially, right?

She said, ���My fourth-grader knows exactly what she’s going to do and what college to attend.” It was the best compliment I could have received.

If you tell them over and over, and message them over and over, before you know it they believe it.

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So classrooms emphasize collaborative learning and visual learning, says Technavio analyst Jhansi Mary J.

Using wearable technology will significantly increase student engagement levels and improve content absorption abilities, says Jhansi Mary J.

And K12 educators believe that by using these devices, they can effectively monitor potential health issues arising from obesity and even attempt to arrest them by designing suitable physical education initiatives, she says.

BYOD will also increase demand for wearables in classrooms driving significant curricular changes, says Jhansi Mary J.

Potential applications of wearables in K12 classrooms are:

Virtual reality and augmented reality learning devices that enable visual learning, and also document videos from a student and faculty perspective

Smartwatches to share information and alerts

Fitness bands in hopes of producing healthy eating habits and physical education activities

Headbands like Muse which track brain sensing activities, indicating each student’s response to a particular classroom session

The most important advantage of using wearable tech in classrooms will be flexible access to education content and simplifying learning processes, says Jhansi Mary J.

With mass adoption and the right PD initiatives for faculty within the next three to five years, says Jhansi Mary J, educators could identify wearables and map them to integrate into respective subjects and learning models in K12 classrooms across the nation.

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After Harries left these grim ceremonies���and in other occasions when students were shot but survived���his office went back over the victims’ academic records for signs of trouble.

“There were warning signs���chronic absenteeism in early grades, kids moving between different schools and moving out of district and back in, and transcripts just got progressively worse” he recalls. “They were starting to fall off a cliff.”

In April 2014, shortly after two teenagers were fatally shot, Harries, Mayor Toni Harp and other civic organizations banded together to figure out how to improve the prospects for at-risk youth.

Harp and Harries started a YouthStat program to look for warning signs in attendance, grades, discipline and other data���to catch students before they turn to violence or criminal activity.

About 400 students from middle and high school are overseen under YouthStat. Teachers, police, security officers, after-school program providers and urban outreach workers meet to discuss each student’s challenges and to make a plan for improvement.

YouthStat connected one student���who was struggling in an alternative school���with a mentor who had served in the Afghanistan War after 9/11.

The mentor helped the student learn to deal with crises and convinced him to stay in school. The student graduated last year and is now an apprentice in a trade program.

“More importantly, he’s not on the street and not engaged in violence” Harries says.

Who is Harries?

Harries is entering his third year leading the city’s schools. He works in an office five stories above the city, not far from New Haven Harbor on Long Island Sound, and near the busy I-95 corridor.

The walls of the board of education room, which adjoins his office, are peppered with students’ colorful drawings and paintings as well as lists of action plans: school visits, surveys for feedback and team building.

Harries comes from more a business background than education. A 1995 Yale University graduate, he admits he felt his way around jobs for a few years.

He taught in a private school, worked in homeless services, and managed special projects for the Philadelphia Empowerment Zone. He also worked as an engagement manager at McKinsey and Company, a Fortune 500 company.

He also went to Stanford Law School in California, and worked for the East Palo Alto Law Clinic, a nonprofit that offers traditional legal services to low-income families.

New Haven Public Schools

Superintendent Garth Harries

Students: 21,500

Schools: 47

Teachers: 1,800

Demographics: 42% black, 41% Hispanic, 14% white, 2% Asian, 1% other

2016-17 budget: $431 million

Then he discovered his true love���public education. He had some connections in the New York City mayor’s office. In 2000, he was offered the job of project manager for then-New York City Chancellor Joel Klein’s Children First Reform movement.

Taking the job was “one of the best decisions of my life.”

“Along the way, I found this passion and calling for work in public education���to try to bring a set of skills and energy for system change and strategic change to provide high quality education in urban environments” Harries says. “If you want to help others and support the world there is nothing more powerful than education.”

Realize systemwide potential

In New York, he spearheaded the New School Initiative, creating 500 small high schools and charter schools. The charters and schools he helped create were effective, according to various research studies. More students were going into college, he adds. He later became New York’s senior coordinator for special education.

When longtime New Haven Superintendent Reginald Mayo and former Mayor Joe DeStefano Jr. launched the “School Change 1.0” initiative in 2009, Harries took the chance to work on a deeper level in a smaller urban district.

He started as assistant superintendent for portfolio and performance management. “I learned it was possible to change the world and I could do it” he says.

Reform was, in part, about closing the achievement gap, halving the dropout rate and preparing students for college and careers. At the same time, Harries’ wife had started a community-supported agriculture farm about an hour away in Connecticut, which made moving easy. “She grows fruits, vegetables and animals” he says. “I try to grow people.”

He also knew that he could connect more personally with students in the smaller New Haven district.

“In New Haven, you’re a lot closer to the impact of the work you are doing, and able to put together more pieces of the work” he says. “We have examples of school success, but not a whole system. New Haven has the potential to be that.”

The reform program received a major boost from a teacher’s union contract that makes it easier for the district to fire poor educators. It also allows the city to replace underperforming schools and their employees with charter schools and charter employees, Harries says.

The initiative also includes social and emotional programs to help children improve their soft skills.

Creating space for success

Harries has kept reform alive with his own School Change 2.0 initiative, which grew out of School Change 1.0. New Haven employs teacher coaches who guide their peers in personalizing instruction and integrating other innovations. And Harries has tried to implement play-based learning in early grades and expand social-emotional learning.

The district has also partnered with Achievement First, a nonprofit network of high-performing, college-preparatory charter schools in Connecticut, New York and Rhode Island. Harries has turned seven of New Haven’s 47 schools into charters, impacting less than 10 percent of the student population.

“I think the expansion of charters has forced different behaviors among districts” Harries says, meaning districts see potential in the flexibility.

Under a decade of reform, the high school graduation rate has increased by 17 percentage points. And more New Haven graduates stay in college for their sophomore year.

Brennan-Rogers Magnet School, for example, was a success when some work rules were readjusted so the staff could spend more time with students and with each other to plan higher-quality lessons.

He also brought to the district Enterprise Learning Education, funded under a federal SIG grant.

Inspired by the adventurous spirit of the Outward Bound program of wilderness expeditions, it teaches students about perseverance, grit, imagination, being curious about the world, protecting the earth and its resources, and having empathy for others.

When the district first implemented School Change, many of the best teachers decided to leave. “At first I thought it was a disaster. But in the end, they were not willing to operate in a team. And that is what it takes測�������to work together more effectively” Harries says.

Dive deeper into history

While Harries has achieved much in his three years, he still has more to do to ensure students gain deeper understanding of the subjects they study.

Unlike the typical U.S. education system, Harries thinks focusing for several weeks on one pivotal subject���such as the Civil War���would be a more effective way to teach U.S. history, for example.

Although the school day is packed with testing and other requirements, students could be more engaged in deep thinking about the whos and whys and h

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Madera USD sits in the center of California in the San Joaquin Valley, which grows much of the nation’s nuts, vegetables and fruit. Gonzalez, its superintendent, gave each of his roughly 1,100 teachers $500 to spend as they choose on PD in 2014-15.

This year he extended that to classified employees, including bus drivers who wanted safety training on how to deal with active shooters and assaults.

The grandchild of immigrants, Gonzalez learned the power of hard work. His father and mother grew up picking grapes, lettuce and cotton in California. His father eventually became a certified public accountant and his mother went back to school at age 50 to earn an associate degree in arts.

“They taught me that education was the great leveler,” Gonzalez recalls.

Gonzalez started his career as a classroom teacher in Madera in 1982. He taught for 15 years and worked in administration at various districts before becoming Madera’s superintendent in August 2013.

Possibly one of his most unique moves at Madera was giving his 1,100 teachers??and now 1,000 other employees??$500 each to do as they saw fit for professional development purposes.

As a member of the District 91心頭istration Leadership Institute, Gonzalez recently spoke with Managing Editor Angela Pascopella about his leadership style, his unique take on PD and overall district challenges.

Describe your leadership style.

I’m a people person. I believe in the power of positive relationships. I think my strength is that I’m a very creative person??I’m an artist, pianist and poet, having in part written short stories and 60 pieces of music.

And I believe in a Renaissance education that used to be much sought after, but now we’ve become more specialized. I marvel at how quickly my executive cabinet members understand and take in information and give insightful feedback.

I don’t have that ability, so that’s valuable. Another member is great at empowering others. And I’m learning how to be better at that.

What was your greatest challenge when you became Madera USD’s superintendent?

A strike was looming. Teachers were picketing??they hadn’t had a raise in years. Many teachers knew me and the community knew me. We put together a package and settled the issue.

We offered them a 2 percent raise (which the union had not even asked for) and increased the district’s contribution to health benefits, eliminating most out-of-pocket costs for most employees. In return, the teachers agreed to pay the first 3 percent of any increase in health care, but the district would pay everything beyond 3 percent.

I publicly stated that the teachers are the most important employees of the district, and everyone else exists to support them. Teachers are working with the most important people in the system, which are the students. And the union agreed.

How did the $500-per-teacher PD initiative come about?

We believed that with today’s use of technology and the Common Core being adopted in California and other states, the role of our teachers has changed fundamentally. Students have information at their fingertips and teaching itself has changed. And students are growing up with technology. They know no other way.

We offered every teacher in the district $500 and gave them the choice to attend a conference or a workshop, or put together local workshops.

We had an all-day Saturday event last March, run, organized and taught by teachers in how to implement the Common Core and use the latest technology. And we had a four-day SummerTech 2015, where teachers took part in sessions featuring iMovie, iPhoto, Photoshop, Excel and various internet portals. Some district coaches and the director of curriculum instruction signed up to lead some of the sessions.

Different teachers have different needs, so that’s why we left it up to them. For instance, the physical education specialist in almost every elementary school in the district used their $500 to bring in a national expert on PE to conduct all-day training.

The teachers were so excited to know the district was listening to them. They were excited to have their own choice.

And it wasn’t very difficult at all to get buy-in from the school board. The board understands that teaching is critical to success.

And is anyone overseeing the process?

The training still has to be approved by an administrator. They still have to be held accountable. And typically, they keep it local. Last year, 80 percent of those PD funds were used. And I think the number will increase this year.

Our first teacher-led PD day of this school year was October 17 at Madera South High School. We had about 160 teachers in attendance. The next one will be in March 2016. Teachers can use their $500 to pay themselves for the time they spend attending these classes.

You mentioned that classified employees also will get $500 this year, yes?

All employees this year will receive $500 for professional development. The training requested by the bus drivers was for emergency response, which included attempted hijacking of a bus, active shooter, assault on driver. The drivers received the training and the feedback was very positive. They believe they are better prepared for an emergency situation.

Our landscaper recently returned from a PD that focused on lawn and garden care during drought conditions. About 100 employees from around the San Joaquin Valley were in attendance??Madera Unified accounted for 20 of them. They were so excited to learn new techniques and very appreciative of the opportunity to do so.

What is your biggest challenge now?

The overwhelming rate of poverty we have in this valley. By nature of an agribusiness economy, you have to have a lot of workers. Historically, they have mostly been immigrants willing to come in and work when it’s 108 and 110 degrees, and work all day. It’s really grueling work and they are minimally paid. But they have to live somewhere.

The population brings great challenges because parents are gone before school starts and work until it’s dark. To have parent conferences is difficult and most teachers do not speak Spanish.

And the kids are helping in the fields during school breaks or weekends. Or they are staying home with younger siblings to care for them and that contributes to truancy rates.

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