S04E05 - Rural Innovation Series | Aaron Black, Superintendent, Randolph Eastern School Corporation

In this episode of Build Momentum, we are joined by Aaron Black. He is currently the Superintendent at Randolph Eastern School Corporation in Union City, Indiana, and is spearheading the Rural Alliance Zone 32. Aaron was named a semifinalist for the Yass Innovation Prize 2023 from the Yass Center for Education (formerly the Center for Education Reform). The prize recognizes leaders in sustainable, transformational, outstanding, and permissionless education.

This is the third episode in a four-part series focusing on rural collaboratives that are developing opportunities for students in specialized career pathways.

Some Questions I Ask:

• Tell us something about yourself and Randolph Eastern. (02:22)
• What do you do in Randolph Eastern and what trends do you see on a national scale? (05:47)
• What made you decide to start the Rural Alliance Zone 32? (07:32)
• What is your funding model and how would you advise other superintendents about joining a collaborative? (09:16)
• What credentials students are looking for and what are you offering? (11:31)
• What are students’ experiences within your program? (15:15)
• What are your goals in the next five years? (18:33)
• How do you share your story? (20:10)

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

• All about Aaron Black (02:35)
• His role at Randolph Eastern and trends he sees (06:02)
• The start of rural collaboratives in Randolph County (07:59)
• His advice to other superintendents about joining rural collaboratives and about funding models (09:39)
• Credentials students look for and what Randolph Eastern offers (11:57)
• Student experiences with the program (15:46)
• Goals in the next five years (18:48)
• How to emulate the way Aaron shares his story (20:22)

Quotes:

“We start with kindergarteners, taking career exploration trips and being very intentional about getting them out in front of employers and learning how the world works. We do that with every grade level, and it culminates at the high school.”

“We know [students] have their skills and interests, right? We know what their passions are. But we're not telling them, ‘Hey, you're going to be a nurse your entire life.’ We're saying, ‘Hey, check out this health care pathway. It may be a perfect fit for you.’”

“Success looks like student participation and access. … The win is in five years if the numbers multiply five times by student participation and if we continue to attract schools to help us figure out this access issue.“


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Transcript

Sarah Williamson: 0:05

Hello and welcome to Build Momentum, a Podcast where we explore thought leadership and education. I'm

Chad Bolser: 0:13

And I'm Chad Bolser, Chancellor Ivy Tech Community College in Richmond, Indiana. This season, we will launch a series exploring global workforce development and K 12 school districts and the leaders who are bringing this work to light. Sarah Williamson, the founder of SW PR group.

Sarah Williamson: 0:28

We hear from CTE directors, superintendents and thought leaders on the topic of workforce development, how it shifted throughout the last several years, who was 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. In today's episode, we continue our global workforce series with Aaron Black Superintendent of Randolph Eastern School Corporation. Aaron, welcome to the show. It's so great to finally have you on our show. I know this has been two or three years in the making. So we're thrilled to have you.

Aaron Black: 1:11

Now this is a big deal in my career to finally make it on this podcast. I appreciate the invite and Chad's ability to get me on because with the previous shows.

Chad Bolser: 1:22

Yeah, I think Sarah what Aaron is trying to say is that you have brought a closer on to your team. On podcast, dude that can just make some things

Sarah Williamson: 1:29

Oh Yes, happen. You're welcome, listeners. You're welcome. Okay, this is our third in a four part series on rural collaboratives. In our previous two episodes, we spoke to Mike Gonzalez, the executive director for the Rural Schools Innovation Zone in Premont, Texas. And then we had Lauren Hall-Riggins from Empower Schools, who is the State Director of Rural Collaboratives. And in this episode, Aaron is going to talk about all the great things going on in Randolph Eastern School Corporation, and how this has really led his district to form a rural collaboration with some of his fellow school districts in his region. And he's just an amazing stand up guy. So Aaron, welcome again. Can't wait to dig in today.

Aaron Black: 2:10

Thank you so much, and setting the precedent with Lauren and Mr. Gonzalez. That's awesome. Two credible folks to kind of get the series kicked off. So again, excited to be here excited to share what we're doing in the central Indiana.

Chad Bolser: 2:23

Well, that's a great place to start. Aaron, why don't you tell everybody that's listening about yourself. Randolph Eastern schools and Union City and what your last year has been like, it's been a pretty exciting time there.

Aaron Black: 2:35

Yeah. So just a quick little bio born and raised in New City, Indiana. I came back home to be assistant principal here at Union City 13 years ago, and I've kind of worked my way from principal now and the superintendent role my fifth year here, Union City's located East Central Indiana, right on Indiana, Ohio, Ohio line to give people some geography of where we are. Our town is actually split by the Indiana Ohio State Line, which is very unique in many regards, but very fortunate to live and work in Randolph County. If you're looking for a small town feel this is about as small as it gets in rural America. Randolph Eastern in the past year, it's been quite a ride 2023 was huge for us and the work and kind of seeing the vision and the work that we developed really during and pre COVID starting to grow legs and come to light visit corner which we'll talk about a little bit space that is a collaboration space for all the central Indiana and not just the students here at Randolph Eastern that first floor was completed. Were some entrepreneurship classes and communications classes can be taught as well some other things to make available to students in our rural wind zone. So that happened 2023. Randolph Eastern was blessed to be a part of this whole YASS prize experience. Shout out to the YASS folks. I'd have liked her Sarah, go ahead and tag them. When you put this out there. That was an experience. We threw our name in the hat for this YASS innovation prize. And that's where they kind of recognized Jeff Giannini, us who are philanthropists recognized schools and their efforts in innovation. Went through that process starting in July. Our application made it through we became quarterfinals found that out in December, one of only a couple of public schools that were part of that conversation. On October we were named a semifinalist, which was again incredible. Let us through this whole accelerator experience that Sarah and her team helped me work through the comps of all that. And it was fun. It was eye opening, encouraging to hear the innovation that's happening in schools across the country. And I'm talking a majority of the folks there are micro schools, charter schools, just some really innovative people and to sit there as a public superintendent and be a part of those conversations and grow with those people was quite a blessing and quite a challenge to be honest with you. It shows that Randolph Eastern made some leaps and bounds and 2023 together right direction I've been we've got work to do to meet the needs of everyone. are in our building.

Sarah Williamson: 5:00

Yeah. That's impressive. Aaron, I'm very, very impressed so far you came in that process and it was exciting to watch. And I'm glad you feel good about the way everything ended. Are you going to go for it again next year.

Aaron Black: 5:12

So they do have some alumni follow up opportunities. Being a semi finalists, I'll have the opportunity to be a part of as much or as little as I want to as far as the EOS experience in the future as far as working with other applicants, that kind of stuff. So yeah, I think we'll continue that relationship. Because I'm a school choice believer, that's not real popular amongst public school superintendents. But I just value every learner finding the space that fits their needs the best. And school choice provides that so being a part of that EOS movement and understanding kind of their mission is something yet I see myself remaining part of for sure,

Sarah Williamson: 5:48

yeah, you have a mighty school district with a lot of college and career readiness programs. Do you mind just sharing a little bit of the work you do there in Randolph, and then also the trends you kind of see on a national scale?

Aaron Black: 6:02

Yeah, so I think set the foundation that it's important to understand our demographics a little bit serving a community, high poverty, high need students 70%, free and reduced 40% are students of color. And now nearly 25-27% of those students are English learners, students. So that creates some incredible opportunities, and it leads self and leads us down the career path pretty strongly. Well, the exciting things about the trends of education in general is this thought that celebrating a student that enters the workforce or career of school is becoming just as important or celebrated as the student that goes to a four year college and shame on us for taking so long to do that, right. But that's one of the trends that we've had been out ahead of, and building our career exploration programs. We start with kindergarteners, taking career exploration trips, and being very intentional about getting them out in front of employers, and just learning how the world works. And we do that with every grade level. And that kind of culminates at the high school. And we've partnered with Ivy Tech, Chad and his crew to create some different opportunities and career exposure and just career technical education. But so it suits our students really well, when you talk about their background and the challenges that higher education create for people of poverty and the barriers there. So celebrating careers and plugging them into institutions that they can afford. And that don't seem as intimidating as a four year institution is a win for Randolph Eastern.

Chad Bolser: 7:33

So we've really focused this portion of the podcast in the episodes on the idea of these rural collaboratives. And you have spearheaded that process in Randolph County, with the rural alliance zone 32. Can you talk a little bit about why you decided to do that? And what was the process that determined that sort of leap in the process for your district?

Aaron Black: 7:59

Yeah, so it's really interesting. I took this job on 2019. And I went back to my county collaboration notes. And I started in January. And in March of that year, I actually met with Superintendent rental Central and the nurse Central and basically said, Why are we working together more? It's not that we don't collaborate on some things. But why don't our our students have an access and that all kind of dives a year later with COVID and trying to recover and real from that, but so the conversation in my mind started a long time ago. Fortunately for us, we were awarded a next gen grant from the Indiana Department of Education just because some of the innovative work we were doing, they wanted to partner with us and see where we could take this work. So it allowed us to partner with incredible people like you've interviewed in the last two weeks with Laura and her group and Mike Gonzalez and getting down there see what they are doing and what they're doing with the geographic challenges that they have versus what we have it just made sense to take off and run and create a space where students right now and right off county have access to each other's coursework, but I do think Jeju can agree, see where this is going to grow and to some other regions and pull in other folks, not just us, but I see rural schools starting these conversations. I'm trying to figure out how they make it work for their area as well.

Sarah Williamson: 9:16

Yeah. So one interesting note you just mentioned is Mike Gonzalez. And we've talked a lot about funding with him. And I'm curious, would you mind sharing a bit more about how you thought about sharing students and how you've addressed the funding model? And then also for other superintendents who are considering joining a real collaborative, what is your advice?

Aaron Black: 9:39

My advice is, first of all, leverage the funding that's available without grant support and that kind of stuff. There are like we opened with career exploration and career education is very intentional, specifically in the state of Indiana so they are pushing funding towards high new jobs. For example, for us health care pathway, very, very expensive, right, but each one of those students that get a credit that comes with a x number of dollar amount, so that will help fund the continuation of the program into the future. So I guess my first advice is lean in and realize what funding is out there currently. And don't feel like it's just something that has to be grant funded, because I think grant funding can help elevate the process or speed the process up. But we are all doing some really incredible work in our buildings. And it's not really an extension or adding a burden to our budgets when you really get to dollars and cents. Let's just say that, okay, I've got a class of 12 of our students, why can't six of Randolph Central students take that same class, the only cause you're talking is the 20 miles of fuel between point A and point B, because I'm going to fund that teacher, I'm going to fund those materials, whether they're here or not. So I think just looking again, you got to be kinda can't look at the problem. You got to look at solution and be solution minded. But the funding aspect is honestly pretty easy. I think in the long run.

Sarah Williamson: 11:04

Yeah. Great advice.

Chad Bolser: 12:38

You know, Aaron, on our previous podcast, you were described as having an abundance perspective, the more that you look at problems from an abundance mindset, as opposed to a deficit mindset, which is really, as you were describing that if that description came true, so nice segue from you didn't listen into the last podcast. Did you?

Aaron Black: 13:01

I have not. No. inaudible. kind of nowhere

Sarah Williamson: 13:02

No, they're not inaudible

Chad Bolser: 13:05

Yeah, I thought maybe you snuck in or you had recordings that were there. I know how that Randolph, you know, county folks operate. So okay, so our next question is, as you look at the landscape of this area of career education, what are the credentials that students are looking for? And what are you going to be offering you and the collaborative schools going to be offering? And how did you come about that decision with those credentials?

Aaron Black: 13:30

That's a good question. But if I can just build off the abundance thing that someone may have named me, or accused me of? My explanation for that is I truly think as educational leaders, whether you're Superintendent of this district, or any district, if you're not looking out for success of all students, I think you miss, right. Like, I'm not protective of Randolph Eastern students, what we're doing is good for our kids. But I'm trying to get a win for the kids in the Central Valley on the Ohio side, kids, because if they win, sounds silly, we all win. And if we're not leading for all students with that mindset, we're kind of sticks in the mud. And that's gonna rub some people the wrong way. But I'm not here just to protect Randolph Eastern. So that's kind of my mindset on that, but to the career focus face, how did we land at the courses that we offered? So one of the great things that we've been able to do as we've created this community engagement position, kind of innovation specialist, Justin Jones, which some of you know and but one thing he's been able to do is have one on one interviews with students and really get into their skills and interests, right. And we're doing some assessments to identify those, well, what are they really interested in and when we started this work, looking at what pathway we wanted to get into healthcare was abundantly clear. 50% of our kids in seventh and eighth grade and our junior class all had some interest in health care, and no place in Randolph County offers a health care option. The only option for our students to be involved in health care program would be to hop on a bus at 6:30 in the morning, go an hour and 10 minutes one way and an hour and 10 minutes back to the Muncie area Career Center, and it's not a knock on them, they do a fine job. But that's a huge barrier for students when you're talking about access. So healthcare was easy for us. The data supported it, the data has sent supported that with Randolph central Monroe Central. It is by far the highest requested course is between those districts as well. So that was kind of VMA then you get into the fiber of who we are kissed TV kiss communications, that's been part of US city since 1972. I say this a lot. That's a program as superintendent, you just don't touch. It's bigger than Aaron Black. So it does what it does. Does some really good things. And as we continue to build out kind of the social media aspect of communications, that's a great offering for students. But the other big one was entrepreneurship for the business side or kids are interested in starting businesses learning how businesses work. So that was a good fit for us. Computer Science, which you know, between what we offer at Union City and what they offer at Monroe Central Computer science is the future of every job that's out there. Our kids know it and their skills, their interest surveys prove that and then what Randall Central's doing with their innovation, precision machining and welding, Jaggi benami Central Indiana longtime nothing screams East Central Indiana louder than precision machining, welding, right that's the manufacturing side of things is very important to our livelihood and our future. So Honestly, those things were all pretty easy to nail down when you when you look at the landscape of East Central Indiana, what we're lacking as a health care desert, and what our kids interests are just weren't really lining up. So creating space to make this a reality.

Chad Bolser: 16:48

Aaron, as you hear some folks critique schools, you're making the kids choose their career pathway too early. You're preparing them too early in the process. Let's just educate them. And let's figure it out. As you go on there, you hear some of that in the discussion around this topic of preparation? Can you speak to the student experience? How does this enhance or how have you seen the student experience change as a part of what you've implemented?

Aaron Black: 17:19

Well, I push back on it. So we get a lot of almost say negative press, but a lot of questions on that. It's good timing for gases, we just celebrated the fact that we put magnets on every student's locker and identified the pathway that they've chosen to be a part of, right. And a lot of folks in the world of Facebook and Twitter are questioning why we tell them 14 year olds, they got to know what they want to do with the rest of their life. And, and amazingly enough, one of our seniors in high school responded to this really negative thread, and set people straight. But so here's our thoughts behind this, I would much rather teach kids, there's 40 pathways that they don't want to be a part of. Before they go to college and start paying 10, 12, 15, $30,000 a year to start figuring out what they want to do that's created some of the problems that we have. So I believe that a school's job is to teach kids just as much about what they probably don't want to do with their life. That is it as it is that tells him You know, here's what you should or want to do with your life. So we know they have their skills and interests, right? We know what their passions are, but we're not telling them, Hey, you're going to be a nurse your entire life. We're saying, hey, check out this health care pathway. And it may be a perfect fit for you. It might be a great springboard but reality of you doing that your entire life, pretty small, but at least you're gonna figure that out between the ages of 14 and 18 and not 18 to 25.

Sarah Williamson: 18:49

Yeah, exactly. That's awesome. I love that approach. So Aaron, we've talked to a lot of the other speakers on the rural series that we're doing about transportation, and being an extremely rural in Union City. I'm curious how you navigate that for your students. Is that a challenge?

Aaron Black: 19:08

So Sarah will tell you that I thought we were rural until I went to South Texas, visited Mike Gonzalez, Delta rural alliance. So down there. So yeah, that's tongue in cheek, it is still a challenge. But for us, in Randolph Central, for example, one of our partners in this, it's literally eight miles on one road between our high school and their high school. So if we can't figure that out to do what's best for kids, we've got bigger problems, to be quite honest with you. So is a transportation piece, does it put a little pressure on your budget to figure out the you know, the fuel and driver cost? Yes. But is it such an enormous task as what I seen, like said in South Texas, no. And matter of fact, I could almost say there's three counties between Jay County, Wayne County and Randolph County, we still wouldn't cover the ground that they're covering in South Texas to figure this out. So is it a discussion? Yes, but it shouldn't be a barrier. Absolutely.

Chad Bolser: 20:07

So as you think about the rural collaborative and the rural alliance, zone 32, what does success look like for you? What are your aspirational goals? What in five years? What do you hope to accomplish?

Aaron Black: 20:21

Well, I think the first data set again, everything education has to be supported by data. I think, if we have 25 kids participate next school year, I think the following year has to be 50. And I think by five years, I'd like to see that be a couple 100 students, to be quite honest with you. And that's not just what the schools that are involved. So success looks like student participation and having access, right, we're talking access for all students, but also growing it to where other schools see a need. And East Central Indiana, by our skills, interests, surveys of our students, and another school stepped up and says, Hey, there's a growing need for construction trades in our area, which we know is a real need. And they step up and say that's the program we will take on to alleviate some of the pressure. And then we're sending 10 kids to school X to participate in construction trades. So I think the win is in five years if the numbers multiply five times by student participation and if we continue to attract schools to help us figure out this access issue for rural students.

Sarah Williamson: 21:32

Okay, so Aaron, this podcast was ultimately created to talk about thought leadership and education, as you know, because you've been an avid listener for two and a half years.

Aaron Black: 21:42

Yes.

Sarah Williamson: 21:43

I'm curious what you think about, or how you share your story. And how you can recommend our listeners really tried to emulate what you're doing in terms of how you're sharing your story?

Aaron Black: 21:56

That's a good question. So and So there's multiple ways that purchase one, I think I've heard this term multiple times in the past month. So it's resonated in the world of education, there are school administrators and their school leaders, their school administrators, those are really good people that are really good at checking boxes, and looking really polished on the outside, right, but maybe not meeting the needs of students, all students, and then there are school leaders that are looking for ways to innovatively meet the needs of every single child in their district, like unforgivingly, you know, unapologetically going after every student in their district. And so I would say, do a little self assessment. Are you a leader or master, the world needs both. Don't get me wrong, the world needs both. And I need people to help administrate me because sometimes, I'm a little too innovative for people's good. But the other thing that I would encourage leaders to do is, if you're not at the table, you're on the menu. So you've got to find yourself involved. Chad knows this, I tried to show up everywhere, the best I can. Because if I'm not there advocating for East Central Indiana at the statehouse, like I was yesterday for six hours, like, I'm not having breakfast with my legislators like I did this morning, like we will, rural education in particular will continue to be on the menu, when the people make decisions. They don't think about the 30 students out at Randolph Eastern that are, you know, don't have access to every opportunity. They just don't think about that. They think about the 8000 students in Indianapolis and the access that they have. So again, rural education leaders in particular, you've got to be at the table, because if not, we will continue to be on the menu as decisions are made.

Chad Bolser: 23:50

Well, Aaron, it is great to talk to you. It's great to have this conversation, where can our listeners connect with you and learn more about what you're doing? And more about Randolph Eastern schools?

Aaron Black: 24:04

Well, I would first drive you to because of the inspiration of this podcast. Tell everybody that I do have my own podcast. They use the experience which got some serious critique from Miss Williamson, which was very well landed, we've made some changes. So the use is on Spotify. Check that out. We do cover a lot of this same conversation weekly. And honestly, pretty candidly, so I encourage folks, check us out. They're very active on social media, Twitter,@RandolphEastern, and on Twitter, look up A A Ron Black, that's where you can find me. They're very active on Facebook, but our website's pretty up to date. We're working with this great company to help us do an audit of all these things. And they've given me a 90 day plan, which I'm 22 days behind on but it's a great plan. But no, there's great ways to find what we're doing. We have incredible people. That's the thing I can't be remiss to say if I didn't have willing folks at the table with me, we would struggle get this work done. But you can find us we're out there. Thank you, Aaron. It's been such a pleasure having you on the show. Can't wait to have you back. Thank you so much.

Sarah Williamson: 25:10

So Aaron, I think you're gonna provide some incredibly valuable advice for our listeners. And this was just a reminder, this is the third of our four part series on real collaboratives. These shows are designed to highlight rural collaboratives in the CTE space that are developing great opportunities for students. And as you heard about today, these specialized pathways are an exciting development in traditional career and technical education.

Chad Bolser: 25:34

In our next episode, we'll feature Jessica Morrison, who is the Executive Director for the Southwest Colorado educational collaborative. Jessica is elevating the concept of collaboratives in Colorado, and we're excited to hear about the progress of that project. We have learned so much about rural collaborators in these few episodes. But our next episode, we'll be switching gears and now I can't finish that statement because I put a blank on the script and I'm out what are we doing after Jessica Morrison

Sarah Williamson: 26:06

After Jessica Marrison I was so excited. We're gonna have Dr. Kelly Gault, who is the superintendent at Lake Zurich in Lake Zurich Community Unit School District 95 in Illinois to talk about entrepreneurship and education. They have an incredibly robust entrepreneurship program K through 12. And I can't wait to dig into that with her. Thank you so much, Aaron, and we will see you all next time.

Chad Bolser: 26:32

Thanks for joining As 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: 26:43

This helps us to share these powerful stories with even more people. If you liked what you heard, and 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.