Rural Resilience: Lance Bagstad’s Blueprint for Staffing Small Schools

What does it take to lead a rural school when your hiring pool is shrinking and every role matters? In this episode of Brighter Together, Janet sits down with Lance Bagstad, District Administrator at White Lake School District, to uncover how his team is navigating some of education's biggest staffing challenges—with creativity, collaboration, and grit. From virtual academies to dual credit programs and shared staffing models, Lance shares how small schools are rewriting the script on what it means to give students access, support, and opportunity. And why believing in your community might just be the best recruitment strategy of all. If you lead in a small district, this episode will hit home. If you're building one, it's your roadmap.