Monday, December 12, 2022 @ 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm EST
Presented by Dr. Chris Gaines, Superintendent, Mehlville School District (MO); Dr. Kelly May-Vollmar, Superintendent, Desert Sands Unified School District (CA); and David Din, Chief Information Officer, Virginia Beach City Public Schools (VA)
Moderated by Ann McMullan, Project Director, CoSN (Consortium for School Networking) EmpowerED Superintendents Initiative
Sponsored by ClassLink
This edLeader Panel series is co-hosted by CoSN, AASA, and edWeb.net
Learn more about viewing the live presentation and the recording, earning your CE certificate, and using our new accessibility features. This program may qualify for CoSN CETL® Recertification.
When technology initiatives are viewed as investments rather than simply costs, school leaders have the opportunity to apply decision-making strategies that are meaningful and relevant to an education environment. Planning for and implementing district technology investments in any school system is a complex process involving multiple stakeholders, each with their own valid concerns and requests.
In this edLeader Panel, three experienced superintendents reveal the strategies they lead to evaluate, rethink, and strengthen district technology decision making. The superintendents will reveal how they work with their district teams to assure that priorities are aligned when evaluating the requisite data around total cost of ownership, student outcomes, budget management, and the true value of any technology expenditure. Current opportunities and challenges around leveraging new funding resources while also finding ways to sustain innovations when specific initial funding resources are no longer available will also be discussed.
This edLeader Panel is of particular value to superintendents, K-12 school and district leaders, and aspiring school leaders. Attendees will have the opportunity to submit questions to the panelists during the live broadcast.
About the Presenters
Dr. Chris Gaines is Superintendent of Mehlville School District in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. Dr. Gaines previously served as Superintendent of Missouri’s Crawford County R-I and Wright City R-II school districts. Under Dr. Gaines’ leadership Mehlville is expanding opportunities for students. In 2017, the district opened MOSAIC, a personalized learning elementary school, and created the MyPath program, which allows high school students to create their own classes. The AASA Digital Consortium visited these programs in the spring of 2018 to gain insight into emerging models of best practice using digital media to support engaging learning experiences. In 2019, Mehlville opened academies at each middle school to expand personalized learning experiences at the middle school level. Dr. Gaines holds degrees from Southeast Missouri State University and earned his doctorate at St. Louis University. He is a member of numerous professional associations and served as the 2018-2019 President of AASA, The School Superintendents Association.
Dr. Kelly May-Vollmar began serving as Desert Sands USD Superintendent on July 1, 2022. Dr. May-Vollmar has served as Assistant Superintendent of Educational and Technology Devices in Desert Sands since 2019. Over the past 18 years, she has served in various roles, including elementary school principal, academic coach and IB coordinator, and classroom teacher. Dr. May-Vollmar was recognized as the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) Technology Administrator of the Year in 2019, and was instrumental in the district’s innovative LTE network build project, which provided equitable broadband connectivity to students throughout the district’s 752 square mile attendance zone. She is actively involved in several professional organizations including serving on the board of directors for the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN). She received her doctorate in organizational leadership from the University of LaVerne. Her master’s degree in teaching is from Chapman University where she also earned her undergraduate degree.
David Din is currently the Chief Information Officer for Virginia Beach City Public Schools. He is an accomplished IT leader with 28 years of IT experience including 11 years of management experience. He has a proven record of success in managing enterprise class, high availability, IT environments, and teams of skilled engineers. He also has a demonstrated ability to work effectively as part of a team with particular strengths in organizational leadership and process improvement. David possesses a strong ability to see business/IT alignment and excellent presentation skills to effectively communicate complex technical information. With his in-depth knowledge of a broad range of hardware and software technology, he has successfully developed and implemented highly effective technology solutions.
About the Host
Ann McMullan is Project Director for CoSN’s EmpowerED Superintendents Initiative. Ann served as Executive Director for Educational Technology in Klein ISD near Houston, Texas until September 2013, when she and her family moved to Los Angeles, California. For 16 years Ann led the district team that provided professional development on technology and 21st century instructional strategies to 4,000 educators serving 50,000 students. She was co-chair of the Texas Education Technology Advisory Committee which developed the Texas Long Range Plan for Technology.
Today, Ann works as a public speaker, writer, and consultant focused on leadership to meet the needs of today’s students. Ann serves on the edWeb.net Advisory Board, ClassLink’s Senior Advisors Group, and is a founding member of ERDI’s EdLeader Alliance. She also volunteers as a leadership consultant with Executive Service Corps of Southern California, serving non-profit associations. Ann is co-author of Life Lessons in Leadership, available on Amazon.com.
Learn more about viewing the live presentation and the recording, earning your CE certificate, and using our new accessibility features.
Join the Super-Connected community to network with educators, participate in online discussions, receive invitations to upcoming edWebinars, and view recordings of previous programs to earn CE certificates.
AASA is the premier association for school system leaders and serves as the national voice for public education and district leadership on Capitol Hill.
CoSN (the Consortium for School Networking) is the premier professional association for school system technology leaders. CoSN provides thought leadership resources, community, best practices and advocacy tools to help leaders succeed in the digital transformation. CoSN represents over 13 million students in school districts nationwide and continues to grow as a powerful and influential voice in K-12 education.
ClassLink empowers your students and teachers with instant access to their learning resources. ClassLink® LaunchPad includes a library of over 6,000 single sign-on apps and instant links to file folders at school and on Google, Office 365, Dropbox, and Box cloud drives. ClassLink Roster Server easily and securely delivers class rosters to any publisher using open technology standards. ClassLink Analytics gives decision makers the usage data they need. ClassLink is ideal for 1 to1 and BYOD initiatives.
