Where today's leaders build tomorrow's schools.

Special education leaders are drowning in administrative complexity — missed deadlines, inconsistent documentation, overburdened case managers, and compliance risk that keeps administrators up at night. But what does it actually take to build operational infrastructure that supports educators, protects students' rights, and holds up under scrutiny? In this session, Liz Caffrey, Director of Special Education at DSST Public Schools, and Ingrid Wulczyn, Founder of Managed Technology, share what they've learned building and scaling special education operations across a 16-school, 12,000-student network. Attendees will hear directly from a district leader and a special education systems expert about the real challenges of operationalizing compliance — from IEP workflow design and documentation quality to staff capacity and administrator visibility. The session will explore how DSST approached building consistent, school-wide systems, what role technology and AI-assisted tools can play in reducing burden without removing educator judgment, and what other special education leaders can take back and apply in their own contexts. Whether you lead a single school or oversee a network, this session offers practical, practitioner-tested strategies for making special education operations work better for everyone — especially students.

Misaligned teams undermine the conditions for transformative teaching and learning. In this hands-on, actionable session, Beth Napleton, Founder of LevelEDUP Leadership and Chicago Collegiate, and Jen McMillan, Co-Founder and Head of School of Detroit Prep, will share lessons from building and leading strong teams. Participants will diagnose what is breaking down on their team—whether leadership presence, role clarity, decision-making, accountability, or another challenge—analyze real case studies, and leave with proven strategies and next steps to build a high-functioning, values-aligned team.

What happens when every student in a school steps away from their regular schedule to tackle a real problem that matters? In this session, leaders from Comp Sci High will share how Design Competition serves as a cornerstone of the school's approach to project-based learning and career readiness. Twice each year, students in grades 9–12 work on cross-functional teams to solve authentic, high-stakes challenges facing the school or broader community, applying the same collaboration, problem-solving, communication, and project management skills used in the workplace. Participants will explore how the model is designed, launched, and sustained, including the structures, planning processes, and instructional moves that make it successful. Leaders will leave with practical ideas for creating meaningful, real-world learning experiences that build both academic skills and workforce readiness.

As part of 22Beacon's Mastering the Blueprint facilities workshop series, this session focuses on the final and most critical phase of opening a new school building: preparing for Day One. As schools move from planning to execution, the final weeks before occupancy determine whether opening will be smooth or chaotic. This session will guide new school founders and expanding school teams through opening a new building and assessing their readiness for students. Participants will plan a practical review of their facility readiness using a structured pre-occupancy walkthrough process. They will identify critical milestones, uncover common gaps, and leave with tools to monitor progress, ensuring their facility, operations, and team are truly ready for Day One.

"Inclusion" means something different to every person in your building and that gap is costing your students. When teams operate from misaligned definitions, even well-resourced and well-intentioned schools struggle to move the needle for students with disabilities. This session cuts through the ambiguity to build coherent alignment. In this session, you will analyze and deeply consider what you and your team mean by inclusion as it pertains to students with disabilities. You will also understand what informs that meaning and begin to map a clearer, more aligned path forward for your team, setting a foundation for better outcomes for all students.

Kick off the year with a clear coaching stance and a concrete feedback plan for every direct report you lead. Through practical frameworks and real-time practice, participants will learn how to assess what type of coaching each direct report needs, develop a coaching stance that meets them where they are, and build a plan to deliver feedback that resonates and drives growth. Participants will leave with a best-practice feedback framework and the confidence to have the performance conversations that set their team up to thrive all year long.

As a superintendent you are working within a system that was not designed to support what you want to accomplish: ensuring that every student receives a high-quality, personalized education so they graduate prepared for the future they choose. And while many people talk about "transformation" few understand what it truly requires. In this workshop, you will use a self-study guide to assess the current state of your district leadership and begin mapping out research-based steps to rewiring your system so that it works for every student.

As operations leaders, we are all busy. But effort without design is exhaustion. In this 60-minute live session, you'll get an honest audit of your network's operations. 8 dimensions, one scoring sheet, zero fluff. You'll leave knowing exactly where your systems are strong and where they're quietly costing you time, energy, and impact. This is also your first look at the Ops Excellence Collective, open now for enrollment during the 26-27 school year.

However the calendar falls, the opening stretch of the year sets the tone for everything that follows. Principals who lead this window with clear systems, a defined focus, and a steady mindset build momentum they can carry forward, while those who spend it reacting spend months trying to catch up. This workshop helps members walk into the start of the year, whenever it happens to fall on their calendar, with intention. In this session, we'll look at launch readiness checklist and audit tool covering staffing, communication, culture, and academics, plus a start of year planning guide.

A hands-on workshop designed for Principal Managers and network leaders who want to start the year with a clear vision for how they will manage, develop, and hold their principals accountable. Through practical frameworks and real-time application, participants will learn how to set the foundation for a strong managerial relationship, establish the collaboration norms and accountability metrics that drive consistent results, and build the habits and structures that set both them and their principals up for a great year. Participants will leave with concrete tools and a clear plan to launch the year strong.

School leaders face increasingly complex challenges that require strong self awareness, effective communication, and the ability to lead diverse teams through change. Yet many leadership challenges stem not from a lack of skill or commitment, but from predictable patterns in how leaders make decisions, respond to stress, navigate conflict, and build relationships. This workshop helps school and network leaders use the Enneagram as a practical leadership development tool to identify those patterns and strengthen their effectiveness. Participants will examine how different leadership styles influence communication, decision making, feedback, delegation, and team culture, and where common leadership blind spots emerge under pressure. Through guided reflection, real world leadership scenarios, and structured application exercises, participants will learn how to leverage their leadership strengths, recognize behaviors that may limit their impact, and adapt their approach when working with colleagues, direct reports, and leadership teams with different perspectives and motivations. Participants will leave with practical tools to improve communication and collaboration, a framework for navigating conflict more effectively, and a personalized action plan for addressing a current leadership challenge. This session is designed for school leaders, network leaders, and leadership teams seeking concrete strategies to strengthen organizational culture, build trust, and improve team effectiveness.

A hands-on workshop for anyone leading or supporting school facilities strategy—from Executive Directors and operations leaders to finance teams, facilities professionals, and board members who are ready to move beyond the vision and get serious about whether a facility project is financially within reach. Through guided application of real planning tools, participants will model enrollment, funding, and debt assumptions to assess the true feasibility and affordability of a potential facility project before moving into lender conversations and next steps. Participants will leave with practical frameworks and the financial grounding needed to make informed, confident decisions about their facility future.

Leading implementation of new curriculum is complex. This interactive workshop helps leaders simplify the process. We'll explore a framework to identify what matters most, monitor the outcomes that count, and keep initiatives on track.

Every fundraising program has strengths to build on, whether it is emerging, growing, or well established. Yet knowing where to focus next can be challenging. When fundraising falls short of its potential or funding needs increase, the instinct is often to add another event, grant application, appeal, or campaign. A thoughtful assessment helps leaders step back, recognize what is working, uncover underlying needs, and make confident decisions about where to focus next. In this interactive workshop, school and nonprofit leaders will use FundEd’s Fundraising Self-Assessment, a tool and framework informed by FundEd Strategies’ work with more than 100 charter schools across the country and experience helping schools raise more than $250 million. Participants will examine six connected areas of a strong fundraising program, identify two or three priorities for growth, and leave with the tool, practical recommendations for every stage of fundraising maturity, and guidance to create a focused action plan for the new year. This is also your first look at the Fundraising Collective, open now for enrollment during the 26-27 school year.

A hands-on workshop designed for CEOs and Executive Directors ready to take an honest look at how they are spending their time and make intentional adjustments before the year gets away from them. Through guided reflection and practical application, participants will explore the CEO Capacity Map, a powerful planning tool that helps leaders map their time across core responsibilities, identify gaps between stated priorities and actual time use, and build a clearer, more sustainable plan for the year ahead. Participants will leave with a completed capacity map, a set of clarified priorities, and a concrete plan to ensure their time and energy drive the impact they intend.

The start of every school year is a sprint. Weeks of training, preparation, and showing up fully for your team demands an enormous investment of energy and focus. But the leaders who finish the year strong are not just the ones who start fast. They are the ones who know how to transition from the opening sprint to a sustainable pace without losing momentum or missing what matters most. In this hands-on workshop, Bill Kurtz shares the 5 leadership steps every school leader should take in September to set themselves and their teams up for a great year. Leaders who take these steps intentionally are better positioned to sustain their energy, sharpen their focus, and lead with greater clarity and purpose through the months ahead. Participants will leave with a clear personal leadership plan and the tools to lead themselves well so they can lead others even better.

A hands-on workshop designed for enrollment directors, operations leaders, and marketing staff who are ready to kick off the new application season with clarity, energy, and a concrete plan. Led by Vanessa Barry, who leads the year-long Enrollment Collective, participants will assess what worked and what didn't from the prior season, set goals for the year ahead, and build the messaging and strategy needed to launch strong. Participants will leave with actionable tools and a clear roadmap to hit the ground running as the new enrollment season begins.

As AI rapidly enters classrooms, many district leaders are struggling to distinguish meaningful instructional innovation from disconnected technology adoption. At the same time, schools are searching for scalable ways to strengthen literacy outcomes, increase student engagement, and better support teachers implementing high-quality instructional materials (HQIM). This session is designed for district and school leaders who want to leverage AI strategically to accelerate ELA achievement while preserving rigorous, human-centered instruction. Through a conversation between CMO and District leaders and Coursemojo leadership, participants will explore practical principles for implementing AI in ways that strengthen — not replace — strong Tier 1 teaching and learning. Leaders will examine how curriculum-aligned AI tools can support richer student discourse, timely feedback, productive struggle, and stronger engagement with HQIM-based ELA instruction. The session will also focus on building collaborative implementation structures, piloting before scaling, and identifying meaningful measures of instructional impact and return on investment. By the end of the workshop, participants will leave with concrete strategies, planning tools, and evaluation criteria they can immediately apply to guide thoughtful AI implementation that improves ELA outcomes and supports sustainable instructional improvement.

Looking at the past four years of job posting and job seeker data, where is the K12 job market going? Leaders in the session will leave understanding the current ebbs and flow of hiring, how seasonal trends have changed after ESSER, how Federal funding uncertainty impacted job posting, and when job seekers are most actively looking at job postings.

A school's physical environment is one of its most visible expressions of values — yet most leaders have never been taught to evaluate a building the way they evaluate instruction. This session equips leaders to read their space intentionally, identifying how hallways, entrances, and classroom setups either reinforce or undermine their school's academic routines and culture. Participants will leave with a practical walkthrough checklist they can apply immediately — whether they are preparing to move into a new building or taking a fresh look at the one they already occupy.

Every school that's changing what's possible has a leader who decided to innovate. Our Breakthrough Models workshop series invites school leaders and other founders and innovators inside the thinking behind those bets. In each session, host Caitrin Wright, CEO of Silicon Schools Fund, sits down with a guest doing real innovation work in schools today for an honest conversation about what's working, what's falling flat, and where the field's most visionary funders and operators are leaning in next. First up: Melissa Zaikos of Intrinsic Schools in Chicago, where the Future Leaders Program is rethinking nearly everything about the school day: how students spend their time, what teachers do, and how school can feel relevant and meaningful to students. Come learn, collaborate, and get inspired to build what's next.

You're doing the work, having the conversations, and staying committed to the mission — so why does progress still feel harder than it should? In this interactive workshop, leadership coach Beth Napleton helps leaders diagnose what's quietly stalling your change efforts and leave with a clear, concrete next step you can act on right away. Drawing on five common patterns behind stalled progress — from energy drain and blurred expectations to misaligned communication and team dynamics — participants will learn to identify which culprit is at play in their own work and how to address it without adding more meetings, more initiatives, or more frustration. Leave with a diagnostic framework, practical alignment tools, and a right next step that works even when capacity is limited and resistance is real. No matter if your desired change is academic or cultural, instructional or operational, you will leave with concrete next steps to take to help you lead change efforts more effectively.

AI is making phishing and social engineering attacks faster, cheaper, and harder to spot, and schools are an increasingly common target. K-12 IT leader and cybersecurity expert Andy Lombardo breaks down what's changing and where schools are most exposed, along with a case study from Dr. Sonya Lovejoy, Director of Curriculum and Professional Development at Gem Prep, a charter school. You'll leave with specific, actionable steps—not just theory—covering where your schools are most exposed and what to fix first.

In this session we will explore how generative AI is disrupting trust and how we can respond to that shift. We will support mindsets that build trust and and explore pedagogical and andragogical approaches to focusing on the process of learning, to support teams with building trust in a fast changing world.

On January 1, a new federal tax credit lets taxpayers redirect up to $1,700 of their federal taxes ($3,400 for married couples) to K-12 scholarships, and most of your families will qualify. Scholarships can cover tutoring, enrichment, before- and after-school care and technology. Schools that choose an Scholar Granting Organization (SGO) partner and set up a program before donations open will be first in line for those dollars in 2027–28. In one hour, you'll learn what the credit means for public and charter schools, dive into a launch plan, score your own readiness, and leave with a tool for choosing an SGO.

This workshop introduces sustainability strategic planning as a tool for translating an organization's mission into a realistic, long-term operational and facility planning roadmap. For school leaders and operations directors, the session focuses on three practical entry points: bringing community voice into the planning process, bridging organizational priorities with operational excellence, and applying a structured sustainability planning tool to guide development of the plan itself.

A hands-on workshop designed for education leaders who are ready to rethink what summer learning can be for their students and their org. Drawing on compelling research, participants will explore the evidence for why summer learning matters, examine what separates high-impact summer programs from ineffective ones, and build the shared vision and urgency needed to lead meaningful change. Participants will leave with a clear sense of the opportunity in front of them and the inspiration to act on it, along with a first look at the three-session Summer Learning Collective launching in the spring.

Job descriptions can make or break your search process. A great job description, like a great MLS house listing, can sell your role. Participants bring a job description they are drafting or about to post, score it against six standards, and leave with a revised draft that includes a priority application deadline and a dated hiring timeline. The six standards come from what the strongest postings in the Jobs Blast have in common: a compact salary range, a typical starting salary, specific benefits, responsibilities with percent of time and measures of success, a clear reporting line and decision rights, and a priority deadline with every hiring step dated. The hour runs on participants' own drafts. One poll shows the room where its drafts are strongest and weakest, and two breakouts give leaders time to trade drafts with peers and rewrite on the spot. Talent leaders, principals, and anyone who writes or approves postings will get the most out of it.