Back to School: A Love Letter

EXECUTIVE PERSPECTIVE

Soon summer will be in our rearview mirror and football season and sweater weather will begin. For educators, families and students that means one thing: Back to School.

To my incredible AASA colleagues, a warm and heartfelt welcome to the 2024-25 school year. I hope your summer provided time to relax, recalibrate and to remember why you choose to work as an aspiring or practicing school systems leader, even when (especially when) the job feels daunting.

For me, it’s love of public education and creating the change we know is needed in today’s public schools.

A Love of Learning

I firmly believe the majority of educators and school leaders don’t choose this profession because we love to teach … we choose it because we love to learn. That love of learning is a constant. It underpins our dedication to what is an increasingly challenging job, in an increasingly political and unforgiving environment.

Our love of learning is a bouyant, motivating force that spurs us on and inspires others. When superintendents come together, the love of learning is abundant and evident in so much of what members do together to support each other.

I’m incredibly excited about the depth and breadth of future-driven learning opportunities we’ll offer you in the months ahead. From launching the new iteration of our Learning 2025 Network, to expanding the opportunities for earning continuing education units through the University of La Verne, to growing and diversifying the education leadership pipeline with graduates of our Aspiring academies and the launch of our Leadership Academy for Black Educators.

I encourage you to take full advantage of the myriad online and in-person opportunities in the year ahead to connect with each other, share ideas and learn and grow as leaders.

A Love for Developing Young Minds

We do what we do at the end of the day because we want to prepare our students to lead happy, healthy and productive lives. We believe school environments can help ensure the social, emotional and educational needs of all students, from kindergarten to senior year. We know the amazing things our students are capable of when they are supported, inspired and educated.

An essential part of setting our students up for success is providing them with the self-regulation tools they need to engage in their learning. Developing those critical skills is at the center of AASA’s new Executive Functioning Research Network launching next month.

I’m thrilled AASA will collaborate with nationally renowned author Ellen Galinsky, a childhood development expert. Galinsky’s research has focused on students’ executive functioning skills including problem solving, time management, organization and ignoring distractions. The research suggests these neurocognitive skills are more predictive of student readiness for college, career and life than IQ or socio-economic status.

A Love for Public Education

Finally, it has never been more important for school systems leaders to serve as the proud flag bearers for public education. Make no mistake about it — with a federal election this fall, public education is increasingly in the crosshairs of private and political interests. This issue of School Administrator magazine delves into this issue and provides insights and advice.

While the steady drumbeat of alarmist national headlines about public education are intended to sow despair, many of our schools offer a powerful antidote. Whether it’s the story of how superintendent Heidi Sipe of Umatilla School District in Oregon is reimagining paraprofessional and substitute systems to improve the student experience, or superintendent David Miyashiro of El Cajon, Calif., who is preparing students as young as kindergarten how to present themselves in public.

These stories of joy, success and learning are powerful. We, as an association representing more than 13,000 superintendents and nearly 50 million children, are powerful. Your voice and the voices of the students in your classrooms are powerful. And fortunately, these stories are plentiful.

I know from speaking with superintendents that amazing things are happening daily in districts large and small, rural and urban and everything in between. Now more than ever, we need regular reminders of why we chose this challenging but incredibly rewarding profession.

Please reach out to suptstories@aasa.org to share your success stories. We’d love to hear from you! Be well, my colleagues and friends.

David Schuler is AASA executive director. Twitter: @AASA_ED