WCPSS 2026 Summer Leadership Conference

During this session we will develop and implement a personalized system to manage tasks, requests, and interruptions, resulting in more intentional use of work time and energy. Participants will strengthen their current organizational methods by leveraging lists and time management strategies to improve overall effectiveness and productivity.

The Office of Security is implementing an updated mandatory district wide Emergency Standard Response Protocol. This change in procedure will be initiated at the over the summer.

Leading with courage requires clear, transparent, and efficient communication. In this session, we explore how Microsoft Teams can serve as the central nervous system for school-based leadership and central services. By streamlining internal workflows and professional learning communities, leaders can model the Creative Communicator (DLS.CC.6) standard. We will discuss how to move away from "email fatigue" and toward a more "Onward Together" communication model that fosters real-time collaboration, document security, and operational effectiveness.

Student Assignment - You have questions, we have answers! Why do we reassign students? Doesn't this family get transportation? I don't understand why a family in Buncombe can't enroll a student here with the aunt. We will walk through all of the legalese and policy components to help you better engage with families.

Board materials, policy manuals, and meeting videos — all in one place. Well, three places. We'll show you all of them and explain how to sort through over a decade of material to find exactly what you need. "Surely it's online" is technically correct, but a Google search may not get you there, and AI will confidently hallucinate something and tell you it found it. "I'll search for it later" only works if you know where to look.

Want to be more sustainable? Our WCPSS sustainability coordinator will share ideas and strategies that are currently being implemented in various schools across our district. There will be time to collaborate with other building leaders around these ideas and strategies. In addition, there will be time for questions on best practices and next steps. Looking forward to making positive environmental changes, one school at a time!

There are many Board policies that are frequent fliers for staff at schools and at central services. Which policies give you flexibility in how you handle things (guardrails) versus those that are specific in their requirements (gates)? What happens if one is mistaken for the other? We'll explore real examples where mistakes happen.

If we could just manage our time better, we could get everything done, right? Wrong! There is not enough time, no matter how well organized, to meet everyone’s needs and check all the tasks off your to- do list. The first step towards reclaiming leadership purpose is to stop trying to manage time and start managing priorities! This session will help you make the perspective shift and provide some basic tools to make priority management both practical and impactful.

The session reframes school breakfast as a powerful operational strategy, not just a school nutrition program. Participants explore how morning meal access directly improves arrival flow, attendance, behavior, instructional readiness, and overall school efficiency. We will do this through hands on morning operations maps, discussing operational pain points, and determine which breakfast models can solve real school problems. The goal is for leaders to leave with a micro-plan for strengthening breakfast in their building while increasing student outcomes.

When 44% of your students are Hispanic, family engagement isn’t an initiative—it’s a responsibility. Join us to learn how we built meaningful partnerships with almost no funding by collaboratively designing and launching monthly Hispanic Family Nights to empower our Hispanic families. It all started with one question: How do we truly partner with 215 Hispanic students and their families? That question grew into a movement that reshaped our school community. After hosting our first Hispanic Family Night in September, we followed our student data and recognized the need for intentional action to support our largest student group. The initial event was a success, leaving families eager for more—so Hispanic Family Nights became a monthly tradition, and attendance has continued to grow. In this session, participants will learn how we empower Hispanic families while holding ourselves accountable for improving outcomes for our Hispanic students. Key takeaways include how our ESL team, principal, and newly formed Hispanic Liaison Committee collaboratively plan each event using student data and SIP goals to guide content. We will share topics such as understanding report cards, supporting nightly reading, helping children in math, and navigating assessments including mCLASS, NC Check-Ins, and ACCESS.By honoring family perspectives, removing language barriers, and leveraging existing resources, we’ve created sustainable, high-impact engagement—without large budgets—and hope our journey inspires your school community.

Leaders today are navigating conditions that feel increasingly unpredictable and difficult to interpret—across sectors, not just in education. This session introduces a practical approach, drawn from the field of Futurism, to make sense of these shifts and respond with clarity and adaptability. Leaders will leave this session with: -A clearer way to make sense of the conditions shaping their work. -Ways to apply new ideas to a current leadership challenge. -Practical strategies for leading in uncertain environments. In these unprecedented times, mission and purpose continue to anchor the work, while strategies become more flexible and human-centered.

This session will be geared to learning techniques and tools for using Google Sheets and Excel to maximize operational efficiency in data organization and communication. Examples include Mail Merge, IMPORT, VLOOKUP, and other helpful tips that may help with some of the daily work of school administrators.

Policy can be viewed as guardrails or gates. What is our core business, and how do we understand policy within that context?

You have an item that has been placed on a Board of Education agenda. What does that mean? Which kind of meeting? Are you presenting or not? What is a precis? The deadlines to submit everything are when?!?! This session goes behind the scenes to explain the various kinds of Board meetings and Board materials and the timeline for getting everything published.

Compassionate leadership means ensuring that every digital resource—from classroom materials to district-wide communications—is an open door rather than a barrier. Moving beyond "check-the-box" compliance, this session dives into the heart of Lever 3 (See Me!) by prioritizing the dignity and inclusion of every individual we serve. Using WCAG-aligned resources, we will demonstrate practical ways to create accessible Google Docs, Slides, and multimedia. Whether you are a school-based or central services leader, fostering a culture of accessibility allows you to model what it means to be a Digital Citizen (DLS.DC.2) and ensures that "leading together" truly includes everyone.