Build Momentum for Education - K-12 Superintendent Series

S05E14 - Leading with Heart: A Superintendent’s Story of Building Trust and Leading with Transparency | Heidi Sipe, Superintendent, Umatilla School District

• Sarah Williamson and Chad Bolser / Dr. Heidi Sipe • Season 5 • Episode 14

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In this episode of Build Momentum, we are joined by Dr. Heidi Sipe, Superintendent of Umatilla School District in Oregon, a role she has held for a remarkable 17 years. Dr. Sipe previously served as  the district’s Federal Programs Director and Assistant Superintendent for five years. She also has a higher education background: She is an Adjunct Professor at Lewis and Clark College in Oregon and was an Adjunct Professor at Concordia University in Chicago.  Dr. Sipe brings a government perspective as well, having served as an Assistant Superintendent in the Oregon Department of Education.

Some Questions We Ask:

  • What is the most rewarding aspect of serving as a superintendent? (01:24)
  • What is your opinion about the 2023 RAND Study and how do you cope with stress in the superintendency? (02:06)
  • How has scrutiny of the superintendency changed over the years? (03:26)
  • What are your strategies for bringing the community together to see your vision as a superintendent? (06:51)
  • How do you gauge the engagement level of your community?  (10:00)
  • Do you think your stress level as a superintendent is representative of others across the nation? (11:30)
  • What creative ways have you used storytelling and communication? (13:04)
  • What’s your advice to district leaders who are having difficulty building a community? (16:56)
  • Why is it important to see superintendents as real people? (20:02)
  • How can we better support superintendents in their roles? (21:39)

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

  • Rewarding aspects of the superintendency (01:33)
  • Dr. Sipe’s opinion on the 2023 RAND study and stress coping mechanisms (02:22)
  • Scrutiny of the superintendency (03:31)
  • Bringing the community together around one vision (07:01)
  • Gauging community engagement levels (10:12)
  • Stress level comparisons among superintendents (11:41)
  • Creative ways of reaching out to the community (13:17)
  • Advice for other district leaders (17:01)
  • The importance of humanizing superintendents (20:28)
  • Tips for advocating for superintendents (21:50)

Quotes:

“How I do parental involvement: I try to be places. I try to visit. I try to get to know people.”

“We can't ever forget that we are given this incredible opportunity—but also responsibility—to be a partner in raising the next generation of leaders, and if we don't own that and recognize the significance of it, we're failing our communities. No one's going to trust someone to be a partner in raising their kid unless they know that person and they know what they stand for."

Stay in touch with Dr. Heidi Sipe:

LinkedIn 

Stay in touch with Sarah Williamson:
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

Sarah Williamson:

Hello and welcome to Build Momentum for Education, a Podcast where we explore thought leadership in education. I'm Sarah Williamson, the founder of SWPR Group, an agency that supports public relations, communication strategies and thought leadership, support for school districts, education companies and nonprofit organizations.

Chad Bolser:

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:

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:

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

Sarah Williamson:

We can't wait to get started. So let's dive in. Today on Build Momentum for Education. We are so fortunate to have Heidi Sipe, Superintendent at the Umatilla School District in Oregon joining us. Welcome, Heidi,

Heidi Sipe:

Thank you for having me.

Sarah Williamson:

Yes. First, would you mind kicking it off by sharing what you found to be the most rewarding aspects of serving as a superintendent?

Heidi Sipe:

My favorite thing is grand students. So I've been in this district for 25 years. I've been the superintendent for 18 and so I get to see generations of kids, and nothing makes me happier than seeing grand students show up as kinder. And my oldest grand student is actually going to be a senior this next year, and that's bittersweet for me, but I'm really proud of her and her parents.

Chad Bolser:

That's really cool. And we've enjoyed having these conversations with superintendents like you, and to hear them talk about the relationships that they build is super, super awesome. So but we asked this question at 2023 RAND, study found that superintendents have one of the most stressful jobs in America. And do you agree with these findings, and how have you been able to cope with the stress of this challenging role throughout your career.

Heidi Sipe:

So yes, it is absolutely an incredibly stressful job. That's also one of my favorite things about this work. I always call this my new job no matter how many years I've been doing it, because every year is so different. I mean, it's just not the same job year to year. Everything's in flux, and I love that part of it, but it's also incredibly stressful, and so the biggest thing that I do to manage the stress professionally is I rely heavily on colleagues, my original mentors, from when I was very first starting off in my career. I still connect with them as often as I possibly can. I still learn from them. And through the years, I've helped a variety of people when they're starting in their career, but I rely upon them too, and I believe that all mentorship is really a two way conversation, and we all need each other as mentors. I don't have mentees. I have mentors who mentor me, and I try to mentor them.

Sarah Williamson:

Yes, we definitely have heard that from Oregon superintendents and leaders throughout the state that you are looked to as a leader and a mentor. So thank you for that. I'm also curious, how do you think the scrutiny of the role of the superintendent has changed over the past few years?

Heidi Sipe:

Social media has changed the game entirely. And when I first started as a superintendent, people would come to the office when they had concerns, and I could form a cup of coffee and we could sit and have a conversation, and even if they were angry, I could understand why. I could take the time to listen and really understand where their anger was coming from, and use that to learn how we could do better to meet their needs and meet their students needs in a more productive and positive way for them. And I valued those. Through the years, I've had less and less of those types of conversations and more social media battles that I won't get in the middle of, but I will see them, where people will send me screenshots of them. And so I have a policy if I see someone that is really going off on social media, and if their name is actually their name that I just pick up the phone and I call them and I'll say, Hi, I'm Heidi, and I understand you're upset about this situation. And I wondered if we could have a conversation about it. And I learned to do that during COVID, when everyone was a keyboard warrior, and they were very brave, and they didn't mind if their information was correct or not. They were so stressed out that I think they would just believe anything. And so it became my job to just be upfront. And the one lady that I called, I was like, Hi, I'm Heidi, and she started crying. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to say all those things. I'm like, It's okay, it's okay. Let's just talk it through. And so we ended up talking it through. She ended up being one of the moms that I could rely upon. If I needed information to go out, I could always text her and say, Hey, I just posted something. Will you be sure your friends get that? And using parents like that as those key communicator resources after you develop a relationship with them is helpful, but it's changed in the way that we do the work and the scrutiny used to be based off of a newspaper article or a data point. Now the scrutiny is based off of whatever someone has put out there, whether it's true or not, and that's really hard, especially because we have an obligation to always protect student privacy, and a parent can go on there and say just about anything happened. I may know the truth, but I would never share that truth, because I need to protect our students privacy.

Sarah Williamson:

Can I just jump in real quick? I think that is the exact definition of humanizing the role of the superintendent. What you just shared. Those angry moms? I mean, I've been an angry mom before, and I can't, you know? I mean, there's nothing scarier than an angry mom. I always say that, but truly, it's so meaningful and makes such an impact if you just if you reach out as a superintendent and connect with those people, because we feel heard. If you're angry, what you really want is to be heard, and that's all it takes. So kudos to you for doing that. That's incredible.

Chad Bolser:

I have so many things that I would like to interject about Sarah being angry, but I'm gonna go ahead and move on to

Sarah Williamson:

so many stories.

Chad Bolser:

Most importantly, we want to hear from Heidi, not stories about Sarah, but that is that

Heidi Sipe:

I'll stay on later to hear him if you want.

Chad Bolser:

Yeah, absolutely. That's absolutely. And it should be noted that you did help me change my identity, that I was trying to fake you all out by putting the wrong identity on this zoom call. Okay, so anyway, our question is, what has been your strategy for bringing people together to see your vision for the district, or to collaboratively build a vision for the district?

Heidi Sipe:

I learned a long time ago that people don't want to come to another meeting. They're really busy. They don't want to do that, and I don't blame them. And so we try to focus all of our family outreach events on opportunities for families to make memories. So one of my favorite things that we do is we have a someone special dance, and then that is like on the concept of a daddy daughter dance, but we want it to be more inclusive of just bring whoever you want. And so after homecoming, when the high school kids have their big homecoming dance, we leave up all the decorations, and then the next day, there's a DJ and a photo booth and all those sorts of things for parents to come with their kids and have fun, and there's refreshments, and it's just a fun thing. But I go as often as I can to events like that, and I just walk around and I visit. And one year, we had a bunch of donations of costumes that didn't sell at Walmart from Halloween the year before, and they said, Will you take these? And I was like, absolutely. So then I laid out all the costumes in the band room. And as families came in, I let them pick out their costume. And while they were picking it out, I would say, hey, last year, we invested really heavily in educational assistance. Have you seen the difference in your child's classroom, and have they talked about the amount of help they're getting at school? Can you feel it? Does it matter to you? And then we'd have those conversations. Then after they leave, I jot down my little notes from the conversation. And that's how I do parental involvement. I try to be places. I try to visit. I try to get to know people. Last night, I was at Dual Language night. It was a family night, and we have parents that have had immigration questions and so and how, what happens with my child at school? And so I sat in the back table with the translator and one of our family liaisons, and I was just there to answer parents questions. And so some parents came over with questions about their kids data, and they didn't understand how to read a report. Other parents came over with, what happens if I shows up at the school, no matter what the situation is, they knew how to find me. They knew where I'd be, and we sorted it out. And I think just being as visible as possible is important. That's also the hardest thing of this job, because if I'm at one event, I can only be at that one event. But in schools, there's not just one event ever. There's constantly something else happening. So for every parent that says I see Heidi everywhere, there's five more. They say, we've never seen her all year. We don't even know who that lady is. It's so hard. And so then the other thing I try to do is I post videos, and they're not great. It's just me on a zoom by myself, or me on a zoom with Lizzie, our communications coordinator, who will translate for me, and we just record the zoom and parents as they send in questions. I collect them, and then I answer those. Or if there's something important going on, I answer that, and I just visit like this with no one, and then I put that recording out there. And I think that really helps families, at least, know my face, know the information from the horse's mouth, and it just helps build relationships.

Sarah Williamson:

Yeah,

Chad Bolser:

I suspect you measure that somehow that engagement level, can you tell, based upon an issue or a topic or a time of year, how much engagement either goes up or down?

Heidi Sipe:

We have our YouTube views, and we use that to give us an idea. I started this during COVID, yeah, and the way that I started during COVID was actually comical, because it was during lockdown and we couldn't go anywhere. And so at that time, my assistant would come to my house, and we would sit spaced apart on my fireplace hearth, and we would sit my husband would film, and we would just answer questions live on Facebook. People would come on with their questions, and we'd just answer. And we had some hysterical things. My husband dropped the camera one time, and we had this blooper reel, and we would just laugh and be real. And I think that helped a lot. We had a lot of families actually moved to our district or transferred in during COVID, and I think it was because of just chatting with people online, we ended up, one night, we had someone get on there that was a troll and ruined our ability to ever do a Facebook Live again. But so that's when we started doing the zoom thing. And so with the Zoom piece, that allowed us to still engage, not quite in the way that I really was enjoying during that time, but we could still do it and it still mattered.

Sarah Williamson:

Yeah, that's powerful. I'm curious. It sounds like you've had similar challenges to other superintendents across the country, but how do you think your stress level and issues you're facing are representative to those in your region, your rural region, and also across the state of Oregon and nationally?

Heidi Sipe:

I think that the stress level of the work is incredible, and there's no sense trying to deny it, but I view this role as being the person who's supposed to do that like that's what I signed up for. It's my job to absorb that stress. It's my job to deflect, to fight and to figure out what matters, and then I translate that to my staff. So yesterday, for example, I sent them that, hey, here's what went out to families with the latest video chat. Here's the additional things you should know as a staff. Because as we're talking about federal budget freezes, people want to know, how does this impact our budget? That's not something the general public needs to know quite yet, but it's something staff's worried about. So I send that out to them, because it's my job to take the stress and then to try to prevent it for them, that's what I should be doing. The way that I can do that, I watercolor paint all the time, like I try to paint something every day. I'm not a good artist. In fact, it's looking to see if I had one here to show you. I'm a pretty pitiful artist, but I love to do it, and it is something that switches my brain off. It makes me focus on something. It makes me try to get better at something, when still not good for the record. But I make my little art and I decompress and then the rest of it. That's my job. I'm supposed to deal with the stress I deal with it. Those are the rules.

Chad Bolser:

What are some creative ways you have been able to use communications and storytelling? You've kind of given some examples of that to connect with educators and families and communities throughout your career?

Heidi Sipe:

Throughout my career, the one thing that has been really helpful to me is I very seldom travel alone for speaking events. So when I've been asked to speak at different national events on school board, Superintendent relationships is usually the topic I get asked to speak on, I bring my board. And so I'll say, don't pay me, but I would like to pay the travel cost of my board instead. And so they'll come, and it's really important for that to happen, because I notice that oftentimes school boards don't have the opportunity to see their superintendents outside of the district. They don't understand the influence or the work that they're doing that's meaningful in the district if they can't see it. And so that's important. If I'm speaking throughout the state, I try to bring a student with me, and so I if I'm talking about keeping kids engaged. A couple years ago, I took a staff member who's with us now, who was once a teen parent. She had two students while she was in high school, and she still graduated. Then we recruited her to come be an ED assistant for us, and she had her third baby during that time, and then now she's a teacher. She just finished her admin credentials, and so I'm exceptionally proud of her and the work that she has done. I wanted her to speak on engagement and how we keep kids that are being challenged to stay in school, in school. So I took her and another young man that was very disengaged, and I just had run into him, and I said, How's your year going? And he's like, not, well, I hate school. I said, Well, what makes school fun for you? He goes, nobody else likes cars. I go, there's lots of people that like cars. And he goes, No, I don't think so. I want to have a car club, but there's just nobody to have a car club. I said, I'll make you a deal if you go out and you recruit at least five. Other kids to be in your car club. Mister Sife and I'll pay for all your T shirts for your club. And boy, the joke was on me, because he got like, 40 some kids to be in this car club, and it became a really big thing, and I was on the hook for a lot of T shirts. That was a big bill, but it was worth it, because it gave him the opportunity to re engage. And so those two went with me to talk to leaders about how to re engage students. I think it's important to remember that we represent voices in our role, but their voices directly matter a lot too. So every July, when I go to AASA and the advocacy conference, I take one teacher and two students with me, and when I'm talking to legislators, so are they, because I can only relay so much of someone else's story, and I want to instead provide them access to share their own.

Sarah Williamson:

That is an amazing strategy. Heidi, I'm also happy that you didn't have to buy them a car and you only had to buy T shirts. That was that's a great deal.

Heidi Sipe:

I did once accidentally buy a car at a booster club auction. I thought I'd just start the bidding, and I started and ended it. And

Sarah Williamson:

oh, wow.

Heidi Sipe:

Andy, one to explain to my husband. He's used to me by now, but

Chad Bolser:

Can we ask? What kind of car?

Heidi Sipe:

Oh, it's hysterical. It was like a 1980 something Volvo. It smoked. It was really a piece of work. And so I got that stop smoke additive that you could put in the gas tank, and I drove it to my brother and said, Look, I got you a car. He drove it for us. It's fine.

Sarah Williamson:

That's funny. What is your advice to other district leaders? I mean, that's pretty darn good advice right there, bringing people who can speak on your behalf, your board, students, educators, to actually see what's happening on a national level. I think it's easy to get siloed and think that you're not doing great work, when you can actually get out there and see, hey, actually we're working with a superintendent who's nationally recognized. Probably makes everyone feel good. But I'm curious, what's your advice for other leaders who are struggling to build that community and connection?

Heidi Sipe:

Probably twofold. So I'll talk first, if it's okay with you, about leaders connecting with other leaders, and then leaders connecting with the broader community. Is that okay? So I think leaders with other leaders. One of the

Sarah Williamson:

Absolutely. things that I started, I don't even know how long ago, probably 15 years ago, is I just made it a rule for myself that if I saw a superintendent in the news for something ugly, I just wrote him a card and I would just say, Hey, I saw the article. I don't need to know what's going on. I just want you to know that I'm cheering for you, and I'm cheering you for your success. And if you ever need to vent, here's my cell number. Hope you have a good day. And I probably send 50 of those a year, even now, and if they need me, they call. I mean, they don't, they don't, and it doesn't matter to me. What matters to me is that somebody gave them a nudge and said, hey, just here for you. And that's how I built a lot of my network is through the years, different people have called, or different people have said, you know, who will help you with that? Call, Heidi. And then I've also started reaching out and doing that same thing for aspiring sups and things like that. When I see somebody who's on the rise, I walk around with piles of note cards. They often have my very poorly done watercolor drawings on them, because at some point you gotta give those away somehow. So I will hand somebody a card and just write it formally fast, just to make sure, like, Hey, I see you becoming a leader in these meetings, and I'm proud of you, and I hope you continue. And if you need help, let me know. And I think it's important to remember that to build a network, you have to be the network too, and it can't just be a one way relationship. And for people who don't know how to start, just do that. And then that evolved over the years to where I would host, and I still do these leadership dinners, and there are no host deal. I just say, hey, the following nights, I'm going to be at dinner at this place you want to visit, show up, and I invite a lot of people, and a lot of people show up, and we connect. And I think that those types of opportunities are just really important, and without those, it's a lonely gig, and I think it's important to build those connections and trust with the broader community. You have to admit when you're wrong. I will see people do so much work to build a relationship, and they destroy it by doing the talk of justifying a bad decision, or they'll stand by a situation beyond when it makes sense, and so I try to be really ahead of conversations and when we've

Chad Bolser:

We talked throughout this season to made a mistake, or when a staff member has done something that is absolutely not okay, I just say that this does not meet our expectations, and this is not a reflection of our broader district as a whole. I am sorry that this happened, and this is our plan for what we're going to do to make this right, and that helps. And I don't know why people are afraid to just own it. I think they're afraid of lawsuits, or they're afraid of whatever those people are going to sue you, no matter what. Okay, do the right thing, and it's going to work out. It might not work out the way you want. It's going to work out somehow you got a better chance at working out in a positive way, if you just tell the truth, be honest and be humble. superintendents, and we have become huge fans of them as we listen to you. Heidi, it's easy to understand why, but talk to us about why you think it is important for the community to see you as a real person who's navigating complex challenges to provide the best possible education for our K 12 students.

Heidi Sipe:

Our families are trusting us with their kids. No person has greater love for anything than their child, and it's really important to remember how treasured these little people are that we have in our schools, and I knew I was making headway in our community. The first time a mom handed me her baby at the basketball game and said, I know you love babies. I just had this one, and I was so excited, because I am a baby person, but getting to be trusted with someone's baby is a really big deal. And so a couple weeks ago, one of our teen moms brought me her baby, and I was so happy to hold that little guy and snuggle on him. And I think that those pieces are just crucial, because we can't ever forget that we are given this incredible opportunity, but also responsibility to be a partner in raising the next generation of leaders, and if we don't own that and recognize the significance of it, we're failing our communities. And no one's going to trust someone to be a partner in raising their kid unless they know that person and they know what they stand for.

Sarah Williamson:

I'm getting a little teary listening to that's really powerful. Heidi, how can we as supporters of K 12 education, as parents, as community members, as peers. How can we better support superintendents in this role?

Heidi Sipe:

I think superintendents need people to say the things that they can't say. So when I can come out and say, We messed up or this didn't meet our standards, we need other people to say, hey, things happen in all industries that don't go the way you want. And schools are not the only place where sometimes outcomes are where we want them to be. Schools are not the only place where natural disasters happen, and somebody makes the wrong snow day decision, which, by the way, I did today. So those pieces are helpful, and you need someone who's willing to say, this happens, and I stand behind this person when things are tough and something as simple as a snow day thing. A few years ago, we just had a whole series of bad, bad weather, and I was making the best calls I could. And honestly, on the day, I would cancel school by 10am it was sunny and beautiful, and the next day we'd have school and we'd have Snowmageddon all day. And I finally just did one of my Zoom videos, and I walked them through what I do to make the decision, and when they realized it's me out there driving at

4:

30 in the morning and when it's me hitting all the neighborhood routes and doing my best, and when they understood the criteria I was following. Now it's really funny, because when people are critical about the decisions I make on the snow, like today was really a bad one. At 4:30 this morning, we had tiny little bits of snow in the forecast positions. Stop in an hour. By 7am I thought, oh, goodness, this can be a bad day, because the roads were bad today. We probably should have

cancelled school today, but 4:

30 in the morning, that wasn't the decision, and that's when I have to make that. And so, oddly enough, parents were out there saying, re sharing the video Like, hey everybody. She did the best she could today. You need those people. That's how we support superintendents, because we're making as many decisions in a day, or we are making many decisions in a day, and we aren't going to get everyone correct. But if people can trust the intentions with which we made it, trust the data points that we're using to make it, then they have greater understanding. So it's our job to share those intentions, show those intentions, model those intentions, share the data, and then hopefully it becomes their job to back us up.

Chad Bolser:

Well this has been super cool, talking with you and having this conversation, and besides coming and finding you

for a cup of coffee at 4:

30 in the morning on a snowy day, where can our listeners learn more about you and connect with you directly.

Heidi Sipe:

So the easiest way to interact is through LinkedIn. Now I used to do a variety of other platforms, but truly, for most professional conversations, I post on LinkedIn, you probably won't see my face very often on my LinkedIn. I'm not one of the superintendents that does selfies. I'm one of the super intense post pictures of what's happening. I don't like to be in front of the camera, but I'm always happy to share what's happening with our kids, and I spend a lot of time doing that on LinkedIn or just sharing stories. And I really enjoy communicating with others on that.

Sarah Williamson:

This has been so amazing. Thank you Heidi. It was great to meet you, and I look forward to staying in touch.

Heidi Sipe:

Thanks. Thanks for the opportunity. Hope you guys both have a great day.

Chad Bolser:

Thanks Heidi.

Heidi Sipe:

Take care.

Chad Bolser:

Thanks for tuning into the Build Momentum for Education Podcast. If you enjoyed listening today, we would love to hear your feedback, and we'd be grateful if you could leave us a review.

Sarah Williamson:

This helps us to share these powerful stories with even more people. If you liked what you heard, we'd be honored if you could share this episode with someone in your network. We look forward to seeing you next time on Build Momentum for Education.