On Wednesday, April 26, six VISD principals were surprised by District Administration with an invitation for their campus to join the Holdsworth Campus Leadership Program. Campus administrators who will participate in the program include:
Victoria East High School- Justin Gabrysch and Suzann Creager
Victoria West High School- Tonya Patterson and Tyler Cleland
VISD Success Academy- Tedrick Valentine and Juli Wenske
Crain Elementary- Yasmina St. Jean and Leah Klemke
DeLeon Elementary- Jennifer McIntyre and Jennifer Garnett
Rowland Elementary- Kim Martinez and Stephanie Egg
“The power of the Campus Leadership Program extends beyond the conceptual learning that occurs during the professional development sessions,” said Tammy Sestak, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, Instruction, and Accountability. “In this program, campus leaders work with real data to identify authentic problems of practice on their campus and apply their new learning by designing and implementing evidence-based improvement strategies. The goal of the program is to improve student learning by developing strong school leaders.”
Campuses submitted an application that included testimonials from teacher leaders and administrators on the campus. Principals were interviewed about what they hoped to gain from this leadership experience and how they saw it benefitting their campus.
In year one, campus principals and their plus one will attend leadership training throughout the year. There, they will analyze data and determine a problem of practice that will become a targeted area of improvement for the campus. Leaders will reflect on their own skill sets and continue to grow their genius through these professional development opportunities. In year two, additional members of the campus will have the opportunity to attend the Campus Leadership Program at Holdsworth while continuing to work on the targeted problem of practice.
Principals and their plus one will kick off their learning by attending a week-long training in July at the Holdsworth Center.
About The Holdsworth Center
Victoria ISD is one of 19 districts in Texas selected to partner with The Holdsworth Center, a nonprofit founded by H-E-B Chairman Charles Butt. Over the five-year partnership, Holdsworth will invest $6 million in Victoria ISD to help Dr. Shepherd and his team build their own bench of strong leaders.
The 5-year partnership has three main elements:
District Leadership Program
Campus Leadership Program
District Support Team
VISD is currently wrapping up Year 2, where campus leadership teams – principals, plus a team of administrators and teacher leaders – embark on their own 2-year leadership journey, learning how to be better leaders and creating change by getting to the root of issues before rushing to solutions. The six newly selected campuses will join Aloe Elementary, Torres Elementary, and Schorlemmer Elementary, who began participating in the Campus Leadership Program earlier this year.
Campus teams use the tools they’ve learned to identify and solve a tough problem on their campus that impacts student learning. By Year 5, 50% of Victoria ISD’s campuses will go through the program.