During his 41-year tenure in education in both Oklahoma and Texas, Danny Lovett worked side-by-side with campus and district leaders and school board members, gaining first-hand experience that has inspired and informed the development of his board and administrative training sessions. Danny’s experience included serving as a teacher and coach, district administrator, superintendent, field service agent, and most recently, Executive Director of Region 5 Education Service Center. Having retired from Region 5 in February, Danny will support Texas school districts as a consultant on the HillCo Partners Education team by providing training on a broad range of topics related to leadership at the campus, administrative, and school board levels.
Danny referred to himself as an “adjunct professor” to explain how he brings a practitioner’s perspective to his training sessions, in addition to his theoretical knowledge. Superintendent evaluations are a case in point: in some districts, evaluations may be based on 10-12 domains with more sub-domains. With so many criteria, the evaluations become vague and subjective. Using the recommended three goals in HB 3 as a starting point, Danny supports school boards in developing fewer, focused goals and collaborating with superintendents on expectations for concrete evidence of attainment. Thus, evaluations are more data-based and objective.
Community Relations is another area that’s been challenging for many districts over the last year. Danny pointed out that it’s not what a leader does, it’s HOW the leader does it—whether the leader is on a school board, in an administrative office, or at a campus. Danny said, “One way of doing things can be uniting, another way can be polarizing.” School board candidates who run “scorched earth” campaigns may then find themselves elected, but unable to gain support of fellow board members to accomplish their goals. How a candidate runs their campaign translates directly to community relations. For decades, he commented, school boards were one of the most effective elected bodies in the state because they were so apolitical in function, focusing on the needs of students. Politicizing the school board can polarize and divide the community.
Danny is a certified Myers-Briggs trainer and often brings this into his training sessions because awareness of differing personality types helps teams focus on the core values rather than differences in their approaches or communication styles. He believes the key to an effective training is a smaller group and an interactive approach or “think tank” model, where everyone has a chance to contribute. Lastly, Danny said humor is an effective tool. “When I can get them to laugh at themselves,” he said, “I can get them to look at the team objectively and consider changes.”
For more information on the leadership training available from Danny, see this link.