The current struggles facing educational organizations across this country and around the world present a challenge which is unprecedented: reduced financial resources, unacceptable dropout rates, low performance outcomes, standards-based policy initiatives that further alienate students’ and attempting to educate the most distracted, disenfranchised and angry generation ever. This generation’s capacity to think and learn differently in the e-media domain is equally unprecedented. However, this generation may bring together a very troubled world with a unique and mindful methodology of problem solving which most traditional educators have yet to imagine. The Real School Consulting Group believes that perhaps education’s best work is yet to come. Our expertise in: school leadership and supporting school renewal, success with at risk student populations, effective instructional design, and system-wide educational innovation is what drives our mission. We believe in YOU because YOU are on the front lines of this battle in “real schools” and you are not just a storyline in the newspapers. It takes courage and support to advance school-wide initiatives that’s why we will be there throughout the process. We believe our approach and a “little” unconventional wisdom can help shape your bold new future.

The HOPE Foundation offers a wide range of professional leadership services and materials that can be used to create shared leadership capacity – in a single school or across your district/region. HOPE’s services are fully compliant with several major funding sources, and our model to has been documented to yield lasting results in the form of increased staff and student morale and student success. In fact, it is the only model supported by both the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) and the National Education Association (NEA). From long-term, on-site services to single- and multi-day sessions to actionable literature and videos you can easily share among your team, HOPE provides the proven, research-based tools and techniques you need to bring the principles of Failure Is Not an Option® (FNO) to life – and create and sustain high-performing learning communities.

Chelsea School is a non-public school, in the Washington, DC the metro area-serving students in grades 5-12. Chelsea School provides a comprehensive literacy remediation program for students with language-based learning challenges and subscribes to a college preparatory program model. I went to Chelsea School in 2005 as a consultant. At that time, Chelsea School was going through an unsettling transition and I was hired to: rectify State Department of Education compliance issues, stabilize the school, strengthen its mission, rebuild staff morale, define a vision for future growth and prosperity, stabilize the administrative team, and define and build capacity around a new “alignment of purpose”. When the board asked me to take the Head of School position for two years I accepted. Those two years grew into six wonderful years of intensive school reform. During those six years I accomplished what the Board of Governors asked me to do: hired a formidable special education faculty, build its brand in the marketplace, build trust between the organization and its families, develop business and university partnerships, strengthen the instructional program model, stabilize and grew the organization financially, develop an administrative team to advance its mission after my departure and built a powerful relationship with four different jurisdictions. I framed for Chelsea School a bold new future, which is now a beacon of hope in the Washington, DC metro area for students with learning disabilities. I assembled a world-class administrative team and faculty that have gained the respect and admiration of the entire educational community. Under my leadership Chelsea School has became a true professional learning community where the following are now the gold standard: faculty driven innovation, research-based best practices, academic rigor, literacy remediation that works, effective educational/assistive technology systems and a strong parent partnership.

The Jefferson School was a new alternative 7th and 8th grade middle school program for LD/ED students sponsored by Eastern Suffolk BOCES. I developed the conceptual framework and rational which guided this alternative middle school’s philosophy and organizational themes. My responsibilities included, but were not limited to the following organizational and instructional design issues. Developed, built consensus, and implemented: a school wide advisory system, service learning program, mini courses, a flexible block scheduling system, a shared decision making process, a disciplinary plan of action, a building technology plan, school wide technology integration project, classroom instructional model which was constructivist in nature, NYS standards and its relationship to instructional planning, budget, ordering, student evaluation and reporting process, student in-take process, student separation from program process, and staff development planning. I also initiated, designed and implemented the following projects: Public Murals Project, L.I. Seaport Museum/Virtual Museum Project, Ross School Environmental Data Collection Project, Math, Science & Technology Living Harbor Project, Montfort House Computer Literacy Project, Port Jefferson HS Peer Coaching Project, Key Pal Internet Email Project, and the Parent Outreach Project. In addition, I wrote and developed numerous policy and procedural documents.

Duties included: Surveyed the current state and future needs of technology, Chaired the Technology Design Team that wrote and implemented the Strategic Technology Plan, Wrote and directed the Teacher Development and Classroom Integration Project for Technology, Co-chaired the design team and co-directed the installation of the school-wide network, Chair of the school-wide Technology Committee, Coordinated activities with the Parent Technology Task Force, Managed a $300K annual technology budget, Managed the budget for a $1 million dollar network plan, Wrote numerous policy documents on purchasing, cataloging and integrating curriculum with technology, Supervised the day to day operations and developed the instructional design of the math, science, technology and media departments, Defined and implemented the goals of the three divisional computer coordinators, Provided the vision and scope for future technology endeavors, Developed the technology help desk policy and philosophy, Researched and purchased the school-wide Email software package, Researched and purchased the academic management package for the school, Built a technology culture which was centered around technology as an instructional theme for improving teaching and learning, Organized and initiated a parent support group for students with learning difficulties, Contributed to the development of a upper school advisory/house group program, Wrote and received a $40K McDonald's Foundation Grant for technology, Arranged an agreement with Tom Snyder Software for ASL to be a regional preview center resulting in a 50% discount on all software purchases, Conducted workshops for teachers on research issues surrounding educational technology and instructional design, Wrote a proposal for Apple UK which centered around the Apple Newton as a writing tool called “Student as Researcher: Listening to the Other Voice,” Organized Summer Technology Institute.