EP#77 | Making a Positive Impact in the Lives of Students Through Equity, Innovation, and Change

A good superintendent should have a deep understanding of the district’s needs and be able to build relationships with parents, teachers, students and other stakeholders. They should also be able to lead design thinking in order to develop innovative solutions for problems in the education system. Some duties of the superintendent include directing planning and scheduling, budgeting, student assessment and determining appropriate resources for schools.   Josh Van Norman took over as Superintendent of the San Antonio Union School District on July 2nd, 2019. He is looking forward to starting his new job in the picturesque Monterey County, California. Mr. Van Norman was the Assistant Principal at Del Sur Elementary in the Poway Unified School District before to joining SAUSD. The school launched the first-ever TedEd Club, which focused on public speaking for students, a student-led broadcast club, and Sanford Harmony, a Social and Emotional Learning program, under his guidance. Mr. Van Norman was recognized at the District level for the importance of these programs, which focused on developing the complete child and equipping children with future skills.   Josh joins Designing Schools to discuss how he built trust within his community, some valuable leadership lessons that he's learned with regards to relationships, listening, slowing down and his views on the relationship between leadership and social influence.   0:00 Introduction 0:31 Introducing Josh Van Norman 1:43 Discussing the power of relationships and how Josh dealt with it during the pandemic 5:26 Some valuable leadership lessons that Josh learned: relationships, listening, slowing down 9:04 What Josh did to build trust within his community 14:50 From built trust, how did Josh accelerate inovation within his district 20:48 Some things that Josh did to improve his school district 25:51 Josh's views on the relationship between leadership and social influence 29:41 Using social media presence to make career transitions 31:55 Did becoming a parent influence Josh's practice?   Connect with Josh Van Norman:   Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-van-norman-03a983138/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/VanNormanJosh   Connect with me, Dr. Sabba Quidwai:   Website: https://designingschools.org/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabba-quidwai/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/askMsQ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/designing_schools/