Circles Are Ongoing – Here’s the latest!
Academy Coach Circle (Last Circle: November 6th, 2025; Next Circle: January 8th, 2026)
November’s lively conversation focused on employer-engaged projects and bringing your Portraits of a Graduate (PoG) off the wall.
We initiated the PoG conversation last year following the 2024 Leadership Council, as it was a key topic then and remained so this year at the Leadership Council. It made sense to revisit our conversation about how Academy Coaches, from their role, are continuing to support bringing the PoG off the wall through supporting teaching for transfer. Inspired by what Belton called “client-connected experiences”, participants networked with one another and shared some of their most powerful employer-engaged projects to serve as idea starters for folks from other communities.
District Transformation Leads Circle (Last: November 21st, 2025; Next Circle: January 16, 2026 at 12pm ET)
This year’s circle meetups are centered on Strand 2 with a guiding question: How are we developing documented systems, structures, and processes for effective implementation and long-term sustainability?
November’s session focused on onboarding and documentation with participants discussing that onboarding is more than one PD day or a welcome meeting; that it needs to be a comprehensive, documented process that begins with the initial job posting for a position. With regarding to what should be documented, participants discussed documenting the history and journey of the Community Connected Transformation process; roles, responsibilities, and expectations; processes and why they exist, how they should be used, who owns that process, and how and when the process will be updated; governance and collaboration structures; events and initiatives. Additionally, participants discussed that creating checklists is not enough–ultimately what is really needed are handbooks and guides.
Partnership Directors Circle (Last Circle: November 6th; Next Circle: January 15th, 2026)
Our November meeting was an excellent opportunity to discover and share practices to build PoG into business engagement activities!
Kristin Wingfield, from the Academies of Louisville, shared how, at one of their high schools, they launched their business partner kickoff with an introduction and an action plan to integrate PoG and showed how Partnership Directors can further support this type of integration, what partners need, and what systems and structures can help make this happen.
Lauren Bruggemans of Visit Greater Palm Springs showcased their Passport to Leadership, an innovative internship program created by the Palm Springs Convention and Visitors Bureau. They shared how the program was designed to develop future hospitality leaders through hands-on, career-connected experiences and outlined their exciting plans to expand its reach next year.
