District leaders begin setting goals for school year at retreat
The Rhinebeck Central School District leadership team participated in a retreat at Quiet Cove in Poughkeepsie to reflect back and begin setting goals for the coming school year.
The retreat featured two sessions – a morning session on communication led by Superintendent Albert Cousins and an afternoon session on leadership piloted by Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Katie Andersen.
The morning session began with an icebreaker where administrators were asked to answer two questions from a list of questions provided. The questions included what song would you perform if you were chosen to sing karaoke, and what’s been most enjoyable about the summer so far.
Following the exercise, Cousins introduced public information officer Dan Pietrafesa to the team and explained his role in generating and sharing the stories happening in the schools with the community.
A discussion followed for the team on why communication matters where department leaders discussed how they share their news in the community.
“I thought it was really interesting to reflect on the differences between all of the buildings and how we can be more consistent in that,” said Cousins. “I think the biggest area of opportunity is the communication with the families. I think there was a lot of good sharing about practices each of them are doing that they can learn from. I thought they were engaged in that, which is exciting.”
In sharing his goals for the next 12 months, Cousins said, “I like to see us going beyond communicating just the nuts and bolts and more how it connects to the vision and why.”
In the afternoon session, Andersen provided an article for the team to read and discuss on leadership, and led the team through a Google Slides presentation.
“All these leaders here value instructional leadership already,” she said. “It’s just a matter of thinking more strategically how we can reimagine different structures we already have in place to strengthen across the system.”
A summer retreat began for administrators after Cousins was named superintendent in 2020. The retreats have a different theme and location each year.