#29 Greg Wyman

I thoroughly enjoyed meeting Greg Wyman, Superintendent of J.O. Combs Unified School District during conversation #29. Greg is no stranger to sharing his unique and thoughtful perspective with a broad audience. His Substack contains a wealth of insightful writing, and dives even deeper into some of the important themes that we touched upon during our chat for . 100DistrictConversations
"We have had to become incredibly strategic in how we approach critical areas like professional learning over the past 5 years. The temporary influx of ESSER funds allowed us to expand our professional learning offerings: we were able to dedicate more days to initial training and build upon foundational concepts with breakout sessions, mirroring the structure of a national conference. We could cater to both new and more experienced staff with differentiated pathways. Like many districts in Arizona facing budget restrictions, we're now recalibrating and reducing our dedicated professional learning days. Implementing complex models becomes challenging when resources are stretched thin.
To maintain momentum, we have leveraged the expertise of our instructional coaches. We have an instructional coach in every school, plus district-level content area coaches. Our Director of Teaching & Learning and Director of Professional Development work closely with our content coaches, using feedback from previous training sessions to shape upcoming professional learning. We are evolving our delivery model to empower teacher voice, with experienced educators leading and modeling sessions based on their areas of strength. This approach not only addresses concerns about diverse perspectives but also celebrates the expertise within our staff.
Relying heavily on internal expertise can present challenges, particularly with teacher turnover. The departure of highly effective teachers can significantly impact our knowledge base and necessitates continuous efforts to cultivate the next generation of teacher leaders. In elementary schools, where we often have small grade-level teams, the loss of even one teacher represents a significant portion of the team's collective experience. Despite these challenges, we have maintained a relatively strong retention rate compared to neighboring districts.
We successfully advocated to our school board about the importance of a professional learning framework, recognizing its value in guiding our PD efforts, even as we navigate funding limitations for comprehensive partnerships. As a member of the Modern Teacher network, we value the core philosophies of our chosen instructional framework, but we also acknowledge that so many of these frameworks have overlap. The real challenge lies in the implementation of a framework, not in how well we adhere to specific models. We would love to see more shared services between districts who have similar frameworks and professional learning models, which could save resources and expand collaboration."
If you're a district leader or know of a district leader who should be featured in the #100DistrictConversations initiative, please use this nomination form.