Launching the 2025-26 School Year at the Flint Leadership Retreat
This month, students will reanimate classrooms across Michigan and the United States writ large as the 2025-26 school year gets underway (Chalkbeat Detroit; WSBT 22; Yahoo! News). For many pupils and their families, the transition from summer break to the academic calendar may feel sudden after three months of vacation, less-structured time spent with peers and loved ones, and later-than-normal alarm clocks. That said, for educators and administrators, the new school year’s arrival marks the culmination of weeks of preparatory work that have been anything but hasty. In the time between last year’s graduation ceremonies and late-August’s arrival of shiny yellow school buses to pick up students statewide, teachers have been diligently customizing their classrooms, instructional leadership teams have been refining curriculum offerings, educators have been pursuing continuous improvement through professional learning opportunities, administrative staff members have been diligently preparing class rosters and schedules, and school and district leaders have been developing and implementing strategic plans to make the next ten months a success for everyone who engages with their institutions.
During this period, the Office of K-12 Outreach has been fortunate enough to witness firsthand these education professionals’ Herculean efforts as MSU outreach specialists have been invited to support various districts’ reflections on the 2024-25 school year and preparations for the 2025-26 one. Emblematically, this summer, K-12 Outreach was invited by Flint Community Schools (FCS) to jointly plan and facilitate the 2025 Flint Leadership Retreat for the district’s building leaders, central office staff members, and administrators. Beyond involving K-12 Outreach in all that goes into planning a new academic year, supporting this annual retreat was an opportunity to continue these two entities’ longstanding partnership, which has previously included MSU-hosted professional learning sessions for FCS educators and administrators (May 2024 In Focus newsletter), a summit for Flint Board of Education trustees (December 2024 In Focus newsletter), additional leadership gatherings for FCS administrators (July 2023 and July 2022 In Focus newsletter), multiple iterations of the Flint Fellowship of Instructional Leaders (December 2024, November 2024, May 2023, and December 2022 In Focus newsletter), coaching via the Flint Center for Educational Excellence (December 2024 In Focus newsletter), technical assistance involving district data and evaluation efforts (November 2023 and April 2021 In Focus newsletter), and leadership coaching funded by the C.S. Mott Foundation covering topics from responding to the academic and social effects of the COVID-19 pandemic to advancing curriculum reforms to managing organizational change (August 2020 In Focus newsletter).
Concerning this year’s retreat, approximately thirty FCS educators and administrators and MSU Office of K-12 Outreach facilitators gathered from Tuesday, July 29th, to Thursday, July 31st, to continue the behind-the-scenes work required to launch the 2025-26 school year. Over three days in East Lansing, retreat attendees from Flint showcased the labor and diligence that go into getting ready for a new school year. Further, they advanced the district’s current state by exploring how connecting personal values to meaningful work fosters a sense of ownership and intrinsic motivation; developing collective strategies that promote transparency, shared leadership responsibilities, and a supportive, blame-free environment; clarifying roles and expectations through effective communication; and using district-wide data to inform decisions and improve outcomes. Additionally, the program participants had the chance to develop deeper rapport and trust with their peers across the district, collaborate face-to-face with their Michigan State University partners, pause to reenergize and rejuvenate before transitioning out of summer, and share their aspirations and bold thoughts about FCS’ future.
The first day of the 2025 Flint Leadership Retreat began with a welcome and program overview by Dr. Bryan Beverly, Director of the Office of K-12 Outreach, and Kevelin Jones, FCS Superintendent. The decision to inaugurate this program with these individuals jointly was a purposeful one designed to reflect the cooperation between K-12 Outreach and FCS leaders that went into creating the retreat. After this introduction, MSU and Flint representatives went back and forth with presentations, guided discussions, and activities focused on hitting this gathering’s goals. To start, Superintendent Jones shared his leadership vision for the upcoming school year and invited district participants to provide feedback on his perspective to both structure the rest of the retreat and the broader 2025-26 academic year. Then, also focused on setting the group’s terms for engagement during these three days and the rest of the school year, Dr. Jamii Hitchcock, Outreach Specialist, reviewed the social contract and shared values that the Flint participants had previously developed at past professional learning sessions with the Office of K-12 Outreach and each other, and the group considered how common beliefs and understandings reflected in these documents can support a respectful and productive learning environment for students back in Flint. Finally, Dr. Hitchcock and Dr. JoAnn Andrees, Senior Outreach Specialist, dug into the concepts of leadership and accountability, which would undergird the rest of the retreat. Specifically, they helped participants articulate key leadership qualities based on their personal and professional experiences, identify the importance of leadership in ensuring that the FCS social contract is fulfilled, collaboratively recognize the behaviors that contribute to productive, values-driven teamwork, and assess how true accountability drives personal and organizational success. Following some time for dialogue, reflection, and collective meaning-making, the group adjourned to enjoy a bit of East Lansing and recharge in anticipation of an intensive second day.
Thematically, the next day of the 2025 Flint Leadership Retreat focused on moving beyond a recognition of what leadership and accountability entail, along with why they are crucial concepts, to helping participants actualize these ideas. For instance, retreatants took part in a hands-on activity designed to help them practice taking ownership and personal responsibility for professional challenges, engaged in a collective literature review of scholarship concerning how organizations develop a culture of ownership, and participated in scenario-based interactive activities and problem-solving protocols to collaboratively analyze hypothetical challenges to the realization of accountability. Along the way, Flint attendees were supported by Drs. Andrees, Beverly, and Hitchcock, along with various K-12 Outreach staff members and coaches, and FCS district leaders. The former individuals were able to provide theoretical insights and best practices from scholarly research and their experiences in diverse districts across Michigan, while the latter group could help contextualize the general ideas and principles discussed to Flint’s specific local context. Relatedly, to close the second day of the retreat, the group developed a summary table of the ownership and accountability essentials they considered and mapped them onto the daily work of their schools, departments, and district.
To close the 2025 Flint Leadership Retreat, the FCS and K-12 Outreach teams gathered bright and early for a final day of new content, reflection on the previous threads, and action planning to ensure that the various lessons learned spread across the district over the next few weeks. Part of this effort involved K-12 Outreach facilitators guiding attendees through a scenario-based, imagination-oriented activity to practice communication and problem-solving, supporting FCS’ development of a formal communication plan, and generating chances for individual and group reflection on key takeaways. With that, in anticipation of the arrival of the 2025-26 school year, the retreat planners incorporated some time on this third day for FCS district leaders to share some essential details about the looming opening of school; reaffirm the vision, mission and core beliefs exemplified in the FCS strategic plan; offer some insight into the work of the new Chief Information Officer, Dr. Natoya Coleman; provide an overview of key personnel related information for the start of the school year; and update everyone on the district’s finances.
At the end of these intensive three days, the FCS attendees had some added strategies to realize the district’s goals, a revitalized sense of community and ownership for the education of FCS’ scholars, a vision of how to start the 2025-26 school year positively, and demonstrable progress on various district initiatives, including ones related to formalized structures of accountability and clear communication across the district. Additionally, the K-12 Outreach facilitators who supported this program had a deeper appreciation for the work of FCS educators and administrators in preparing the district for another year of success, new strategies and best practices being adopted and implemented in Flint that could benefit others, and even stronger ties with this enduring partner. As the insights from the 2025 Flint Leadership Retreat filter across Flint schools during the upcoming academic year and as FCS scholars return to classes this month, the K-12 Outreach team is excited to hear about the district’s many highlights and accomplishments. They are also ready to continue supporting Flint educators and administrators via programs like the Flint Fellowship of Instructional Leaders, which next meets on Saturday, September 27th. Individuals with questions about K-12 Outreach’s work with Flint Community Schools and other Michigan districts are invited to email k12out@msu.edu.
