Global Citizens Q&A, Natalie Smith, Founder + CEO 

1. What you felt the day you turned in the application

Exhausted! Preparing and submitting the charter application was a Herculean effort. It required a deep personal commitment, an authentic connection to several communities east of the Anacostia River, and strong partnerships with existing organizations serving those communities. It was a lot, but it provided me a 360° view of the need and demand for schools east of the Anacostia River. When I submitted the application, I was confident that Global Citizens Public Charter School would fill a gap in the portfolio of schools in DC - an equity-centered dual language immersion school deeply rooted in the visions that families living in Wards 7 and 8 have for their children.

Though I felt exhausted, I felt grateful for the students, families, community leaders and partners, and funders who engaged with my board, my leadership team, and me in creating and piloting a program that we were proud to submit and make public.

2. What you thought during the review process ("wow this is hard. or I hope this is going well")

I am grateful for the partners and previous school founders who helped prepare me for the review process. However, nothing could have prepared me for how I would feel throughout the experience. I thought the process was intellectually rigorous and personally challenging, and my leadership team and I did not always know if it was going well. I thought the [DC PCSB] Board and staff questions were pointed and thorough. At several points, I thought, “Am I addressing their concerns?” I cannot underscore how high stakes it felt because I recognized that my board, leadership team, and I were not only showing up for ourselves but also the voices of communities and the dreams of their current and future children.

Ultimately, the review process made me feel confident that, if approved, my team and I had created strong instructional, community engagement, and staffing plans, aligned with a viable budget to ensure its sustainability. 

3. How you felt the moment you knew the school was going to get approved

I did not know whether Global Citizens [Public Charter School] would be approved until the vote was complete. Though I was able to read the staff memo ahead of the vote, I knew that meeting the standards for approval did not equal receiving Board approval, particularly during the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Realizing that our application was approved was a deeply emotional experience. At that moment, I felt that my voice and the voices of families east of the Anacostia River who had been demanding access to Dual Language Immersion programs in our communities for years were validated. I felt seen and heard as a career educator who has been dedicated to equity and excellence in DC schools for 20 years.

And selfishly, I felt that my sleepless nights and time I could not spend with my three-year-old son as I wrote the application had not been in vain. Global Citizens [Public Charter School] is a school for him to attend as well. At that moment, I envisioned my son, Chase, and his friends engaging in our program, speaking English, Mandarin, and Spanish - becoming global citizens.

4. How you feel now about what's next— the planning year, imagining the first day of school?

Excitement cannot adequately communicate how I feel about the work ahead of the Global Citizens [Public Charter School] team. In the short time since being approved, we have secured nearly $500,000 in philanthropy for our planning year and are in the final stages of securing over one million dollars for our first three years of operation. In July, our leadership team will join as employees, expanding our capacity to finalize our instructional model and budget, secure a facility, engage and recruit families and staff, and build a strong culture. I know this will be another Herculean effort, peppered with anticipated and unanticipated challenges, but it is one I will proudly lead with our community.

It will all be worth it to watch the first group of three- and four-year-olds enter our hallways and begin their journey to become global citizens. It will be worth it to see the smiles on the faces of their families as they watch their babies walk into a school built entirely for them - and in our community. It will all be worth it when I see teachers delivering high-quality language instruction and culturally relevant teaching.

5. As a new school leader opening a school during a pandemic, what will be some of the challenges you’ll face? Opportunities? 

The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the inequities in our schools and communities. I am excited that Global Citizens [Public Charter School] has the opportunity to reflect, re-evaluate, and create a new “normal” - a new way of doing school with equitable systems and practices that will benefit the children and families we will serve.  

My team and I are prepared to be responsive to a wide set of equity and access issues.  We are tackling the challenges and opportunities of ensuring our instructional model is flexible to serve students in-person and virtually and that we have the instructional technology and strong teacher practices to operationalize it. We are also iterating our Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) to address additional academic gaps and mental and emotional health needs created by school closure. We are also iterating on ways to continue engaging families, community leaders, and our community partners. We know that student and staff recruitment, and even facility identification, will have to be done differently in our planning year. Gladly, we have access to and are leveraging the resources available to us through the Board and our partners to pivot to continue our work of piloting our model and becoming known members of the community.

6. If there was one thing you wish someone would’ve told you before opening a new school, what would that be? 

It is difficult to answer this question because we will not open for another year. I am sure my response will be different when we open our doors in 2021.

Right now, I wish someone would have told me to fundraise and to onboard my team as early as possible. Though I had identified my leadership team while incubating the Global Citizens [Public Charter School] model and writing the charter application, I was the only full-time member of my team. This is not a one-person challenge. Luckily, I had some resources to pay my principal in a consulting capacity and had support from partners to extend my capacity. However, it was still challenging and more than a full-time role for me.  I have solace in knowing that our school will live on past me and serve thousands in our communities.

7. Describe the ways in which starting a school has brought you joy during these unprecedented times. 

My role at Global Citizens [Public Charter School] brings me joy on a daily basis. I find purpose knowing that our school will fill the demand that families living east of the Anacostia River have had for years - providing families access to a high-quality language immersion program in our community. 

We have the unique opportunity to connect with children and families in unconventional, yet authentic ways: providing them gift cards for meals, engaging them in virtual learning experiences, and having check-in conversations about their desires for our school and needs during this challenging period. Though it is also taxing emotionally to see many members of our community in need, my team and I find joy in being able to provide support so that we all get through this together.

Lastly, I am a naturally joyful person. I think it comes from spending my career in schools with young children! Every time I attend a virtual session, have a call with a family or community partner, meet with my board and leadership team, I am jazzed. It is so exciting and such a privilege to be building a new school, particularly during a time when innovation is widely accepted to serve children equitably.

Meridian Q&A, Matthew McCrea, Executive Director

1. Describe your journey to becoming a school leader. Why did you decide to work in education?

I grew up the oldest of six children in suburban Northwest Indiana.  I spent countless hours - my first as a young "teacher" - helping my siblings with their homework. Over time, I began to realize how much a great teacher impacted both my own learning compared to my friends and my siblings. While my parents were always my first and greatest teachers, other educators I met throughout my schooling pushed me to give all I had and placed me in opportunities where I could learn even outside of the classroom, and those opportunities opened worlds that I wouldn't have known otherwise. By the time I got to college, I began tutoring students from the neighborhood and teaching sections of math as a TA, and I realized then I had found my passion. After teaching math and engineering at a middle school in Prince George's County, I was lucky enough to have principals that grew me as a leader, first as a department chair then as an instructional coach, and encouraged me to explore school leadership as a path I might take. Not long after, I began a residency with New Leaders for New Schools before serving as principal of a school in PGCPS, and joined Meridian as its Head of School in July of 2019.

2. What one word or phrase best describes your leadership style? 

Max DePree, the late American businessman, said it best - “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.”

3. As you mobilize solutions and confront the challenges, how do you build and maintain relationships with your teachers, staff, students, and their families?
 

Lots of listening. We are all finding ourselves in uncharted waters, and it's folly to assume that any leader in education right now has all of the answers. Instead, I've tried to set broad parameters for our actions, collectively define goals, and listen to our teachers as they experiment and iterate, and spend my energy spreading the great practices that seem to be working for our students. Relationships are built and maintained through constant communication and through consistently demonstrating that we take the feedback seriously as we move forward. Relationships with students and families have been maintained through proactive check-ins with them to remind them that we're also a social safety net and that our job is to support them as much as we can throughout the crisis.
 

4. The pandemic magnifies and deepens the vast inequities present in our current systems, how do lessen the inequities for students? What strategies have you used to support student's racial identity development in education?

We worked to deploy resources quickly to our students so they could engage in distance learning. To date, we've lent out over 300 laptops (and counting) to our students for use at home and have walked nearly as many families through the process of getting internet at home through one of the programs available in DC. We also recognize that despite our best efforts learning will be lost during this time, so we are actively planning for the summer and the fall to implement plans for accelerated learning to minimize any growth in the achievement gap. We also constantly analyze data about participation and learning rates during distance learning, and work creatively to minimize the gaps between our general education students, our special education students, and our English Language Learners.
 

5. As COVID-19 magnifies, what does success look like for your students?  

We're hoping for success in three different ways - 

1. Our students continue to learn and access the curriculum in ways that allow them to continue to close the racial and socioeconomic achievement gap between them and their peers across the city and the country.

2. Our students are socioemotionally supported throughout the crisis so that they experience minimal additional trauma now and are well-equipped to succeed in school when we return.

3. We're able to use this time to innovate in ways that support accelerated student learning when we're back in the classroom.

6. How do you ensure these students are achieving this success? 

Wherever possible, we're continuing our efforts to provide full wraparound services to all of our students according to their needs. As I mentioned, we've provided more than 300 laptops to our families to engage in distance learning. We're continuing all of our counseling programs and our staff checks in with each student and family on at least a weekly basis, and we are partnering with a number of community organizations to provide support to our students on a number of dimensions. We're also constantly examining our practices through ongoing reflection, and thinking critically about what we will need to change when we do return to school so we're ready to support all of our students through the transition back to normalcy.

7. What is your hope for your students? 

Many of our students already experience trauma as part of their daily lives for a number of reasons, and I hope that this time does not irrevocably damage their socioemotional health or future potential for the success I know they can achieve.

8. Is there anything that I haven’t asked that you wanted to include? 

Sometimes the DC education sector is characterized as a competition that may or may not is serving the best interests of our students and our community. I'm grateful that the city has partnered with both charter leaders and DCPS to support all students, regardless of their school. I hope that we're all able to bring a renewed spirit of partnership across LEAs into the future and that our collective wisdom gained during this experience is put to good use for our students.

Early Childhood Academy PCS Q&A, Wendy S. Edwards, Executive Director

1. Describe your journey to becoming a school leader. Why did you decide to work in education?        

It was always my aspiration to work in education, although I initially thought I would always be a classroom teacher at the elementary level. That’s where I began my career. I was a teacher in DC Public Schools for 17 years before becoming an assistant principal. In moving to school administration, I embraced the opportunity to impact the teaching and learning for all students under my leadership. In 2005, I was excited to leave DCPS and become the founding principal of Early Childhood Academy PCS, with the charge of developing a rigorous and child-centered educational program for young learners, prekindergarten to grade 3. I became the executive director of ECA in 2010.

2. What one word or phrase best describes your leadership style? 

I am solutions driven and transparent and encourage shared decision-making by a smart and committed team.

3. As you mobilize solutions and confront the challenges, how do you build and maintain relationships with your teachers, staff, students, and their families?
    

Over the course of my school leadership, I have learned the importance of understanding and respecting the unique perspectives of all school stakeholders when making decisions and setting policies. My relationship building includes intentionally providing opportunities for teachers, staff, and parents to express their concerns and opinions and be a part of designing solutions. As a small school of less than 50 staff persons and less than 300 students, I have worked to promote a caring community that also reaches out to support one another in times of personal challenges.

4. The pandemic magnifies and deepens the vast inequities present in our current systems, how do lessen the inequities for students? What strategies have you used to support students' racial identity development in education?

ECA’s student population primarily includes students from low-income households who live within the surrounding community. Distance learning can be a challenge if you are on the wrong side of the digital divide. But additionally, the inequities in health care services and the urgency for access to basic resources to support daily living are critical factors in most of these households. Our team has taken a holistic approach in supporting our students and families during this pandemic, as described in Question 6. 

5. As COVID-19 magnifies, what does success look like for your students? 

Academically, I want my young students to be able to practice and increase understanding of the standards and concepts that they have been taught, with minimal regression. Socially, I want to continue to pursue the goal of remote connection and interaction with 100% of our student population through Zoom meetings, MobyMax online learning, and Class Dojo classrooms, and by phone and by text.  Emotionally, I want to provide parents with the resources to support a sense of calm and security among all family members and connect them with needed community organizations that can provide a daily living, financial, and mental health assistance. 

6. How do you ensure these students are achieving this success?

ECA has developed a plan to lend Chromebooks to any enrolled kindergarten through a third-grade student who needs one, for use in online learning for the duration of school closure. ECA teachers have done a fantastic job with daily check-ins with their students, phone calls and texts to individual families, and review of their online academic learning. The school's data manager publishes a daily student database documenting who has completed the day’s activities and a summary of student time spent on online learning activities for teacher follow up. The school’s family support coordinator and social media manager have amassed a plethora of resources for parents who may need financial help, technology options, food banks, mental health services, medical advice, and additional resources for children. They have made the links easily accessible on the school’s social media pages. 

7. What is your hope for your students?

This is a difficult time for all of us, but certainly for young children who cannot fully grasp why their world has been upended so radically. My hope is that my students emerge from this crisis healthy and whole, without permanent scars or fears, and eager to continue to grow and achieve.

Community College Prep Academy Q&A, Connie Spinner, CEO

1. Describe your journey to becoming a school leader. Why did you decide to work in education?

While my career trajectory has been convoluted, I like to think that it was inevitable that I would end up starting a charter school for adults. I started my education career in the DCPS and went from secondary teacher to building level administrator at the Adult Education Demonstration Center. I have worked with adult learners and parents of K- 12 students off and on since 1870. I took a ten-year break from 1980 t0 1990 to explore education policy at the national level. It was during my tenure as Dean for Workforce Development at the new UDC Community College that the data on our students clearly pointed to the need for an Adult Charter east of the river that could focus on adult education and workforce development
 

2. What one word or phrase best describes your leadership style?

Participatory – I like to be fully engaged and knowledgeable about both trends and shifts. That only occurs when you are engaged in the life of a school.
 

3. As you mobilize solutions and confront the challenges, how do you build and maintain relationships with your teachers, staff, students, and their families?

The technology has begun to make it increasingly easier for us to connect.
 

4. The pandemic magnifies and deepens the vast inequities present in our current systems, how do lessen the inequities for students?

Our use of and commitment to a blended learning model from the start in 2013 has made it somewhat easier to cope with distance learning. However, our adult students’ capacity to reorient themselves to learning online is a continuing challenge. It has also been critically important that we prepare teachers to accept their role in making their students independent learners.

5. What strategies have you used to support students' racial identity development in education?

We begin with ourselves and a central part of our professional development has been understanding the context in which we do our work. For example, we have a school-wide staff book club and this past year’s book was Pedagogy of the Oppressed and we invited a local minister to facilitate our conversation.
 

6. As COVID-19 magnifies, what does success look like for your students? 

Success looks like being able to transition our students to learning increasingly as an independent activity that they are increasingly able to manage for themselves and their children.

7. How do you ensure these students are achieving this success?

The use of adaptive learning software is extremely helpful however not enough of it has been created for low-level learners.

8. What is your hope for your students?

My hope sits squarely in our mission which focuses on creating life long learners.

DC Prep Benning Middle School Q&A, Devin Ray, Assistant Principal

1. Describe your journey to becoming a school leader? OR: why did you decide to work in education?

My wife was a teacher and would constantly talk about her day with her students. At the time, I honestly couldn’t see myself working in this field. I’ve worked in the mental health field and did some work with middle to high school-aged students, about goal setting, healthy life choices, health education in middle and high schools in Upstate NY. Through this, I recognized how much I actually loved working with kids. Eventually, we relocated to DC, and before I knew it, I was in a school.  By that point, I had taken a chance and decided to try working directly in schools. It has been one of the best decisions of my life, and at this point, I couldn’t imagine being in any other field.

2. Tell me about your favorite educator and why you chose them?

My favorite teacher was my U.S. history teacher, who had been at my school for over 50 years. I choose to highlight this teacher because he engaged us in academics as well as our general interests outside of the classroom. He made equity a priority in a community that truly lacked diversity. This teacher changed the way I thought about history, education, and what it could mean for how I access the world in spite of the historical context. He forced me to think differently about what I could and should achieve, given what my ancestors bled and died for.

3. As a school leader of color, how do you build and maintain relationships with students and families?

It is really important to know my students deeply in school and out of school. I’ve found that the way to deepen relationships is to help my students and their families feel seen and learning information about your teachers. It is my job as an educator to make families really feel like we are all partners in helping their students succeed.

4. What strategies have you used to support students’ racial identity development in education?

I believe that we have to recognize who our students are. We have to not just view the school as a bubble from the outside world, but we should lean into the outside world to learn more and help our students learn more about who they are. We should acknowledge and find ways to help our students develop their advocacy skills which allow them to blossom in their identity. In content, I find ways to let kids see themselves in the work they do and to always find connections to who they are.

5. What does a typical workday look like for you?

Even during COVID-19, I like to begin my day between 6 am-7 am. It’s very important for me to stay in a routine as I believe it supports my wellness.  When I’m well I’m able to serve all stakeholders. After I’ve taken care of my basic needs I participate in office hours between 8-10. This consists of checking in with my teachers, using social media to post wellness options for my kiddos and families, and being a thought partner with leaders to try and innovate on distance learning.

After office hours you’ll find me meeting with the Principal team, my school’s leadership team, and teachers who are providing virtual learning opportunities and general opportunities for students to connect with one another in an effort to decrease social isolation.   

Throughout the day I’m available as a thought partner working to identify resources to ensure all community members’ basic needs are met.  As an [remote] essential employee, education cannot stop during a pandemic.  Our students and families deserve care and connection as well as quality instruction that will set them up to be successful when it’s all said and done.

6. What Is your hope for the future education of African American students in DC?

My hope is that we’ll be able to close up the knowledge and achievement gap that is prevalent in the country, but especially in the district. Students will have many opportunities afforded to them after their middle school experience. I hope that students will have teachers that see them, that are completely invested in who they are as people. I would hope to see students getting the academic support they need to build student independence without sacrificing the rigor. Students will be able to compete with students from all parts of the city and the country. Ultimately, I hope that education doesn’t continue to be drastically different for kids in different parts of the city.

Sela Public Charter School Q&A, Samantha Mild, Director of Early Childhood

1. Describe your journey to becoming a school leader? OR: why did you decide to work in education?

My experience working in education has taken me on a less than traditional path. I completed my student teaching in a small Irish school working with students from first grade through third. My first real teaching position, I held the role of an assistant teacher in a Waldorf school. Once I felt confident enough in my own leadership abilities, I then accepted a position as a lead teacher in a small private preschool school. With support and guidance from exceptional leaders, I continued to take on more responsibilities (leading professional developments, becoming a team lead, becoming the chair of different committees), and practice the skills required of a member of a leadership team. 

2.  What one word or phrase best describes your leadership style?

Collaborative 

3. As you mobilize solutions and confront the challenges, how do you build and maintain relationships with your teachers, staff, students, and their families?

Part of my journey to my current role was working alongside the teachers I am now responsible for supervising. Building a trusting relationship in the classroom with them has significantly helped in continuing our work together and understanding how to best support all of our students and families. 

Similarly, my relationship with many of the families in my school started when I was still a classroom teacher. In both roles, administrators or teachers, I try to maintain an open line of communication and genuine interest in what is happening with our families in and outside of the school. 

Every school day, I try to spend at least a few minutes in each classroom to bond with each of our students and to learn more about them as individuals. My goal is to know exactly what each of my students is learning about and how I can support them, their families, and their teachers to help them reach their next goal.

4. The pandemic magnifies and deepens the vast inequities present in our current systems, how do you lessen the inequities for students?

As I stated before, I have had the privilege of having worked in many different types of school settings.  From these experiences, my team and I worked very closely before leaving the building to ensure that all families would have access to the same resources. This included: resource packets, guided reading books, and manipulatives. The leadership team also reached out to all families and provided any family who requested technology, either an iPad or laptop to use at home. All families also have access to virtual resources online and virtual field trips. Projects that are suggested for families to practice at home are deliberately planned to require materials that all families should have access to (toilet paper butterflies, toilet paper binoculars, nature walks). 

Part of our school model is celebrating the diversity of our community. In school or through distance learning, we continue to learn and celebrate what makes each of us unique. Some of the strategies we use include books about diversity and individual families, monthly celebrations and studies of different cultures/groups of people, inviting families in to teach about their own family traditions, Spirit weeks (in school and virtually) to express who we are as individuals. 

5. As COVID-19 magnifies, what does success look like for your students? 

Continuing to engage and be excited about learning. Each morning we host a morning meeting as an entire department. Students are still encouraged to sing the songs, read the calendar, and help write messages virtually. Midmorning, small groups allow teachers to meet with students to pick up where lessons left off and provide differentiated instruction to meet that group's academic goals. Daily virtual read alouds, and weekly playdates, help bring our community together and promote social skills. Soon we will also begin weekly virtual class science experiments or projects to inspire higher-order and abstract thinking, through distance learning.

6. How do you ensure these students are achieving this success?

Regular communication with families, town hall meetings, surveys, and weekly individual check-ins with students. As a team, we also meet twice a week to discuss what is working, what we can continue to improve on, share strategies, and simply check on one another to make sure our co-workers also feel supported.

7. What Is your hope for the future education of African American students in DC?

That they continue to love learning and are always excited to see their teachers and peers, whether that is virtual or in-person again soon. Academically, I feel my students will be fine and will continue to exceed the early learning benchmarks. My greater concern for my students is making sure their social-emotional needs are met and that no matter how interactions are hosted, they continue to bond with others and learn how to express how they are feeling, especially in a strange and unfamiliar reality.