3-2-1: On protecting your mind, the recipe for frustration, and how to spark better conversation
I.
“The recipe for frustration is taking on something that requires a whole person, but only giving it half your time.
Look at what you’re trying to do. What is required? Some things can only be done well when they are pursued with full effort.”
II.
“It’s hard to learn when you feel defensive.
Relax. You are capable and you can recover from whatever you face.
You can accept feedback without taking it personally. What is this moment teaching you?”
How to ensure your vision comes alive for kids
Your goals for student success may be ambitious and innovative, but they will flounder if they’re not shared by your leadership team and wider school community, Superintendent Carmen Balgobin says.
“A vision without alignment lacks coherence,” Balgobin, leader of Florida’s Volusia County Schools, tells host Amy Dujon on the latest episode of District Administration’s “A Good Lesson” podcast. “It’s important to have strong intentionality with your priorities.”
Balgobin, who was named DA’s 2026 Woman of the Year, led Volusia County Schools to its first “A” grade in 16 years and has overseen a major expansion of the district’s CTE programs, among other achievements. She says superintendents must translate their vision into a “living, breathing” strategic plan to measure progress and adjust strategy swiftly if performance is lagging.
Adult SEL isn’t “jeans on Friday”: It’s a leadership imperative
On any given Friday, you might walk into a school and see teachers in jeans, a snack cart in the lounge, or a handwritten note of appreciation in a mailbox. These moments are great; they signal care and acknowledge effort.
But let’s be honest: this is not adult social-emotional learning. And when we confuse the two, we risk trivializing something that is far more powerful and far more necessary.
Adult SEL is not a morale boost. It is not a reward system. It is not an initiative to roll out once a year.
It is, as defined in the research, the process through which adults develop the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to manage emotions, build relationships, and make responsible decisions within complex environments (CASEL, 2020). And in schools, those environments are anything but simple.
Stop seeking approval
Some of the most stressed, overworked leaders I’ve ever met aren’t struggling because of their workload. They’re drowning because of something far more invisible — and far more exhausting.
Every decision they make runs through a filter. Before they send the email, before they make the call, before they set the direction — there’s a quiet, relentless question running in the background: What will people think of me?
If that’s you, it’s costing you more than you realize. It’s costing you clarity. It’s costing you speed. And most of all, it’s costing you your confidence as a leader.
Why District Leaders Should Prioritize One-on-One Meetings With Principals
One of the most valuable things a district office administrator can offer a principal is time—not another initiative, checklist, or team meeting. More specifically, it’s focused one-on-one time.
The schedules of district leaders fill up fast. Board meetings, budget talks, parent concerns, facility projects, district initiatives, and unexpected issues all demand our attention. Often, the meetings we postpone first are the regular one-on-one meetings with principals. We might think, “I’ll see them at next month’s principals meeting anyway.”
I’ve learned that’s a mistake.
For chronic absenteeism, pandemic recovery is possible but still uncommon
It remains fairly uncommon for school districts to have rebounded from significant increases in chronic absenteeism experienced during the pandemic, according to new research published by the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University.
In fact, just 13% of districts studied had reverted to their pre-pandemic chronic absenteeism levels by the 2024-25 school year, the research showed.
Researchers defined “substantial increases” in chronic absenteeism for districts as a more than 10 percentage-point increase between the 2017-18 or 2018-19 school years and 2021-22.