S05E02 - The Power of Teams and Leading with Psychological Safety | Dr. Randy Mahlerwein

In this episode of Build Momentum, we are joined Dr. Randy Mahlerwein, an Assistant Superintendent in Mesa Public Schools in Arizona. He has been a public educator and leader for the past 24 years and a key contributor for the past four years in his district’s implementation of the Next Education Workforce. He is also an influencer, researcher, and educator. Dr. Mahlerwein is hyper-motivated to change the conditions that influence the environments in which educators and students operate daily.

Some Questions We Ask:

• Please tell us about your career and your current role. (01:13)
• What are the most rewarding aspects of serving in school leadership? (02:29)
• How are you able to cope with the stress of your career? (06:47)
• How has scrutiny of your position changed in the last few years? (09:52)
• How are you able to communicate with diverse groups to support your district’s goals, help them come together constructively despite disagreements, and truly create a sense of community? (11:54)
• How do you think your experiences compare to those of school administrators in your state, locality, or country? (15:30)
• Can you tell us more about your leadership style in education trades? (20:49)
• Why do you think the community needs to perceive you as a genuine person tackling difficult problems and giving K-12 children the finest education possible? (23:06)
• What advice would you give advocates for supporting their district leaders? (25:45)

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

• About Dr. Mahlerwein’s career in district leadership and his role in Mesa Public Schools (01:26)
• Aspects of serving in school leadership (02:36)
• Strategies for coping with stress (06:50)
• Changes in scrutiny of his position (10:05)
• Ways to bring the community together to support district goals (12:09)
• Similar experiences among school administrators(15:56)
• Dr. Mahlerwein’s leadership style in education trades (20:56)
• The importance of community acknowledgement of superintendents as real people (23:15)
• How advocates can support district leaders (25:57)

Quotes:

“I believe happy teachers and happy administrators produce happy students—and happy students learn.”

“We really started talking about the concept of earning your title every day. When you've been bestowed with an opportunity as a governing board [member] or superintendent, and you have to be the model. You have to work harder. As you move up through the ranks as leaders, the responsibility becomes greater.”

“Once you build a psychologically safe team, there's nothing they can't do, because they're going to talk about all the most difficult things together with respect and dignity.”

“If we want to be thought of as humans, it's our responsibility to communicate and lead in a way that people can see. You can't just expect to hand people a belief about you that you haven't worked hard to earn.”

Stay in touch with Randy Mahlerwein:
Email: rmahlerwein@mpsaz.org

Stay in touch with Sarah Williamson:
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Stay in touch with Chad Bolser:
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About "The Secret to Transformational Leadership," which Sarah co-authored with Dr. Quintin Shepherd:
Transformational Leadership Secret website
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Transcript

Sarah Williamson: 0:00

Sarah, hello and welcome to build momentum for education, a Podcast where we explore thought leadership in education. I'm Sarah Williamson, the founder of SW PR group, an agency that supports public relations, communication strategies and thought leadership support for school districts, education companies and nonprofit organizations,

Chad Bolser: 0:23

And I'm Chad Bolser, Chancellor at Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana, this season, we explore a particularly unique perspective in K 12 thought leadership, humanizing the role of the superintendent.

Sarah Williamson: 0:36

Throughout the many conversations we continue to have with superintendents, a clear theme has emerged about the need to bring more humanity into the role of the superintendency. In this special series, we interview current and former superintendents and researchers to pursue the core question, how can we better see superintendents as real people navigating complex challenges to provide the best possible education for K 12 students?

Chad Bolser: 0:58

We dig deeper into how this important work can help build community, invite collaboration and increase widespread engagement.

Sarah Williamson: 1:08

We can't wait to get started, so let's dive in. We're so excited today to have Dr Randy Mahlerwein with us, Assistant Superintendent from Mesa Public Schools. Dr Mahlerwein will you tell us about your career in district leadership and your role now at Mesa?

Dr. Randy Mahlerwein: 1:26

Yeah. So first of all, thank you guys for having me. I'm humbled to be here. You know, my journey started like a lot of public leaders. I was a junior high math teacher, moved into an assistant principal, then moved into the principal role both in junior high, spent 11 years in both of those roles, and then was promoted internally within a school district to be an assistant superintendent of secondary schools. And it was a small suburban school district in Arizona. I spent three years there, and then I got, you know, lucky enough to get the opportunity to come to Mesa Public Schools, largest school district in Arizona. I started out as a K 12 assistant superintendent. So I served about 20 inaudible schools. I always lose track and how many there actually were. And right after COVID, my superintendent restructured things a little bit, and I was what I consider be promoted to Assistant Superintendent of Secondary, which is 712 which I've served over the last four years, are like most districts weren't declining enrollment. I think I started out I was over about 29,000 students. Now it's about 26 and a half to 27 depending on the day.

Chad Bolser: 2:29

So Randy, can you share with us what you found to be the most rewarding aspects of serving in school leadership?

Dr. Randy Mahlerwein: 2:36

Yeah, I think it's a really, you know, it's a pretty complex question, because there's a lot of things that are very rewarding in our profession. Secondary, you get to see kids at a finish line, get to see them move on and be something bigger than maybe even they thought they could be. But the most rewarding thing for me, and I'll just talk about the last six years, because it's close in my you know, it's right on the forefront of my thinking. I've been able to partner in my role in Mesa Public Schools, Arizona State University, and we've been driving kind of an innovative teaming model. It's in the spirit of this next Education Workforce Philosophy from Arizona State University. And so I've been able to work to help really, really kind of create, sculpt and change the environments of the teachers and students. And when people can come to work and feel joy in their work, and they can come to work and feel better about things, they connect with adults, that's super rewarding. Because I want people to be happy. I believe Happy Teachers, happy administrators, produce happy students and happy students learn. I think the other aspect is with that partnership early in this role, and we're trying to innovate and do some things differently and redesign public high school in Mesa. I knew I had to build the team for the future in the now. So I was able to work with Arizona state. We created some pretty much a Mesa exclusive only master's program. We went through two cohorts, and we created a doctorate program, all just for Mesa. And I've been able to mentor current leaders and aspiring leaders and really help them better their future, put them in positions that, obviously they've earned, but also is rewarding to them. And so I think at the end of the day, the thing that I find the most rewarding is just the the ability for me to bring positivity to people's lives individually, and then as a whole, you know, I want to be a value added human in all aspects of life, and I work in the right industry to do that. So that's probably the most, that's the most rewarding piece of the job. And there's other things that I that I enjoy as well, but really bettering the environments to really help people experience a better beta day to day. World is rewarding.

Sarah Williamson: 4:44

Yeah, that's incredible. What you've developed? I didn't know that. That's amazing with the PhD program.

Chad Bolser: 4:50

Yeah, I've been lucky enough to build a good relationship with the dean of Maryland, Fulton, Carol basil, and she's got a very innovative mindset. She's just a great lady. One best humans I've ever met. We've been at we actually just discussed this over breakfast, and then hit go and move very quickly. And so we're our third quarter master's degree. So we had 62 students that either gone through or in the program, and we have 18 doctoral students, which, when you're looking at building capacity for the future, it starts here. And so we've been able to really create a very intentional program to grow our own. Now we're also looking to go outside the district for different areas, because I believe very much in cognitively diverse teams. When you have people that have diverse experience and different experiences across the board, when you come together, if you can create the right team, right psychological safety in the room, there's really nothing that team can't do. And see, one of my major passions is to reinvent public school, and that is through this process of adaptive change. And we know that adaptive change can really only be facilitated and sustained through a team approach. And so this idea of this hero leaders is a myth. And so I, you know, one of the things that I really believe strongly. And as you know, I'm a teammate. Sometimes I have a different role, sometimes it's lead, sometimes it's follow, most of the time, it's support, but that's really been another passion is to help build the next layer of leadership for the school district that I care so much about.

Sarah Williamson: 6:14

Wow, I'm impressed. That's amazing. So next question for you, I want to get into one of the reasons we started this podcast is really thinking about how stressed out superintendents are this series, this particular podcast series, and you're all stressed out and assistant Supes, Supes, Deputy Supes. It kind of seems consistent across the board. And last year, researchers from ran discovered that district leaders have one of the most stressful jobs in America, citing the intrusion of political issues and opinions in school as a source of that stress. I'm guessing you may agree with that perspective. How have you been able to cope with the stress of the role throughout your career?

Dr. Randy Mahlerwein: 6:49

Oh, well, I mean, yeah, I guess that. You know that is a thing out there. So I think one reason why district leaders are so stressed is because they care so much about the job they do. You know, I can't get in everybody else's head, but I have to believe that that public school leadership, school leadership, they really care about what they're doing, and they have such a high constituency to serve that it's really, really hard to make, you know, everyone happy without all the criticism. I think that could be a thing. I think about this word stress a lot. You know, I never heard my dad and my grandfather ever talk about being stressed. I wonder if that's a new word. It's just stress is just kind of life. And if you're doing complex things and you're doing things worth doing, there should be pressure and there should be obstacles, and so, I mean, it's a super stressful job. I personally have tried to figure out what helps me when I do feel because I feel overwhelmed at time, and then I have a strong sense of wanting people to see value in the work that I do. Because, I mean, I do care. I care at a big level. And when you're getting hit with the negativity that comes and people say, you know, just kind of most inappropriate things now, via email and stuff. That's hard, because I put everything into the job. The job never leaves me. And so, you know, I mean, I try to do the normal life hacks that are out there. I work out pretty hard. You get your body right, your mind gets right. There's some science between, you know, there's endorphins helping you be positive. I try to eat right, and try to, you know, stay and get enough sleep and all that, and I think that helps. I'm not sure, you know, I relate to the work stress. It's just what we have to go through. And if you're doing anything worth doing, there's going to be opposition, there's going to be judgment. And for me, I try to do everything with integrity. I try to read and learn as much as I can so I'm prepared so I can make a good decision. I try to embrace intellectual humility at all times, so I'm listening to my teammates. And so when you start going through the motions of doing everything the highest level that you can, I think that can eliminate some stress, but just the judgment, I think, in the way that we've evolved with social media and those kinds of things, I think it's, you know, that's hard to deal with, especially when you do care, and you want people to know you care. When they come at you like it. They do. Sometimes it hurts. And I think more than anything, I'm just more disappointed at it. But I mean, I don't know if that's a great answer on stress, but it's a thing, and I can see it wearing on you know, the superintendents that I know, the assistant superintendent, and even the high school principals I work with, they care at a deep level, and it's non stop. I mean, I'm lucky enough to lead six comprehensive schools, and the smallest two or 2200 and the largest four between 32 and 3400 so that's a lot of stimulus out there every day for a principal to navigate. So what I try to do is support them and eliminate their stress with just side by side support and constant communication.

Chad Bolser: 9:52

Randy, this kind of leads into this next question, which is, as you think about this role of superintendency and district leadership, how has scrutiny that position changed over the last few years?

Dr. Randy Mahlerwein: 10:05

Yeah I think the scrutiny is it makes sense to me. Okay, so every parent went to school, every parent had a school experience. Every teacher went to school, they have a school experience. And so as we are in a time when school needs to evolve and to look probably something different than it has that's really hard for people, because they only know what they've experienced, and so the scrutiny comes out of limited information. And what I've found is it's very time consuming, but it's essential to have those one on one conversations where I can really talk to people. I mean, I'm a parent. I have a 15 year old that goes to one of our high schools. I have an 11 year old that is in a dual language program. And so, you know, I know what innovation can look like as a parent lens, and I think we've lost some trust in our public schools, in the community, and a lot of ways, and with that comes judgment and scrutiny. I think maybe 20-30, years ago, the community really just trusted the school and for somehow, we've lost that trust, and we need to earn that trust back. And it's not just a problem that we got to throw our hands on and say it is what it is. I think we had to earn that trust back with really intentional communication that gets to the why on a lot of things. I think people really want to know the why, and once we get the why carved out and can communicate that in a way that our community understands it, it can start to alleviate the scrutiny. I mean, the other thing is, is we focus on the loudest group. A lot of times with the scrutiny, and we forget that there's a lot of people out there that are really supportive and a lot of people out there that really trust the work we're doing. I think we got to focus on that as we're establishing the why and building a communication pathway for those that don't understand what we're doing.

Sarah Williamson: 11:54

Yeah, how do you communicate that why to all of the groups and really build community and bring people together to see your vision for the district and unify them in a positive way, sometimes in contentious situations. How have you been able to do that?

Dr. Randy Mahlerwein: 12:09

So I mean, there's a couple things I know. You know, it's not lost on me, the world around me, and how we've become polarized. But what I do know is that human beings really, we really want the same thing, you know. We want our kids to be happy. We want our kids to be successful. We want to be able to sustain a quality life where our family, you know, is, I guess, for lack of a better word, happy and sustainable. And so when I get into like, how do I communicate? I always think to myself, you know, Randy, the communication is not about you, it's about the receiver, and so I'm always remembering who I'm trying to communicate with, trying to put myself in their shoes, and explaining the way they understand it. So for example, talking to parents is super easy for me, and it's something I love to do. Even the most parents have scrutinized us at the highest level to stay with that word. But you know, I have a daughter, and I want same things for my daughter they want for their children. And I have a son, and I talk about the things that my daughter is seeing and the things that we're doing in our school district that will benefit her, and then I connect, and I really try to listen to them. What do they want about their child? Some of these parents want their kids to go to MIT. Okay, well, what does that look like? How can we get you on that path and really talk them through? Because there's a lot of like, gray area out there on how to do this. Some parents think you gotta take every AP class in the world. And some parents have been through this and our graduates, and they know, I mean, we're a large urban school district, so we had a lot of parents that are trying to push their kids in the first generation college kids. So I gotta remember that, and I gotta have a conversation like I would have with my dad. So I always think, you know, I always think what I deal with a with a parent that is really wants more for their kid but hasn't been there to self. I just communicate like I communicate to my father, which is, it's always been challenging, but it build a skill set for me. So I really just want to try and talk to them. But more than anything, you know, my first form of communication is listening for understanding. Once I understand what their pain point is, and there, it's easier for me to communicate the why, and everybody has little different versions of the why. So, I mean, that's really the technique. And I just, I've never, I really never know where the conversation is going to go. I don't script anything when I speak, you know. I mean, I'll do, you know, keynotes to kids, or I'll speak at town halls. And I don't script anything. I have general big ideas, but I want to talk with authenticity, and so I try to be an expert in most of the work, and that way I can just speak from my heart and explain to them. And that usually goes really well, because I do want the right things. I do nothing around here for my political gain or my personal gain. This is about strengthening an organization. I mean, I make more money than I ever thought I did. I never thought I'd be at this station and life, you know, as a first generation college kid, came from a really good, nuclear family, so I had a lot of love at home and support. But you know, the unwritten rules at the next step took me a while to navigate, and so, you know, I just, I try to stay grateful with my station, and then really just try to serve. And when you're when you do that, I think you can communicate with people in the right way. I mean, I haven't had a whole lot of failure in that aspect. And if I get off a phone with somebody, it doesn't feel right, call them back tomorrow and we do it again. So I hope that answered the question. It's really kind of convoluted, but I would say, just to narrow it down, have a lot of humility and listen for understanding and then really remember who you're talking to and get the why, right.

Chad Bolser: 15:30

You know, the really cool thing about this season is spending time with district leaders like yourself. How do you think your own experiences compare to school administrators in your area, state, the nation. As you talk to colleagues, how are your experiences similar, or like those in similar positions across the country?

Dr. Randy Mahlerwein: 17:29

Yeah, you know, I've been lucky enough to be able to attend a lot of the double NSA events. I also went to a seminar, an eight day seminar with aspiring superintendents, and so there's a lot of dialogue that exists. And I mean, I don't know if this is me personally or but it's always easy for me to feel like I always got a little different mindset on things. And so when I was a principal, I spent a lot of time improving student achievement. I spent a lot of time in the back then it was called the RTI process, building common assessments, looking at data, doing small group instruction, really focusing on teacher clarity and I was able to experience success in two different zip codes doing that. But as I've moved into Mesa, and it's the largest school district in Arizona, it's very urban, it's been clear that we need to redesign in public education, because for like, my two kids grow up in a family with two educators, and I've learned a lot between, say, 20 and however old I am now 52 but they're going to be successful. But I always think about, you know, how I had to struggle through high school, struggle through post secondary work, you know, and actually struggled all the way through a doctorate, which I always felt like I was, you know, on the outside, or the long shot on it. But I think my leadership style is very much about building leadership mindsets with the leaders that I'm able to work with, and then empowering them to be the leader that they are. I'm not a micro manager that doesn't work, especially in a large, comprehensive system. I have to very much communicate the why and the vision with ultimate clarity, and then we've established what I would, you know, I jump back and forth between the term mindset or anchors. When I first did this as a little controversial, I think, but we really started talking about the concepts of earn your title every day, and when you get the work, you know, you've been, you've been bestowed with an opportunity of a governing board or superintendent, to have a title, and you have to be the model. You have to work harder like as you move up through the ranks as leaders, the responsibility becomes greater. And so we've really established that out of the gate that we have to hold ourselves to a higher standard of leadership. And then we talk about this concept of respect and dignity and all interactions, because the way we communicate, the way we treat others, really sets the tone for our organization. And in education, there can be zero room for leadership, being disrespectful, condescending, not providing dignity to students, to community members, to whoever I mean. Only thing we can control in our lives is, you know, how we behave between that stimulus and how we respond, that's our freedom. And then we talk a lot about on my leadership team, about humility, and the idea with that is this idea that we hold a space, that there's always better, and we can't get the better if we don't listen. We can't get the better if we don't build a team. And so we're really trying to make decisions that are best for the organization, not for ourselves. And that's really the essence of this idea of being humble. And then the last thing that, and anybody listening to this that works with me is probably tired about hearing the SIPA. We got to take ownership of everything we do. If a principal does something and we need to correct it, that's my fault. I should have communicated better. I should have created better vision. I should have done more professional learning, and that's the only way I can get better. I mean, years ago, we went through, you know, the inner growth mindset approach, and there's so much value in that, and that's kind of deteriorated off. And don't hear as much about it as as I once did, but that's what that's all about, ownership, humility, earning your title every day is really about learning from mistakes and being open to the better. And I talk with my team, is best doesn't exist every day. We're looking better. We're you're never arrived. You're constantly evolving, and you're constantly striving to be better. And so when I talk about my leadership, I don't hear a lot of that in public education. I mean, I finished my doctorate in 2010 and I don't read anything on educational leadership. I think we got to look at what are the business community doing? How are they innovating? Because they're being buoyant, and we have to be buoyant because we have to serve a community. And our biggest job is to have kids, college ready and career ready. And we've really focused on college ready. We have to blend the career ready and we have to create good community members. And so it takes a comprehensive approach to what we're doing in school in all aspects, from the arts to the academics to the athletics. Everything's an opportunity to learn, and I can't micromanage that. So what I do is, you know, my leadership style is, most important. Thing I do is hire good people, and then I build a guardrail of our leadership philosophy around them, and I interview people that probably already have some of that, and then I empower them, and then we go, we go together as a team.

Sarah Williamson: 22:22

Okay, well, I want to hear more about your leadership style in education trades. I think it's time you start writing. Let's do this.

Dr. Randy Mahlerwein: 22:29

Yeah, I got some stuff in the works, but I never look at myself as an academic. You know, I'm a grinder. I'm like everybody else out there. And I got about 18,000 words. It needs to be really edited and then add another 18,000 words. But, you know, I have this big idea about these leadership print and if you know, my superintendent

called me one night about 11: 22:47

30 because she knows I don't sleep and she doesn't sleep. And I mean, she's probably one of the greatest women, not even women, greatest leaders I've ever known in my life. I respect her high level and she said, Randy, this is what you're talking about. And I opened it up, and it was a link to the Amazon leadership print. And I thought, that's who we need to be in education, because things are moving so fast. So I've carved out about nine of them. You know, we're working through them, will, optimism, high standards. We're working through these, and we constantly go over learning about what these mean. What does it mean to you? What does it look like, you know? What does it mean to be a really humble leader? We talk about this, and we have, but the first thing that, you know, I got into, to get to here was all about building a psychologically safe team. So I've really embraced this idea of, how do you do that? And kind of went down a path and read some Arthur Aaron's research on intimacy, intimacy research, and then kind of scaled that back into professionalism, and then we do a ton of connection that has zero to do with education. And once you build a psychologically safe team, there's nothing they can't do because they're going to talk about all the most difficult things that are in the room together with respect and dignity. And then I, you know, I got seven great leaders in that room. You can't tell me. We can't come up with a better solution than just me trying to figure it out on my own. So I'd talk about it anytime with anybody, but, um,

Sarah Williamson: 24:11

mic drop, that was awesome. That's great. That's so inspiring. I love what you're doing. One of the reasons we wanted to host this podcast series is because we continue to hear, after a lot of interviews with superintendents, is there's just this tenor from community members and people viewing superintendents as robots or just not acknowledging them as human beings. So our goal is to really illuminate the humanity of superintendents. Why do you think it's important for the community to see you as a real person who's navigating complex challenges and providing the best possible education for K 12

Dr. Randy Mahlerwein: 24:48

That's a question I've never really students? thought of so I'm just going to throw this out there. If we want to be thought of as human and we want to be thought of like you just described, it's our responsibility to communicate and lead in a way that people can see that you can't just expect people to hand you a belief about you that you haven't worked hard to earn and so like you know, it's my job, If I ever get the opportunity to be superintendent, to communicate in a way and be authentic in a way, and admit when I make mistakes, and be vulnerable and understand that I believe the community that we care about the most are they're just looking to connect with that superintendent. They're gonna be 10% of the community, and other communities, maybe 20 that don't like you no matter what, and they don't believe in

Chad Bolser: 27:05

Randy, we're part of this is where we're advocates public school or whatever reason. And I'll communicate of public education and leadership, and we want to support the community. And I think folks who tune into this podcast would want to do the same. How would you suggest with them at the highest level, but I won't lose sleep with advocates like us support district leaders in their day to day and and their leadership opportunity? What can we do? their scrutiny level. But for the people that want to

Dr. Randy Mahlerwein: 27:29

I mean, I think, you know, for a district leader, it can be a pretty lonely job. You know, even within our own cabinets and executive teams, there's understand the public school, I mean, it's my responsibility to opinions and egos and politics, and you sometimes are very lonely. And when you feel alone and you don't feel connected, that's where you start to spiral. And I think the stress earn the way they feel about me. Just because I get a title and I increases. I think the best thing that people like you can do is help connect us with like minded or other people with throughout the nation. You know, I have a couple, I call them my have this opportunity to lead. I can't assume that people are accountability friends, right? I call them and I'm like, Hey, am I crazy on this? Or have you gone through this? And they've been very kind. People I find when you ask for help, they're just going to trust me. I have to earn that trust, and that's there for you. And I think that if you see people that from all your interactions, I think making introductions helping us network, I think could probably help us in a big way, because through communication. That's making decisions. It's the right when you know you're not going through it alone, it can make you feel a little better about things. And here's why I say that. So when I got here to Mesa, I got the privilege to decision in the face of adversity. And you know, that's lead the high schools and junior highs, they were very siloed, and the principals felt alone outside of their own leadership team, and they were super competitive and almost really hard with all the relationships and politics that backbiting at times. And the communities would have, you know, sometimes the football games weren't the best sportsman like events. And so my vision was to build a team that would go on, and certain board members have history with this person or collaborate on the highest level and then compete at the highest level in the appropriate competitive arena. So I came in with this, and they thought I was they probably thought I was that person, and then you still got to be just authentic, crazy. We started out doing, like, real connection activities, talking about, you know, what is your greatest professional fear? Tell me about your most, you know, your biggest embarrassing moment as a child. And then we started just explain the why, and then lead with authenticity and integrity. to get to know each other and connect. And once they started to connect, what they saw was instead of us talking about how we're different, they saw how we were similar. And we built what And so honestly, I think it's a responsibility of leadership to I call is a psychologically safe team. And that psychological safety never ends. I have to be a vigilant leader to keep that connection at the highest level and keep that safety in the build that feeling from the community. And so I guess I've room, and, you know, stick to our norms and our values and have tough conversations when but what I learned is that when they connected with each other, it made the job easier. And then always looked at it that way, and I've done that on a micro at our high schools, we really focused on building an instructional leadership team in the high school where the principal was not the instructional leader, and so I'm level, as Principal. And when I was in my other district was going to say something. It's probably going to be controversial across the country, but high schools are too big for our principals to be the instructional leaders. One of my best leaders that I get to work with on my team was a only 11,000 12,000 kids, so I only had 24,000 potential people counselor. He is great in all that area, and that's his distributed expertise. So what do we do? We hire somebody at the right mindsets and values that has a math background, to build a relationship with, and I was able to get out in the somebody has the right mindsets and values in English. We involve our special ed department head, and we strip our titles, and we get into a room, and that's our community and shake hands and talk to people and be honest and instructional leadership team that drives our vision in Mesa Public Schools, and every high school has one, and I can share with you the teams that do it with integrity, that build it, where the principal has the humility to not have all the authentic and who I am. And it worked. And now in Mesa, I feel answers. They just soar. And they also, I got it, you know, I got a phone call one time from one of our most innovative principals. Look up Westwood High School. They're doing like I've done that at the secondary level. You know, I'm amazing things. He called me said, thank you. And I said, Why? Because I don't have to be everything for everybody anymore, and I can really lead my campus. And it's all about in schools as much as possible. I try to go to night events, but building a team and building connection, and setting the right structures around that connection. And when you say this, people out there that don't agree, you know, they're like, Well, it can't be a free for all. It's never a free for all. You know, it's we put a framework together. We talk for me, I'm just gonna stay authentic and honest with about how we feel about that framework, we all commit to it, and we go and so everything I've learned is about building teams, integrity, and I think that's the best way for them to see me empowering teams, and honestly, you know, I will share this with you. In the six years, I've only had to remind somebody that I was their boss one time, and it was in a kind of a conscientious as a real person. like a tense meeting, and the person was just being emotional, and I just needed them to kind of calm down. Because when you lead a team and you lead the right way, the title goes away and all, they just see you as a supporter, and they value you. And if I need the team to do something, and we just implemented, I'll give you an example. We just implemented weapons detections at all seven of our high schools, and it's because our, you know, Larry Lazat, 30 years ago, said safe and orderly environment, and our environments were probably losing some of that safety, and they definitely weren't orderly, and we had to do something. So we went in this direction, we want to keep our community safe. And it was a really hard rollout. We pushed it quick. I never had one argument, not one. Everybody just got together said, Hey, we got to do this. They called each other. We had one principal that was just really organized, and we all learned from him. It wasn't about my campus, it was about getting it right. And I think it went very smooth, very smooth. Our discipline across our high schools are down. People are seeing the positivity, but it's one of those things that really could stress you out, but we just connected. And it's a real good example of how they collaborated about something that wasn't about competition, that was better for the community.

Sarah Williamson: 32:42

Well, I'm inspired. You're incredible. Thank you so much for joining us. I look forward to staying in touch and seeing some of those pieces come out that you're going to be writing. I'm excited to read those. Where can our listeners learn more about you and connect with you?

Dr. Randy Mahlerwein: 32:58

Well, you can email me. I mean, rnahlerwein@ mpsaz.org, I try to respond to all emails that I don't really do a whole lot of tweeting or anything like that. I kind of really try to stay off Instagram. My twitter is pretty much just a news feed. So I think email is good. And then, I mean, you can Google some of the work that I've done and look at the Next Education Workforce work at ASU, we really have an interesting relationship with them. I mean, they're one of the most innovative universities in the nation, one of the largest, if not the largest, innovation in the nation, and we are a true partner. And so the largest school district in the state to work really cohesively with the largest university in the state is rare. I mean, I meet with one of their executive directors weekly, and we collaborate and we support each other. We've even swapped personnel, like state had people on their team that have seen the work we're doing and they wanted to do it. And then we've had people have seen the work they're doing, and then they've shifted, and it's, we have high levels of communication. And so, I mean, I'm very much connected to that work. You can probably find me and some of those articles, and probably just a Google search will find most things that I think are positive. But yeah, I mean, that's, I mean, just email me. I'll email you back. I do zoom meetings with districts throughout the country probably once a month, because they see this teaming model going on, and they want to know how we did it. And I'm humbly, I would say I might be one of the only system leaders out there to done it, to have completed this at scale. And I'll share with you in three years, we went from one high school dipping their toe in the well to we are wall to wall freshman teams at five of our comprehensive high schools, and we'll be wall to wall in all six of them next year. And this is a real game changer for access and opportunity for all kids to share teachers and feel a sense of belonging and connection with their high school. And we believe strongly that since that freshman year is so pivotal, we got to create a better environment for them. And we've partnered with Johns Hopkins, we have Richard Ingersoll from Penn. That's a psychometrician, I believe is this title. He's probably most smart people I've ever heard doing the research on this. And we're seeing positive, statistically significant results across the board on how kids feel about school, how teachers feel about work, how they want to recommend other people to the profession. And we're also seeing Algebra one pass rates go up and out. In English nine pass rates go up, which I think is a real step to defunding failure in our high schools. And I would remind everybody, we're pretty large urban district. We're about 60% free and reduced launch across the board, and so to decrease failure rates, because we know our kids in struggle have a hard time getting to school and need other supports. Pretty exciting work.

Sarah Williamson: 35:36

Well, amazing. I look forward to having you back on the show and talking more about that. This is really inspirational. Thank you again. We appreciate your time. Have a wonderful week.

Dr. Randy Mahlerwein: 35:44

Thank you.

Chad Bolser: 35:45

Thanks so much, Randy.

Dr. Randy Mahlerwein: 35:46

Thank you.

Chad Bolser: 35:47

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Sarah Williamson: 35:58

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