In this segment, we’ll be introduced to four Edujedi Innovator Award winners. Included in the discussion is Dr. Karla Burkholder, Director of Technology Services at Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City Independent School District, Dr. Lakisha Brinson, Director of Instructional Technology and Library Sciences at Metro Nashville Public Schools, Tekeshia Hollis, Assistant Principal for Midtown High School at Atlanta Public Schools, and Amy Berns, Principal of Edison School of the Arts at Indianapolis Public Schools.

Our first guest, Karla Burkholder, is a long-time friend of the Learning Counsel. According to Burkholder, “I tell you a little bit about S C U C I S D. We are a large school district. We are just Northeast of San Antonio. We're near Randolph Air Force Base. We'd like to say San Antonio is our largest suburb. We have 17 campuses, eight elementary, three intermediate, three, two junior high, two comprehensive high schools, one accelerated high school and a disciplined, uh, campus. We have approximately 16,000 students and 2000 employees. We have a very large military population. You would expect that being close to an air force base. We're only 73 square miles. So in, in geography, we're pretty small. But what makes our district interesting is that we have a lot of rooftops and a very low commercial tax base, which makes innovation sometimes a challenge but we're, we're learning to navigate that. So, so that's, um, that's a really good thing this year. The vast majority of our students are learning on campus. We have a handful and I mean, literally a handful that are learning virtually through a specific curriculum content platform. Our technology department is very small. We have 41,000 devices, not, not digital resources, not assets devices. And we have five technicians and we have three instructional technology coordinators. We have one mobile device manager. I'm just gonna say there were miracles every day. This year we are, like everyone, working to close the learning gaps with students and specifically for us and technology, especially instructional technology, we are working to help teachers understand the difference between remote teaching and learning and blended learning and even computer based instruction so that we can help them continue the momentum of what they were able to accomplish during the pandemic.

Dr. Lakisha Brinson from Nashville says, “We have approximately 79,000 students and 10,000 employees. We are a 1:1 school district as of July of last year. One of the things that we take pride in is that we have a very diverse population. So we have 126 different languages that are spoken among our students and our El population English language learner is about 21%.

Tekeshia Hollis from Midtown High School in Atlanta runs a very urban school. According to Hollis, “We have about 150 employees, 97 of which are teachers. And we have about 1,550 students who are very diverse in population. Also, with that population diversity, we have the largest number of homeless students in the city of Atlanta. And we have a real dichotomy of, I hate to say it like this, haves and have nots. Because of that, just the social economic diversity as well. We are 1:1 as of, I guess, during a pandemic , but officially the district issues devices in August. And, um, we have a large population of students with medical disabilities, and we have a growing population of Hispanic students and probably about 20% free and reduced lunch.”

Amy Burns has a unique situation at Edison School of the Arts. According to Burns, “We are an innovation school within Indianapolis public schools. What that means is we have pretty much full autonomy as an innovation school. However, our students, our Indianapolis public students, our enrollment also counts for Indianapolis public schools. We do have a lot of great opportunities through this innovation partnership too, where we in, in terms of like the 1:1 devices, Indianapolis public schools is obviously right in the heart of our city in Indianapolis. We serve the whole range of students. Very diverse backgrounds, very diverse student population, lots of high needs students as well. Um, and so also within our building, as an innovation school, we are a visual and performing arts school. And so also during this time, we were trying to also continue to offer these unique experiences that Edison is known for, through all the different digital apps and zoom and all these things as well.”

Four High performing individuals, in four very different situations, with one thing in common. Each school or district has shown extreme excellence in digital learning. Find out how each of these schools or districts became an EduJedi Innovator Award Winner, and how each is finding innovative solutions that you can use in your own school or district… today, to create an outstanding digital ecosystem for everyone of your learners. This is a can’t miss video, and you’ll enjoy every minute.