Developing The Executive Team: A Leadership Training Program

Posted on by Society for Classical Learning

It’s lonely at the top. Every School Head bears the heavy weight of responsibility, but an effective, unified, executive leadership team not only lessens that burden, enhances the effectiveness of the top leader and extends his/her tenure, but also paves the path for sustained growth and mission accomplishment.

In most independent Christian schools, our leadership benches lack both depth and breadth, with too much falling on too few talented and experienced people. What happens when those key people disappear?

As School Board members, Heads, and Principals, it is our responsibility to steward the valuable human resources entrusted to us—especially those full of promise—instead of leaving them underdeveloped and then scrambling to poach from other Christian ministries when a key hire is needed. But how can an already too busy Head effectively train the leaders beneath him/her?

This session will introduce components of a one- to two-year, biblically-based leadership development program for key and emerging leaders that encompasses instruction in leadership and school operations and employs a mentoring program to develop more confident, secure, and experienced leaders. Most, or all, of this program can be delivered on site to (and with) your leadership team or cohort, increasing their exposure within the organization and building a shared commitment to the mission and trust among those responsible for executing it.

Starrla Fowler

"Starrla Fowler has served at Veritas Academy since its inception in 2004. She and her husband, Jef, co-founded this school of over 600 students now residing on its 97-acre campus in southwest Austin, Texas. For the past 17 years, Starrla has served in various capacities as the Academic Dean, Academic Team Chair, Grammar School Head, and School of Logic Head, in addition to her continued service on the school board and its Governance and Nominations committee. Starrla graduated summa cum laude from the University of Texas at Austin with a BS degree in Elementary Education. Just out of college, she taught in Houston’s Spring Branch ISD where she was a teacher-of-the-year and served on several task forces in this large school district, including multi-year studies for inclusion of learning disabled students, math curriculum development, and campus development. While at Veritas, Starrla has developed curriculum and academic programs, trained hundreds of teachers, served on accreditation teams for similar schools, and helped many classical, collaborative schools launch and grow. She is passionate about kingdom building through the expansion of classical, Christian schools. After receiving her Masters in Leadership through Gordon College, she shifted her focus to developing programs for training future Christian school leaders. Starrla and her husband, Jef, live in the Texas hill and are the parents of three adult children."

“I Doubt, Therefore I Believe?”: Why The History of Doubt Matters for Christian Educators in a Secular Age.

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Adam Stevenson

Adam has been involved in classical Christian education as a teacher and administrator for eleven years. He currently teaches Logic School History, Literature, and Latin at Seattle Christian Classical School. He has a B.A. in Biblical Languages from Moody Bible Institute, and he has M.A.'s in Biblical Exegesis and Historical & Systematic Theology from Wheaton College Graduate School. He lives in the Seattle area with his wife and four children.

Classical Christian Education for All: Starting New Schools for Children of the City

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Russ Gregg

Russ Gregg (B.A., Global Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison) is co-founder and has served as Head of School since Hope Academy’s founding in 2000. He has been a resident of the Phillips neighborhood since 1994. In 1999, he was an administrator at a Christian School in Edina, and quit his job to help lay the groundwork for a Christian school for his urban neighbors. Russ and his wife Phyllis, who teaches at Hope Academy, live four blocks away from the school. They have three grown children. Russ serves on the Board of Directors of the Society for Classical Learning.

Roosevelt Wilson

Roosevelt has a doctorate in Educational Leadership, a master's degree in Educational Leadership, a master's degree in Elementary Education, and a bachelor's degree in psychology. He comes to Harbor Christian Academy from Spring Independent School District, where he served as principal his final five years and assistant principal for four years prior. He also has six years of experience as a classroom teacher. Before beginning his career in education, Roosevelt served with the United States Marine Corps. A few highlights of his 23-year tour as a Marine include Instructor at the Drill Instructor School in San Diego, CA, Administrator at the Staff Noncommissioned Officer Academy in Okinawa, Japan, and also in Beaufort, SC, as the director of the Lifelong Learning Center. He is husband to Octavia and the father of four adult children.

Classical Assessment: Using Classical Tools to Authentically Assess the Whole Student

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Carrie Eben

Carrie Eben has been working in Classical education leadership for over 20 years in both private, Classical schools (where she taught) and classical homeschool. She conducts classical education seminars around the nation regarding authentic classical assessment and currently mentors teachers at Sager Classical Academy as Board Vice-Chair and Curriculum Chair. Carrie holds a BSEd degree from John Brown University and MSEd from Oklahoma State University. She is currently working on her PhD in Humanities at Faulkner University and a Circe Institute Teaching Apprenticeship simultaneously . She is passionate about both educating students toward academic excellence and virtue as well as empowering educators and parents using the classical tools of education.

It Takes a Team: Why the Head Must Not Go It Alone

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Leslie Moeller

Leslie Moeller is the current Chairman of the Board of the Society for Classical Learning, former Chairman of the Board of the Geneva School of Boerne, current Board member of New Covenant Schools, former Head of Upper School at The Covenant School, and former Head of School at Geneva School of Boerne. Leslie has used her broad experience in teaching, administrative, and governance of classical, Christian schools as the basis for her consulting work with boards across the nation over the past 12 years.

Christian Classical Education for the Rest of the World

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Ravi Jain

Ravi Jain graduated from Davidson College with a B.A. and interests in physics, ancient Greek, and international political economy. He worked at various churches, received an M.A. from Reformed Theological Seminary, and later earned a Graduate Certificate in Mathematics from the University of Central Florida. He coauthored “The Liberal Arts Tradition: A Philosophy of Christian Classical Education,” now translated into Chinese, and the forthcoming, “A New Natural Philosophy: Natural Science and Christian Pedagogy.” He began teaching Calculus and Physics at the Geneva School in 2003 where he has developed an integrated double period class called “The Scientific Revolution.” In that class students read primary sources like Galileo and Newton in order to recapitulate the narrative of discovery and explore its deeper meanings while preserving the mathematical and scientific rigor expected of a college level treatment. He also teaches AP Calculus BC, in which the students strive to discover and demonstrate the “most beautiful theorem in mathematics,” and AP Physics C where they encounter Faraday, Maxwell, and Einstein. He has given over 150 talks and workshops throughout America, Africa, and China on topics related to education, theology, mathematics, and science. He has served as a deacon in his church and is a founding Alcuin fellow. He enjoys spending time with his two boys, Judah and Xavier and his wife Kelley.

All School Revenue Flows Through One Office: Advancement

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Amy Burgess

Amy Burgess is the Cohort leader for SCL's Admission and Marketing cohort, and the former Director of Admission and Marketing at Covenant Classical School in Fort Worth, TX. Amy started the Smart School Growth agency to help K-12 Classical schools reach their enrollment goals by using proven Admission and Marketing strategies. Schools are complicated “businesses.” The stakes are high, budgets are slim, and staffing is lean. Amy helps equip Admission and Marketing teams to clarify their schools' messages, tighten their marketing efforts, work with their Boards and School Heads to forecast enrollment (and therefore budgets), and enroll their faculty and staff in the mission to reach (and keep) more families.

Close-Reading across the Canon: Transitioning to Biblical Theology

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Heidi H. Dean

Heidi H. Dean teaches Pentateuch and Old Testament historical books at Veritas Christian Academy outside Asheville, NC. She serves as a K-12 Bible Instruction Specialist for Christian Schools International. She holds a Th.M. in Historical Theology (Duke University) and is pursuing a doctorate. She trains schools in implementing a seminar model class built on close-reading and skills of genre, culminating in how biblical motifs become interwoven in other subject areas.

Dr. Peter Leithart

Peter J. Leithart (Ph.D. Cambridge) is president of the Theopolis Institute in Birmingham, AL and teacher at Trinity Presbyterian Church. He has long ties to classical Christian education and is the author of 25 books on theology, philosophy and literature. He and his wife, Noel, have ten children and thirteen grandchildren.

Classical Mobius: Integrating the Liberal, Common, and Fine Arts

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Chris Hall

Christopher Hall has a BA in Philosophy from Gettysburg College and an MAT in Elementary Education from Towson University. He has been a classroom educator and administrator for 25 years, having served in public, independent, and Classical schools. Along with his professional pedigree, he is the Founder of Always Learning Education, an organization dedicated to teaching, learning, and propagating the liberal, common, and fine arts in resonance. Chris is the author of Common Arts Education: Renewing the Classical Tradition of Training the Hands, Head, and Heart, published in February, 2021 by Classical Academic Press, and he serves as a national-level Alcuin Fellow. He lives on a small homestead in central Virginia with his wife and three homeschooled sons.

Classical Education Structured for Special Needs

Posted on by Society for Classical Learning

Heather Lloyd

Heather Lloyd aided in the foundation of the Conservatory of Music at New Saint Andrews College, she has founded several Christian and Classical K-12 schools across the nation, and a variety of programs that accommodate special needs students at existing Classical schools. Among these projects is The Jubilee School, which is a private, Christian school located in Moscow Idaho that is steeped in Classical pedagogy. The Jubilee School facilitates students that, traditionally, have a more difficult time integrating into conventional Christian Schools. These students, whether they have special needs, are advanced for their age, or are neuro-typical, work together in the classroom for a synergistic learning experience that isn’t just Classical, but also enables Romans 15:1 to happen inside the classroom—where the strong take care of the weak. Heather is the founding partner and the Executive Administrator of Concordis Education Partners whose vision is to equip start-up schools, schools transitioning to the Classical method, and existing Classical schools with the tools needed to make their students, teachers, and administration successful. Working hand-in-hand with its partner schools, Concordis has helped institutions across the country uphold the premise that excellent education should serve all.