BISD SUPERINTENDENT TO ATTEND ACADEMY
The Thompson Executive Leadership Institute in Austin, Texas has announced that Dr. Walter Jackson, Superintendent at Brenham ISD, is the recipient of a scholarship to attend the 25th annual Superintendent Academy, a nationally known advanced leadership development program for school superintendents. According to its Executive Director, Dr. Bob Thompson, participation in the Academy is competitive and by invitation only. The twenty-five superintendents in the 2017-2018 Academy were chosen from a list of nominees from Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Alabama.
“To be selected is an honor not only for the superintendent,” Thompson said, “but also for his or her board and district. Without the support of forward-looking boards, no superintendent could achieve the level of success and recognition necessary to be selected into the Academy.”
The scholarship pays all academic costs including a field trip to attend leadership development sessions at Columbia University and visits to several New York City schools. The purpose of the school visits is to study the strategies and methods those schools have found to be successful in educating students who have known nothing but poverty for their entire lives.
At the Academy, Jackson and his colleagues will be challenged to look at old problems in new ways. They will examine the changing demands of the workplace and they will study how these new demands and societal changes are transforming what we teach students and how we teach them. Academy members will also visit other school districts in Texas and surrounding states to review practices that made those districts successful.
Thompson says the knowledge that superintendents glean from the Academy is immediately applicable to any district, regardless of size or location. To assist participating districts in incorporating these concepts into their long-range planning, the Academy will host a three-day Visioning session in the spring for Academy superintendents and their boards. There they will be led through joint leadership training and planning activities applicable to their individual districts. These district leaders will also meet with other leaders from similar-sized districts to share ideas for increasing student achievement and developing a vision for the future of their schools.
(Courtesy: Jessica Johnston, BISD Communications)
Why is “Person Finance” not included in the core curriculum of our public schools?
My first thought when I read this headline was whether Dr. Jackson was going to be teaching at this academy. He is a natural born leader, and Brenham is lucky to have him.