Dr. Larry Jacobs, Superintendent of Wolf Creek Public Schools
Presentation: 2009-07-10

Dr. Larry Jacobs is the Superintendent of the Wolf Creek Public School District, and visited our class via video conference to share his thoughts on educational leadership in technology. A natural speaker, who engaged us despite the barriers of the VC technology, Larry started by introducing himself and giving an overview of his background. He then proposed a theory that how people act is directly related to the organization of an institution and challenged us to think about how that concept might relate to our own schools / Districts / classrooms.

The Wolf Creek School District is clearly succeeding in the realm of IT. He is obviously someone who knows what he is talking about and how it applies to real world situations. The main part of his talk focused more on the organizational structure of visioning and less on the actual leading he provided. Nonethess, it was interesting to understand the process Wolf Creek underwent to create a Vision Statement.

To begin his discussion of his own experiences, Dr. Jacobs started with a summary of the different type of leadership approaches. The main leadership styles he covered were:
· Top Down
· Flat Organizational
· Vision Led

The Wolf Creek School District followed a vision-led model which was implemented in the following way:
· They recognized that an organization cannot be told what its mission or vision will be
· All staff were given an opportunity to comment on central purpose
· Debated questions and where the district was heading in the next five years
1. Teachers wanted to collaborate
2. Teachers wanted to learn new skills
· They created a mission based on these items. It had two critical points:
1. Students need to be “lifetime learners”
2. Teachers need to learn the skills to create powerful learning environments
· They recognized that the Vision Statement must be applied concretely. The Superintendent was responsible for making sure that it actually occurred.
· They developed the Vision Statement from this model.
· They created a Mnemonic image to show this Vision Statement in a visual way, so that it could be recalled easily.

Dr. Jacobs led us through the Vision Statement of the Wolf Creek School District, and explained how it was designed to enhance the visual recall of the change process. (To access the Vision Statement, you can go to the Wolf Creek Three Year Plan online at: http://www.wolfcreek.ab.ca/documents?object=/documents_directory&infobar=no&templates=RWD&ConfPosition=1 ).

(To access the mnemonic graphic device, you can link to: http://www.wolfcreek.ab.ca/Aisi%20Web/02497B7A-000F810F.1/12152008_30310_1.png ).

Larry also spoke on the topic of creating sub goals to provide concrete methods ensuring that the Vision Statement was fulfilled. The plans “7Cs” provided staff with yet another mnemonic device that filled with specific goals that would result in concrete changes in the education of staff and students.

He spoke of designing learning environments to connect with all the potential learning styles in the classroom. The technology integration became part of every goal, and a “powerful driver” of educational change, rather than a separate IT vision. He explained his believe that staff (both administrative and classroom teachers) must be provided with opportunities for growth and professional development. And lastly, he spoke passionately about creating collaborative models to provide strategies to ensure that these goals are implemented. It is clear that Dr. Jacobs has been an agent of change in the Wolf Creek School District.