• Take advantage of the most powerful component of the Leadership Academy: District Innovation Initiative, which is a personalized, hands-on project that significantly enhances staff transparency and efficiencies, empowers staff in areas like onboarding and fairer pay, builds trust with the public, and/or improves the well-being and experience of students. When you complete the Leadership Academy, you will have designed and implemented a project that is an investment in your district’s success.
• Measure the growth and improvements stemming from your project while also giving back to your district for participating in the Leadership Academy.
• Integrate tools and insights from every Academy session to guide your project’s design, rollout, and evaluation. You’ll apply innovation, communication, team-building, and change leadership in a real context.

Recent examples of school innovations include:

• Years of pay inequity was eliminated with a graduate's committee-driven compensation redesign that restored trust and fairness in their district. The project also addressed legal risks and helped the district remain competitive in a tough labor market.
• By using student input to revamp menus, a graduate's district saw lunch participation jump 22–29%, with one item (chicken wrap) accounting for 20% of all sales. This resulted in over half a million dollars in new revenue, a rare and powerful win for the school nutrition service.
• A graduate transformed inaccessible data into user-friendly, real-time dashboards for principals and directors. Staff at the graduate's district described it as “amazing,” “super impressive,” and “so user-friendly.”
• 1.7 million square feet of turf was significantly improved across another graduate's district with systemic scheduling and chemical application improvements. This delivered safer play surfaces, reduced stormwater runoff, and major maintenance savings.

• Craft a leadership development goal tailored to your strengths and growth areas.
• Identify your personal leadership values and use them to guide your decisions and actions.
• Learn to navigate tough conversations, lead innovation, build high-performing teams, and drive sustainable change.
• Practice essential skills like storytelling, meeting facilitation, and stakeholder engagement.

• Transform your leadership style with WASBO’s expert instructors. This includes assessing your current leadership strengths to exploring effective change management models and building a community.
• Apply new tools and strategies related to communication, innovation, and change management in real-time through assignments integrated into your daily work.

• Join a cohort of emerging leaders across Wisconsin to share ideas, solve problems, and build lasting professional relationships.
• Position yourself as a future-ready leader with experience leading change, managing teams, and delivering measurable results.

“The Wally Zastrow Leadership Academy provided me personalized professional development. Our class developed a camaraderie and we were able to talk about specific challenges we faced on a daily basis. The facilitators provided tools to help with the challenges! The tools were simple to implement and at the same time, very effective. I’ve participated in a lot of professional development sessions. The Wally Zastrow Leadership Academy is clearly at the top of my list!”
- Lynn Knight, Business Manager, Current ASBO International Board Member

 

"The Leadership Academy has made me a better person. It has given me tools to be a better person to work with. Understanding myself and knowing how to understand other people. It impacts more than just work environment. It impacts your whole life."
- Karl E. Volkmann, Business Manager

 

“The Wally Zastrow program was a great opportunity to dive deep into leadership strategies that go far beyond school operations. From prioritizing people and projects to role playing crucial conversations, this program definitely helped grow me as a leader. I also appreciated growing relationships with people from across the state, that I would not have met otherwise!”
- Jeremiah Johnson, Chief Operations Officer, Current WASBO Board of Directors Member, Midwest Facility Masters Conference Committee Co-Chair 

 

“So much of our professional development is focused on the technicalities of our job and things we need to know to do a good job. This is really more focused on leadership and how we can work with people and grow in that capacity.”
- Erica Pickett, Business Manager

 

“The Wally Zastrow Leadership Academy is one of the best professional development activities I have been involved in as a school business official. The academy will push your limits and make you a stronger leader in your district and better understand who you are as a person. Don’t be afraid of the commitment because it will be well worth your time no matter what stage you are at in your career!”
- Joe Marquardt, Business Manager

 

Participant Eligibility

The Wally Zastrow Leadership Academy is open to all District Professional members (participants must work for a school district). Registration is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Only a limited number of registrations are available. Register today to continue your leadership journey. All applicants must meet the following criteria:

• Minimum of 1 year experience in your current job;
• Must have input or decision-making authority for strategic decisions involving the school district;
• Written letter of supervisory support to participate in all academy sessions.

Participant Expectations

Upon registration, participants will be asked to submit responses to following two essay questions:

• Tell us about a real person who influenced your life. What values did this person demonstrate that were important to you?
• After reviewing the leadership learning objectives, which topics do you feel most confident about and which ones do you think will be most challenging?

Need or want talking points to describe the Wally Zastrow Leadership Academy? Get them here!

Participants will need to attend all academy sessions and complete assignments provided at each. Assignments are incorporated into your typical day and all aspects of your life. Participants will also need to complete a leadership development goal and a school improvement project for their home district which upgrades the district staff’s efficiency or transparency.

Discussion of what kind of school improvement project and how to manage and lead through this opportunity will take place and time will be allocated for discussing projects at each session. Participants will create their presentation in a simple format and present it prior to graduation. The school improvement project is a way to give back to your district for participating in the Leadership Academy.

Hotel Accommodations are the responsibility of participants. WASBO has secured a block of rooms at a discounted rate.

Brett Remington

Brett Remington is a true blue rock star at Blue Rock WI – an enterprise-based performance improvement organization that helps people and organizations narrow the gap between their performance and potential.  

Brett’s focus on enterprise-based performance improvement considers all the factors that drive outcomes in complex environments in order to achieve meaningful and sustained improvement.  These include  
leadership effectiveness, organizational governance, strategy development and deployment, customer and market knowledge, information and knowledge management, work systems design, change management strategies and employee well-being, business process design and continuous improvement methods. 

Learn more about Brett at linkedin.com/in/brettremington

Patrick Miller

Patrick Miller is a 30+ year educator, who spent his first 20 years as a teacher and principal in private schools in Nebraska, Arizona, and Wisconsin. In 2010, Pat left private schools to become a business manager, beginning his career in two small, rural districts, before moving to the School District of Shorewood. Pat is currently serving the School District of New Berlin as the Chief Financial and Operations Officer.

2022-23

• Keith Brightman
• Josh Carter
• Julie Holman
• Cherryl Knowles
• Carmen O'Brien
• Dave O'Mara
• Debra Ytzen
• David Ziegelbauer

2021-22

• Michelle Brown
• Luke Butz
• Jason Demerath
• Tim Gorecki
• Jake Holtz
• Wendy LaPointe
• Patrick Miller
• Davita Jo Molling
• Erica Pickett
• Ryan Quinn
• Matthew Van Zeeland
• Andy Wegner

2020-21

• JoAnn Armstrong
• Jennifer Buros
• Sarah Duncan
• Steven Eichman
• Michele Eilbes
• Jeremiah Johnson
• Scott Johnson
• John Stangler
• Karl Volkmann
• John Stellmacher

2019-2020

• Brian Adesso
• Mike Barry
• Jeffrey Bloch
• Alayna Burger
• Holly Burr
• John Gahan
• Colin Jacobs
• Pete Kempen
• Joseph Marquardt
• Joanie Niemiec
• Patty Sprang
• Dan Storch
• Veronica VanDerhyden
• Sarah Viera
• Vicki Waller

2018-19

• Andrew Chromy
• Hilary Cordova
• Jeanne Deimund
• Janel DeZarn
• Lynette Edwards
• Tim Erickson
• Shannon Grindell
• Lynn Knight 
• Jeffrey Mahoney 
• Jonathan Mitchell
• Kathy Stoltz
• Woody Wiedenhoeft
• Michael Williamson
• Caitlin Windler