PMP421: Smarter Budgets, Smarter Schools with Nate Levenson and Jen Schwanke

Principal Matters: The School Leader's Podcast with William D. Parker

A quick note to listeners:

Before this week’s interview, Jen Schwanke and Will Parker answered a listener question in a 5-minute response.

The question is: How can I exercise my voice as a ‘guardian’ without coming off as ‘challenging’?

Will refers to a resource The 5 Voices: How to Communicate Effectively with Everyone You Lead by Jeremie Kubicek and Steve Cockram. You can find it here.

Listen in for our response and thank you for doing what matters!

Meet Nate Levenson

Nate Levenson is president of New Solutions K12. He brings a great deal of experience to the topic of raising achievement and improving equity despite tight resources. He combines decades of private sector experience with 20 plus years in K-12. As a superintendent he led an effort that closed the achievement gap and reduced the number of struggling readers while the budget was shrinking.

As a consultant he has helped over 300 districts in 30 states redesign budgeting, spend differently and increase Academic Return on Investment. As an author and thought leader he has written six books, scores of articles, a few white papers and regularly speaks nationally. His newest budget related book, Smarter Budgets, Smarter Schools, second edition, was published by Harvard Education Press. His passion is helping ensure every dollar does the most good for the most students.

In this week’s episode of Principal Matters Podcast, Jen Schwanke sits down with Nate Levenson to discuss his book, Smarter Budgets, Smarter Schools.

From Jen Schwanke:

This was such an impactful episode for me. Every time I talk with Nate Levenson, I learn something new. It’s not knowledge or facts that are so impactful— though he has those too— but rather the way he challenges me to make mindset shifts and reconsider the status quo. In this episode, Nate gives us a glimpse of this expertise. Join us as Nate discusses how school leaders can provide excellent learning environments for students— even when budgets are tight. He challenges us to shift our mindsets toward impactful change— something that happens when we let go of some of the myths we carry about learning environments. Let’s take a look at three myths we dispel during this episode.

Myth #1: Small class sizes and small intervention groups are a must.

We get into education because we care about kids, and it’s best to care about them in small groups, right? Indeed, small class sizes and small intervention groups are held as sacred truths. But Nate thinks about it a little differently. With better allocation of staff, and with the enhancement of staff impact through smarter scheduling, small class sizes stop becoming the most important thing— instead, how many students we serve in a day becomes much more important than the size of the group.

Myth #2: When money is tight, we should just lower our expectations.

This is something a lot of school leaders do. We think, “In order to save money, we need to make cuts. When we make cuts, we’ll need to expect less of our teachers and students.” But there is never going to be “enough” money— as Nate points out, “We are going to spend every dollar we have.” And so when we have less dollars, we won’t be able to afford every staff member and every service we have been providing. Rather than expect less of our staff and students, the mindset must shift. Let’s not do less for students but instead do differently for students.

Myth #3: Every school needs the same resources.

Many times, schools allocate staff based on what seems fair and necessary. If we have a district of four schools and we have four reading teachers on staff, every school should get a reading teacher. Right? No. Not at all. Nate recommends building a budget in which we literally account for students served, not FTEs. “Have a column that shows how many students we are helping,” he suggests, which shines an entirely different light onto the concept of equity.

Myth #4: When change is necessary, Central Office should create the action steps— and principals should implement them.

Nate feels strongly that principals are critical assets in any district’s decision making process. He outlines ways that district leaders should get principals to the table, starting by thinking of them as overall district leaders rather than just the leader of an individual school.

If held too tightly, these myths can be extremely problematic for schools, especially as we enter a period of very tight budgets. This episode will challenge and inspire you, whether you are a teacher, principal, or district-level leader. Thanks for listening!

Nathan Levenson, President, New Solutions K12

• Website: newsolutionsk12.com

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