Andrew Smith is the Assistant Superintendent of Transformation at Rowan-Salisbury Schools. In his current position, he brings lessons learned from the business sector and introduces those skills into the world of education. It is a strategy that is working well for Rowan-Salisbury Schools, and a strategy you can learn from as well. According to Smith, “Over the next 25 minutes or so, I'm going to show you how you can use these tools in your own school district to help prepare for the unexpected. So if I need to pitch a ‘why’ to you, it shouldn't be hard. The why for contingency planning is the Coronavirus. My guess is that none of you had any plan sitting on your desks that prepared you for what we've experienced over the last year. And it's that exact reason that contingency planning is so important. Contingency planning is figuring out what you're going to do before you're in the emotional setting of the emergency. It takes time and effort, it's intentional, but it allows you to make really solid decisions without all the noise.”

Watch this truly fascinating discussion, and learn new skills and techniques from the business sector that you can implement in your own school or district immediately.