SWPR Group

“A sustainable tech team is not built on hustle.”

In their new piece for The Learning Counsel, three leaders explain this statement by pointing out the risks of assuming team members can sustain constant heroics.

Andrew Marcinek of Washington state, Crystal Uhiren of Tennessee, and Dr. Matthew X. Joseph of Massachusetts explain the risks of assuming team members can sustain constant heroics, then offer three strategies school leaders can use to build teams positioned for long-term success.

“The strongest teams are not those that attempt to do everything; they build the right foundation: systems that create continuity, processes that support informed decision-making, and a culture that empowers people to collaborate.”

Read their full piece at: https://thelearningcounsel.com/articles/how-k-12-it-leaders-can-build-teams-that-last/

We’re grateful to our partners at Follett Software for bringing together these three leaders to share their insights with a wider audience.

“We’re in a complete wall-to-wall academy model. Every student participates. There’s no opt-out. Everyone’s involved in career academy work, which is designed to prepare students for and .”
—Dr. Kara Casimiro, Superintendent of Danbury Public Schools CT

The largest high school in Connecticut recently reimagined itself to ensure every student has a career-connected experience. What started as an effort to engage students and improve graduation rates is now an innovative model with 21 pathways across eight academies.

Read about the redesign and the benefits in K-12Dive’s Lessons in Q&A with Dr. Casimiro at: https://www.k12dive.com/news/connecticut-district-revamped-high-school-career-connected-learning-lessons-in-leadership/831283/

How a Connecticut district gave its high school a career-connected revamp Danbury Public Schools Superintendent Kara Casimiro shares how the state’s largest high school adopted 21 career pathways across eight “academies.”

When budgets are tight and every program is expected to demonstrate value, school librarians need to get loud in their marketing strategy.

Library marketing expert Corinna M., a head teacher librarian at Malvern College in Hong Kong, has a new book out about practical ways to help families, administrators, and community members better understand what actually happens in school libraries.

One of her top tops is to use data — circulation records, collection usage, reading trends, resource engagement, and other analytics — to show just how meaningful the library is for students and staff.

Read more about effective in this eSchool News piece:

Beyond book displays: How to build lasting support for your school library Effective marketing isn't about convincing people your library matters--it is about making its impact visible every day.

School boards can be a powerful partner for helping communities and families understand the rationale for major changes within their local districts. The bigger the project, the more important it is for board members to build support and buy-in.

Take Danbury Public Schools CT, which launched a 3,000-student comprehensive career academy in 2024. Known as The Academies, the model features 21 specialized pathways from biomedical to education to applied engineering.

Launching The Academies required families and the community to adopt an entirely different way of thinking about combining rigorous academics and real-world, hands-on instruction. Luisa M. Zagottis-Britton, who chairs the Danbury Board of Education, was part of the monumental task of explaining the model and earning support.

In a new piece for District Administration, she describes the board’s strategies, challenges, and lessons learned along the way. She shared that The Academies has already become a national model for career-connected learning—and, perhaps more importantly, Danbury’s families and local business partners are on board.

Read the full piece at: https://districtadministration.com/opinion/school-boards-now-need-to-think-bigger-and-act-boldly/

Why school boards now need to think bigger and act boldly on careers Meaningful change requires school boards to listen deeply to their families, educators, and the community.

Career and technical education programs exist at 90% of public high schools, and often they look completely different — except for the divide between college and career pathways. At Danbury Public Schools in Connecticut, home to the state’s largest high school, this divide has been eliminated through a wall-to-wall career academy model.

Superintendent Dr. Kara Casimiro explains the setup of The Academies of Danbury High School in this piece for The 74 Media. The unique model allows for flexibility across 21 pathways within eight academies, offering hands-on work that builds critical skills and engages students in meaningful opportunities.

“Since the launch of The Academies of Danbury High School in 2024, the district is already seeing its impact firsthand. While it will be four years before DPS has a complete picture of graduation trends, the early results are promising,” Dr. Casimiro shares. “The overall graduation rate rose 6.4 percentage points in one year, from 76.6% in 2024 to 83% in 2025. Among English learners, the increase was even greater: 17.9 percentage points, from 52.8% to 70.7%.”

Read the full piece at: https://www.the74million.org/article/why-a-connecticut-career-academy-could-become-a-nationwide-model/

Why a Connecticut Career Academy Could Become a Nationwide Model Superintendent’s view: Rather than choose between the college track and career and technical education, high school students can have both.

“Turnaround work, transformation work, is not for somebody who doesn’t believe deeply in the ability of students to learn.”
— Superintendent Krish Mohip of Proviso Township High Schools District 209 in Illinois

Superintendent Mohip has led struggling schools and districts to success throughout his career. In the Lessons in Leadership Q&A for K12 Dive, he shares his three fundamental beliefs:
1️⃣ All kids can learn.
2️⃣ All kids want to learn.
3️⃣ It’s up to adults to make it happen.

At Proviso Township, Superintendent Mohip is building a high-quality experience for students that will encourage them to persist, productively struggle, and endure — all of which will prepare them for life outside high school. And along the way, their proficiency scores will increase too.

Read “How a Chicago-Area Superintendent Builds Positive Culture from the Top” at: https://www.k12dive.com/news/how-a-chicago-area-superintendent-builds-positive-school-culture-from-the-t/829108/

How a Chicago-area superintendent builds positive culture from the top In two years, Krish Mohip has brought notable improvements in attendance and achievement to Proviso Township High Schools District 209.

Are the leaders in your local district doing too much? A powerhouse trio of experts bets they are — and they wrote about the problem for THE Journal, offering three ways school technology leaders can reclaim strategic focus:
1️⃣ Assign clear ownership across district technology work.
2️⃣ Define the role of the K-12 technology leader.
3️⃣ Build a legacy, not a kingdom.

The trio who synthesized this guidance from their own experiences includes Matt Holley, director of emerging technologies at Lubbock-Cooper ISD in Texas; Dr. Chantell Manahan, director of technology at The Metropolitan School District of Steuben County in Indiana; and Dr. Matthew X. Joseph, assistant superintendent of technology and learning at New Bedford Public Schools in Massachusetts.

Read their full piece at: https://thejournal.com/articles/2026/08/12/k12-technology-leaders-are-doing-too-much-3-ways-to-reclaim-strategic-focus.aspx

Kudos to our partners at Follett Software for inviting these insightful leaders to share their knowledge!

K–12 Technology Leaders Are Doing Too Much: 3 Ways to Reclaim Strategic Focus -- THE Journal Technology directors touch nearly everything that happens in a school system. Here are three strategies these IT leaders can use to navigate their many duties without losing strategic focus, influence, or sustainability.

The can-do attitude that powers small teams when budgets are tight is fantastic — but too much reliance on patchwork systems can open schools to vulnerabilities over time. In the long term, investing in automation is both more secure and more cost-effective.

In their new piece for District Administration, experts Carl Ho**er, Dana Castine, and Braden Herring explain how small teams can move from reactive to strategic mode by communicating effectively about the need in order to build sustainable systems.

Read their piece "Small IT teams: How to scale support without adding staff" at: https://districtadministration.com/opinion/small-it-teams-how-to-scale-support-without-adding-staff/

Our partners at Follett Software always stay abreast of the most important issues impacting , and it is an honor to partner with them to share on-the-ground insights.

Small IT teams: How to scale support without adding staff IT work isn’t really about devices, software or networks. It’s about protecting instructional time and ensuring access.

is a fantastic tool for certain tasks. But AI cannot cultivate meaningful or establish a strong classroom . Trained teachers are essential for creating the environments where students can devote their full cognitive resources to .

As the new school year begins, an EdTech Digest column from Christopher Hull, President and Co-Founder of Otus, reminds us that “teachers are still needed to foster curiosity, encourage peer collaboration, help ideate and plan next steps, and monitor performance holistically.” Chris encourages school leaders to provide an backbone that supports both human-centered and AI-powered learning.

Read the full piece “In the Debate Over Whether Teachers or AI Accelerate K–12 Achievement More, What If the Answer Is Both?” https://www.edtechdigest.com/2026/07/29/in-the-debate-over-whether-teachers-or-ai-accelerate-k-12-achievement-more-what-if-the-answer-is-both/

In the Debate Over Whether Teachers or AI Accelerate K–12 Achievement More, What If the Answer Is Both? - EdTech Digest AI can accelerate instruction, but teachers remain essential for creating the relationships, structure, and learning environments where students thrive. GUEST COLUMN | by Chris Hull Eleven years in the classroom taught me the importance of cultivating relationships and establishing a strong classroo...

We’re excited to share another piece about the Rural Alliance Zone-32 in Indiana, where six neighboring districts share classes, instructors, and resources so students can take career-focused courses at any participating school.

In this new piece for The 74 Media, Superintendent Neal Adams, the co-founder and board president of the RAZ-32 Collaborative, explains, “What began as a partnership between three neighboring districts — Randolph Eastern, Monroe Central and Randolph Central — in 2024 has grown into a regional example for expanding . By creating a formal agreement that allows students to criss-cross district lines, the schools opened the door to opportunities that no single campus could offer on its own.”

Read the full piece at: https://www.the74million.org/article/rural-districts-in-indiana-join-forces-to-provide-career-training-for-students/

SWPR Group looks forward to continuing to challenge the stereotypes about districts and highlighting successes like RAZ-32 with Superintendent Adams and his fellow leaders.

Rural Districts in Indiana Join Forces to Provide Career Training for Students Adams: A regional alliance allows students to cross school district lines for specialized career and technical education coursework.