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alinea on the road


Since the overwhelming response to my session at the WI Education Convention just five weeks ago, I've already visited three amazing school districts.  I just have to share all the amazing things that are happening in education around Wisconsin.

alinea will be starting work with the Montello School District in March.  Just 40 minutes east of Wisconsin Dells, this small community has launched The Montello Idea, an initiative to involve the entire community in building an innovative and world-class education program.  In addition, to amazing collaborations with stakeholders, the district recently launched a charter school focused on the community's natural resources, and they are reaching out to homeschoolers.  Instead of seeing parents who homeschool as a threat to the public school system, they are welcoming these families into the schools to offer students who are being home schooled the opportunity to benefit by group activities and providing support that parents need.

The Wisconsin Dells School District is so unique in how it attracts young people from all over the world to work during the tourism season, as well as the work experience that local students receive.  Those huge water parks and other businesses are owned by people who have history in the area, and they are discussing very innovative ways to partner with the school district to inspire and empower students to become the next generation of business owners and entrepreneurs.

The Altoona School District is not only passionate about welcoming older adults into the schools to share their experiences and perspectives with younger people, but they also offer programs that allow older adults to continue learning and growing.  In addition, I have never come across a school district that is collaborating with other school districts - the Chippewa Valley in this case - for the benefit of all of the students.  This area of the state is talking about empowering schools in the three separate school districts to specialize and allowing families to choose the school - no matter what school district - that is the best match for their child.  This is amazing!  It takes a lot of courage to focus on student needs in a system that allocates resources based on enrollment for individual schools.

Oh, and I almost forgot about Brown Deer School District right outside of Milwaukee.  About five years ago, Deb Kerr, the new superintendent descended on the community like a huge breath of fresh air.  During the last five years, the community and staff members have launched so many initiatives during a time of decreasing budgets.  They have not sacrificed anything that benefits the students.  Instead, they have figured out ways to use their money more widely.  In addition, the community recently passed a $22 million referendum.  The district has relationships with local churches to offer mentoring to students, attracts volunteers with mental health expertise to provide support to their students, and has the most amazing diversity.  Other schools should be envious of the district's diversity - 40% of the students quality for free and reduced lunch, and there are about 26 different languages spoken among the student population.  And the art program . . .

How you can help

I think we all seem to hear more about the schools that are struggling than those that are "doing it for the kids."  It seems to feel like a big black hole for most people with no way out.  But believe me, there are amazing thins going on in our own state, and with alinea's help, some of our own small communities are going to put themselves on the map as innovative and world-class schools.  Instead of feeling threatened by another school's effectiveness, it would be great if other schools got out of their four walls and went to visit successful schools to see how it's done.

If you are looking for an opportunity to invest in or support a cutting edge school, please let me know.  You may have ties to some of these communities.

Stay tuned.  I'll continue to share with you how these schools are innovating.  I believe Milwaukee and some of the other bigger cities in Wisconsin have a lot to learn from smaller communities in our state.

WASB Wisconsin State Education Convention 2012

Lots of Innovation Happening in Small Communities

When I submitted my proposal to present a seminar about sustainability through community engagement at this year’s WASB State Education Convention, I didn’t really expect to get an invitation. 

The reason?  While there is no shortage of small groups of people and individual schools doing creative and successful things to raise the bar for student achievement, you usually don’t see that type of passion and enthusiasm for change at the school district level. 

I was asked to be prepared for 75 attendees; I brought enough materials for 100 and it wasn’t enough.  There weren’t even enough chairs for the more than 110 people who attended my seminar titled Sustainability through Community Engagement.  Not only that, more than 30 people bought my book *The Secret to Better Schools; a New Mindset for Engaging the Community, and 24 schools requested a free consultation to learn about how alinea can help them secure community support to achieve their amazing visions for their schools.

 The energy in the room was hopeful, exciting and contagious.  One of the attendees, a school board member in one of these amazing communities hurried up to me after the seminar exclaiming, “I want to join your team and do this amazing work!”  And guess what?  This past week she joined alinea, LLC for her first team meeting. Stay tuned for more developments!

Shortly after, we headed back to the booth, where a steady stream of principals, superintendents and school board members proudly shared the exciting initiatives and public-private partnerships they were already forming.  It was so exciting, and even hugs were shared.

My team and I have always enjoyed working with schools in smaller communities.  It doesn’t take long to experience the unique personality of a community, nor does it take long for people to step up once there is a clear vision.  We talked with education leaders from the top of the state like Bayfield, Washburn, Drummond and Manitowish to the tip of Door County like Oconto, Gibralter, Little Chute, Seymour and Crandon to the west of Milwaukee like Wisconsin Dells and Montello. 

The passion and optimism of these school leaders was so refreshing!  All they need is a little confidence to know that the community will be there for them if they can learn how to ask for support.  That’s were alinea comes in.  We love helping schools attract resources by teaching them how to inspire people with their stories, be clearer about what they need and how people can help, and strategically cultivate relationships.

We’re so excited to hit the road and bring our proven model to school districts all over the state!     

*P.S.  Following the conference, "The Secret to Better Schools" made it onto Bobby Tanzilo's OnMilwaukee.com blog!  What a great way to start 2012.  

Stay tuned for more developments, we have a lot to share!