DREAM’s Post

South Oak Cliff High School was the setting for a highly publicized student walkout in 2016 due to the conditions of the school. Built in the 1950s, the Dallas high school had fallen into disrepair. KAI was brought on by Dallas ISD in response to community reactions and began partnering with community leaders and project stakeholders throughout the duration of the comprehensive project to ensure everyone’s voices were heard. Nearly all the existing facilities were renovated along with 60,000 square feet in building additions as well as two renovated learning courtyards that were previously inaccessible. The school now allows for 360-degree learning that can meet the needs of all learning styles. Since the grand opening, a new equitable learning environment with modern amenities has fostered an incredible community impact on the students, faculty, alumni, and surrounding neighborhood. The South Oak Cliff area has long been known for its passionate residents and their support for the school. In fact, the grand opening celebration in January 2020 included over 1,500 members of the community, officials, and alumni in gold and white SOC attire along with the band and choir in a march from the temporary school to the brand-new facility. This burst of positive momentum led to the SOC football team winning back-to-back Texas 5A-DII state championships in 2021 and 2022, the first Dallas ISD school to win a state title since 1950. The renovation has also led to more parental involvement and higher academic performance across the board. As we celebrate #BlackHistoryMonth, KAI is extremely pleased to see the positive change this multi-award-winning project has had on the community and believes it will continue for years to come. Read more about this impactful project at the link below. https://lnkd.in/gcTAHG_r #TransformingCommunities #CommunityImpact #AEC #Design #Engineering #CommunityInvestment #Construction #K12Design

SAVE the DATE: Higher Education Power Breakfast for Crain's Grand Rapids. September 26, 2024 -Meijer Gardens. West Michigan’s colleges and universities contribute to the community in many ways. They are economic drivers through significant construction projects, talent attraction and retention efforts, health and technology research, and workforce development. We talk to the presidents of Grand Valley State University, Ferris State University and Grand Rapids Community College about how and why they are driving economic development and what to expect in the future. https://lnkd.in/gRMpvPys

Thirteen Broward County Public Schools high schools are among the top public high schools in the nation, according to the annual rankings released this week by U.S. News & World Report, with Millennium 6-12 Collegiate Academy, Pompano Beach High School and McFatter Technical High School in the top 2.5% of all ranked schools in the country. In addition, Atlantic Technical High School and Cypress Bay High School ranked in the top 5%. These five schools are also recognized for being among the top 5% of high schools in Florida, with Millennium 6-12 Collegiate Academy ranking #2 in the state. Read more at bit.ly/3JDlfE4

I don't do a lot of posting (I know, online-journalism-hustle-culture, I should, but I raise you: I'm busy, am an introvert, and don't want to) but figured I should say something about this story, which took nearly two years and roughly 18,000 words to report, about the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. HUC-JIR is *the* rabbinical school of the Reform movement. This story fulfills a lot of what I care about in journalism: A deep dive on a local issue that really matters to the community. HUC-JIR was started in Cincinnati nearly 150 years ago, and has grown into the oldest and largest rabbinical school in the world. Generations of rabbinical students served not just Cincinnati, but Jewish communities across the Midwest, South, and even small communities in Alaska and Canada. Likewise, generations of Cincinnatians supported the school. And yes, I know it's bonkers to have written 18,000 words on this -- really about anything nowadays. Two years ago I thought following up on the college would be basic ongoing coverage. But the story that community members kept telling me was too big to condense. So here we are. A look at the college's actual financials, the leadership that brought HUC-JIR to this moment, and what seems to be an effort to sell rare items from the Klau Library -- one of the greatest Jewish library collections in the world. I also hope this story complicates the way we talk about Jewish institutions, which -- for all the (rightful) focus on Jewish life outside the mainstream -- still form the backbone of Jewish life in this country and around the world. For the past several years, HUC-JIR has talked about itself basically as a helpless victim of changes in American Jewish life, like declining denominationalism and rabbinical enrollment. But so much of the college's story is about leadership, choices made, and choices not made. Which ties into one of the most important things I've come to appreciate about the world around us, from politics and religious life to economics and health insurance: The world we live in is a result of policy, not inertia. There's real disruption, but how we respond matters.

I remember the first time, years ago, that I heard “we need to empower and engage the frontline”. It struck me as odd. “But I know my colleagues”, I thought, “they ARE engaged outside of work, they are creative and joyful…outside of work, they are collaborative and passionate…outside of work.” ✨ Maybe it’s not an employee problem, maybe it’s a work environment one! ✨ ➡️ What if we didn’t have to “empower and engage the frontline” because we never stripped students of their power, curiosity, and autonomy in conventional school systems? Leaders would no longer need to “make it safe to ask questions” because we never learned that it was unsafe… Leaders would quit relying heavily on extrinsic motivation and carrot/stick approaches because we didn’t learn to chase a “gold star” over our own creative passions… Leaders would feel safe admitting they ‘don’t know’ because they never learned their worth was directly tied to school grades… What if? Yes, I work with CEOs to redefine business success by challenging their own preconceptions. But where do you think many of those preconceptions originated? *** Respect humanity (including children!). Improve work. Continuous Improvement without the Other CI, Consciousness Improvement, is unsustainable (and unfulfilling and outdated and expensive and frustrating and…) Let's experiment together: www.theotherci.com *** #theotherci #continuousimprovement #consciousness #executive #leadership #ceo #executivecoaching #sudbury #education #consciousleadership #tps #lean #manufacturingexcellence #respectforpeople #futureofwork #change #management #respecthumanity #improvework

We heard several promising and actionable student success recommendations from these leaders at the closing plenary, including: ✔ Focus on the mission ✔ Engage your stakeholders ✔ Disaggregate the data ✔ Be courageous to make changes (even if surrounded by "CAVE People" Citizens Against Virtually Everything) ✔ Demonstrate the ROI with post-graduation outcomes #MSCHE2023 👏🏽

This is me choking up at the end of my speech during the groundbreaking for the new Norwalk High School. I got emotional because three seniors Christian Pierre & Kiera Cunniffe, Norwalk High School students and Aaron Charles, from P-TECH spoke before me about how happy they are for the new school and the opportunities their peers will have who will follow them. It would be easy to keep the status quo. We have great teachers, administrators and staff who persevere and demand excellence despite the challenges of a 1971 learning facility. We have awesome students who work hard and succeed despite leaks, cold and hot rooms, unusable courtyards, a library that is so functionally out of date that some of the middle schools are better equipped and a cafeteria that can't keep up with the student population. Let alone the security challenges that I won't go into. There's a pool with air quality problems, locker rooms that are not ADA compliant and bathrooms on all floors with plumbing encased in concrete, making it virtually impossible to repair or update. If we were not here today at this groundbreaking, the City of Norwalk and the State of Connecticut would need to invest $20 million dollars at a minimum to maintain the status quo. That would still leave us with a third-rate auditorium, a gymnasium with mold and termite damage, classrooms without elevator access and a substandard physical plant. The worst part – after tens of millions of dollars, the money invested would be invisible. Barely any of the work would be noticed. That's why it's time for a new school.

These features make 64 campuses the prettiest in the nation https://hubs.ly/Q02xtgrP0

Greetings from BMC '97. Your Jewish alumni, parents of Jewish students, Jewish faculty, and staff have been through a year of incredible trauma at Bryn Mawr and Haverford, as a result of decisions, actions and complicit inactions by school administrators as a result of a hostile antisemitic environment on both campuses, in response to the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7. While this recent lawsuit filed by the Deborah Project is against Haverford, Bryn Mawr's complicity is also implicated - allowing an "encampment" and permitting Haverford students who had committed antisemitic acts of violence to come to Bryn Mawr and terrorize the women there. Recently, the BiCo News published an article by a visiting professor, which advocated for armed "revolution" against Israel (i.e., Jews), which contradicts every tenant of Bryn Mawr's Quaker tradition of nonviolence. Yet, when alumni posted a comment in response, her comment was deleted by BiCo editorial staff (twice). These aggressions, overt and micro, are but some recent examples of ongoing an unaddressed trauma and harm, for which there has been no acknowledgement, much less remediation and accountability. As far as I know, you are not a BMC graduate, so while your sentiments here about BMC's history and culture are nice, I was educated there, and have very memories of Bryn Mawr, so much so that I have contributed to the institution in innumerable ways since graduation. Memories that are now tarnished by the betrayal of watching an institution I loved turn on me like a snake, and betray every ideal it espoused in the process - logic, reason, tolerance and respect. Other alumni feel the same. So forgive me if your breezy post about Bryn Mawr's storied past and ice cream socials don't quite land. We look forward to engaging with you on these issues.

These features make 64 campuses the prettiest in the nation https://hubs.ly/Q02xtgwL0