Name: Vince Breunig

Title: District Administrator

Organisation: School District of Lodi

Vince Breunig has dedicated three decades to the field of public education, beginning his career as a school psychologist before transitioning into school administration for the past 24 years. After serving 17 years as a high school principal and two years as a Director of Student Services, he is now in his fifth year as the district administrator for the School District of Lodi.

Vince is deeply committed to fostering community trust in school districts, an interest that led him to recently write and defend his dissertation titled Exploring Factors That Influence Community Trust in Their Local School Districts. His leadership is characterized by a student-centered approach, a focus on collaboration with the community, and a dedication to ensuring that every student receives the support they need to succeed.

Thank you to the 2,000 leaders who’ve generously done the 7 Questions on Educational Leadership!

I hope Vince's answers will encourage you in your leadership journey. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Jonno White

1. What have you found most challenging as an Educational Leader?

The most challenging aspect of being an educational leader is meeting the needs of all of our students with limited resources. The best way I have found to do that is to work with your community through a strategic planning process. This provides you with the community's priorities. You then use these priorities to align the educational system to ensure that staff across the system are working in collaboration to meet the needs of students. The other challenge we have in education is focus.

There are so many great things we can do with students, but we can’t do them all. By using the strategic planning process, we are able to focus our energy and resources on the areas that our community has identified as the highest priority.

2. How did you become an Educational Leader? Can you please briefly tell the story?

I like to tell the story that I spent six years becoming a school psychologist and only spent six years as a school psychologist. I recognized a need in the district where I was working at the time for some consistent leadership at the high school, as they had gone through two principals in three years. I also recognized the level of impact that I could have working from a systems level vs working individually with students.

I spent 7 years as the high school principal in that district and wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue to be in that role, especially with young children at home. I moved to a district office position (Director of Student Services) for two years in a nearby district, but really missed the daily interactions with students. In that district, I had the opportunity to move back to the high school principal role, which I then did for 10 years.

During the 2019-2020 school year, my district administrator was retiring, and I applied. I let the Board of Education know that I was happy staying as the high school principal, but if they needed me to take on the district administrator role that I would accept that challenge. I have been the district administrator in my current district ever since.

3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

The day of a school administrator is quite varied. However, I do start it the same way each day. I get up around 4:45 am and exercise nearly every day. I believe the leader of the organization should be one of the healthiest people in the organization.

Following this, I shower, eat a good breakfast, and then get to the office around 7 am. I often do a quick check of email a couple of times in the morning, but don’t typically engage a lot in work prior to then, unless there is inclement weather, I have to make a decision about keeping school open.

I have worked to develop a calendar that has big rocks (priorities) built into my calendar. If I don’t start with the priorities, the day-to-day business of the job will take all of my time. I typically start my day with email, and then each day is different. Big rocks in my calendar include strategic plan implementation, administrative support, classroom visits, etc. For example, on Monday’s I meet with four of my administrators for weekly check-in meetings to walk through the work they are doing and to ensure we are focused on the important things across our system.

I start each Wednesday morning out visiting, doing classroom walk throughs in the different buildings of our district. My day also gets filled with preparing for Board meetings and Board committee meetings, meeting my administrative team, and ensuring that we are communicating effectively with staff, families, and our community. Several nights a week, I have either a Board meeting or a committee meeting. When I don’t have one of those, I can often be found attending a co-curricular event in the district.

I do try to have dinner with my family most nights and make sure that I am focused on them and not on school during that time. If I am home for the evening, I typically will try to do some professional reading. I typically get to bed fairly early due to being up early each day

4. What's a recent lesson you've learned for the first time or been reminded of as an Educational Leader?

I am constantly being reminded that I need to spend time in classrooms, that is where the important work happens. When I am in classrooms, I can see the real-world impact of the decisions that are being made at the district office. I can also see the great work that goes on each and every day that we take for granted.

I am also reminded that we have to tell our story as often as possible. If we don’t tell our story, nobody will. We need to spend more time celebrating the great things that go on in schools each and every day. That is why when I am in classrooms, I am often taking pictures and putting together social media posts for our district. To shine the light on the great things our students and staff do each and every day.

5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your journey as an Educational Leader so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted you?

Several of the books from Chip and Dan Heath: Made to Stick, Switch, The Power of Moments, and Upstream have all profoundly impacted the work I do as a leader. They have helped me be better at recognizing the work that is being done in our schools and communicating to stakeholders about this work.

They have helped me become better at recognizing powerful moments in our school year and making sure that we are honoring those staff and students who are having those moments. That is so important in the culture and climate of our schools.

6. If you could only give one piece of advice to a young educator who aspires to be an Educational Leader, what would you say to them?

The focus always has to be on doing what is in the best interest of students. If you are not sure about a decision, imagine yourself looking in a mirror a couple of days from now, asking yourself if you did what was in the best interest of students. This typically will help to drive you to the right decision. You will be pushed from all different sides to make different decisions, but ultimately it comes down to staying true to your values and doing what is best for kids.

I would also say that you need to have a high level of character to be an educational leader. Students, staff, families, and community members will be watching you, so you can’t just talk the talk; you have to walk the walk. Leadership is all about character.

Finally, you almost always have time to slow the situation down and make a decision. People will push you to make immediate decisions when you don’t have all the information and there will be times you have to do that. But most times, you put that pressure on yourself. Give yourself the gift of time and contemplation, so you can think through decisions, because almost every decision you make impacts the lives of others

7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as an Educational Leader, so far?

I had a parent come up to my wife one time and tell me how much a student appreciated me as their principal. They felt supported and cared for. This was due to my spending time in the hallway with the students one day when she was in tears and having a really rough day. The parent was so appreciative that her child felt so connected to the principal.

My wife came home and relayed that story to me and asked what had happened the day that I had comforted this student in the hallway. I told her that I needed to be honest, and I did not remember that interaction at all. I have had so many interactions with so many students over the years that one did not stick out to me at all.

The lesson is that we can’t choose when we have an impact on a student, staff member, or community member. The interaction we feel is just an everyday type of interaction, might be profoundly impactful to a student or stakeholder. We don’t get to choose the interactions that make the difference, so that should drive you to make every interaction the best you can make it.

It makes you take that extra minute to listen or to check in or to just be there for someone. We have to bring our best selves each and every day!