June 06, 2024, Lancaster ISD/Lancaster, Texas -- Lancaster ISD hosted its annual Leadership Summit for district leadership personnel. The Love, Logic, Launching Success Leadership Summit provided educators with the opportunity to enhance their leadership skills, while learning how to focus on themselves as individuals.
Lancaster ISD’s Instructional Services team commissioned skillful and experienced professionals to lead educators in meaningful and insightful development sessions. The three-day summit included sessions from nationally renowned educational consultants, Dr. Darian Jones and Dr. Dallas Dance, yoga and meditation instructor, Tonya Clark, music education collective, Let the Beat Build, and Lancaster ISD leaders Dr. Cassandra Barker and Dr. Marcus Jackson.
Summit attendees engaged in various breakout sessions that covered topics such as work-life balance, data-driven decision-making, identifying who you are as a leader, and how your leadership affects your team.
Summit organizer and Assistant Director of Human Capital and Strategic Initiatives, Dr. Sharonda LaCour, set out to provide participants with fun and engaging sessions that addressed the needs of district leaders. “We identified the needs of our district leaders ensuring they walked away with tools they needed to be successful in the upcoming school year,” LaCour reflected.
Lancaster ISD district leadership identified a key need for educators, rest. Work-life balance was a constant theme in multiple breakout sessions. Dr. Darian Jones reminded attendees, “as an educator, you must take care of yourself first so that you can be there for others.” Additionally, Yoga instructor Tonya Clark affirmed attendees that “you are worthy of rest, you do not have to earn it. It’s your birthright.” Clark led district leaders through guided yoga meditation practices, known as Yoga Nidra, to show how rest is beneficial to being the best leader possible.
Attendees expressed how they plan to utilize what they have learned in the upcoming school year.
“I need to rest and take care of self,” said Ta-Tanisha Stevenson, Executive Principal of Belt Line Elementary. “Also, you need to always think about who you are as a leader and who you are leading and make sure you are leading them in the way that they need to be led.” Day three of the summit highlighted an ideal that is important to Stevenson, climate and culture. She stated how important bonding and team-building is to campus culture
Lancaster ISD Deputy Superintendent, Dr. Cassandra Barker’s goal for the leadership summit was to equip district leaders with leadership skills that enhance their departmental expertise. “Every department gets to send people to conferences around their expertise, we never send individuals to conferences that focus on leadership. Many people have great skills and they have been promoted to a leadership role, however, there hasn’t been an opportunity for them to sharpen their leadership iron,” emphasized Barker.
Another theme throughout the summit was identifying who you are as a leader. “Dr. Barker and myself had a session on discovering who you are as a leader. Additionally, we delved into who are you leading, leaning into knowing the strengths and personalities of every person on your team,” said Dr. Marcus Jackson, Chief of Student Services. Dr. Jones also focused on understanding your leadership personality and how it relates to your team’s personality traits.
Lancaster ISD Superintendent of School, Dr. A. Katrese Perera, wanted attendees to ultimately reflect on why they do what they do. “When we began, I asked my team to go back to the center of who we are, our why. Let’s put together learning opportunities for all of our leaders to go back to why we do this and how we do it and let’s have fun in the process,” said Perera.
The Love, Logic, Launching Success Leadership Summit provided district leaders with multiple opportunities to reflect and grow, while having a good time. Whether it was through challenging and thought-provoking sessions, experiencing the process of becoming a music producer with Let the Beat Build, or the adult field-day that concluded the summit, the vision for this professional development experience was accomplished. Session attendees left the summit with motivation and inspiration to lead their respective departments in way that will positively impact the Lancaster ISD community.
