S04E02 - Strategic Community Partnerships Drive Innovative Workforce Development at Tacoma Public Schools | Adam Kulaas

In this episode of Build Momentum, we are joined by Adam Kulaas, the Director of Innovative Learning and Career and Technical Education for Tacoma Public Schools in Washington State. He also founded Jobs 253, which offers the district’s high school students the opportunity to earn credit toward graduation while gaining meaningful work experience.

Some Questions I Ask:

• Tell us about Tacoma Public Schools and your role in the district? (01:15)
• What is the Job 253 program? (02:10)
• What impact does Jobs 253 have for students and the community? (04:31)
• Who funds the program? (06:47)
• How do you work with other entities? (08:36)
• How do employers respond? (11:14)
• Will there be a shift in how districts implement workforce experiences in the future? (12:04)
• What is your advice for others who want to consider a similar approach in other cities? (13:29)
• When do you introduce the program to students? (15:29)
• How do you share your success with others? (17:09)
  
  

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

• Adam’s role at Tacoma Public Schools (01:21)
• All about the Jobs 253 program (02:43)
• Impacts of Jobs 253 (04:42)
• Funding sources for Jobs 253 (07:01)
• Expansion of the program (09:09)
• Employers’ response toward the program (11:26)
• Trajectory of priorities for Job 253 in the future (12:26)
• His advice to other districts adapting theJobs 253 program (13:44)
• Reasons to introduce the program as early as possible (15:41)
• Sharing Adam’s success story to the community (17:26)
  
  

Quotes:

“We served over 1,000 kids in paid work experiences. For perspective, that mirrored the 10 years previous. It's this really rich, exciting opportunity that evolved over the years [but] still remains firmly anchored in this idea of giving kids a paid work experience and serving community.”

“It's been fun to watch us shift or solidify some of the trajectories for youth in terms of life in high school, but even beyond in terms of what's next.”

“The faster we can adapt to scenarios that empower learners–give them not just a sense of ownership, but actual control over what their current experiences are, and then help them frame what that looks like beyond–then we win. I see an intentional push at the state and national levels to integrate more real work experiences, real world experiences. But I think I'm in a unique scenario. You have to gather a mass in order to go from theory to action.”

Stay in touch with Adam Kulaas:
Getting Smart Website
Job 253 Website
Tacoma Public Schools

Stay in touch with Sarah Williamson:
Free Case Study Guide
SWPR GROUP Website
LinkedIn

Stay in touch with Chad Bolser:
LinkedIn

About "The Secret to Transformational Leadership," which Sarah co-authored with Dr. Quintin Shepherd:
Transformational Leadership Secret website
Purchase the print or ebook

Transcript

Sarah Williamson: 0:05

Hello and welcome to build momentum, a Podcast where we explore thought leadership and education. I'm Sarah Williamson, the founder of SW PR group,

Chad Bolser: 0:14

and I'm Chad bolster Chancellor Ivy Tech Community College in Richmond, Indiana. This season, we will launch a series exploring global workforce development in K 12 school districts and the leaders who are bringing this work to

Sarah Williamson: 0:28

We hear from CTE directors, superintendents life. and thought leaders on the topic of workforce development, how it shifted throughout the last several years, who is employing strategies that are making an impact and how they're sharing those stories with the broader education community. We explore how to leverage key partners, your constituents and the media to authentically impact your organization and the leaders who champion them. We can't wait to get started. So let's dive in. On today's episode, we're kicking off our global workforce series with Adam Kulaas, the director of innovative learning and CTE from Tacoma Public Schools. We invited Adam to share some very impressive work providing real world learning experiences and opportunities for their students. Welcome, Adam. It's great to have you on the show today. Thanks for joining us.

Adam Kulaas: 1:15

Thanks for having me.

Chad Bolser: 1:16

Adam, do you mind sharing a bit about Tacoma Public Schools and your role at the district?

Adam Kulaas: 1:21

Absolutely. So Tacoma Public Schools, we serve approximately 28,000, beautifully, holistically diverse kiddos. And they're all kids at this point in my career, kindergarten through 12th grade urban district, about 45 minutes south of Seattle, in Washington Stat, the home to over 60 Schools and Programs and a global port. So the Port of Tacoma, in terms of my role, pretty fortunate in the director of innovative learning and career tech ed is pretty ambiguous in terms of the umbrella and I come up with different iterations with different folks I get to connect with but ultimately, like, I get to be like a possibility curator for all of Tacoma for students, staff partners, and get to kind of collaboratively lead just lots of kind of innovative experience design with an emphasis on building out like a pipeline to life, not only in K 12 plan, but beyond the diploma.

Sarah Williamson: 2:10

Yeah. And speaking of that, Adam, I'd love to talk about some of the work you're doing specifically around some of that community pipeline, global workforce development. We actually work with the Washington State School Directors Association. And that's how I was introduced to Shon Sylvia, the Metro Parks and Rec Director in Tacoma. And he was sharing how you have some interesting opportunities to the jobs 253 program. And I was fascinated, totally fascinated by that. So I would love to learn more about that program and how that all came together.

Adam Kulaas: 2:43

Yeah, so jobs 253. At its origin story, it launched summer jobs. 253. And this is year 12. So 10 years ago, you know, 12 years ago, the city of Tacoma and (inaudible) public schools came together and crafted this partnership that essentially paid students to engage in community experiences and serve community that was sort of its origin and over the first 10 years serve just over 1000 students. And at the tail end of that 10, obviously, is endemic and weathered that storm. And then in that 10 year celebration, or at that 10 year celebration, Mark kind of threw down this just open commitment to our city in our community that we were going to expand from summer jobs 253 to jobs 253. So last year was our full 12 month year of programming. We served over 1000 Kids in paid work experiences and for perspective, you know, that mirrored essentially the 10 years previous. And so it's this really rich, just exciting opportunity that evolved over the years also. And so it's gone from it still remains firmly anchored in this idea of giving kids a paid work experience and serving community. But with add ons that mirror sort of the future of everything in terms of students who receive high school credit, it's a stipend experience, it's 40 to 80 hours for 40 or 80 hours for the 40 hour experience. It's a $500 stipend, and for the ADR experienced $1,000 stipend, they update or complete. In a lot of cases, it's kind of exciting, they complete their first resume. And if students are older and more advanced and crafted that already they update that they do or student reflection, that was an added element last year that it's worth its weight in gold in terms of really just the qualitative side of the data. And we can get into that. And then they also complete epiphyses introduction to financial literacy, because I think part of our bigger push is really not only giving them the right now but continuously looking at different means to support their next

Chad Bolser: 4:31

So Adam, can you share like any data on how the program is working for your students, maybe for your community, any positive outcomes that you can really quantify for us?

Adam Kulaas: 4:42

Yeah, I think so. It's a fun story to tell as it continues to evolve a few years back we continued our path of summer jobs 253, but also introduced this jobs 253 credentialed opportunity and it's maximized in the summer because we have intensive windows of time and in terms of quantifying that piece it's exciting because it's tethered to lots of industry recognized credentials, all at no cost to students do. I think that's an important part of the partnership, that by design, it wasn't going to be an additional add on for students to be able to essentially have equitable access to these experiences. And so as we've kind of expanded the program, we have everything from electrical interim credentials to environmental services to gaff writhing, intro to plumbing pipe fitters. We have our tide flats program that has merchant mariner and warehouse logistics. And so from a data standpoint, we served over 370 students just last summer in our jobs 253 and our jobs 253 credential programs. And like I said, over 1000 on the year, and they range pretty expansive as it continues to grow in terms of stakeholders and partners from industry, nonprofits, community organizations that not only want to embrace our youth in terms of their development, but also want to partner with youth in terms of in many scenarios serving youth. So like Shon's example of our Metro Parks partnership has been phenomenal year round. In many scenarios, we're taking youth that have been in our system and within our community to almost like pay it back while being paid. And I'd mentioned earlier, some of the reflective elements here are just pure gold in terms of Yes, I can quantify how many kids we served, how many stipends were delivered, how many MFI financial literacy completions there were, but as students unpack their experience, whether it be mentorship of these different entities, or mentorship of youth that they're working with, in some of these programs, it's goosebump creating it is at times like emotionally celebratory. So it's this qualitative kind of quantitative balance, but we have no intentions of slowing down. So our target this year is 1253. To get really down and continue to play into this area code connotation of the South Puget Sound in terms of job 253,

Chad Bolser: 6:48

For all the educational leaders that listen to this podcast, I would be really excited if you would tell us how it is free. How are you funding all of this? You said it's free to all students? How does that work for you.

Adam Kulaas: 7:02

So a lot of it's partnered, and so there's philanthropy involved in terms of pursuing grant opportunities or family foundations locally and nationally that want to continue to support our work. There's tethers to everything we do. So to come also celebrating the decade of really intentional whole child development. And so it's fun, like, I have a standing box of like blank puzzle pieces that sit at my conference table in my office, because it's that kind of continuous mindset of, okay, let's build, let's expand. And so in terms of the how, and this has actually been really exciting over the last, I'd say several months, even working with districts around the South Puget Sound in helping them and supporting them emulate what we're doing, even under, in certain cases under the same umbrella of jobs 253. So it's not to come up, you know, it's not jobs to come out, it's not to come a jobs, it's jobs 253. And so whether it be our partnership with different districts in the region, or the cities in the same camp in terms of supporting other municipalities that want the kind of the logistics and the systematic pieces behind the curtains in terms of how did you establish 1099 for the students so that it's their first job experience and are able to pay them in, it sort of helps the whole system evolve, so we keep getting better and better. And what's been exciting is in Tacoma, I have a Superintendent and the Board and a community ultimately, that's very much behind it. And so it's never will do this and no one else can play. It's however, we can help anyone accelerate like supporting youth, even if they're not Tacoma kids. It's always been old green lights, shameless plug, anybody can reach out we love. I'm happy what we've done, because typically we learn as much as we're able to provide.

Sarah Williamson: 8:36

Now that's so impressive. And I wonder, Adam, if that's partially due to the deep relationships that the board has had with the community, and the school district has had with the community over the long term. I'm curious if you think that's part of it. And that's helped with kind of this mindset of how do we help others and emulating it for other districts? And then I'm curious how you think that that's one part of the question. And then I'm just wondering how you were able to work so cohesively with all of these different entities to make this happen?

Adam Kulaas: 9:09

Yeah, I think, you know, this is 20 something years in education for men, there was a stint where I left and was doing consulting and program design all over the place. I've never experienced as an outsider, and now an insider, a district that is more committed to partnership than to come up. And so I think it didn't happen overnight. It was from the bottom to the top in terms of all facets, and really started with that with the city and the district. And it's infectious. So when we start in a positive way, right, so when we start seeing and celebrating youth and storytelling, these experiences, it's exciting for me because I get to coordinate and facilitate additional partnerships. So whether it be the Port of Tacoma, who now plays or and I think that's what's exciting, too. So Tacoma has big entities and then we also have very local entities and we get to custom fit and essentially personalized for each of those scenarios, we have a really strong art presence in Tacoma that we celebrate. So we have our Museum of Glass, we have to come to Art Museum. And all of these different entities have stepped up over the last couple of years and said, Hey, we want we want to support experiences for you in our realm. We had Junior curators this last summer at the art museum, or at sorry, at the Museum of Glass. And it was it was phenomenal, because it ended with the showcase of student curation of art at a local museum and everything down to even nonprofits and community based groups or organizations throughout our city, whether it be food banks, or whether it be like we've already mentioned that just strong tethered partnership to Metro Parks and Shon's crew in terms of how do we create more access your YMCAs your boys and girls clubs have been phenomenal partners in terms of not only giving kids access in partnership with us to this job to find three experience but then conversion to an actual employment. And that's another sort of icing on the cake. But intentionally designed outcome is okay, great. So you enjoyed it, You excelled at it. Now let's get you hired into a role, whether it's part time or whatever. And so it's been fun to watch us like shift or solidify some of the trajectories for youth in terms of even life in high school, but even beyond in terms of what's next.

Sarah Williamson: 11:14

Yeah, real quick. I want to follow up with that. Are you seeing on the flip side? Are you seeing employers respond positively to this, whether they're seeing the benefits of this program, and they're seeing kids graduate with more skills

Adam Kulaas: 11:19

A 100%. And I think even just being part of the conversation, like we're, you know, whether it's career tech ed, where it's very much like at the forefront of, you know, nationally, this industry partnership in terms of how can we better prepare you as the future of work, but it's fun in terms of innovative initiatives like jobs 253, and some of the other programs that we're running, to really give them a seat at the table and want that same reflective piece that we're getting. So we're getting student voice, we're getting an industry partner voice, and it allows us to shift the onboarding and shift the support to do exactly what you framed in terms of you know, we're producing better humans, we're producing better future employees.

Chad Bolser: 12:04

Adam, I love how you talk about the focus on experiences for students, are you seeing a shift in how districts are being asked or tasked with implementing real workforce experiences, including more public and private collaborations and partnerships? Maybe more than they have in the past? And you've kind of touched on this. But do you think that's the trajectory for in the priorities in the future?

Adam Kulaas: 12:28

Yeah, I think yes. And always, I think, for me, the future of everything is personalized. And so the faster we can adapt to scenarios that empower learners, give them not just a sense of ownership, but actual control over what their current experiences are, and then help them frame what that looks like beyond, then we win. And so yes, I see a public at the state and national level, intentional sort of push to integrate more intentionally real work experiences, real world experiences, but I think I'm in a unique scenario, and that you have to gather a mass in order to go from theory to action. And I think I think that's what's been fun is you can design, you know, a vision for something, it's very different when you design a set of commitments that are shared by not only the individuals building, but the receivers of those. And I think that's, that's the mix. I think that's the push is the shared ownership of how we develop youth specific to not only work but everything else. Cool question.

Chad Bolser: 13:28

Fun one but ne one for sure.

Sarah Williamson: 13:29

Yeah. And I'm curious, you already mentioned this, Adam, about other districts emulating this program. But what would your advice be to those who are maybe considering or pondering a similar approach in another city state elsewhere?

Adam Kulaas: 13:44

Yeah, I mean, I think for me, we're spending quite a bit of time because the right work around like pathway development, right. And so for me, everything comes back to this continuum. And I play with like, I used to do this improvement, innovation sort of continuum. And now it's more like renovation through innovation. And I think when we apply that to building out intentional pathways that mirror to the best of our ability, like the rate of change is fascinating. And our ability to predict five years ago was much more accurate than what it is now. But being intentional and building this pathway that goes beyond the diploma and truly frames like the sort of exploratory and then get into this advanced preparatory to help kids make decisions beyond the diploma that's, that's the key for me. So if I were in a different district, trying to craft what this looks like, I think I would take it holistically and say what programming elements what are our regional assets, like I've mentioned a couple times, we're a global port. So we were just approved authorization by the state to open maritime Skill Center. And it's in partnership with the Port of Tacoma. Because the global port, the Port of Tacoma is a substantial asset for not only Tacoma, but our region. And so, being intentional with maximizing those assets, creates this fruition. and automatically or immediately gives you buy in from stakeholders beyond a district or a city entity, and starts to truly like embrace the idea or the holistic definition of community. So that would be a recommendation for sure is like doing an asset assessment of of your region or your city. And then just being intentional with feathering all of the kind of progression of courses, professional skill sets and Prime Minister early as you possibly can, so that students can make informed decisions and even know what it is that they have access to.

Chad Bolser: 15:29

Adam, just to build on that a little bit. I know you said as early as possible, if you were giving advice, when would you start programs like this? When would you begin introducing this sort of thinking to your students?

Adam Kulaas: 15:41

Yeah, so sometimes, you know, it's unfortunate, but we try to combat it, sometimes funding plays, right. So in terms of career tech Ed, federal state funding starts in seventh grade. And so we've been really intentional in pursuing dollars and experience opportunities to sometimes we can do it with not a lot of money. But being more intentional in this exposure at an earlier age. So you know, kindergarten through sixth grade, we have to start priming kids to see what's possible, because because we haven't done a very good job with that, in my opinion, we typically start in the seventh grade, push, because now we have funding to support it. And so I think, you know, it's an integral piece all the way down to kindergarten, and just helping them and see what's possible, because as you do that, then it starts to prime them for opportunities in terms of this true backwards design of all these different things, outlets that that are possible within Tacoma. And you can replace to come with any city, to our kid understands what it is long before they arrive at one of these opportunities. So yeah, I am a huge proponent of as early as possible, and not to track them or create any type of like guide rail that's not flexible. We celebrate just as many kids who determined like, Oh, this is not for me, we celebrate that as deeply as we celebrate a kid who does get that affirmation or that validation of like, wow, I thought I would love this. I love it even more. And I'm all in. And now I get to map My Next Steps based on that we celebrate elimination of certain things at any given time full knowing that the doors always open. But I think that happens at a much earlier age.

Chad Bolser: 17:09

You know, this podcast that, you know, Sarah created and has dragged me along with it, hopefully not weighing her down too much. But this discussion is ultimately created to elevate the thought leaders in education. How are you sharing this powerful success story with your community and

Adam Kulaas: 17:26

I love the question, because I think we're beyond? in a constant state of like, not only like reassessing, but like reimagining what our storytelling looks like, as a public district looks large. And so in terms of some of the different programs we're in, it's also a fun opportunity to marry like students skilled in some of our programming. So like, we're prepping for 2020 for Apple, the first of the year launch of a podcast that will actually amplify student voices in some of this work and beyond industry partner voice, because I think we played with a little bit last year with the series that we got grant funded. But I think that's one line. And I think it's fresh, and it's relevant. And it's exciting. It's been fun to look at existing programming that's well established within our district in terms of some of those IT pathways, you know, whether it be broadcasting and things like that, to start to look at, okay, great, what's the future of that look like? And utilizing or maximizing that to tell our story, while simultaneously growing skill set of students. We have, as someone who has spent time in even like a Blog World, and just really putting good stuff into the internet of life, really trying to empower voice at all levels to say, hey, you have something to say people need to hear it and trying to eliminate barriers and support kind of the vulnerability that some of that carries with it. But I think it's this attack on on traditional Yes. But starting to look at outside of the box ways of telling our story and amplifying students as ambassadors to that story.

Sarah Williamson: 18:58

I love that, Adam, that's great. I love that you're launching a podcast with students. I couldn't be more excited to hear more about that. That's awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining us. This is very inspiring. And Tacoma is really an impressive school district doing a lot of impressive things. And, and we're excited to share this with the broader community. So thank you.

Adam Kulaas: 19:21

Yeah, appreciate it. It was fun.

Sarah Williamson: 19:23

Okay, well, Adam, where can our listeners hear more about you and connect with you?

Adam Kulaas: 19:27

Well, schools.org would be the best place to go and we welcome all forms of reach out with absolutely just opened doors and excitement support.

Sarah Williamson: 19:37

Fantastic. Well, thanks so much again, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Adam Kulaas: 19:41

Appreciate it. Thank you.

Chad Bolser: 19:42

You too.

Sarah Williamson: 19:43

Okay.

Chad Bolser: 19:43

Thanks, Adam.

Adam Kulaas: 19:44

Take care.

Chad Bolser: 19:45

Thanks for joining us for the build momentum podcast today. If you enjoyed listening, we would love to hear your feedback, and would be grateful if you would leave us a review.

Sarah Williamson: 19:56

This helps us to share these powerful stories with even more People if you liked what you heard We would be honored if you could share this episode with someone in your network we look forward to seeing you next time on build momentum