“It was a time in the life of the foundation Tese educators are the newest members of SELA Nation. Investing in Public Education
QUEENS’ SCHOOL EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP ACADEMY FUELS THE FUTURE
By John Syme
Te population of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools exploded in the 1990s, and Queens has grown right along with it, finding new ways to leverage its hallmark educational excellence into partnerships within the greater community. Today, Queens’ tradition of turning out top teachers and
leaders is reaching new heights through the School Executive Leadership Academy (SELA). Founded in 2011 as a partnership of the McColl School of Business and the Cato School of Education to accelerate the flow of highly qualified leaders to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, SELA has moved 90 percent of its graduates from leading children to leading adults. Referred to as “SELA Nation,” these educators bond through the program and advance into school leadership together, weaving a tight network along the way. Te Belk Foundation has invested more than $350,000 to
SELA since 2012, the most consistent private investment in the program, alongside generous early-stage investments from the Wallace Foundation, Wells Fargo and Te Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation. Te program’s hands-on approach of experiential learning coupled with relevancy to current events was a good match for Te Belk Foundation, said Johanna Edens Anderson, the foundation’s executive director.
14 MAGAZINE
when we wanted to bring a tighter focus to our investments in education,” Anderson explained. “We selected two focus areas – early grade achievement and great public school teachers and leaders. Investing in the pipeline of school leadership for CMS was a natural fit.” Te 14-month certificate program encompasses an eight-week summer of full-time, hands-on classes in a simulated K-12 school on the Queens campus, complete with a simulated email inbox. Students are led by veteran Charlotte- Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) principals, along with faculty from the McColl School of Business and the Cato School of Education. Ten comes a year-long residency with on-site mentorship, and finally a capstone internship at a school as unlike the participant’s home school as possible. “I’ve not worked as hard in my life, ever,”
said Karen Dozier, who graduated with Cohort 2 nearly a decade ago and is now principal of Steele Creek Elementary School. “Tere was a lot of hands-on learning, a lot of exercises around leadership competencies like giving and receiving feedback, executive presence, tone,
presentation, body language, word choice…. As a reflective leader, if you can’t get comfortable with feedback, you are going to have a very narrow lens because it’s a community that you are leading.” It’s imperative that content stays current. For example,
a recent experiential group lesson featured a “fish bowl” discussion on race and equity. One recent “problem of practice” drilled into a particular school’s attendance and behavior data in order to improve disciplinary referral rates. “Te lens of leadership provides common purpose
and perspective through it all. You don’t go from being a bank teller straight to CEO,” said Alison Hiltz, a veteran teacher and principal who took the helm of the young SELA program in 2014 as director of Cato External Relations and Executive Leadership Institute Educational Leadership Programs at Queens. For Erica Gipson, now assistant principal of South
Mecklenburg High School, one of SELA’s strongest “extra” points is the active presence of the Belk Foundation’s board of directors. “Te board was able to see the fruits of their labor, or in this case, the fruits of their capital,” explained Gipson. “If you’re giving me something, I want to make you proud of what you’ve invested in.”
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
