[00:00:00] Dr. Jim: Thanks for joining us today. This is your Friendly Neighborhood Talent Strategy Nerd, Dr. Jim. When you become a leader of a school district, the priority is usually focused on building a better set of schools. One of the interesting things about district leadership is that working on the school side of the equation isn't usually enough to make the impact you need.
To get multiple contracts and continue making an impact. Districts are an entire ecosystem that need to be coordinated. So what if you're in a district and you find yourself stalled on progress? Part of the reasons that your efforts might be stalled is that you haven't focused enough on the community and relationships outside of school buildings to make progress.
So what should your game plan be in those situations? Those are some of the issues and questions that we tackle in today's conversation. And Who is going to be guiding us through that discussion? Today we have Dr. Julie Trepa, who is the superintendent of Boone Community School District.
She's a visionary leader and accomplished professional recognized as a [00:01:00] 2015 National Distinguished Principal in Iowa Elementary Principal of the Year. She's an alumna Of the AASA national superintendent certification program class of 2021. And she began her superintendency as a shared superintendent for two school districts.
And now she's in her eighth year as a superintendent with five years dedicated to our current district of 2000 students. She's eager to share her insights and experiences on leadership with us today. Julie, welcome to the show.
[00:01:28] Dr. Julie Trepa: thank you for having me appreciate it.
[00:01:30] Dr. Jim: I'm I'm looking forward to this conversation and it's interesting. One of the interesting things about it, and we won't get into it too much within this conversation, is how I'm seeing a lot of leaders in the K through 12 space in Iowa have that shared district experience under their belts like like you.
And that, that actually leads us into a little bit more of a discussion about your background and career. And I think it would be helpful. For you to share with the [00:02:00] listeners a little bit more detail beyond the handful of sentences that we just talked about and particularly focused on some of those defining moments and lessons that you had as you were progressing through your career that helped shaped you into the leader that you are today.
[00:02:13] Dr. Julie Trepa: I started as a special education teacher teaching students in a self contained setting, and then moved into being a middle school math teacher and moved into the administrative role at Benton North Middle School, which was a middle school of about 1200 students and spent some time there before becoming an elementary principal in the same district for approximately 450 students.
I entered this superintendency simply because I could see the impact that. I could make outside of just the school walls. So that's something that inspired me to take that, make that transition from building leader to central office leader. And so I went into a shared superintendency, which [00:03:00] was in Western Iowa.
One of the communities was smaller than the school building that I had actually led. It had about 300 students, but it had five different. Towns that made up that community. And so I really learned a lot from that experience and how much building those connections within the community as a school leader and just as school employees in our system, how important that was in helping us progress.
As a district, and then in the other district that I had led in Western Iowa, we were made up of 3 towns. So that experience as a shared superintendent really helped me see the benefit of that distributed leadership out in the community and the benefits that it could have on our district initiatives.
[00:03:44] Dr. Jim: I want to dig in a little bit a little bit deeper here. You just touched on it. And we touched on it in the intro of the show as well. When you talk about that shared superintendent experience, and especially within a small community setting, tell us a little bit more about some of those [00:04:00] foundational skills that you developed in those settings that you feel set you up for success in your current role.
[00:04:06] Dr. Julie Trepa: I think, again, as the superintendent, you need to lead the district, and that district is always going to be made up of a number of different communities. When I was shared superintendent, that was made up of several different towns, but in my current district, that might be made up of several different parts of our community, different leaders that are, Progressing in their own avenues within the community, so you need to make those connections, not only with them as a school district, but then have the connections with 1 another because I found in the shared superintendency that sometimes.
Towns were progressing on initiatives that if they could work together would be able to move so much more quickly and more effectively. And so really helping to build those connections with 1. another is what I learned from those experiences in the leadership piece [00:05:00] that I think is most beneficial and you can't do that as just 1 person.
You need to lean on other leaders in your district and other leaders in the community to help you make those connections.
[00:05:10] Dr. Jim: So what I find interesting about your answer is that, in the K through 12 space, there is a heavy emphasis inside of schools to build collaborative environments so that everybody is lifting their game. And it sounds like you're taking that principle and applying it externally across the business leader community in those various communities and districts that you're involved in prior to coming into Boone.
So that's a really interesting application of some of the principles that. principles that apply inside school walls that could easily be applied outside school walls as well. One of the other things that that I'm curious about when it comes to your background is about your shared superintendency where you are driving the direction of two different districts.
And the challenge is, they often say no one can serve two masters. So if you have two districts, how do you [00:06:00] actually make progress in both of those? So how did you tackle the complexity associated with having to lead and move two districts forward?
[00:06:08] Dr. Julie Trepa: I think you needed to honor each district's own culture and its own direction and make sure that it wasn't about you as the leader, but more about the district that you were leading. When I was a shared superintendent in the state of Iowa, We also have what we call area education agencies that help support each of the districts.
And I also had 2 separate area education agencies to work with. So I really needed to be able to make sure that when I was working within 1 district, that focus was on that districts and making sure that I'm leading them in the direction that board is intending and that when I was with the other district, that I was serving that same purpose for the district.
For that board in that community, really honoring each community so that they never felt like they were having to be shared by a leader, that they felt that their district's initiatives and [00:07:00] their desires and their goals were We're going to be met and hopefully the goal was to help them forget that I had another district to lead.
So it was a very challenging experience. But again, a lot of great lessons to be learned from having both of those experiences at the same time, because. Sometimes there are similarities between more similarities between districts than differences.
[00:07:25] Dr. Jim: An outsider looking in, it almost drives me to think that in that sort of role where you're leading two different districts, you could almost easily fall into, focus on the operational mindset and just focus on those tasks driven things within the district that need to get done.
Is that what the actual reality was? And if so, how did you navigate it? And if it wasn't, how did you balance both the operational requirements and the people leadership requirements across both of those districts?
[00:07:56] Dr. Julie Trepa: so again, I think some of that is a dangerous, [00:08:00] slippery slope that you could fall into. But I think it was really important not to do that. When you're a shared superintendent, you need to make sure that you've. You've delegated some of those managerial tasks because you can't be in two places at once.
My districts were just half an hour apart. So a lot of the managerial pieces needed to be delegated to other leaders in the district or teachers or staff members so that whether I was there or not, the operational pieces continued. And so they could, as a leader, it's extremely important to make sure you're delegating all those operational pieces. So you can make sure that you're focusing on actual leadership and instructional leadership when you're the superintendent of 2 different districts.
[00:08:39] Dr. Jim: So it's interesting that you describe the importance of delegation. So in the private sector, when you're in a leadership role, one of the mandates that you have is to grow other leaders in your district. So when you're thinking about people leadership within a K through 12 space and leveraging delegation as a leadership exercise, what was your thought process when you're looking [00:09:00] at what to delegate to whom in a way to build stronger leadership Ben strength across both districts.
[00:09:07] Dr. Julie Trepa: I think you really look for those individuals in each of the districts at what their strengths are as to what you might want to delegate to them. And then for those leaders that you're still trying to grow, you want to give them something that's challenging, but attainable. I really did try to ascertain which.
Individuals would be able to take things and run with them when they were maybe a little bit more complex. But if they were simple management tasks or operational tasks that might help build someone's confidence. So they might be able to take on more than I would delegate to those individuals. So I think even as a building principal or building leader, you do this all the time.
And you're in your building. You as you're building leaders, you try to build on everything. Individual strengths, so you can continue to build their leadership skills, because no leader is going to be there all the time. And you need to build that capacity. So that [00:10:00] whatever you're trying to build will be there when you're not there anymore, because.
The goal is student achievement and students being able to achieve it to their greatest potential. And that can't be dependent on 1 person. It's just vitally important that you build capacity, not only within your building as a building principle, but as a superintendent within your district. And then I would argue also within your community.
because your community is very much a part of the student success.
[00:10:29] Dr. Jim: I appreciate you walking us through the challenges and how you dealt with some of them in a dual district responsibility context switching gears a little bit.
I think one of the other areas that's going to be helpful in this conversation is for you to give us a landscape of your current district and what you're what the lay of the land look like when you first set foot in the district.
[00:10:50] Dr. Julie Trepa: Sure. So Boone Community School District is a district of about 2000 students. That has been pretty consistent over the past several years. And the [00:11:00] Boone, the town of Boone also has really not changed in population for a number of years as well as about 13, 000 people in Boone. And so That's something that has been very stable, but at the same time, it hasn't grown.
And so when I arrived in the district, it was pretty apparent that we had a lot of different organizations working very hard for the betterment of the community. But. doing so in silos. We have an incredible library and they do incredible things within the community, but there wasn't a lot of collaboration with any other entities in the community.
Our cities, the same respect. Our school community, again, just working on similar things, but not together or, and not collaboratively. And when I arrived The relationship between the school and the city was less than desirable. It was a very well known fact that there had been some hardships between the 2.
they had some disagreements. They weren't able to move past when I arrived. When I entered [00:12:00] the district, that was something that I knew that I would need to try and tackle because I know how important it is to have the whole community moving in the same direction if any of us are going to be successful.
So that's something that I knew right from the beginning When I arrived,
[00:12:14] Dr. Jim: When you look at those. Historical trends, good and bad. And also the relationships across the various stakeholders in the community and the school district. That's going to be a difficult onion to peel, especially in the context of in the context of a district that's bigger than what you're accustomed to, I'm assuming.
So what were the things that you did? To build momentum and repair some of the damage that had happened before you got there.
[00:12:42] Dr. Julie Trepa: so I think it's just like I said before you build on the successes. So the district had already had a program that was called edge. It's a work based learning program where the district had partnered with local businesses to provide opportunities for the students to participate in [00:13:00] work based learning.
And so really started. With that particular programming and expanding that when I arrived so that we had students in our local businesses demonstrating the skill sets that they have, and that they can contribute to the community and. Allowing our businesses to let the school know what it is that they needed.
And we really do craft the curriculum, our programming around what the local business needs are. And we've really built that to over 250 business partnerships. And a lot of the businesses utilize our students now as their employment pipeline. And so obviously when I arrived, it was COVID employment trying to find people was extremely difficult.
So this really. Helped build some positive relationships right from the start because we were able to help maybe remedy some of the challenges that our community was having with regard to the workforce. So that's 1 of the ways that we started to do that.
[00:13:58] Dr. Jim: So it's interesting that you [00:14:00] referenced this apparently very successful program. The friction that existed between the school and the overall community, was that driven out of a lack of information about what, how the school was impacting the community? And if so, what were the things that you did to solve that gap in understanding?
[00:14:18] Dr. Julie Trepa: Yes, I think that it was really interesting to me that I was aware of the work based learning programming and Boone more so than anyone that was here when I arrived, even individuals within our own school. So they didn't realize even what was being offered in their own high school. So it really started within our school community and really try to share the message of what we were doing through social media, through communication within the district, making sure that our staff as a whole understood what was being offered.
And then again, through social media, through these interactions with our students. Through my participation in other organizations, through my [00:15:00] encouragement of some of my building leaders to participate in community organizations, we're able to get that story out a lot more effectively because when they hear about these things from schools.
then they feel like they know what's happening. If they hear from about it from someone that's not in school staff it's not as credible. So we really needed to make sure that every staff member understood what was actually being offered within their own school community.
[00:15:23] Dr. Jim: So what you're describing is really interesting on a couple of different levels. So there's a lack of awareness across the various school communities about what's actually going on. And then the other piece that you mentioned is a mobilization of the broader leadership team within schools to help get the message out now.
When I look at both of those things, there's a gap there and the gap seems to be a communication gap that exists in terms of at the at the building level about how building level leaders aren't communicating effectively about what's going on both internally and externally. So what I'm curious [00:16:00] about is you're mobilizing these resources to spread the word.
What were the steps that you took? Prior to that mobilization effort to level up all of these folks to be better more effective communicators as leaders of these initiatives
[00:16:15] Dr. Julie Trepa: I think the first thing is that there wasn't really a district wide vision when I arrived. So first and foremost, we need to make, We needed to make sure we had that district wide vision and that we were all pointed in the same direction. We all understood what we were doing. So we embarked upon that portrait of a graduate process, not only within our own school community, but also the larger community.
So that not only school had one vision, one focus, but our community had that same vision and focus. So that had to happen for our leaders to be able to help with the messaging. And have that messaging be consistent across the district and across the community, because if you don't share the same vision, then you're going to have [00:17:00] different stories told.
So that's something that we really focused on from the beginning, had a little bit of a slower start because there's covid. But that was something that we started with to really get that out. We utilized our students a lot also. To get messaging out about the positive things happening in the school.
So there's 1 part where you have the vision and the other part where you just talked about all the great things happening. So we started with all the great things happening and utilize students. So our students had what we call boon TV. So they were doing a lot of TV. Promotion around district wide celebrations.
We had a bond issue that we were trying to pass that 1st year. So that was something that we obviously we're trying to tell the story of, why we needed this new facility, all the great things that were happening within our facilities. Now, we need a facility that represented the great things happening inside.
And our students really did help drive that initiative. And I think sell our community on the need. And we ended up with an 80 [00:18:00] percent approval on our vote. So it was extremely effective.
[00:18:04] Dr. Jim: So one of the things that i'm wondering about students played a big role in driving the community or bridging the communication gap
[00:18:11] Dr. Julie Trepa: They did.
[00:18:12] Dr. Jim: What did you do to mobilize the student population, or at least get the student population mobilized to spread the word more effectively, because that seems unusual to me that students would play a big role in driving the messaging out.
[00:18:25] Dr. Julie Trepa: We utilized our edge program. So we had students that were interested in media and reporting things like that. And so we said, hey, we've got a great project that if you're interested. And they were so excited. And honestly, the students really took it and ran with it. We didn't have any idea of how we wanted to present it.
But what the students came up with their commercial for this go vote initiative was phenomenal. They showed students that were in our pre K, K, 1. Setting and then show themselves and they talked about [00:19:00] how this is for our future. We need this building for our future. I've had a great education here in Boone, but what about our students that are in the pre K one, which is the building that we were going that we were attempting to build was a pre K.
Pre K one building. And so they did a phenomenal job of just telling the story encouraging our community to see that it's not about just now. It's about the future of our student population and the future of our community. So all we did was build this building. Basically bring it to their attention and it and our students ran with it.
So we were very fortunate that they were so effective.
[00:19:35] Dr. Jim: So there's, okay, you've worked on bridging the communication gap and leveling up some of your internal leadership so that they're more effective from a communication perspective. You are doing some of the work in terms of community engagement. You have students mobilized on the messaging front, but you still have this friction.
Between the district and the community in some pockets. So what was your process for removing that friction [00:20:00] and remedying some of those some of those old issues that that still existed.
[00:20:04] Dr. Julie Trepa: So really that process with the bond issue gave us an opportunity to have multiple meetings with city officials. And that was really where a lot of the rub was between the city and the school. And when we were trying to build the school, we were also going to need to have a road that connected the 2 roads.
And so it was going to require a collaboration between the city and the school district anyway. I really tried to capitalize on when I 1st arrived getting meetings together before I needed to have that collaboration. I knew that would be coming, but I really wanted to establish a relationship with them.
I went to the city council meetings and introduced myself because those were streamed in the Republic went to. Rotary and I became part of the rotary just, I really focused a lot though, initially on city officials, because that was going to require the most collaboration. That's where the biggest friction light.
And we were able to build the relationships well enough that as we progress through that bond [00:21:00] issue referendum, social media wise, we had city officials publicly promoting The bond issue before the vote. And I do think that was also crucial in it passing with the level of support that it did, because we had what historically would have been individuals that may our public, our community may have perceived as being against something that the school is doing were publicly promoting it.
And so that was extremely beneficial to us.
[00:21:28] Dr. Jim: So when you look at that and your engagement with the city and also eventually converting some of those city folks to advocate for this particular initiative, and you look across that experience were there any key people inside your organization as part of your leadership team that were involved in that?
And what did they gain out of that experience if they were brought into those conversations?
[00:21:49] Dr. Julie Trepa: So I would say my building principles more than anyone. We're able to see how their interactions with city officials, with some of [00:22:00] our other organizations, how their interactions made a positive impact because through some of that interaction one of our building principals was asked to be on the planning and zoning committee.
He didn't go seeking it. It's something that city officials came to him and said, you know what? We think you'd be really good at that. More recently, our high school principal and AD were asked to be part of the interview process when the city was looking for a parks and rec director.
Looking for those, so the city was, has been phenomenal in reaching out to my building leaders and saying, Hey, we really think collaborating with you would benefit both of us. Let's find ways to do that. Really leveraging initially the building leaders, and then we did try to branch out and include some of our school improvement advisory council members that are community members that sit on a committee for the school, but are in this community as well and help leverage some of the their advocacy as well.
[00:22:55] Dr. Jim: When you look at. Your strategy coming into this district and the [00:23:00] story that we've or the conversation that we've had so far to me, it looks like you were deliberate about focusing in on some outward initiatives versus some inward facing initiatives. Why did you, what was the reasoning behind prioritizing that over over potentially some in school?
Issues that you might have encountered.
[00:23:18] Dr. Julie Trepa: So I think that maybe some of that comes from my past experience as a shared superintendent. I felt I could do both. I felt my personal leadership was more necessary on that community leadership and bridging those gaps between the community and the school. But I have a phenomenal building leadership team that could be also working on some of those internal challenges that we had identified together.
At the same time, so I would say that for me as the superintendent, my, my focus was more on the community because I had leadership within this district that could continue that work while I also led the district. I feel [00:24:00] that my past experience did help me with that, because I could see ways to accomplish both through the shared leadership and distribute that.
Leadership opportunities.
[00:24:08] Dr. Jim: Oh that's interesting. And so if I'm hearing you correctly, you recognized early on that you had a pretty strong. Leadership team within your district. So it didn't require you to be as hands on that work. So you made the decision to look at that. Now, this is a hypothetical. If confronted with the same scenario that you walked into and you realize that your district leadership team was weak or had gaps, significant gaps, would you have done anything differently in terms of what you prioritize?
[00:24:38] Dr. Julie Trepa: So I did have an extremely strong administrative team, but it wasn't perfect, but I was able to deal with some of those individualized issues and still focus on that community leadership. I think that is something as a leader, you need to be able to quickly assess where the greatest needs are in your district.
But I think a lot of times leaders underestimate the power of [00:25:00] building that collaborative leadership with your community. So that's the. Focus that I took, and I feel that's been extremely beneficial for us in this district.
[00:25:08] Dr. Jim: When you look at where you started and where you are now, give us a picture of the impact that's that's happened since you took this on and what's been what's the landscape looking like right now after all of this community engagement and work that you and your team have done?
[00:25:24] Dr. Julie Trepa: So I think what's so exciting is there is a significant difference. If I were to enter the district now and look at all of the great work that's happening in the community. It's no longer happening in silos. We have a build a better boon. Committee where all of the leaders in the community come together quarterly and collaborate together, communicate out to our community, the different positive happenings occurring in each of the organizations and when one of our organizations is going to tackle something new, I see each organization looking to see [00:26:00] how to do that.
Others in the community might be able to assist them as well as benefit from what it is that they're going to be working on. So it's been a complete shift in the community. And obviously, that's not something that we did as a school district. Solely. It's just, I think our community was ready for that collaboration and just needed to experience some success in that collaboration to be able to build on it.
So it's really exciting to see Boone was recently named a main street community. So that's exciting. And that's something that definitely required a lot of community community involvement and included the school as well. And I think a lot of people don't realize that was actually something they mentioned on the application process that we were the first school district to be a part of that board for the downtown.
[00:26:44] Dr. Jim: One of the key things that's important for listeners to pay attention to is that this is, you look at the current state, It looks like a big success, but that end result requires a lot of effort on the back end for you to actually have the opportunity for success.
So I think that's the [00:27:00] important lesson there. Sticking with the theme of lessons. When you think about what you did in in this particular conversation. And there's another leader listening to this conversation, and they want to understand what are the key principles that you applied? What are the two or three main things that other listeners need to have on their radar if they want to execute?
What you just executed at boom.
[00:27:24] Dr. Julie Trepa: I think it's really similar to what you do at a building level, honestly. So you need to be able to identify those individuals that have a lot of social power. Who will people follow? Who do people listen to? Make sure that you've got connections with those individuals and you've got. Positive relationships with them, whether they're for or against whatever it is that you might be doing, those are individuals that you're going to need to be able to collaborate with to be able to move forward with any kind of initiative that you might have in mind.
So that's 1 of the 1st things that you need to do is identify those individuals in your community that have that [00:28:00] also. Deliberate actions that you're going to take to encourage that collaboration and being relentless in your follow through and ensuring that those meetings happen, because it's really easy to have a meeting set up and have them get canceled and then not rescheduled.
Deliberately planning out how you're going to meet with different individuals. Where are you going to meet? Are you? I think it's really important to me on their turf. So to speak making sure that you demonstrate some vulnerability so that they can see that you can be trusted. I think that's always a positive because that's what you're really doing is building trust amongst all of these individuals in your community so that you can collaborate.
It's difficult to move forward on any kind of project if you don't have trust within your team. And you need to see it as a team. You have your district team, but you also have your community team. And if you can help. The rest of your community see all of the organizations as a team. I think that's where you get the biggest leverage was.
Those are the [00:29:00] main things that I thought about and try to execute. And then it's not something you can stop doing. It doesn't just stay there. So now I'm in the process of. Deliberately trying to maintain and continue to improve those relationships.
[00:29:13] Dr. Jim: Great stuff. If people want to continue the conversation, what's the best way for them to get in touch with you?
[00:29:17] Dr. Julie Trepa: Sure. I'm on X. I'm have email phone. I would love to talk to anyone who has any questions and I'd love to learn from anyone that might want to collaborate together because I think that learning is how you always get better.
[00:29:31] Dr. Jim: Great stuff, Julie. I appreciate you hanging out. And I think this is going to be a, this is a really important conversation and it talks about it, and particularly when it comes to, saying things out loud and addressing things head on. So when I think about the conversation that we had there's a few things that I think are important to mention.
Oftentimes it's very easy for leaders in new environments to take a look at the landscape. And immediately go for the lowest hanging [00:30:00] fruit in terms of what they want to solve. And what I like about the approach that you took is that it seems that it was deliberately intended on focusing on some things that have longterm sustainability, sustainable impact across the community.
Now those things aren't shiny objects that you can immediately pat yourself on the back with, and that might explain why some people, Leaders decide to get some quick wins right off the bat. I'm particularly interested there. What I particularly liked about this conversation was that you recognize that there were some structural issues that exist within the community and within the district.
And those structural issues, if they were allowed to persist, there would be some long term impact. And I think the risk of long term impact informed how you move forward in tackling these issues, and you took an approach that, Yeah, created a lot of exposure. I don't know if a lot of district leaders would have taken that same [00:31:00] approach because you're in a district for 3 years and then you have to build the case for why you should be allowed to stay for another 3 years.
So the approach that you took was built with the intention of driving impact that might outlive. Your time in the district. And I think in the long run, that's the approach that everybody should take because it's all about how can you build sustained impact within your sphere of influence that helps you build a better organization, community district, whatever you're trying to focus on.
So that's what stood out to me in this conversation. For those of you who've been listening to the discussion, we hope you enjoyed the conversation. Make sure you leave us a review on your favorite podcast player. Thank you. If you haven't already done so make sure you join our community. And then tune in next time where we'll have another great leader hanging out with us and sharing with us the game changing insights that help them build a high performing team.