Principal Kafele

It is easy to look at a toxic school climate and culture and attribute this reality to external factors that inevitably impact a school adversely such as home and neighborhood challenges and realities that ever-so-often accompany students into the building. In this highly-engaging, self-reflective workshop (or keynote address), Principal Kafele will make the case that despite home and neighborhood challenges that might accompany students into a school, school leaders can nevertheless command a powerful influence over the climate and culture of their schools. He contends that despite the challenges of the work, the climate and culture of the school are a direct reflection of the school’s leadership. Topics covered will include, the attitude of the leadership, the intentionality of the interactions and relationships in the building, the school’s brand identity, and parental / community engagement.

The list of school leadership responsibilities is an infinite list that never reaches completion. As a school leader, there are always a plethora of things to do with no ending in sight. The challenge for school leaders is how to prioritize them – what are those nonnegotiables that must be at the top of a school leaders list of responsibilities and priorities? In this high-energy, highly-engaging professional development workshop or keynote address, veteran and award-winning principal, Principal Kafele provides school leaders with ten “nonnegotiable” items that all school leaders must prioritize and pay close attention to daily toward maximizing their school leadership effectiveness. He says that although the responsibilities of a school leader are endless, failure to attain maximum results within these ten “nonnegotiables” could translate into gross underperformance of any given school.

Principal Kafele contends emphatically that, “The purpose of staff supervision is the continued improvement of instruction!” Due to the complexities of the principalship, it is easy for principals to be so inundated by the non-instructional aspects of school leadership that the instructional side of their leadership suffers. When their instructional side suffers, it adversely impacts the entire school. The principal is the instructional leader of the school. Consequently, there is a direct correlation between how effectively the principal leads the school instructionally and student achievement. To that end, in this highly-engaging, self-reflective workshop (or keynote address), Principal Kafele will provide school leaders with strategies toward maintaining a focus on the instructional side of their leadership toward increasing the probability that achievement will soar. Topics covered will include the correlation between instructional leadership and student achievement; building collegial relationships with staff; planning, organization and time management; and the principal as professional developer.

One of the current hot topics in education is "Diversity, Equity & Inclusion." This highly engaging, interactive, self-reflective workshop or keynote address focuses on school leadership relative to issues of diversity, equity & inclusion in their schools. It challenges school leaders to look within themselves relative to how they see, treat and relate with their staffs and students in these areas. It challenges school leaders to confront whatever biases they may bring to their own leadership practices which may be implicit or explicit. It argues that high-performance is an impossibility in school learning environments where the recognition of diversity coupled with equitable and inclusionary practices fail to exist. Principal Kafele will share strategies toward creating and sustaining equity and inclusion in a diverse student learning environment which will be inclusive of important conversations around race and cultural competence.

Because there's no universal definition of equity, the confusion around what equity is and what equity is not is enormous. Principal Kafele is passionate about equity; particularly how it correlates with the building leadership and simply defines it as, "meeting your students where they are...AS THEY ARE. This workshop or keynote address asks the overarching question, "In what way does your leadership ensure that each of the students in your building are being met where they are...AS THEY ARE?" As the title indicates, when the leadership brings an equity-centeredness and equity-focus, everyone wins. This workshop or keynote address will teach and train leaders on how to ensure that equity is central to their leadership.

In this empowering workshop or keynote address, Principal Kafele takes school, team, department, division and district leaders on an in depth, self-reflective, highly interactive journey that will force participants to view with a critical eye who they are as leaders within their given leadership capacities which will include the intentionality behind all aspects of their work. Principal Kafele will challenge school, team, department, division and district leaders to look deeply within themselves for greater meaning and understanding of their own personal value and worth to the staff and students that they lead. As one workshop attendee stated, “Principal Kafele, your questions have shaken the very foundation upon which my leadership stands!” This workshop is certain to take participants to higher levels of leadership effectiveness.

According to research, children perform better in school when their parents are involved in their education. Although parental engagement / involvement continues to be a major challenge for many schools across the U.S., the fact is that there are many parents who are extremely well-intentioned, but simply at a loss for what to do to facilitate the educational process while their children are at home. In this empowering workshop, through an assortment of reflective questions, Principal Kafele provides parents with the “tools” they need to be effective “educators” of their children at home while simultaneously providing solid support while their children are at school. Topics include: Essentials for Success, Encouragement for Success, Empowerment for Success, Character for Success, Literacy for Success, Historical Competence for Success, Nurturing for Success, Accountability for Success, Monitoring for Success and Choices for Success.