MVCSD professionals build the blueprint during Annual Leadership Summit

Mount Vernon City School District principals, assistant principals and administrators gathered this week for the annual Leadership Summit. The two days of professional development allowed them to build upon their skills while gaining valuable insight into the latest teaching and learning information and the school district’s theme this year – Excellence by Design. 

Initiatives such as this summit are essential to continue building on foundations of leadership, collaboration and continuous improvement across the district and communicating the district’s theme. Furthermore, it helps support educator growth and academic achievement for continued success throughout the District.

The two day summit began with presentations and ice breaker activities led by Superintendent Dr. Demario Strickland. His first presentation outlined the strategic vision for the upcoming school year, honing in on this year’s core philosophy Excellence by Design. Dr. Strickland urged leaders to lead by design, not by default. 

“We are building schools where students want to come and staff want to stay,” Dr. Strickland said. “Excellence by Design means every adult in the building models the excellence we expect from the children. We will not tolerate environments where students feel invisible, unsafe, unsupported.”

Diving deeper into this year’s theme, Dr. Strickland noted that excellence doesn’t happen by accident; through intention and planning, excellence is built everyday in every classroom, hallway and office throughout the District. He encouraged the audience to lead by design, and not by default — inspiring them to move away from reactive behaviors towards proactive, intentional planning.

In terms of instructional priorities, Dr. Strickland touched upon the continued practice of GEMS of Instruction, which ensures that every student in Mount Vernon experiences high-quality learning, equity and success in every classroom, every day. The GEMS framework represents a shared vision for teaching and learning through grade-level content and using effective progress measures. 

Dr. Strickland presented his core beliefs; that every child has unlimited potential, literacy is the key to unlocking a child’s future, the quality of teaching determines the quality of learning, strong relationships create strong outcomes and a child’s zip code should not determine their future. 

The five focuses of the year include:

• Lead by design and not by default.
• Be the blueprint. 
• Move from “got to” to “get to.”  
• Inspect what you expect.
• Excellence is established as the expectation, not the exception.

These core priorities serve as a framework for administrators to guide their daily leadership practices and maintain high standards across all schools in the District. 
 
This presentation concluded with Dr. Strickland sharing his non-negotiables for the year, which includes bell-to-bell instruction, tight transitions, and restorative practices before the audience participated in the true color personality test.

The true color personality test is completed to yield a description of an individual's distinct personality traits to better understand diverse perspectives among staff and apply this awareness to build a more inclusive and effective school culture. Individuals can fall into four categories including blue (emotionally driven, enthusiastic, creative and sympathetic), gold (loyalty driven, responsible, organized, appreciative), orange (welcomes change and variety, adventurous, competitive, impulsive) and green (logically driven, focused, efficient, analytical). 

Dr. Strickland also presented on goals and instructional framework for the year. Here, school leaders received information on how the district’s instructional framework aligns with and supports the district’s broader goals and will identify ways to apply this framework as a lever for school-level progress.

During the strength finder session, participants discovered their individual strengths and identified how collective strengths of the administrative team can be leveraged to complement gaps and maximize overall team performance. Participants utilized Strength Finder 2.0 book from Gallup to discover and develop their innate talents.

Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction and Administration Dr. Jamal Doggett, gave a district data review, sharing the 2025-2026 District performance data for individuals to gain a comprehensive understanding of current student outcomes, achievement trends and areas of growth. 

Throughout the presentation, Dr. Doggett shared multiple bar graphs touching on beginning of year and end of year academic assessment, iReady scores, as well as Grades 3-8 English Language Arts and Math Test scores. 

Dr. Doggett empathized the importance of reviewing this data, as it celebrates progress, identifies where gains were not sustained and helps prioritize supports for students furthest from proficiency. He discussed that the District will continue to focus on all learners, with particular emphasis on English Language Learners, Multilingual Language Learners and students with disabilities. 

During breakout sessions, led by Director of Humanities Marybeth Rhodes and Director of Assessment, Mathematics and Science, Dr. Satish Jagnandan, participants gained a clear understanding of available resources, key initiatives and learned the focus of each department and their role in supporting schools.