MEET OUR SPEAKERS
Meet the voices shaping the future of K–12 education
K12PN SPEAKERS
Meet our speaker: Bill Runey
We spoke to Superintendent for the Dighton-Rehoboth Regional School District, Bill Runey who shared his key insights ahead of K–12 Partnership Network. Check out the interview below…
Q: From your extensive experience and lessons learned throughout your career, what’s one piece of advice you would want to share with other superintendents to empower them?
A: Courageously control the narrative—especially during moments of crisis or transformation. In today’s digital-first world, where information travels faster than ever, misinformation or lack of communication can create a vacuum that quickly erodes trust. Superintendents must act not just as instructional leaders, but as narrative architects—telling their district’s story with clarity, purpose, and empathy.
That requires proactive, transparent, and consistent communication with all stakeholders—staff, students, families, and community members. It’s not just about delivering facts; it’s about building relationships, establishing credibility, and reinforcing shared values. Whether you’re addressing a facilities issue, navigating budget constraints, or celebrating student success, how and when you communicate defines how your leadership is perceived.
This approach is deeply embedded in our strategic plan, Driving Toward 2030, under the pillar of community engagement. We’ve learned that strong communication isn’t just about messaging—it’s about connection. When superintendents control the narrative with courage and authenticity, they don’t just manage perceptions—they inspire confidence and unity.
Q: Why is now such an important time for K–12 education?
A: K–12 education stands at a pivotal moment. The pandemic brought lasting shifts to how students learn and how schools function, exposing disparities in access and engagement while accelerating the need for innovation. Simultaneously, the evolving workforce demands skills that go beyond content knowledge—adaptability, critical thinking, and digital literacy are more vital than ever. In Dighton-Rehoboth, we view this moment as a call to action. Through our Driving Toward 2030 Strategic Plan, we’re committed to empowering staff, igniting student curiosity, and shaping futures in a way that responds to today’s realities while preparing for tomorrow’s uncertainties.
Q: What are your key priorities to help you better serve your students and communities?
A: Our current priorities are grounded in our district’s strategic focus:
- Empower educators and students by investing in professional learning, leadership development, and healthy learning environments
- Ignite family and community engagement through communication strategies, events, and relationship-building that unify our towns of Dighton and Rehoboth
- Shape the future of learning by aligning curriculum with emerging workforce demands, expanding experiential learning, and embedding life skills across all grade levels
Q: In a world where technology is constantly reshaping the job market, how are you aligning your district’s curriculum and programs to prepare students for future careers that may not even exist yet?
A: Our strategy is grounded in preparing students with both future-ready skills and real-world experiences. As a part of that commitment, we are:
- Embedding digital literacy and computer science across the PreK–12+ curriculum.
- Offering hands-on, career-connected learning through internships, mentorships, and job shadowing starting in the lower grades.
- Expanding career and technical education in high-demand fields like criminal justice and health careers.
- Creating flexible learning pathways that include project-based learning, financial literacy, and mock job interviews.
This aligns directly with our strategic pillar of Expanded Learning Opportunities.
Q: How are you approaching the challenge of supporting teachers’ professional development to help them adapt to new educational paradigms and technologies in our rapidly changing world?
A: Our approach is systemic and responsive. We offer:
- Job-alike embedded professional development that connects directly to classroom needs.
- Opportunities for peer-led learning, mentorship, and coaching.
- A focus on digital fluency, trauma-informed practices, and student agency.
- Flexible formats, including online modules, micro-credentialing, and asynchronous options.
We also conduct a regular needs assessment to align offerings with what staff truly need—reinforcing our strategic pillar of Funding and Facilities, which includes investment in people.
You can hear more from Bill at K12 Partnership Network on September 15-17. Register today to save your spot!
Meet our speaker: Brett Slezak
We spoke to Director of Innovation for the Quaker Valley School District, Brett Slezak, who shared his insights on driving innovation, safety, and purpose in K–12 education. Check out the interview below…
Q: What are your key priorities to help you better serve your students and communities?
A: It is important to me that we take a deliberately thoughtful approach to adopting new and emerging technologies without diminishing the very human experience of learning a community. This means thinking about how things like automation and generative AI support staff and students to catalyse their learning and not detract from it. Additionally, K–12 schools also are at an increased likelihood of experiencing a cybersecurity attack, forcing us to also balance how to digitally protect our students and staff while embracing these new and emerging technologies.
Q: How are you leveraging collaborative leadership to foster a culture of innovation and continuous improvement among educators in your district?
A: At Quaker Valley School District we have begun the undertaking of engaging students, staff, and community through the Portrait of Graduate process. We understand that to develop a shared sense of purpose, we need to have a common understanding of what skills and disposition we all agree our students should strive for. By creating a unified path to follow, we can create the right conditions for innovation and continuous improvement to flourish.
You can hear more from Brett at K12 Partnership Network on September 15-17. Register today to save your spot!
Meet our speaker: Frederick Souza
Assistant Superintendent for the Dighton-Rehoboth Regional School District, Frederick Souza, shares his thoughts on how to properly prepare students for what lies ahead. Check out the interview below…
Q: Why is now such an important time for K–12 education?
A: We are at an inflection point in K–12 education. With the rapid pace of change—from technology to workforce demands to mental health needs—we cannot afford to stand still. For our district, the DRiving Toward 2030 Strategic Plan is our roadmap, empowering us to not only adapt but to lead with purpose. It’s about preparing our students to become future-ready graduates: critical thinkers, effective communicators, and globally minded citizens who thrive in an interconnected world. The opportunity before us is immense—to redefine what success looks like and ensure every student is equipped to meet their future with confidence.
Q: What are some of the key challenges you are facing as a superintendent in this changing educational environment?
A: Our biggest challenge is balancing immediate needs with future aspirations. Like many districts, we are addressing staffing shortages and rising mental health concerns while simultaneously pushing forward with curriculum innovation and equity work. Through DRiving Toward 2030, we’re intentionally focusing on creating safe and healthy environments and expanding learning opportunities — ensuring that no challenge stands in the way of our commitment to preparing students for life beyond school.
Q: What are your key priorities to help you better serve your students and communities?
A: Our priorities align closely with our five strategic pillars:
- Safe and healthy learning environments: We’re embedding SEL and restorative practices to create spaces where students thrive socially and academically.
- Curriculum and instruction: We are embracing inquiry-based and project-based learning, alongside digital literacy and computer science integration, to ensure every student builds future-ready skills.
- Expanded learning opportunities: We are increasing access to CTE pathways and experiential learning, starting career exploration as early as elementary school.
- Community engagement: Strengthening partnerships with families and local businesses to provide authentic, real-world experiences.
- Facilities and resources: We’re committed to responsible stewardship of our facilities and resources to sustain high-quality learning environments.
All of this supports our shared Portrait of a Graduate, ensuring DR students become collaborative, self-aware, critical thinkers who are prepared for life.
Q: From your extensive experience and lessons learned, what’s one piece of advice you would share with other superintendents to empower them?
A: Build your system around shared ownership. Our DRiving Toward 2030 plan and our Portrait of a Graduate were built with our community, not for them. Engaging students, staff, and families in meaningful ways creates authentic momentum. When your entire community believes they are part of the solution, you move from compliance to commitment. Empower your people, and they will rise to the occasion.
Q: Equity: What strategies are you implementing to ensure that historically underserved communities are not just included, but truly empowered?
A: Equity is not an initiative—it is a mindset embedded in every action we take. All means all. Through our strategic plan, we are:
- Conducting an equity audit to listen deeply to student, family, and staff voices.
- Providing PD on culturally responsive teaching, bias awareness, and inclusion.
- Expanding opportunities for choice and autonomy, ensuring students see themselves reflected in the curriculum and feel agency in their learning. Our goal is to move from inclusion to empowerment, so all students — particularly those historically underserved — thrive as self-advocates, as outlined in our Portrait of a Graduate.
Q: Future careers: how are you aligning your curriculum to prepare students for jobs that may not yet exist?
A: Our Portrait of a Graduate is built for this exact purpose. We focus on cultivating:
- Critical thinkers and future-ready learners who are adaptable and resilient.
- Integration of digital literacy and computer science pre-K–12.
- Expanded CTE pathways aligned with workforce needs like culinary arts, health & wellness, and criminal justice. We also emphasize career exploration starting early, with mentorships and shadowing opportunities, ensuring students are not just learning about careers but experiencing them firsthand.
Q: Collaborative leadership: how are you fostering innovation and continuous improvement among educators?
A: Through structured collaboration embedded in DRiving Toward 2030:
- We have prioritized teacher-led professional development, peer coaching, and learning walks to share best practices
- We are building a culture where educator voice shapes PD offerings and instructional innovation
- Regular cross-school collaboration ensures alignment and shared ownership of our instructional vision. We are empowering staff to ignite curiosity and shape the future of learning, staying aligned with our district’s core values
Q: Professional development: how are you supporting teachers to adapt to new paradigms and technologies?
A: Professional learning is central to our Strategic Plan. We:
- Offer PD on emerging technologies, SEL integration, and differentiated instruction.
- Provide teachers time to collaborate on curriculum innovations and incorporate digital tools meaningfully.
- Support peer-led learning, recognizing that our teachers are our greatest resource. Just as we want our students to be lifelong learners, we model that expectation by investing deeply in our educators’ growth.
Q: Mental health and wellbeing: what strategies are you focusing on to support mental health?
A: We are taking a whole-child, whole-community approach:
- Embedding SEL competencies into daily instruction.
- Implementing restorative practices and PBIS across schools.
- Expanding access to mental health services and promoting staff wellness.
- Ensuring our curriculum includes wellness education and opportunities for movement and reflection. As part of our Safe & Healthy Learning Environments pillar, we view mental health as foundational to academic success and lifelong well-being.
Ultimately, our work is about preparing every DR graduate to be future-ready, self-aware, and globally minded. That’s our north star.
You can hear more from Frederick at K12 Partnership Network on September 15-17. Register today to save your spot!
Meet our speaker: Robert Fisicaro
Superintendent for the Haddon Township School District, Robert Fisicaro, talks about the key challenges facing K–12 today. . Check out the interview below…
Q: Why is now such an important time for K–12 education?
A: While every generation of school leaders has faced its share of challenges, I firmly believe we are in the midst of the most disruptive decade in the history of public education.
Consider the perfect storm of crises converging at once: the long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, an escalating student mental health crisis, significant budget shortfalls across the state, the looming possibility of eliminating the Federal Department of Education, and a teacher shortage that threatens to reach crisis levels immediately. The Dean of Education at a major New Jersey university recently shared with me that, out of a graduating class of 500, only 45 candidates will be certified in subjects beyond elementary education and physical education. These numbers are staggering and foreshadow an impending staffing crisis.
Further complicating our landscape is rampant price gouging affecting school construction, materials, and out-of-district special education placements, all while our nation remains deeply divided politically. Grade inflation continues to rise, and the growing dependency on cell phones has not only fundamentally altered student behavior and engagement in the classroom but also revolutionized the way that we all now live, and it’s not all for the better.
And then there is the most painful reality of all: continued patterns of school violence. No other nation in the world faces this crisis at the level we do. Despite our best intentions, enhanced security measures, and partnerships with law enforcement, we have yet to consistently halt these tragedies. Every superintendent, every teacher, and every parent fears that their school could be next. This is not something we can accept as an inevitability.
Just ten years ago, our primary concerns revolved around implementing new teacher evaluation frameworks, the rollout of Common Core Standards, and the controversy surrounding PARCC testing. Today, those challenges seem like pebbles in our shoes compared to the mountains we now face. There are no easy answers, and no single solution will remedy every challenge. But what is clear is that we must meet this moment collectively and with courage, humility, and an unwavering commitment to work together as educators, policymakers, and community members.
Q: What are some of the key challenges you are facing as a superintendent in this changing educational environment?
A: AI is rapidly reshaping education, and while it presents opportunities for personalized learning, tutoring, and lesson planning, it also introduces risks to academic integrity and critical thinking. Without clear policies, schools are struggling to harness AI’s benefits while mitigating its potential harms.
Education has also become increasingly politicized, with school board meetings turning into battlegrounds over curriculum decisions, book bans, and ideological debates. These tensions not only drive educators away but also distract from the fundamental mission of schools: educating our children.
Meanwhile, the mental health crisis among students continues to escalate. Anxiety, depression, and suicide rates have soared, exacerbated by social media, academic pressures, and the residual trauma of the pandemic. Schools must form stronger partnerships with organizations that can provide cost-effective solutions to enhance student wellness, differentiated instruction, and the delivery of high-level content that will soon be missing due to the teacher shortage.
Another crisis quietly unfolding in our schools is student phone addiction. Research confirms that excessive smartphone use correlates with declining attention spans, lower academic performance, and worsening mental health. Yet, schools struggle to implement effective policies, often facing resistance from students and parents alike. We must find a way to balance digital literacy with the need to minimize distractions in the classroom.
Q: What are your key priorities to help you better serve your students and communities?
A: New Jersey’s public schools stand at a crossroads. The choices we make today will determine whether we emerge stronger from this decade or allow our system to falter under the weight of these challenges. We must:
- Support teachers by reducing bureaucratic hurdles to certification and develop new pathways that can redefine and expand classroom teachers.
- Develop local and national partnerships with programs that provide cost-effective solutions to prioritize mental health and can maximize and enhance the foundations of learning.
- Support AI use in classrooms with clear policies that promote ethical integration while ensuring equitable access to new technologies.
- Minimize distractions and develop classroom environments that prioritize complete focus and concentration.
- Enforce reasonable limits on cell phone use during non-instructional time only to help students remain engaged, focused, and productive.
- Depoliticize education by focusing on policies that improve student outcomes rather than ideological battles that divide communities.
- Address budget shortfalls by combining state funding reforms and innovative public-private partnerships to preserve vital programs and infrastructure.
You can hear more from Robert at K12 Partnership Network on September 15-17. Register today to save your spot!
Meet our speaker: Randy Jensen
Superintendent for the American Falls District, Randy Jensen, shares how his district is tackling issues like mental health and preparing students for the future. Check out the interview below…
Q: Why is now such an important time for K–12 education?
A: Now is a critical time for K–12 education because we are at a crossroads where societal expectations, student needs, and workforce demands are rapidly evolving. The challenges students face today—mental health struggles, access to resources, and the pressure to be career- or college-ready—require us to rethink traditional education models. At the same time, we are seeing unprecedented opportunities through community engagement, new technologies, and partnerships. If we want to ensure our students are prepared for the future, we must act now to innovate, connect, and respond in meaningful ways.
Q: What are your key priorities to help you better serve your students and communities?
A: Our top priority is building a school system that not only teaches content but also addresses the whole child. Through our Community Schools model, we’re investing in partnerships that provide everything from mental health counseling to tutoring to adult education and job support. We also run initiatives like ReadTalkPlay Everyday to build early literacy by empowering parents as their child’s first teacher. Another major focus is workforce development—we’re creating pathways for high school students to engage in real work-study programs that match them with local businesses. Everything we do is about removing barriers and creating opportunity.
Q: How are you leveraging collaborative leadership to foster a culture of innovation and continuous improvement among educators in your district?
A: Collaboration is at the core of everything we do. We’ve built school-based leadership teams and a district-wide steering committee as part of our Community Schools model. These groups bring together teachers, administrators, parents, and community partners to make decisions together, rather than relying on a top-down approach. When teachers and staff feel their voice matters, they become more willing to try new ideas, take risks, and grow. Innovation thrives in that kind of culture. It’s not about chasing fads—it’s about listening, learning, and improving together.
Q: What strategies and initiatives are you focusing on to better support teacher and student mental health and wellbeing?
A: Mental health is not a side issue—it’s central to learning. One of our strategies has been to embed mental health support into the school day. We’ve partnered with local clinics to bring licensed counselors into our buildings and hired a full-time mental health advisor to support students and staff. For our teachers, we’re working to reduce burnout by creating wellness incentives and offering more flexibility, while also providing professional development focused on social-emotional learning. Ultimately, our goal is to make every school a place where people feel safe, supported, and valued—because that’s where real learning happens.
You can hear more from Randy at K12 Partnership Network on September 15-17. Register today to save your spot!
K12PN USA 2025 Registration
September 15 – 17, Fontainebleau Miami Beach, Miami