Welcome. Today, I have Glesha Durand with me and we are going to be talking a little bit about continuous improvement and compliance, especially as it relates to the schools of Louisiana. So, Galicia, if you could start off just sharing a little bit about your thoughts about what continuous improvement means and the impact that it has on the overall functioning of schools and parishes. Absolutely. Thanks, Kevin. It's nice to be with you today. And for those of listening from Louisiana schools. I'll tell you my last name is pronounced do wrong, but you have to be a cajun to understand that. I have the French background. I should have done that right. Thank you. We make everything sound French in Louisiana. So continuous improvement in in general, but for me, because my passion is in Louisiana K twelve Education, for me, that means setting goals based on needs that have been identified through a very strategic process. And then working toward those goals always with the child in mind. So making that every decision we make, every dollar we budget, every hire, we engage in, everything we do. Always goes back to how are we improving learning for our children so that they can perform the best in this country. I love that. And so when you have that focus and your your your focus is on the children, or why? How does that help to facilitate this continuous improvement process becoming a a a living breathing process and not a one and done process? Well, when we're focusing on the children through school improvement, through continuous school improvement, we really should be monitoring the progress of children. So continuously engaging with them I'm not talking about testing them to death. I'm talking about simple check ins. I'm talking about setting strategies. And then saying we need to just make sure that that our strategy is working. Let's check-in with these students and make sure that they're having some success as a result of strategy. Maybe exit slips as they're walking out the door or, going over learning that occurred in the classroom in small instructional groups, the last ten minutes of class, Circulating the room. Teachers are professionals at this. But to ensure the improvement is continuous, We have to constantly check-in on the progress of those strategies. And if we're really working on the business of our schools, then those strategies should be directly tied to student success. So to me, that means we're constantly checking on our students. Most of the time informally, but we are constantly checking on our students to make sure they're demonstrating success. So are there, you know, in your experience, in your work with eight zero six technologies, ways using technology to facilitate that process so that you're more assured that this is in fact happening in the schools and and parishes throughout the state of Louisiana. Absolutely. Yeah. But look, I am a firm believer that if there is some sort of technology that can support a process, streamline it and make it easier, you should use it because the real work should be teachers facing students. The real work should be principles in classrooms, coaching teachers. The real work should be district administrators, coaching principles so that they can support their teachers so that students can learn. So why on earth would you waste time with paperwork when there's software that can do it for you? You know what I related to, Kevin? I tell people, think about, especially if you're a parent. I know who you are. I am too. I bring my kids to the pediatrician for their yearly visits. I don't want her to waste time. Filling out paperwork when she's in the room with me. And I'll bet all the other parents that have to see her that day don't want her to waste time. Doing paperwork on my kids after I'm gone when she should be with them. Right? She's too skilled. She's highly skilled and educated and her work should be providing medical advice and treatment for children. So what do doctors use to keep track of patient notes? What do doctor's offices use to keep track of vaccination records? Somewhere. Imagine that. Imagine. They don't waste their time on on keeping file folders and, you know, hard to follow documents and documentation. No. They go find software that they can click around in, get it done, and then I'm walking out the door, they're handing me a piece of paper nicely printed that tells me exactly what they've done today. And and what do I need to do to follow-up? And that's what we should be doing in schools too. And that's what plan for learning does for continuous improvement. Love that. So so so, Felicia, what is it though that causes us to, as educators, sometimes, be distracted by the the, just the strict compliance of things that the task side of things. Why is it that we, we sometimes find ourselves falling into that, that trap and not doing the more efficient kinds of things that will allow us to do, you know, what what we were, designed to do, what what our passion led us to do. Right. That's a great question. I think, it it really comes back to the purse, the type of personality that's drawn into the field of education. In general educators, we tend to be go getters. We we tend to be, goal oriented you give us a list of tasks and we're gonna be able to scratch them all off by the deadline. So we get caught up in what really is just managerial tasks because number one, it's easy to knock out managerial tasks. Who doesn't love? It's a do list. Right? I mean, the honey do list in the house. Everybody loves to be able to scratch that off. It's something off the list. By the end of the weekend. So that's a big part of it. We just see this list and it's manageable. And it's easy and it's something we can do alone most of the time. There that's huge. Right. You hit on a big point there. That's huge. Yeah. But when it comes to continuous improvement, I can't do that by myself from my whole school. I need an entire instructional leadership team to support that effort. It takes a village. Right? Absolutely. So I have to get something on the schedule. Then three people are gonna be sick, and we have to reschedule, and I need somebody to take meeting notes, and I need somebody to go back and report to this person and that person. And it it just starts to feel so overwhelming that it's easier to just go to a list and check things off than it is to engage in the meaningful planning and the meaningful process a continuous improvement. So all all the more reason having a resource that would help to facilitate that because you're gonna have those bumps of the road that you just described. So knowing that we're going to have these bumps and some of these challenges along the way, again, I would imagine all the more reason you'd want to facilitate that process. With resources and tools that will help to make it easier for when everybody is together for that meeting or even if they're not together, the signatures and that sort of thing, ways in which we can streamline that and make it easier so that we truly can collaborate, as we work to better meet the needs of the students we serve. Yep. I totally agree. And that's really what plan for learning software does. It provides. Well, so it was written really for educators by educators. People who have been in the shoes of everyone watching us talk right now in some capacity or another classroom teachers principles, district administrators, superintendents. You know, our whole our whole team, we've all been there. We've we've walked in the shoes of those who need to engage in the continuous improvement process. So the software is nicely laid out so that You just walk through the steps and then it facilitates all the busy stuff. So that you can engage in the meaningful conversations that lead to improvement. Sounds pretty wonderful to me. That's, that is awesome. Well, all that being said, we know there are still teas that do need to be crossed eyes that do need to be dotted guidelines and laws that do need to be followed. So that being said, how do we streamline that? How do we also make that? A process that is easier to follow not quite so overwhelming. So once again, we can focus on those things that we should be focusing on, and that is meeting the needs of our, our students. Absolutely. That yeah. That's a great question. So I think that's where title one crate comes into the equation. And, you know, Title One Cray has its name because it started as a federal compliance software for Title One. But we really can do so much in a school system with that one piece of software. So I challenge people anytime I'm training a new district in Louisiana, I challenge the principals and the school district and the district leaders to think about all the processes that have to be somehow compliance monitored throughout the year. So a great example I can give is, at the beginning of the school year when I was a principal. I would get emails from the assistant superintendent of instruction, the assistant superintendent of business, the accounting department, the student services department, transportation, food and nutrition, and special education, and maintenance. Yes. Eight eight different department heads would have to email me separately. To either provide me with some sort of template to complete for them or to ask me for something that needed to be turned in. Ate highly skilled and educated people at to take time to send multiple reminders and send out all of these documents and then keep track of who they got them back from. And that wasn't even federal compliance. Right? Right. Right. Right. We're just talking about managing the beginning of a school year, eight different highly paid, highly trained people. They could put all of that in title one create and the software would send out the reminders. It would let the principals know that the templates were ready. No. And the principals could do what they need to do and put it right back in title one crate. And then those eight people freed up hours and hours of the beginning of their school year to engage in much we're leaning forward? Not to mention the reduction in stress and anxiety that you feel when you're having to keep track of all of that in your head. It it's it's overwhelming. Even if you have it on a list on a piece of paper, you get distracted, you get pulled to the side. There's some crisis that happens over here, crisis that happens over there. And, plates are being spun and you're trying to keep them all spinning or want anything to drop. And meanwhile, you're having to keep up with these deadlines and followed up, who didn't follow-up and all of that. So, so I hear you. So, automation of that part of the process would be a tremendous important help to these individuals. Yeah. And then from the federal compliance perspective, Any federal program, the rep programs director that you talk to is going to tell you there's just not enough hours in the day They're so busy writing grants and working with the budget team and making sure materials have arrived on time. Really, what they need is someone else. They need a partner of someone to collaborate with that tells them These are the sti things that your state requires from you. And that's what we've done with the Louisiana title and Crazy. We've taken all of the tools from the department of education, all of the monitoring tools from the state. And we've said With our team of experts, these are the things that school systems must maintain on file. So that when they get a desk audit or a desk monitoring or the department monitoring team has come for an in person visit. All of the things are waiting for them. And there's no digging around and panicking and I didn't even know I needed that. All of that goes away because we did the work for you and we just you just need to trust that the monitoring tool is updated. We keep up with it, and you just need to make sure that you're allowing everything that it's asking for. Within reasonable due dates, and you're gonna be good to go. That's huge because there's a joke about the orange jumpsuit. Right? Like, what if offered you one thing? And it's we don't have to worry about that really, but you know, all joking aside, there still is a level of responsibility and anxiety attached to being the person that holds all the purse strings of all the federal funds. And this supports that this software can support that person. In a really effective and meaningful way. You know, Glisha, I love everything that you're saying. And, you know, I'm a former Title One principle myself. And have worked with, state and federal programs directors and Taiwan principles all over the nation over the past twenty plus years. And, and so, you know, one of the things that we have to be mindful of when we're in leadership roles is cost, right? Are we being good stewards of the the Paris's dollars of the, you know, state and federal dollars and so forth. So if the current solution that I'm using is, at little to no cost, Well, I'm aware that, solution like Cuddle one crate is is not at great cost What is it that would, really kinda get me over the edge in terms of I I've got this system in place right now, but it's it's lacking some of the pieces that you talked about to justify maybe a little added expense to move in the direction of this software, this resource. Yeah. So, well, I think the most obvious answer, for all of it, is that we know if ever we make a really big mistake, it will cost us a lot of money to fix it. You know, it comes with a penalty. Right? But If we're being completely honest, most of us will never experience that kind of problem. Well, what we will experience is a cost in my opinion that's almost just as great and that's asking people that are working so hard already to have to give up three weekends in a row and come to the office and start digging around because we're missing things or we can't find them in this place where we store everything and it could be a file room or it could be a digital storage that you're using that just isn't automated like title one crate and it's not aligned like Title one crate, but the reality is something will go missing. And so for the what I think is a very minimal cost to use title and create, you're you're ensuring that you'll never have that last minute moment of panic where you've got people giving up weekends of their time. And sometimes you're maybe even spending money on that. Right. Yep. You're even you're paying them by the hour to be in your building all weekend because there's no time during the week. I just think in the end, it ends up being, So work the cost and then some. Sure. No. That balance is so very important. You know, because like you, as you shared with young kids, I mean, as I was principal, young kids, I bring them up on Saturdays and set them up with a video to watch and some butcher block paper and some markers and have them do that while I'm working on some organization planning and that sort of thing. On the weekends, and and giving my wife a little bit of a break because she was teaching in the classroom during the week as well. So, so I fully get that Well, Glisha, I so appreciate your thoughtfulness, your insight, the information that you shared. I'd like to round out our conversation with, one last question. You know, the the words just thinking or something that, have been around for many years, but I've sort of coined them or or brand them with with my name, Kevin. So I'm just thinking. So I wanna ask you, Alicia. Is there anything else that you're just thinking with regards to education as a whole or specifically for educators and learners of Louisiana that I didn't give you a chance to express. That you would like to express at this time. Sure. So, I wasn't just thinking this. I'm always thinking this. Uh-oh, you got your own brand now. Always think Love it. It's good. Always thinking. We we are nationally, we are experiencing a teacher shortage and we really must find ways to make people value the importance of educators and the ways educators are using their time and effort. And in the state of Louisiana, to my knowledge, there does not exist a school improvement plan template provided for school systems to be able to easily draft out a plan. But at eight zero six, we have created one. And the fact that so many people around the they are having to recreate the wheel breaks my heart because we've done it for them We just need them to see it. Sure. It's completely aligned. And I do believe also, and I think about this a lot as well. Using plan for learning, the school improvement template we have for Louisiana will facilitate continuous improvement, and it will be a game changer for many school systems and schools because it encourages all the right steps to prove that our kids can perform just as well as any other child in the nation. How does my hope angle and dream for Louisiana? Well, Glisha, that's a great note on which to end this conversation. So thank you so much for spending some time with me today. And, I look forward to sharing all of what you shared with me with others. Alright. Thank you, Kevin. Thank you.
