Empowering School Leadership Through Technology

Hey everyone.

So today we have a very special webinar for you.

So we are going to be talking to our friends, um,

and learning about some leadership

of empowered school technology leadership.

And so this is a really exciting session.

Um, I can tell you the folks on this call, we've got, uh,

a lot of familiar faces that have offered a great deal

of thought leadership over the years.

So I think that you'll really enjoy

hearing some of their stories.

Today's webinar is sponsored by educational collaborators

and we thank our friends there for that ongoing partnership.

And so today we are going to, um, bring in some of the folks

that work over there with them to, to talk to you.

And so we have Bradley, Lance Bradley is the author

of a Knowledgeable Knowledge Able, uh, he'll, he'll be able

to tell you a little bit more about it.

But, um, he's got a great book out

that you guys can check out.

Um, he also is the CTO at Bradley, the McLean School,

The Langley School, Langley School, McLean, Virginia.

I Correct, correct. Sorry.

Sorry, y'all, I've got too many windows.

I got off my notes there.

Well, you, you know, I think you were,

you were just a little off.

'cause I used to be the technical director at,

There you go. There

You go. There a logic to

it. Ashley, you're credit.

We also have Tony Perez.

Um, Tony is the interim chief,

CTO at Good Shepherd Episcopal School out in Dallas, um,

and is also an educational collaborator's.

Been with them for several years.

And then we've got Michael Carson from their team as well.

So guys, thank you so much for being here with us.

We're really grateful to have you on the call today.

It's great to be here. Ashley,

thank you so much for having us.

Um, this is really a webinar that's meant to inspire, um,

create interest and motivation in doing new

and different things to meet the goals that you have

as technology leaders in your school.

Um, you know, in the field of technology,

there's no such thing as like not having transitions

and not needing to change strategy, right?

And we've seen that many, many times over many years.

So I really encourage you to, you know, hear the words

that particularly Brad and Tony, uh, have to share.

Um, you're also welcome to listen to the word

that I share too, and Alex.

But, uh, Brad and Tony really have a lot

of really interesting observations that they've made, things

that they've discovered in the partnership that, um,

that we have had between educational collaborators

and the Langley School.

Um, and so I'm really excited.

There's a real lovely personal growth arc

and journey, um, to Brad's story over the last couple years.

And, um, there's just so much talent in our schools

and everyone in Atlas has so much talent and potential.

Um, so we, we are gonna talk a little bit about how we

as educational collaborators, um, got involved in working

with the Langley School and supporting the growth

in their technology program.

Um, we're gonna kind

of get into all the nuts and bolts of that.

So just, just real quick too, so folks know, uh,

if you're not familiar, educational collaborators is a

national international consulting organization.

We bring some of the top talent in the industry, um,

to schools to support, uh, all kinds of technology projects,

which we'll talk more about in the end.

Uh, we have about 150 collaborators that work with us.

So, uh, the Langley School reached out to us, gosh, Alex,

this was probably 2021,

we're looking at about three years ago or so.

Um, and we, we learned of them through, uh, uh,

A CFO that had moved

to the Langley School from Washington International School,

where, where we had done an ed tech audit

and helped them realign their staffing.

And the real impetus for this was

that the Langley School had had a long time network

administrator, sort of defacto tech director, leader

of 20 plus years, uh, retire really kind of abruptly.

Uh, I think the stress of 2020, um, not

to get too into that, uh,

but the stress of 2020 was kind of the last straw for him

and me, something like that.

And so that transition occurred

and left the school kind of in a place, uh,

of uncertainty around what to do.

Sort of the question arose of, you know, we've had this sort

of defacto structure for a long time.

We don't really know exactly what we really need.

The landscape has changed

dramatically in the last few years.

And, uh, so Langley School reached out to us

and, uh, had said, we, we need some support.

And I, I will say one of the big,

we were just chatting about this

and reminiscing, one of the initial projects

and pain points was that, uh,

a very old legacy phone system was about to be fully legacy,

uh, which would leave folks in the lurch not having phones

to pick up, um, having a lot of complications, having to do

with the local phone provider and things like that.

So we started a conversation, um,

and what that led to was, uh, a three year partnership, um,

that has continued.

Um, and, uh, we've, we've gotten

to see the school transition in, in new ways,

and we've gotten to see Brad, uh,

move up in his work with the school.

Um, and so, so it's been really wonderful.

I wanna, um, kind of now pass it over to Tony and Brad.

Tony and Brad are gonna share about the work together

that they had and, and some

of the things that they discovered.

Um, and, uh, so, uh, Tony

and Brad, um, you know,

we started working three years ago on this, Tony,

what were some of the sort of initial things that, um,

you learned about the Langley school, that, that, that kind

of, that got things moving?

Uh, uh, great question.

Uh, first I'm gonna give a quick shout out to Amy Melly,

who's I see is on the call.

And, uh, I have recently transitioned out of the interim

position at, uh, good Shepherd.

I'm now officially, uh, the director of friend

of the school, uh, Amy Melly

and her, uh, colleague, uh, Catherine are the new

directors at, uh, good Shepherds.

So follow me a very similar arc to the work that, uh,

we did at Langley.

So, um, shout out to Amy, the, uh, new director, the, um,

so when we joined, uh, Langle.

Thank you. Yeah. Oh, hey, Amy, nice to see you.

You too. Thank you.

When, uh, when I joined, uh, the team at Langley, it was,

uh, Michael and I, uh, we were presented initially with a,

uh, you know, kind of two things.

Uh, because they'd lost their long longtime tech leader.

Uh, they really needed some help with leadership

and kind of picking things up, assessing where we were,

where the school was, what needed to happen, you know,

what was going to hurt us, what was not going to hurt us.

And, you know, the initial,

you find this is not at all unusual in schools, um,

where we have longtime tech leaders, the, the bulk

of the knowledge was organic, right?

So when the former director left, he left with every bit

of institutional knowledge

that the school had acquired over 20 years.

And so, uh, while he did have someone that had worked

with him that is still still on staff George, who is, uh,

a really strong it break fix technician all

around technologist, um, he was

never really brought into kind

of the higher level decision making

and understanding of why things were done.

So, um, we were brought in to kind

of fill that gap.

We, you know, how are we going to continue to move forward?

What does the school need?

And as we look for a new leader, what, you know,

what are the skill sets we need?

What are the areas we need to address?

So that was the first, uh, first level.

Uh, as you mentioned before, you know,

when you did the intro, the immediate need was, we had

about 11 weeks to, uh, research source

implement and train on a brand new phone system.

So that, uh, that was the immediate need.

So it was a, a real point of crisis.

Uh, and thankfully on our team, we have quite a bit

of experience with phone systems.

Uh, Michael, you, you, uh, stepped in

and, uh, we were able to find a, a really strong vendor

who understood that phones were being turned off

on August 15th.

And by turned off, that meant turned off.

So there was no fudging

and they were committed to, to working with us.

And that was, um, you know, a,

a group brought in based on really strong relationship.

So, uh, that's where kind

of we initially started, uh, phone system.

Where are we, uh,

whenever we kind of work within a school,

the first thing we like to do is, um,

whether they've had done this six months ago

or six years ago, performed kind of a mini tech audit.

You know, taking a, a real deep dive into infrastructure,

into business operations, software systems, data flow, um,

you know, who are the key people in each department?

What do they use? Why do they use it?

Does the IT team know that they're using what they're using?

Um, you know, what does the, the kind

of 360 degree environment

of technology look like at the school?

So that was the first step, was really stepping in, um,

and doing, uh, an in-depth assessment of every system so

that we could report out on, uh,

what's working, what's not working.

And then, you know, kind of the, the larger project of

let's begin documenting.

So that by the, you know, by the end of our first year,

we had a real strong understanding of what were the systems,

how did everything work, how did data move across

the entire environment?

Uh, where are the, the itchy spots

that need to be dealt with?

And then through that process, um, you know, we were able

to identify some extraordinary internal leadership and Brad.

And, uh, so at the end of that first year,

it really became a, okay, where are we going to go next?

We, we wanna hire a director, um,

or a CTO, a tech leader.

And, um, we had one right there at the school.

And, uh, and that was Brad, who I'm a, has stepped in

and, um, has done an, an outstanding job of getting up

to speed on some, some areas he wasn't familiar with.

Uh, you know, primarily on the infrastructure side,

having been the director of academic technology for,

for many years, and really owning that

and understanding that, um, it became really a, uh,

you know, a matter of let's just get some kind

of infrastructure knowledge

and support for Brad so that, um, that

that can be taken care of

so he can worry about higher level issues.

So that's kind of where we started.

So, Brad, um, thinking about from your perspective,

and thank you, Tony, that was a wonderful overview, Brad,

from your perspective, you know,

where did you see the school, you know,

say in 20 20, 20 21,

and sort of how did things,

how did your entry into this conversation start?

Because you were really focused much more on the academic

side at that time, where, whereas now you're focused broadly

in, in leading it as well.

Yeah. Um, thank you Tony,

and thank you Atlas for having us on today.

Um, yeah, like you all said, my background was in academics,

and so I started my, uh, career in education

as a middle school math and science teacher,

and started teaching STEM and technology, right?

And then, um, ended up getting my administration degree,

started getting more into, um, technology

with administration and kind of working in the higher ups.

And then I, I got to Langley about 11 years ago

and became the director of technology and innovation.

And so I was a director of technology

and innovation on the academic side for 10 years, um,

until I stepped into this new role

as Chief Technology Officer.

And prior to, um, education collaborators coming in,

we had like our IT department,

and then we had our academic, um, department

regarding technology.

And, and there wasn't a whole lot of overlap.

We would work really collaboratively together,

and we would work really well, but there was sometimes when

it was hard to make decisions

because there was no really hierarchical structure,

and it was just like it.

And then we had academic technology.

And so, um, when you all came to Langley,

I was still in the academic role,

and you all were kind of operating as our, um,

IT management, our CTO at that time, right?

And so I was partnering with you all, helping us

to think about how we might wanna restructure our technology

department at Langley,

and then giving us some recommendations on, uh,

what are some best practices that you see in school, uh,

what are some different hierarchy models and,

and thinking about what would work best for Langley.

And so, um, you know, a lot of the work

that you all did other than just, you know, helping us

with our new phone system, um, you know, as Tony was saying,

you all did a really nice job of doing some audits for us.

So you were able to collect

and present us with data so that you could help us, um,

make decisions at our school about

what direction we wanted to go.

Um, what were some of our priority areas, you know,

thinking about data security

and privacy, thinking about cybersecurity, um, helping us

with, um, creating like a 10 year refresh technology

cycle, which was really helpful.

Um, looking at all of our hardware assets

and thinking about, um, when the warranty expires,

when we're gonna need to replace those with new items,

and really helping us think through a long-term project of

what needs to be refreshed.

Um, and so a lot of those really big projects were,

were super helpful for us.

Um, and you really helped get us to, um, a really good place

where we were eventually able to transition,

and I was able to step into that CTO role, um, alongside

of you all, uh, being there for us as consultants, right?

And so, um, it was really helpful knowing that even I was,

I was stepping into this new role where I had a lot

to learn, and I still have a lot to learn,

but knowing that you all were there for us to be able

to reach out to, to lean on, uh, to ask questions,

to give us insight

and recommendations, was really helpful, uh,

because I felt like I had additional support as I was kind

of stepping into this new role.

And so looking back, it was super helpful

to have you all come in, um, you know, collect some data

for us, let us know where we needed to grow,

helping us think about our, um,

technology department restructure,

and then, um, you know, being there alongside of us, um,

as we continue to grow.

That's wonderful, Brad. And we're gonna, we're gonna,

we're talk more about your journey, Brad,

because I think you've done, um, that was a good overview,

but you've done a lot more than just that.

Um, and you know, I want to kind of step back though,

because I'm remembering.

Um, so, so I work with educational collaborators now.

I helped build our relationship with schools.

I helped create our engagements back, back then,

three years, three long years ago ago.

Um, I was actually delivering the services like Tony's doing

and working with schools on the technology.

And one of the things I remember,

and Tony, um, I'm, I'm wanting you to, to respond to this,

um, but you know, it's, it's, and,

and maybe some folks on the call

of experience this in different ways where you're working

with a leadership team that maybe hasn't worked

with a thoughtful forward-thinking tech leader, you know,

and that's not to say anything negative about anyone else,

but a lot of times in tech, we have folks that are more nuts

and bolts oriented and don't really have the awareness, um,

or have not had the practice to develop the skills

of working with the leadership team

and showing a school leadership team

what's possible when you have a technology leader

that can come to the table.

And at Langley School, again, you know,

they were on the old model

where she had some guy making sure the switches were working

and the computers were working.

That was kind of how Ed Tech started in the nineties

and the early two thousands.

Tony, what was that like for you going into Langley, um,

and really starting to, uh,

and you were so good at it, I just got outta the way, uh,

cultivating those relationships

and sort of letting people know.

I see Amy shaking your head, um, letting people know.

Um, you know, how, how did you, how, how did you start

with the leadership team and, and where did you end up and,

and what was that journey like?

Um, it, it was, uh, well, I would say

that the previous technology leader, uh, was someone who,

uh, wanted absolutely nothing to do with leadership, uh,

leadership decision making.

He did not want to be in front of, of leadership.

He was quite comfortable, uh, you know,

be doing the IT work.

So, uh,

and I think you may have been there, uh,

at the very first admin team meeting when I, you know,

I asked to join and be a, uh, member of that team, uh,

actually somewhat in, in the room, uh, said,

so why is the IT guy here?

And, uh, and which gave me the opportunity, you know,

to say, well, so,

So such a warm and welcoming question, Tony.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't think they knew the mic was

on the, the mic was on.

But, um, you know, it gave me the opportunity to say, uh,

you know, hi, I'm, I'm Tony, and,

and, uh, I'm coming in to, to, uh, you know, help,

help the school, uh, embrace technology,

and, uh, gave us an opportunity to begin discussing,

you know, the idea that having a technology leader

who understood all aspects of school operations, as well

as school finance, you know, how boards work, uh, you know,

what do boards want, uh, you know, when you go to,

to ask them for things.

Um, it gave me an opportunity to say, you know, really, I,

I'm here to be strategic.

You know, I'm not, I'm, I'm not here to fix laptops.

Uh, I am here to really discuss what is possible.

Um, and after that first meeting, you know,

there were still some skeptical people.

Uh, you know, I set about setting up a, a, a cadence

of meetings with every department head that I talk

to at least once a month and sometimes twice a month,

and would just come to them and, you know,

and say, Hey, um, how are things working?

You know, what, what are you, what are you using?

What, what is it you do? What does your team do?

Uh, where are your pain points?

And no one had ever really come to them to explore

where the pain points were and what was working

and what was not working, or even ask them,

what would you like to be doing

that you're not able to do now?

And, you know, how do our systems that we have,

how can they support you

and what it is you're trying to accomplish,

whether it be in the marcom team

or the, you know, the development team, the admission team.

So, I mean, you hit the nail on the head.

It, it really was about working to form relationships,

which, you know, people tell me all the time, oh,

you can't have relationships over Zoom,

you can't have it over, you know, video conferencing.

And, you know, I said, well, you know,

I spend eight hours a day video conferencing with people,

and, and I can tell you when I go to meet them in person,

they are the same person that I have met, uh, you know,

through the, uh, webcam.

So I do believe that you can establish relationships, um,

in a remote environment when you're really showing people

that, you know, um, it is here to support you.

It is also here to protect you.

You have to be aware of it,

and we have to work together, uh, to really kind of, uh,

clarify the water of technology that we all like to swim in.

Right? That's the analogy I like to use with, with,

um, admin teams.

We swim in the ocean of technology.

We all need to be aware of it.

So it really was a, a matter of getting in front of people

and just asking questions.

Uh, and I also promised that I was not going

to change anything for at least six to eight months.

I mean, it wasn't going to come in

and make all these changes until I really was able to, um,

you know, learn about the school, learn about the community,

learn about, learn about the culture, you know,

understand needs, um,

and then be able to craft some, uh,

you know, some guidance towards getting them to

where they say they wanted to be.

So, bottom line, it's, it, it is.

And I think we all find that in our work now in technology.

Um, it is the relationships

and our ability to, to manage and maintain

and foster strong relationships with everyone in the, that,

on that admin team in our sphere of influence

that really makes the difference.

Did I answer your question?

Yes, you did. Well done.

Um, you know, I'm thinking about folks on the call,

and I want to invite y'all on the call.

I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm guessing by now, maybe some,

some stuff's churning around of, uh, maybe challenges

that you're having in growing

and leading your technology program at your school.

Maybe some, maybe not questions, but some of the priorities

and concerns that are coming to mind

as we're having this discussion.

Um, we'll certainly have time for some dialogue

and questions as we get to the end.

And also feel free as we're going,

just drop some things in the chat, um, to either kind

of get us, get us in a direction that you're interested in

or, or some things we can go back to as we kind of come

to the end and can talk more specifically about, um,

what's going on in your environment.

Because you have Tony Perez who's, um, helped many schools

with many of these many things here.

And you've got Brad Lands, who's gone

through the Atlas Leadership Institute, who has a lot

of experience, um, growing and,

and supporting transition in tech programs.

So just want to kind of invite you there, um,

to chime in in the chat and,

and ask questions as we cut,

get a little further into the webinar.

Um, I'm gonna try to be concise.

I feel like I'm very verbose sometimes.

So, Brad, um, you've,

you have gone through a journey, right?

You started as a classroom teacher,

you began working more broadly in academic technology,

and then you have started in the last year, year two years,

working directly with the leadership team.

Um, how has that been for you, kind of going

through that transition?

What have you discovered in yourself?

Uh, yeah, great question.

Um, you know, I'd first like to tip my hat to Atlas too,

because, um, you know, a couple years ago when we found out

that our, uh, network engineer, our IT guy of like,

you know, almost 30 years, um, was stepping down

and was, was retiring, I was like, man, I need

to learn a lot more and I need to learn now.

Because we were really in limbo.

We weren't sure what we were gonna do if we were

gonna restructure our department.

You know, we reached out to you all to help us,

but I was just like, I'm gonna try to learn as much as I can

to try to help us, um, during this transition time.

And so that's when I really found out about the

Atlas Leadership Institute.

Um, and I applied and I, um, got accepted into that program.

And it was by far the best professional

development I had ever done.

It was like a, a whole year long program, um,

with challenging, um, projects,

uh, collaborative group work.

It was real, it was applicable to your schools,

and it was just amazing.

And so, um, I feel like that's plus, um, working

with you all and having you all be able to be mentors

and collaborators and consultants, um, alongside with me.

I feel like I grew so much in just a couple of years.

And so, um, you know, having relationships with you all,

having the strong relationship

with Atlas really helped set me up for success, um,

as I transitioned into the CTO role here at my school.

And so, um, it's been great. It's been a lot of fun.

Um, I've really enjoyed this leadership experience.

And, um, uh, yeah, it, it's just been a whirlwind.

It's been a lot of learning,

and I still, like I said, have a lot

of learning to do, but it's been great.

And one other thing that's really helped me is the Atlas 360

Companion manual, um, using that as a reference, um,

for like a lot of policies, um, best practices.

And so, you know, I had a lot to learn on the IT

and the networking side.

And so being able to kind of refer to some documentation

and some, um, literature on, on what is best practice

and what are some sample documents that we could use to kind

of tweak and be able to, um, tailor it

to meet our needs at our school was really helpful.

Um, but yeah, it's been a great, great learning experience

and, um, you know, I I challenge others to get involved and,

and try to continue to grow, uh,

in your professional development as well.

You know, I wanna, uh, Brad, you've,

you've mentioned this twice, and,

and so I wanted to kind of, to expand on it.

I, I think the idea that you've brought up

of walking alongside is really important, right?

And when we, when, um, we come in

and when I, you know, when I come in, I've, I've worked

with many schools now remotely

and, um, you know, it is important that

people in the community understand that we're,

and that I, my role is not to, um, necessarily

lead or follow it, it really is

to walk alongside the leadership team of the school

and really, uh, you know, as, as we said,

really give them the information they need

to empower decisions around technology, really, um, begin

to see hopefully the, the universe

of technology at the school in a different way.

And you, and you can't do that

unless you walk alongside everybody on the team, you know?

And I mean, I certainly, especially in the early days, uh,

answered a, you know, was in their, uh,

slinging tickets left and right as well.

And we've, you know, done some work DNS work

and, you know, done some kind of hands-on work.

But one of the things I think that made our relationship

work, and, uh, same way when I think about Good Shepherd

and, and the team there is one great advantage I have is,

um, when I get up to like, walk down the hall to get a cup

of coffee, I, I go to my kitchen

and there aren't 12 people pulling me off to the side

and saying, Hey, you need to come fix this.

You need to do this. You know, it really allows me

to stay focused on some of the, you know,

higher level things that we needed to work out, you know?

So it was, uh, in,

in many ways it's an advantage not to be at the school.

And, uh, so I think that is something too, to, to kind of

keep in mind as we talk about how these relationships grow.

But I love the idea that you're both is walking alongside

each other as you go through this journey.

You know, ultimately my role is not to, um, you know,

we used to talk a lot, uh, you know, in like the early,

you know, aughts, you know, in 2009, 2010, about

developing technology programs

that were not personality dependent.

So that, um, as much as, you know, my personality

and the way I think,

and, uh, you know, the way I view the world is going to,

in some way, shape and color a technology program,

you should be able to remove me

and operationally, you know, things should still

continue on, right?

And I think that is something that we were able

to work on at Langley through the process.

And, and I do like bringing up the 360

because it mirrors what we do on a, uh, when we do audits

and we, and we evaluate our programs, um, it does allow us

to, um, begin putting in place this process

and procedures that makes us less personality dependent so

that, um, you know, ultimately my job is not

to stay there for three or four years.

My job is to come in, help the schools get, you know,

stable, hopefully move the school forward till you can

identify other leadership opportunities and then step back.

And I think, uh, in leadership, we all need to know, uh,

when to lead and when to step back.

And it's harder, hardest probably to step back

and allow others to step forward.

But, um, you know, that is my role.

And, uh, it was, uh, a wonderful thing to be able

to transition out

and just be available to answer questions, mentor

and guide, you know, in that second, that second year

where the first year was really heavy lifting.

So that, I really appreciated about that, about our journey.

That's wonderful. Tony.

I, um, I'm, I'm thinking about the processes that we, um,

worked with, uh, worked on with Langley

and some of the different aspects of this project

and this partnership.

Um, and you know, you mentioned the Atlas 360,

and you mentioned that the, the EdTech audit work

that educational collaborators does.

Can you guys share a little bit about some of the, sort of,

some of the process steps

and that you went through in that first year

of heavy lifting with the EdTech audit?

Uh, maybe give some specific examples and,

and I'll open that up to either you, Tony, or Brad.

There we go. It helps to unmute.

Uh, we have a, we have a long list, don't we, Brad?

I mean, we, uh, you know, from travel, uh, you know, privacy

and security guidelines to, uh, you know,

working on the emergency and,

and disaster response plan to, uh,

Brad created a, a fantastic data governance plan

and data governance policy, uh, you know, really all around,

uh, you know, privacy, how we're going to, you know,

how we're going to, to, uh, handle the data

that we're entrusted with, who gets to access it,

really, really great policy.

So, um, there were a number of those types of process

and policy documents that we created along the way,

but you wanna hop in with some of the others.

Yeah, so I think our biggest aha,

or our biggest takeaway with partnering with you all was

that our technology infrastructure was actually pretty good,

uh, regarding, um, a technical firewall.

We needed a little bit more support on our

human firewall, right?

So putting policies and procedures

and plans in place, um, creating documents

that we either needed to, um, initiate or to, uh, refine

and, um, continue to make better

by getting different perspectives,

different viewpoints on them.

And so, um, that was a really big aha moment for us is,

is really going through and identifying some plans

and procedures and policies for all the systems

that we had in place, um,

and helping to communicate that with our entire community.

And so, you know, we actually have been working very closely

with one of our board committees,

which is our audit and risk management committee.

And that's been really, really helpful partnering with them

as they've been able to see this work, uh, you know,

that Tony, that we've been doing, um, to be able

to help review our process, um, being able

to take a look at our initial cybersecurity audit, um,

from when we did that about a year

and a half ago, um, to our post cybersecurity audit

that we just recently did a couple months ago.

And being able to see the growth that we have made, um, in

that year and a half, and really having our partnership

alongside of our, um,

audit risk management community has been really helpful.

So they can see the growth that we've been able to make, um,

you know, regarding our data privacy

and security regarding our cybersecurity,

and just helping to create and documents, um, some policies

and, and procedures in

place has been really, really helpful.

Can I jump in and ask a follow up with that?

Yeah. So Brad, can you tell us a little bit about

that board committee

and like, how did you get involved with them?

I think a lot of our,

the leaders in our space maybe under utilize some

of those relationships.

So can you speak to what

that process was like at your school?

Sure. Um, so our audit risk management committee is a

subcommittee of our board.

And, um, it does all things risk associated, right?

And technology is one of those elements, um,

when you consider risk, right?

So we have, um, uh, physical plant safety, we have all kinds

of things that we consider, um,

and then the technology was one piece of that.

And so, um, it's really helped us be able

to better position ourselves, um, to mitigate risk

and to figure out what are the areas that we think are more

of a priority for our school and our situation.

And having this board committee full of, um, you know, uh,

really strong professionals in their related fields, um,

to serve on this board,

to help give us different perspectives

and help us to identify what are our growth areas,

what are our priority areas in terms of what we identify

as risk at our school.

And, um, meeting with different groups

and, um, you know, working alongside

with different department heads, um,

has just been really, really helpful.

And I, I don't know how long we've had this committee.

Um, I've been involved with it for the last,

like two or three years.

Um, and it might have been a new subcommittee.

I'm not sure how long we've had it,

but I know we have made tremendous growth, um,

because of this committee.

And it's been a great partnership with our board.

And, um, we are much better positioned now, um,

based on assessing our overall risk in, in different areas.

And so I know Tony's been working

with this committee as well.

Um, you know, he had to present to this committee, um,

when he and education collaborators kind of first came on,

and, um, it is just been a really great process

that I think every school could benefit from having one

of these, um, subcommittees.

So hopefully that helps.

I will say that, um,

after doing the first kind of cec uh, review

and, um, you know, kind of seeing where the school was in,

in its cybersecurity world, uh, right, uh, having to present

to the risk risk part of the board, uh,

I remember putting together recommendations, putting the,

the, you know, the presentation together on

what we were going to recommend to, to,

you know, increase security.

And, um, about five minutes

before the meeting started, I was on the call

with the CFO at the school, Greg, who said, okay,

and by the way, I just want you

to know there are five lawyers on the risk committee.

Um, but uh, only one of them worked for the FBI,

and three of them worked for the CIA, so have a great time.

I was like, what? No pressure, no pressure,

no, great, thanks.

But it was, you know, I agree.

I think that having, uh, that kind

of risk management component, uh,

committee on a board is incredibly valuable

because they did, they asked really good questions.

Um, they had a really, uh, strong handle on certainly,

uh, their responsibilities, fiscal responsibilities

as a board, and, uh, you know,

really zeroed in on the recomme recommendations

that we made on, you know,

what do we really need to attack now?

Uh, which really created a great plan that, uh,

we just did a follow up, uh, kind of ec review of where,

uh, Brad and the team are.

And, you know, it's like, this is like really boring.

I mean, uh, you have, you know, we,

we spent a year accomplishing the goals that we had set out,

and we are in a really great place.

We have to find new assessments to look at our,

our cybersecurity program with now, now, I mean,

we really have to look at a different way to assess it

because we've outgrown everything that we had,

uh, put together for them.

It was wonderful, wonderful story.

Yeah. If I could add one more thing about boards,

and then I'll toss it back over

to Michael for the next question.

So, um, for all of our listeners out there, some type

of risk management committee is very,

very common on independent school board.

So that's not something that's unique

to the school that you're hearing about here.

Your school probably has one of those.

So that's a great thing to ask some questions about.

Um, AI is another huge topic right now

that we actually Atlas collaborated with in a IS

and the Independent School Chairpersons Association.

So like the board chair, they have their own association,

and we actually made a resource for board trustees.

And risk management is very much one of those areas.

Uh, fiscal responsibilities

and foresight, strategic

foresight are also included in that.

I dropped a link, so that could be another thing

that you guys could all take back

and again, talk

to the people at your school about getting in

on some of these conversations.

Maybe it's with a subcommittee,

maybe it's just passing along resources.

Um, but that one, it's not a prescriptive,

like this is the way

to do it correctly with all the answers.

It's, it's much more, here's some questions, uh,

that you guys should percolate on

in your unique environment.

So anyway, uh, I digress though,

Michael, I turn it back over to you.

It was a lovely digression. Thank you.

Um, you know, I'm thinking, well, I'm actually, so I just

moved my computer to a different place in my home.

I'm, now, I'm noticing this little picture of my nephew,

which was taken, uh, he's seven now,

but it was taken, um, the first time that he had learned how

to walk, and we were gonna go to the park,

and he was leading me to the park, and I was like, whoa.

Right? And I have that picture there

because I love Samuel, uh, a lot.

Um, and also it's like a metaphor

for those new steps that we take.

And, um, all of a sudden we can kind of like start

to go in a new direction

and, um, in schools that, um, tends

to terrify people sometimes and people don't like change.

And so just wanting to empower everyone

and to be thinking about self-empowerment

during this conversation

and taking new directions in your work as needed.

Um, Alex, you've got your hand raised.

Yeah, I just, so much good stuff is being shared

and said in this that I, I just wanted

to reflect on some of this.

So, um, you know, Ashley shared a lot

of resources in the links,

and I know we were talking about cybersecurity

and the work that we did with, um, with Langley School.

All of the work that we did with Langley schools,

all based off of the Atlas Cybersecurity best practices

and Atlas members get access to sort of a lightweight,

non-facilitated automated version of, of our audit, um,

just, just as a member benefit.

So I wanna, I wanna make sure that that sort of is,

that you're aware of that, that if that piece

of the conversation was interesting to you, um, something

that we charge $500 for, uh, just the automated piece, uh,

is available to Alice members for free.

So, um, take advantage of, of that if you can.

The other thing is, um, uh, I, I was paying attention,

but I also found time to figure out

how to read Vinny's article.

Uh, did he step out?

He did the guys read the article

that he linked in this, in this chat.

It's very, very good. And, um, at the bottom of it,

it has three conversations for building effective

fractional engagements.

And one, I just love the fact that they refer to it

as conversations, right?

Rather than sort of three steps or directions or whatever.

I think that that is, um, particularly valuable.

But the, um, and, and a lot of what Tony has said, Tony

and Brad have said is, is shared in the bottom of that.

But one piece that I think was sort of danced around

that I just wanna call out a little more deliberately is

I've been attending Atlas as long as Atlas has existed.

I I did miss the very first one, but,

but, uh, aside from that, I've been at every Atlas Atlas

as an organization does a really nice job of helping,

uh, to elevate tech people into real school leaders, right?

A lot of schools aren't necessarily ready to receive

that necessarily, right?

And it creates a, uh, it, it creates sort of a, a gap.

There's a gap between what the tech leader has been trained

to do and wants to do and, and, and be

and with what the school actually wants you to do.

And usually it's not because they don't want the tech person

to have any, they, they want everyone

to exercise leadership.

They don't have a vision for what that can be, right?

And one of the things that I think Tony helped in Langley

and in Good Shepherd and,

and in other schools that we worked at,

is helping the school gain a vision for just how

powerful a true strategic technology leader can be.

And even if that's a short term engagement

where we then step out, that then creates the vacuum

for those internal tech leaders to come and fill, right?

And, and I've heard Tony speak sort of

how Amy has grown in her role, right?

And, and, and filling that at Good Shepherd.

So the, you know, I

we're talking about this more in terms of how this can help,

you know, how we can help your school,

but there's also a component of helping the school sort

of see what they can do with themselves even when we leave.

And, and I think that's sort of spoken with, uh, in,

in this article as well, in terms of the, the good fit

and the, and the starting with the work, not the role.

Um, but, but I think that that sort of cultural piece was,

um, being danced around, but not fundamentally said.

And I think that that's a huge gap right now

that the marketplace has that I think this fills.

Thank you, Alex. Great.

Well, I wanna, um, I want to take a few moments to

see if there are any questions

or comments from the folks that are here.

I know we're getting to the end of our time.

Um, does anyone here in the chat

or wanna pop on share, um, some challenges they're having

with, uh, priorities in the school or,

or things that they've discovered?

Um, and we can, we can have folks chime in there, Brad,

Tony, anything else you wanna share about the,

the work we've done together as we're waiting for folks?

Uh, the only other thing I can think of, um, in terms of

how our school has benefited

and how I have directly benefited from doing this work

with you all, um, is that, you know, I took this,

this role about a year and a half ago,

and, um, I felt like I had learned

so much from both Atlas Leadership Institute

and from part partnering with you all having these really,

really complex discussions about a strategy

and how we wanted to move forward as a school.

Um, that I decided I would try to, uh,

become TLIs certified.

And, um, only within a, a year

and a half of, you know, experience in the CTO role, um,

I got certified and I passed, uh, the T list.

And so I'm super excited to be able to have been able to do

that with you all and with Atlas.

And I really felt like, um, I had learned just so much

of this process where like, I didn't need to,

to use a study guide or to review a booklet.

Like I was living this work thinking strategically

and complexly, um, about all these different issues.

And I feel like that was really training for me.

So if anyone out there is interested in becoming TLA

certified, um, going through this process,

I think could be really, really helpful

to your professional development growth.

You, Brad, I will be taking the test, uh, next week.

That's awesome. So, uh, yeah, fingers crossed,

uh, uh, everyone.

Yeah. But, um, you know, I, I would say that, uh,

the most important thing that I've taken away from my work

with, with Brad and Langley and at University Lake

and, uh, you know, at at Good Shepherd, the schools

that I've worked with, is we cannot underestimate the,

the importance and power of relationship.

And that, um, you know, I've been, I've talked to, you know,

kids coming outta high school

and they're like, I wanna go into it.

What do, what do I need to, you know, what skills do I need?

And, and I,

and I, you know, I've come to, to start telling them,

you know, um, the skill that you need is, is understanding

how to create relationships and to communicate,

and most importantly, how to listen, to listen

and hear, well, what about I do, what about network?

I'm like, you know what? You can learn that, right? You can.

Um, I would much rather work with someone

who is a good listener, who knows how to communicate, knows

how to collaborate, interested in creating relationships

and teach them all of the other technical stuff

than have someone who is the best IT guy in the world

who cannot communicate, cannot get outta the office,

cannot go in

and, you know, speak to other leaders in the school

and demonstrate, um, why technology

and the technology leadership position is important.

You know, I, because you can't teach that, you know,

you can help guide people, you can help mentor them,

but, um, it is, I think, the most important skill

that our leaders can have

because the role of the CTO, the director

of whatever title you're given, um, now encompasses

so much we have to be aware of so much.

You know, darn ai, I would've retired if it weren't for ai,

but now we've got, now I have

to learn something and have been learning.

I thank thanks to some really, uh, great work

with my colleagues, um, you know, about the implications

of AI and how does that impact our schools,

but not only from an academic standpoint,

but from a business operations standpoint

and a data security standpoint.

Um, we have to be, we are responsible for, for holding

so much knowledge in our heads

and the interdependent relationships between departments

and how they all interface because of the way data flows.

I never thought I'd be a data person ever.

That was the most boring thing in the world,

but now give me a data flow map.

You know, I wanna see how things connect.

I wanna see how things are secured.

I wanna know who's touching it, why are they touching it,

and how are we updating it all tho all of those things.

So, um, you know, I think it is con,

I can't harp on it enough.

Um, you know, make it a point

to establish strong relationships with everyone in your,

your influence group,

because we may not all be able to go to the admin meeting

and be on the admin team and exert influence there,

but there are other ways that we can exert, um,

influence on the shape of technology and its use

and practice in the school if we have strong relationships.

Yeah. And Tony, um, speaking about relationships,

I would say another really strong thing that you all did

for our school was get technology representation at our

senior leadership team.

Um, and so before we didn't have representation, uh,

for technology on our senior leadership team.

And now, um, you know, we do now

because you all help to create that presence

and advocate for the need to have technology presence

represented sitting at the table.

Um, and so that has tremendously helped, um,

not only our technology department,

but establishing relationships between, um,

other departments because I have a seat at the table now at

our school, and we're able to communicate

and collaborate a lot better

because as you all know,

technology touches every single aspect

of school operations and programming.

And so, um, to be able to have those positive conversations

and, and collaboration, um, is,

has been really helpful for our school.

Brad, Amy, I see you popped on.

Did you have something to share

or, okay, you're just,

you're just coming on us to show your face.

Got it. Okay.

I mean, I, I could, you know, echo everything

that Bradley has been saying about Tony and your group

and how supportive everybody is and Atlas,

and I'm a current cohort member, so I can't say enough about

that program as well.

So that's it. That's all I wanna say. This is your deal.

Okay. I'll, I'll restrain interviewing for you further.

Um, thank you, Amy.

Well, um, I'm gonna drop in the chat just a little bit

of information here, just the website

for educational collaborators in my email address.

Um, you know, we, educational collaborators helps schools

of many different sizes

and backgrounds, um, parochial schools, independent schools,

public schools, not really on this call,

but, um, we work pretty broadly across different schools in

different areas, in different markets.

And so through that work, we bring, um,

quite the brain trust in our collaborators, many

of whom are currently working full-time in schools.

So they're bringing relevant, um, information

and working on teams to deliver our services.

Um, we, we talked about a few things in this,

uh, conversation.

We talked about the ed tech audit,

that educational collaborators offers our

cybersecurity assessment.

Uh, we talked about our augmented services

that include the sort of the mentoring

and the sort of interim CTO role or long-term CTO role.

And those are all things, um, we'd be happy to talk

with you about if you're thinking, you know, gee, we've,

we've looked at the Atlas 360,

and it would be really helpful to have, say, an

outside third party come in

and really help us take it to the next level.

Um, or maybe you are needing

to get started in doing something around cybersecurity.

Our cybersecurity assessment is very low cost,

and it really focuses on where the issues tend to occur,

which is people, uh,

either clicking on something they're not supposed to,

sending information somewhere they're not supposed to,

and serves as an educational opportunity for those folks

to help them become aware of, you know,

those folks being the people in your institution who are

handling sensitive data, folks in the business office,

in the admissions office, um, understanding where you should

or shouldn't put things in email, things like that.

Um, and, you know, we've, we've seem to have made a niche

for ourself coming into schools that are in a tough spot

where staffing isn't quite right for different reasons,

and we can come in midstream and support.

So, um, I don't wanna take too much of your time here,

giving you a long pitch on all that.

You can reach out to us, you can look at our website.

We love having conversations

and, um, you know, even just as colleagues,

so feel free to reach out.

Um, and, and thank you guys for being with us today.

I think, you know, we'll wrap up

unless there's any questions or

comments from, from other folks.

It's, um, you know, I always like hearing Tony

and Brad's voice, so it's been good.

Um, oh, Sarah, you're so welcome.

And I, I didn't even notice you here.

It was, I'm glad to see that you were here.

Yeah. Hey, Sarah.

You know, uh, one thing that I would, I would say that one

of the great benefits of the work that I do in, in, uh,

in helping schools is, you know, I bring,

and this is true for everybody, right?

We are, we don't live in caves.

We can bring the experience

and the knowledge of our colleagues to every problem

that we have, right?

So when, you know, I'm working with Brad

or working with Amy, or, you know, working

with any other school, I have the luxury

because I, you know, have colleagues

to be able to say, you know what?

This is a serious problem. I don't know the exact answer.

I'm going to go and draw on my network.

And to have the power of, you know, colleagues

that you can bounce ideas with, right?

That you can explore problems with, that's probably one

of the most valuable things you can develop

as a technology leader in your school.

You know, you don't have, have

to face every problem alone, right?

That's why we have Atlas, that's why we have bullet

and board, you know, God, that, that dates me.

That's why we have our, you know, our forums.

We can go and, you know,

you can drop upon the tremendous mind brain resources

that we have in Atlas and in our own personal networks.

But whenever I work with a school man, I, I've got

so many people, so much smarter than me behind me that,

that I can draw upon.

So I encourage you to continue, you know,

developing those relationships around you.

Thank you, Tony. And as a, yeah, knowing,

knowing your history in the technology space, you're welcome

to use callback terms for things.

Um, and um, yeah, and,

and, uh, you're pretty smart too, yourself.

Yeah. Well, great.

Well, thank you everyone for being here.

I think I, there's something else I was gonna say,

but I don't remember what it was, so I won't make you wait.

Um, great. Thank you, Ashley, for having us today.

We appreciate educational,

collaborative, you'll sponsorship.

I hope to see all of you at our annual conference

because it's a great time to talk to all

of our friends at educational collaborators in

person. So hope to see you

There. That's

what I was gonna say was come by

and see our booth at Atlas 2025 at, you know, Ashley,

great minds think alike

and look out for the parties that we sponsor

and come to them and let us buy you.

We can give you snacks or just come hang out.

We can talk about tech or something else.

Whatever you'd like.

Well, great. Well, thank you Michael, uh, Bradley.

Tony, we really appreciate you being on here today.

Thank you so much. You guys have a great day,

and we'll talk to everybody soon.

Y'all take care. All right.

Take care. Thanks Ashley. Thanks.