How can schools become high reliability organizations, a place where every student can be successful? Dr. Liepa revisits the recommendations of the 2018 Michigan School Finance Research Collaborative study which address both adequacy and equity and also provides a new state formula for funding schools, wrap around services and learning supports to meet the needs of individuals and groups of students. Having this shared vision, a roadmap with processes in place, and an implementation plan will enable school districts to offer educational opportunities at the highest level for all students so each of them succeeds. https://www.fundmischools.org/ FACT SHEET:
Dr. Bob Maxfield and Dr. Suzanne Klein spoke with Dr. Randy Liepa, Superintendent of Wayne County Regional Education Service Agency (RESA), prior to his announced retirement in June, 2021. Dr. Liepa is well recognized for his leadership on the issue of school funding among Michigan superintendents and intermediate school district colleagues.Prior to his role as Superintendent of Wayne RESA, Dr. Liepa served as both business manager and superintendent for Livonia Public Schools. As part of Launch Michigan, The Coalition for the Future of Detroit School Children, he worked with the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce; served as President of his local Chamber in Livonia, President of the Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators (MAISA), and twice served as Chair of the Galileo Teacher Leadership Consortium Board.
An important priority during Dr. Liepa’s leadership, both as a local superintendent and at Wayne RESA, has been developing and putting in place processes. While superintendent in Livonia, he created a shared vision that still remains a part of the district Board policies. That roadmap identified priorities and informed the district budgeting process, the long-term facility plan, and the school improvement plan. It also enabled the district to significantly renovate the school facilities, add innovative programs such as the first Japanese immersion program, offer an International Baccalaureate program, and preserve a variety of programs during an era of budget cuts.“That was all based on having those key components in place; a roadmap, a plan and, if we follow the plan, we're going to continue to provide educational opportunities for students at the highest level.”
Dr. Liepa explained that Wayne RESA is the largest county-wide school organization in Michigan, serving 33 school districts, over 100 public school systems, over 275,000 students, within a very diverse social and economic community. “Having such diverse communities in the county affords the opportunity to continue to learn from each other and our communities, to support our students in our own school districts.” While at Wayne RESA, Dr. Liepa led the passage and renewal of a regional enhancement millage which brought in more than $300 per student, $75 million per year, for the next 12 years. “The biggest challenge going forward is resource allocation to provide all our school districts with the level of support to be successful, along with trying to coordinate services in the county to be more efficient and doing a better job of getting certain things off a local school district's plate by sharing with each other.”
Dr. Liepa noted some of the lessons learned from the impact of the recent pandemic. Parents having their children at home led to a whole new appreciation of the importance of school in society and its role in regards to “just being good human beings”. Many have also realized the importance of students working directly with the teacher, with their peers, and having that experience in a school. The pandemic also clearly revealed inequity of resources, the digital divide as well as the differences in support students have at home. Here Dr. Liepa pointed to the work of the School Finance Research Collaborative (SFRC) which “produced a roadmap on how to meet the needs of students and what we want schools to look like for all students.” The 2018 SFRC study recommended a state funding formula which included both a foundation grant and additional dollar amounts needed to educate special education students, at-risk learners, and English language learners. There is also provision in the formula for school counselors, social work support, reading specialists and other teachers to support student learning needs.
As leaders address these more visible educational inequities going forward, Dr. Liepa sees an opportunity to implement changes in funding policies. “…with the federal dollars coming in, it's a chance for school districts to do some transformational things; some once in a generation opportunity for some of these school districts to be able to do some catch up that is long overdue and much needed. There is a challenge in the messaging about the federal dollars, but also an opportunity to plan to implement a new finance system.”
The new superintendent will find important initiatives in place at Wayne RESA. “As a school leader I always felt that if I hired good people and provided them the resources that they needed to be successful, and had a good plan in place we would do great things…We started a literacy initiative about three years ago with our local school districts and have a very detailed plan to move forward collectively and learn best practices in literacy from each other to make a difference in reading in Wayne County, along with…helping our school districts with… innovation…”
When asked about recruiting and preparing educators for future leadership roles, Dr. Liepa acknowledged the challenges in the current environment and within the public sector. Leadership training, counseling and mentoring, both prior to being in the job and on the job, can build a supportive network for advice and resources needed to make difficult decisions. His advice to a new superintendent would be focus on building relationships. “It all starts there… focus on having that core foundation of relationships with people, so there's trust, two-way trust going, and then start building a foundation as it relates to your plans. Never forget the power in synergy. You don't have to be the smartest person in the room; you've got smart people around you. Always be humble, be a good listener and use the synergy of others as you're building those relationships and those foundations of success.”
https://www.fundmischools.org/
Bob Maxfield:
Welcome to Podcast for Leaderful Schools, coming to you almost live from Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, the School of Education and Human Services. This is Bob Maxfield and I'm joined by my ever wonderful co-host, Dr. Suzanne Klein. We're in the middle of now a series of podcasts that began last winter looking at what we're calling "the Great Reset", looking at what's happened during the pandemic, how it's affected public schools, and how coming out of it we might see things differently, and whether we have cause for optimism or pessimism. So we hope you can join us as we continue this series. Today our guest, and Suzanne is going to introduce him in just a second, is a person who is someone we admire greatly. He's been one of the real leaders among the superintendent ranks, among the intermediate school districts and, of course as we'll discuss later, on the issues of governance and school funding, so Sue with that let's introduce our guest and then we'll get on with it.
[01:01.530]
Suzanne Klein:
It's our pleasure to have Dr. Randy Liepa as our guest today. Randy has wonderful experience on the ground in a local district as both a business manager and a superintendent at Livonia Schools. From there he went to Wayne County Regional Educational Service Agency (RESA), where he has served as superintendent and has recently announced that he will be retiring at the end of June 2021. We will miss his wisdom and guidance and ability to see the future, so it's a wonderful opportunity we have here to capture him for half an hour or so, to talk with him.
Randy your background that I just spoke about, is your professional background but there might be a feature of that, that you would like to share with listeners that I didn't mention that really has helped shape your own leadership and in your mind your effectiveness.
[01:54.390]
Randy Liepa:
I mean, the only thing I would really add is just when you've been around as long as I have you've had the opportunity to be part of a lot of different community groups and school groups. And so I've had the chance to be part of Launch Michigan, The Coalition for Detroit School Children, which really was the organization that helped create the relaunch of the Detroit Public School System as a local school system and away from state control, an opportunity to work with the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce on different activities, along with being the president of my local Chamber in Livonia, a variety of different school organizations. I have been the president of the MAISA (Michigan Associations of Intermediate School Administrators) organization, other organizations and two times past Chair of the Galileo Leadership group so one of the [five] most proud items on my resume.Anyway so again, if you've been around as long as I have, you get a chance to really participate in a lot of really interesting groups with a wide variety of people.
[02:59.610]
Suzanne Klein:
And as you've done so you've earned a reputation as one of the most influential school leaders and leaders period, in the state of Michigan. And as you look back you've already introduced us a bit to something you are very proud of and well should be. I'm curious, what do you see are those things that are the things that have mattered most, because that's one of the pieces about leadership is to find the priorities, lead into them and make them real. What's on that list for you?
[03:29.040]
Randy Liepa:
Well I'll talk personally about some processes that we've set up and so I'll highlight a couple of specific things that I feel real good about over the years, but really setting up the processes when I was a local superintendent in Livonia and here Wayne RESA, that allowed us to really focus on what was the most important things for us, I think were really some of the most important things that I've been able to accomplish.
In Livonia we created what we call the “shared vision” and we literally talked to thousands of people in our community, staff and community members about what were their hopes for their school district, what did they envision their school district and the education that their children are getting. From that feedback we were able to create a picture about what we really aspired the school district to be and that really was our guiding document.
I'm proud to say here we are 18 years later, about 15 years later from when that was created and that still is not only in place, but part of the Board policies for the local school district. So that really led to us doing long term facility planning, having a 10 year plan which led us to bond issues, sinking funds. It really drove our budget planning which you know some people think about being pretty dry. but the budget planning was really the roadmap in regards to what our priorities were and the types of things that we do.
It really allowed us to focus on our school improvement planning and not just have it be a plan that was sent at the state but really something that was meeting the goals and aspirations of the organization and from all that work came some really significant accomplishments including significantly renovating the school facilities, and putting in innovative programs, such as the first Japanese immersion program in our area. We were the first high school to have an International Baccalaureate program, save a variety of innovative programs that we had when we were cutting budgets, which was a lot of my career in Livonia. That was all based on having those key components in place, to say we've got a roadmap here, we have a plan and if we follow the plan we're going to continue to provide educational opportunities for students at the highest level and so very, very proud of that.
Of course, passing a bond issue locally, but I'd also highlight here at the ISD level we passed a regional enhancement millage, which brought in about 300 plus dollars per student, $75 million per year. That's going to be in place for 12 years because we had that renewed. We're talking a neighborhood of a billion dollars that we were able to bring in for our local school districts.
As a school leader I always felt that if I hired good people and provided them the resources that they needed to be successful and had a good plan in place, we would do great things. So when I look back over that period of time, having those components in place really are some of the things I'm most proud of.
[06:36.570]
Suzanne Klein:
And it's understandable as you share them, why your leadership is so respected because you've positioned the organizations in which you've worked for not only the current challenges but positioned them for the opportunities and challenges that are out there. So put on your "looking ahead perspective" for a moment, when you think about the challenges and opportunities that await the next RESA superintendent, what does those look like from the chair in which you're sitting right now?
[07:02.850]
Randy Liepa:
Well, as an organization, we are the largest county-wide school system in the state of Michigan. We service 33 school systems, over 100 public school systems, over 275,000 students, and we have a remarkably diverse community; we have some of the richest areas, some of the poorest areas, some of the largest school systems, some of the smallest school systems, every nationality, racial blend and significant differences in community that you could imagine. And so, one of the big challenges moving forward is that issue of resource allocation, because we have many of our communities that have very high needs and they need us to help them be successful. So we always had that balancing act of really allocating resources to all of our school systems and providing them a level of support to have them be successful and that will be a challenge that will continue moving forward.
One of the big challenges that I see for our local school districts and it relates to us here at Wayne RESA is the talent shortage in local school districts. So what we find ourselves doing is often filling in for our local school systems as it relates to the help that they need. So if they've lost the business manager, if they've lost a special education director, often they lean to the ISD to say can you help us out during this period of time, or can you help us find good candidates. And so that's going to be a significant challenge moving forward, because we're seeing more and more our local school districts, as they reduce their central office staffs, but also as the pool of candidates have gotten thinner, that they need help just to operate school on a day-to-day basis with these key positions. That's going to be a significant challenge.
And then just the ongoing policy battles that we've been fighting for quite some time here in the state of Michigan, as it relates to education and what's important in regards to having a quality school system. That's going to continue along with coming out of the pandemic, which I can assure you in working with our local school districts daily right now, there new issues are coming up every single day. And we had hoped maybe about six weeks ago, things were starting to have a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel, well the tunnel got a little darker here in Michigan, so that issue of coming out of the pandemic is significant.
But I think there are also a significant number of opportunities for whomever will come and take the leadership role here that are very exciting in our county. I would just highlight we started a literacy initiative about three years ago with our local school districts and have a very detailed plan put together in regards to how we want to move forward collectively and learn from each other the best practices in literacy and making a difference in reading here in Wayne County. So we're just, you know it's sort of in the infancy of that work. And I'm very excited about that continuing ongoing innovation and helping our school districts with the innovation, whether it's looking at things such as balanced calendar, how we're supporting high school kids with career counseling, a variety of things that we've been looking at, and we'll be able to continue to look at.
That's going to be an exciting opportunity for the new superintendent, along with the ongoing effort of trying to coordinate services in the county, how can we be more efficient, how can we do a better job in regards to helping getting certain things off a local school district's plate by sharing with each other. So you know, as I mentioned diversity is a challenge in Wayne County but it's also our strength. And so we really have learned a lot from each other in regards to the different communities that we have. And that I think is another opportunity to continue to learn from each other and our communities, so we can support our own kids back at our own school districts.
And of course I'll just finish it, that we started this school finance reform work, and I think that's going to be an opportunity to continue to push that policy issue across the state of Michigan for the next superintendent.
[11:15.150]
Bob Maxfield:
You know, what you've just done is beautifully lead into our next question which is what we keep, what I said at the beginning is what we call the great reset, resetting after the pandemic. And you've already anticipated some of the things that your successor is going to have to be able to take on, but one of the…Stop for a second though and reflect on what what's been revealed during the pandemic, I mean there are problems that have always existed, but they've become painfully evident. So talk a little bit about what you see as some of the key issues that have arisen and then that'll lead us into so what are we going to do about it.
[11:51.480]
Randy Liepa:
I think first and foremost there's a whole new understanding in regards to how important schooling is for our community and especially our parents who are put in a remarkably difficult position of having their children at home with them at the start of the pandemic. You know I'm telling you the best, the best of parents coming to their local school district and saying, oh my God, I am overwhelmed with my child's curriculum, with what their teachers were doing with them on a daily basis in school. I think that has led to a whole new appreciation, as it relates to just the importance of school in society and its role in regards to us being "just good human beings", and I think also while we've looked at technology over the past many years, I think we came to the realization and reminder that you can't beat in-person learning as it relates to the success of a student, and the importance of students working directly with the teacher, so importantly with their peers, and having that experience in a school. There is no smoking gun of a new type of education that doesn't involve those kinds of interactions with kids.
Certainly what had a spotlight shined on it was the inequality in regards to resources. And again, I think that became much more evident for the average community person when it became painfully obvious that some students had computers, some students didn't have computers and that was going to be their lifeline to have their education provided to them. And so there was, it just was so obvious and, of course, the support that kids have at home, and people recognizing that this family has support at home, they're able to have a parent at home while this is going on, and other families didn't have that support for their kids at home.
So things that we knew as educators and that we've been dealing with as educators, I think, came to the top in regards to a pretty clear understanding that resources are, and the allocation of resources to make sure that every child can be successful just isn't there, right now. It couldn't be clearer, and I think that was something that we really learned over the past year.
And then, as it relates to our work and what we do, I think about flexibility and school districts have learned to be much more flexible. And you know what would normally take us six months to a year to plan, school districts were planning for in weeks and months, as opposed to months and years, and we learned that we can do that.
And we have the ability to be more flexible to meet the needs of our kids, and I think that was one of the things that I heard from a lot of school districts, when you think about the outreach that they did with kids while they were home. We have a better understanding and a better skill level in regards to meeting the individual needs of students, as opposed to groups of students, and how we can better support individual students and what their individual needs are. And so that came out I think in regards to the work that's happened over the last year during the pandemic.
[15:16.770]
Bob Maxfield:
So yes, we revealed lots and lots of problems and going forward we're obviously charged with addressing them. Has anything positive come out of it, have we learn something that we frankly we were surprised by, and when we come out of this we hope we keep it?
[15:32.130]
Randy Liepa:
Well, I think there’re some things that we definitely learned that we should be keeping them.I’m going to highlight this issue of individual needs of students and I would tie into that their social emotional learning needs, and so we've known that as educators. We know that when these kids have come to us, you know that many of them come not ready to learn. But I think we have seen that a whole different level over the last year, and I think we have identified our need to put that as a very, very high priority, in order for our kids to be successful. That if we can provide them the wraparound supports that they need, and if we can provide them a more individualized educational learning opportunity, that more of our kids are going to be successful. I think that really is something that came out of this pandemic.
Just recognizing that not all students learn in the same way, you can see tying into that flexibility component. You could see us being much more flexible in regards to how students learn, and what environment that needs to look like. It doesn't have to look like the same environment it was a year ago. And you know, in regards to making sure that students have everything that they need both at home, along with at school to be successful, is another thing that we can walk away and say we're going to continue to do this type of work to help our kids.
[16:59.730]
Bob Maxfield:
You talked a lot about the earlier in your description of 270 thousand kids that are served by RESA, and the vast differences between districts. I mean you've got Grosse Pointe, you've got Detroit, you've got Northville, and you've got Flat Rock, you've got Inkster, and you've got Livonia. In addressing the equity issue across the county coming out of the pandemic, what would be the two or three things you would hope we would do? I mean I know the importance of wraparound services and individualized is important but the incredible disparities that you're faced with day-to-day, what do you hope we can do about that?
[17:41.040]
Randy Liepa:
Well, I think we had a pretty good game plan in regards to how to handle that through the research of the School Finance Research Collaborative. And if you just looked at that as a game plan and the great thing about that is the research doesn't say well, you just need $10,000 a kid and that's the answer.
The research says here's what school needs to look like if you want every single student to be successful. It recognizes that students if you're in a school with more students you know with additional students or more students that either have special education needs or are at-risk learners and have higher needs, or they're ELL (English language learners ), we have a roadmap of what that school should look like, in regards to how many counselors they should have, what kind of social work support there should be in the building, what kind of reading specialist the teachers may need to support the learning, so we've got this picture in regards to how school ought to look.
And the research then just calculated that out, and if we just look at what that says, I think we have the roadmap in regards to how we can meet the needs of students and what we want school to look like for all students. And so again I think what happened with the pandemic is the light was really shined on these disparities and I'm hoping that in the long term, it will provide the opportunity for us to start to implement those changes in policy.
And so two or three things Bob, I mean how do we know what kind of supports are going to be there for students that are at-risk, and can we get the funding to implement them, and then go ahead and get the staff there to provide those services to their local communities. Also this is in the research too, but to make sure that all students have the technology that they need both at home and at school to be successful, so we can be flexible when we have to move in or out of their different learning environments.
[19:48.960]
Bob Maxfield:
Some might argue that the very important recommendations of the School Finance Study have been forgotten. I think you're saying they haven't been forgotten that all, that if anything they're more apparent now than ever before. Are you hopeful going forward that the set of recommendations which hasn't gotten all the attention for the legislature we would hope does still have legs?
[20:14.700]
Randy Liepa:
I think it's incumbent upon us now to really shine the message or get that message out there about what the research is and how it supports kids, and address the issues that we see more clearly now. And so this is an opportunity for us actually, we see and I say we, community members see now more clearly what the disparities are and what the needs are, and we can point to this and say we've got the long term plan. I think the challenge with that is going to be the federal resources that are now coming in. And there're going to be some people that say well you know the federal government's taking care of your problem and I'm seeing significant dollars come in to our poorest communities.
So it's very true, and so we're going to have a challenge from a messaging standpoint to remind people that that is temporary money. It's only going to be here for a couple of years and then we're back to the old finance system. So now we have a couple of years actually to plan if we want to implement something different. But we're going to. I think what's going to be a challenge for us to overcome is that messaging about those federal dollars.
And if I can just add a point to that, we have the opportunity I think, in our local schools to do some transformational things, once in a generation opportunity for us when you think about the dollars that are coming into our poorest communities.You guys know this, we have talked for a long time about the disparities between high property tax communities and low property tax communities and their ability to be able to support their communities, especially when it comes to the facilities and the technology that school districts provide. Ann Arbor's doing a $1 billion bond issue in their community, which is remarkable and exciting and wonderful.
Our poor communities could never even ask their community for that kind of investment in their school infrastructure, because they're never able to raise that kind of money. Now with these federal dollars coming in, I think it's a once in a generation opportunity for some of these school districts to be able to do some catch up that is long overdue and much needed.
[22:49.800]
Bob Maxfield:
I want to.
[22:50.190]
Suzanne Klein:
Randy, your comments in response to the last few questions have pointed out some opportunities that are out there and some possible next steps in terms of some of the federal monies that are going to be available. It also comes face-to-face with the realities of the increasing number of retirements that are being announced; people that have been in leadership roles, some of whom have been in leadership roles for quite a long time steering the priorities and supporting the success of their local districts.
From your perspective, how do we prepare and recruit candidates for these superintendent and central office vacancies, who are going to be able to meet these challenges because as you've characterize them, they are indeed once in a generation opportunities, but they're also followed by the challenges coming on the other side which is when the federal money and other kinds of supports financially might be over, you still have to make the school a place where all kids are going to be successful. So what can we learn from this, what would you recommend as we think about preparing and recruiting people for these key leadership roles? You've seen it from the outside, as well as playing it on the inside across the state, what's your advice?
[24:04.980]
Randy Liepa:
Well, I think it's a remarkable challenge here frankly, and unfortunately the environment that is out in any kind of public service right now is so challenging. I just watched our superintendents over the last year try to balance their communities in regards to issues around the pandemic, where there was no right answer and the significant amount of challenging discourse that they took on, if I can say that politely over that period of time. I think and you know it flows right down to being a principal or any other administrative position. You see people saying I am not going to do that, I'm not going to stick my neck out, I can't, I'm not equipped to handle that kind of pressure, that kind of grief, and in some cases looking at it as a no win situation. And so you know, probably I mean, I'm optimistic in many ways, but knowing that those are the challenges to recruit people, which is you are ready to come and take potentially on that kind of public pressuring and challenge.
You know the best I can offer is ongoing individual counseling and support for local superintendents who are trying to do this work. And you guys have lived that job, and so you know how lonely it can be and it's often your colleagues that are your saving grace in regards to keeping your sanity and staying focused. That individual counseling and support for school board members also along with superintendents I think is the best thing that we can offer people to say look at you can do this. Because sometimes people watch - me and say they can't, I don't think I can do this, I'm watching what my local superintendent went through, I'm watching what my local principal is going through, and boy I don't think I can do it. And yet we know there are some really talented people out there that absolutely can do that.
It really is individual counseling and mentoring both prior to being in the job, and then when they're in the job having that network for them to make sure that they're getting the support that they need and advice when needed to make difficult decisions.
[26:37.170]
Suzanne Klein:
If you were sitting across the table in one of those conversations Randy, as we're drawing the conversation to a close here, what advice would you have for them in terms of being willing to step into the challenge; but now they're in those moments, how do you make them successful to support teaching and learning?
[26:56.850]
Randy Liepa:
First of all, you know that the advice is whatever you're going through right now, this shall pass. I think Suzanne and Bob, you both have lived that experience that "this too shall pass" and sometimes when you're in the middle of it, it doesn't feel like it'll ever pass but it does. So I think that's an important piece and I think the opportunity just to remind them of some foundational things that can help with their success. Certainly if I was advising a new superintendent focus on building relationships. It all starts there and really focus on having that core foundation of relationships with people, so there's trust, two way trust going, and then start building a foundation as it relates to your plans. And I described some of the things that we did to build that foundation, but those are always your anchors that you can go back to when people are coming at you with a variety of things. You can say “You know what, we've talked about this as a community, we talked about this as a school group, and here's what's important to us, and we're going to stay focused on those things.” It's nice to have those foundational components in place, so you have that anchor to go back to say “Let's take a step back. Here's what we said we were focused on, here's what we're going to continue to be focused on.”
Never forget the power in synergy. You don't have to be the smartest person in the room; you've got smart people around you. Always be humble, be a good listener and use the synergy of others as you're building those relationships and those foundations of success.
[28:39.750]
Bob Maxfield:
I think these are, as I listened to you talk. Suzanne and I have admired your work forever, but this is a guy who truly understands what systems are about. This is a guy who truly understands what relationships are about. And our listeners if you're new to this podcast series, you may not be aware that Dr. Liepa was also one of the leaders of the Michigan School Finance Research Study and has spoken far and wide about it, and Randy I find it encouraging that you're feeling optimistic about it for the future.
That it's still a roadmap and something that we can do. We do have a previous podcast, when we get our previous ones posted, where you explain this in more detail as to what the recommendations and study work. So thank you very, very much for being part of this episode. It was an honor for us to speak with you and to catch you before you ride off to pursue whatever new adventures you are going to pursue, which I suspect will be significant.
[29:37.590]
Randy Liepa:
Well, let me…
[29:39.330]
Bob Maxfield:
Thank you for tuning into this installment of Podcast for Leaderful Schools. As always we're almost live from Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. Again, this is Bob Maxfield, on behalf of Sue Klein saying have a wonderful a wonderful spring, and we look forward to continuing this dialogue about the great reset.