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Welcome to the Exceptional Educators Podcast by FrenalyticsEDU — where innovation meets inclusion in education!
Each episode features candid conversations with district leaders, school leaders, classroom changemakers, EdTech founders, and executives — all dedicated to transforming learning for each student, especially our learners with unique abilities.
With a focus on extraordinary educators and the exceptional students they serve, we explore the latest in special education, accessible technology, and inclusive leadership. Whether you’re shaping special education policy, pioneering new EdTech tools, or looking to grow your impact in the classroom, this podcast is your front-row seat to the future of inclusive education.
Listen. Learn. Lead. Be Exceptional. 🎙️
Welcome to the Exceptional Educators Podcast by FrenalyticsEDU, where innovation meets inclusion in education. I'm your co host Antonia Ellis.
Speaker 2:And I'm Matt Giovanello, the CEO and co founder of Frenalytics. At Frenalytics, we bring special education and English language learners front and center. Our award winning FrenalyticsEDU platform helps streamline progress monitoring, improve communication and compliance, and offers truly personalized learning to your students of all
Speaker 1:district and school leaders, classroom changemakers, EdTech founders, industry executives, all dedicated to transforming learning for each student, especially our learners with unique abilities. With a focus on extraordinary educators and the exceptional students they serve, we explore the latest in special education, accessible technology and inclusive leadership. In this episode, Exceptional Educators is exceptionally thrilled to welcome Doctor. Daniel Castagna, superintendent at Chartiers Valley School District. His leadership is deeply rooted in collaboration, engaging teachers, families, and students, and creating a future ready district.
Speaker 1:Doctor. Castagna brings a strategic vision around technology, STEM, and AI combined with a strong commitment to smart financial stewardship. Welcome to the podcast, Doctor. Daniel Castagna. We're so happy to have you.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Glad to be here.
Speaker 1:So we like to start our podcast off pretty much the same, and it's probably a question that you've heard millions of times. What is your why? What brought you to education and what keeps you in this space?
Speaker 3:So what brought me to education was that I come from a family of educators. My mother and father were both classroom teachers for, thirty seven years. My father ended actually his last final years as an administrator. And my sister is a teacher in the Moon Area School District, which is about five miles from the district I'm currently in right now. I also had aunts and uncles.
Speaker 3:Growing up, it was kinda like the pathway for everybody, and that's the reason I I got into it. I think I think my why has changed over the years. I think that I consider myself a disruptor in this space and trying to figure out why things are the way they are and why we can't service children better. And a lot of times the barriers to that are self imposed or just old ways of thinking. And so my why is just creating new opportunities for kids.
Speaker 3:And, that's all I focus on. That's all I bring the board conversations back to. And that's my guiding force. Daniel, we love when hearing people's why changing over
Speaker 2:the years because education is evolving even faster than we can keep up with. And one of the ways that education over the past, just couple of years with the introduction of ChatGPT and otherwise is this wave of AI. We know that you've been making quite an impact and making a ton of progress as it relates to STEM and AI and literacy around these topics in Chartiers Valley. Tell us a little bit about what those projects have looked like since you joined the district a little over a year ago and what's on the roadmap for the years ahead.
Speaker 3:So I think first and foremost, the discussion around AI is really trying to get the staff to realize it's a tool and nothing to be afraid of. There's just so much fear with change when it comes to educators. You know, if you've been teaching a third grade class for thirty years, the classroom, the resources, the standards have changed so much for that teacher. That that puts them into a panic. We're like, what, what do I have to learn now?
Speaker 3:And it's just, you know, they're not familiar with it and they don't feel comfortable with it. And so automatically everyone's scared of it. And so we tried to break down that conversation into it's a tool and it's a resource and it's not gonna replace instruction. It's not gonna replace a physical teacher in that classroom. So what tools are there that we could use and, and, we could develop to make basically our classrooms more efficient.
Speaker 3:And so immediately out the gate we began using software for our special education and ELL population Because what teachers need, you know, there's always been a push for inclusion and have regular ed students sitting beside students with disabilities and and the benefits both can learn from each other. But that puts the teacher in a really complicated spot because they have to differentiate these lessons to meet all these needs of students. And so they're always looking for resources. And then when I come to them and say, okay, you know, we need a new math program. And by the way, you have to learn this new math curriculum and you have to teach them in, in part of the day, and you've never talked coding or robotics.
Speaker 3:And oh, by the way, you're gonna have, you know, students with reading disabilities and students with math disabilities and some that are emotional support. And also you have five gifted students. Right? So that's a, that's a tough planning for any teacher. And so what AI does is you can load in some of the resources and create lessons that generate specific topics the students need.
Speaker 3:So the first thing we did was use AI curriculum software to help do that. When our, when our teachers need resources, we load in our PSSA data, we load in our benchmark data, we load in some of our classroom assessments, and then we can cater that to specific needs and it'll differentiate the lesson for you. So that saves teachers a lot of time from going out and grabbing resources. A second tool we immediately started was an after school tutoring tool. So AI gives you a basically a live tutor, and it's student specific.
Speaker 3:You go in there and it's, every lesson is different. And based on how you're answering the questions, it help guide you in different ways. So, you know, you have students that even no matter what district you're in, parents sometimes don't feel comfortable with the content. Fifth grade math right now is not fifth grade math that we took. You know, it's gotten a little bit harder every year and pushed down a little bit further.
Speaker 3:I mean, what kindergarten students are doing now are not what kindergarten students were doing ten years ago.
Speaker 2:Absolutely not.
Speaker 3:So, so a lot of times parents don't feel comfortable with the content to help their children. And they get frustrated because they don't even know, understand how to do it. Or you have parents that are working or busy and just don't have the time to sit down and, you know, work with their child. So the AI tutor was the second piece that we instituted and we've seen a lot of success with. And then everything after that AI has been driven around safety and security.
Speaker 3:We put new cameras in place, which are saving our principals hours, because if we know a student was involved in an issue, we can load the student's picture and the camera will go right to that student. Or if we have a description of a student, someone with a red hoodie snuck in the back door and you type in red hoodie, it'll find every red hoodie, camera image that it took the last five days. Where when I was a principal, we sit there and watch video for hours trying to find, you know, something that was going on. We also put in door access controls because some of the mass shootings have been a result of doors being propped and left open. And so now we have alerts on all those doors.
Speaker 3:If the door is propped for more than ten seconds, an alert goes to the cameras in the surrounding areas. They turn towards the camera or turn towards the door. And then the principal, the head custodian, the secretary, they all get alerts. So that, those were all installed over the summer and have just really helped to know that after the first period bell rings, we only have one point of entrance and exit for our buildings, and then we can screen everybody that comes through. You know, our high school is very large.
Speaker 3:There's 55 exits. And before we had these door access alarms and cameras, we never were a 100% sure every single door was closed. Now we can answer that they are, and we could pull it up at any moment and show that they are. The last piece is a new technology. We're the only school in the country to have it.
Speaker 3:It's called curve point. It's out of Carnegie Mellon university. We were the first school to pilot it. And now they are starting to sell to other schools, but it's non intrusive weapon detection. So it runs off radio waves off your wifi.
Speaker 3:So if you can imagine there's a camera above your head, the camera can see you. But if you crawl under the desk, the camera can't see you, but because it runs off the wifi anywhere, the wifi signal goes, it can make an outline of you. So for instance, we don't have cameras in a bathroom, but if we have three students in a bathroom stall, we know that that's not typical. We can get an alert. Why are there three kids in a bathroom stall?
Speaker 3:And you just see the green outline. You don't see the person. There's no identifying material. And the last piece to that is it's weapon detection. So because the wifi signal has become so intelligent over the years, it can see through a backpack and detect a metal weapon in the backpack.
Speaker 3:So that's unlike any other safety and security measure that's been out there because everything else is about a tragedy happens and how do we alert the authorities as quick as possible where this is the first that's proactive and lets you know, Hey, there's a weapon on campus and someone's hiding it. And so those are the, probably the largest AI initiatives we've taken on. But we're very proud of those because students are really using the tutoring. Our seat, our staff's using the lesson software. And obviously the AIs have just been a remarkable change in our time.
Speaker 3:And also that we can confidently tell parents we're doing everything we can to make keep your child safe.
Speaker 2:A 100%. It's amazing to hear these examples. We have superintendents and district leaders joining us regularly on this podcast, touting some of the advancements that they've done in the district. But I feel like Daniel, just went from examples of innovative pieces academically that are being adopted more widely at scale now, thankfully because of this continued adoption and understanding of AI literacy, Moving on to things that no one else is doing across the country and you're pioneering those efforts. So everything, I think if I got your four pieces correctly, I was taking some notes.
Speaker 2:Your AI curriculum for math and reading, incredibly important. We need to close those attainment gaps that students are unfortunately struggling with, with or without a disability. This AI math tutor is that hand in hand, in your pocket coach that is growing, but there's still some adoption hesitancy there from our perspective. And then safety and security is becoming a really hot button topic, but not a lot of people have answers to it. You do.
Speaker 2:And then this Curbpoint company of weapon detection in a way that you're not singling out certain minority demographics or blaming students that really there's nothing there to it is fascinating. I can't help but want to ask you, what does this systems change at scale look like? Implementing these initiatives is no small feat for any district of any size. And you're leading a district over 3,400 students in a suburban urban adjacent district outside Pittsburgh, you have a sizable special education population. We're talking well over 400 students.
Speaker 2:You have a high ELL population, well over 300 students. How is this happening at the speed in which you're discussing it with us? Not every district is able to move this fast. What's working system change wise, that you can reflect on with us?
Speaker 3:So I'm gonna give you a very honest answer here because I have less years in front of me in my career
Speaker 2:That's how we do the secret.
Speaker 3:That I have behind me. So, you know, I talk to new superintendents all the time. And when I started as a superintendent, I would identify a need, but I was never comfortable rolling out that need until I spent the time with the staff and focused it around buy in. Right? And everything you're taught as administrator and a new superintendent is you gotta get the buy in from the staff.
Speaker 3:You gotta get the buy in from the staff. Well, what you learn is when you approach things that way, leaders emerge and like your go getters that are willing to try new things, step up and take this on. And then they give you the positive feedback and you figure out how you're gonna implement it. And you feel like I'm gonna use that leader to train other people. But three years from now, you still have maybe staff members that are resistant to change.
Speaker 3:So I don't approach it that way. I approach it that I have a job to identify strengths and weaknesses, bring that to the board, and roll out a plan. And my expectation with the staff is we have these needs. Here's my solution to these needs. And I need you to I need you to jump into the deep end with me here and take this on.
Speaker 3:So I think the secret is the wrong action is better than inaction. If you take the wrong action, you can always adjust. Okay? But inaction just stalls progress on every level because you never get anything done. So I'm all about acting.
Speaker 3:I'll roll my sleeves up and dive in right with them, and we'll figure it out, and we'll adjust ourselves. But that approach of just, okay, what's wrong? Let's fix it. When when the Short Tears Valley board interviewed me, they asked me, you know, about five year plans. And I said, five year plans are for people that don't know what they're doing.
Speaker 3:I said, I'm I'm gonna have a ninety day plan. We're gonna find out what's wrong and we're gonna fix it. And we're gonna move on to the next thing. And so it's just, I think it's a very aggressive approach. It's my style.
Speaker 3:I have a great board that really understands, you know, and you, I have to do the work to make the school board understand why these are so important. And so in every conversation I have with them and every conversation with parents, I make it very clear. My goals are, you know, supplementing core academics with the latest technology that that we have and keeping students as safe as possible. Everybody agrees that every school should be doing those things. Right?
Speaker 3:So I constantly frame it around that. Okay. Then I'm like, alright. Everybody gets it right. Enough talking about it.
Speaker 3:What are we gonna do about You know? And the board has really allowed me to run the ball that way. And I I think it's why, you know, we're nine, ten months in. None of these existed nine months ago, and they're working now. And now the principals are coming to me saying, my goodness.
Speaker 3:This is great. Now I have teachers coming to me saying, oh, this is phenomenal results. Right? So it's like when your parents tell you something when you're little and you kinda figure it out later, and you're like, yeah. You know what?
Speaker 3:They were right. I feel like kinda like that's our job to lead that way.
Speaker 1:So I'm really kinda taken aback when I was in the classroom a couple years ago. Our first AI kind of exploration opportunity was a mirror. I mean, just a reading system where we got to, I don't know, be able to test the students easier. They were able to read into it. We knew their reading level.
Speaker 1:It saved us a week's worth of testing. So we had all this free time, but it was so much pushback from teachers who had been doing that one on one testing for years. They didn't think it was gonna work. They didn't think it was accurate. I mean, was so much hand holding.
Speaker 1:I can only imagine much pushback you received when trying to do all of these AI initiatives over the past nine to ten months. Obviously super worth it because it is working. But for the pushback, it has to be so much easier said than done, obviously. But can you give us some instances of a teacher or even a parent who was like, I I don't wanna do it or this is not gonna work for me. How or what did you say to kinda walk them through that and just try to gain their trust?
Speaker 1:I mean, now we can say, you know, now they trust me, but during that time, what was it like? What were those conversations like? What were those feelings?
Speaker 3:So first and foremost, you have to get the board on board. Right? Because and you have to develop a framework. Listen. I explain it like the Steelers.
Speaker 3:Everyone loves the Steelers in Pittsburgh. So I can't explain it to, like, the the Roonies are the owners of the Steelers. That's that's the school board. And then they hire Mike Tomlin to be the head coach. That's me.
Speaker 3:And then the the position coaches, the offensive line coach, that's the principals. And then the players are the staffs. Right? And we line up every day to take on all the challenges that come through the door. Right?
Speaker 3:So it has to start at the top. The Roonies, the owners of the team, the elected officials, the school board have to be okay with what we're doing. Right? If not, those people at the bottom, the players will start complaining to the owners. So I always tell the board like, look, I need you to understand why I'm doing this and you understand.
Speaker 3:Then then you have to let me lead. And then my job really is to meet with the principals, training the administrators. So instead of me having to train 325 teachers, I have to train 10 principals and say, okay. I need the 10 of you to understand our mission and why we're doing this. And that's where we have the difficult conversations.
Speaker 3:Because as long as the 10 of them in in four different buildings are all setting the same expectation, you don't have the primary school saying, well, why am I doing this at the mills? But I'm gonna have to do it in the media school. So having that united plan and united force from the top and then the the principles. And then my job is just to let them lead and get out of their way. You know?
Speaker 3:And I think that is the the real way to roll things out. Then when do I gotta get involved? The example you just gave. A teacher that's really pushing back. I have to go and, you know, I always say I sit on the same side of the desk of them, not the other side, and we have the real conversation.
Speaker 3:Because what is it? Why are you pushing back so hard? You know, you don't wanna change I mean, do you think any profession looks the same as it did twenty five, thirty years ago? And if it does, shame on us. Right?
Speaker 3:So just getting them to understand that my heart and my intention are in the right place and that I'm gonna do it with them. I'm I'm not standing above pointing at them and saying, okay, do this. Right? I'm struggling with it right beside them because it's new to me as well. You know?
Speaker 3:So I have to fumble my way through it just as they do. And we laugh about it, but it's, you know, this business is all built around relationships. Right? And so it's just those conversations. It's not a email.
Speaker 3:It's not a demand. It's going around FaceTime with people. And for the most part, those people that don't wanna change are just afraid of not being able to do it. You know I mean? Not being able to take on a curriculum.
Speaker 3:And if they're really just lazy and don't want the work, well, maybe it's time they move on. You know? And we have to have that conversation too. Those are not
Speaker 2:easy, but necessary.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Yep.
Speaker 2:Not easy, but necessary. I think that there's an underlying tone in a lot of the work that superintendents do, and you are absolutely no exception to that, Daniel. That leads me to a related question I wanted to ask you. As superintendent of your district, you also have to oversee and report to the board on your financial decisions. And so it's one thing to have this lofty ninety day plan that leads to five years of change within a district or whatever your contractor, your tenure expects you to be, you know, overseeing the district for.
Speaker 2:It's another thing to actually execute on those things, assuming that you have the budget for it. So talk to us about how you think about balancing your district's financial responsibility and the funds that you receive or the funds that you don't that you need to find them through some other means with your drive to be this systems change leader in such rapid fashion? Like most districts can't implement this over whatever time period you ask them to do, let alone a year. How are you balancing those two priorities of we need funding for these initiatives and then we also need the wherewithal to execute on them?
Speaker 3:Oh, you know, I'm not alone in this. I have a team. I have a, a school solicitor, Mr. Matt Rakunis, who does a great job. I have a business manager, Ms.
Speaker 3:Joan Werner. She has a whole business office, accounts payable and payroll and an accountant. And so, you know, those conversations are our job first. Right? I have to know, can we pay for it?
Speaker 3:You know, I tell, I tell the business manager all the time. All right. Give me my, what am I working with here? Give me my top and bottom. You know, what do I have?
Speaker 3:And then I go to the vendor and I'm like the negotiator, right? I get, you know, the first price we got for the cameras for the AI. I went back and, and argued with them, arguing with them and get them down to where I'm like, I have to be here. And so, you know, I front load all those conversations and my solicitor has to tell me, are we legally compliant with the collective bargaining agreement that's in place with our unions? Are we legally compliant with just laws around student learning?
Speaker 3:And then can we afford it? And then I go to the board and I'll say, okay, you know, my job is to give recommendations based in, in facts to the board. And so I come to them and say, this is why I wanna do this. This is what it's gonna cost. These are the questions legally Mr.
Speaker 3:McGunis has for us. And then obviously they have to vet the process themselves and ask me whatever questions they have. So, you know, it's a team. It's certainly not just me, but yeah, you have. And again, when you, when you have your preliminary budget presentations, you have to adopt a philosophy that the community knows.
Speaker 3:You know, we're not just passing a budget here. All right. Our goals are this. Our goals are we need to increase our academic performance using the new resources we have available to us, And we have to make our schools safe. That's the premise around all discussions.
Speaker 3:And so when you frame your budget around that, because every department in a school has parents that think that's the most important department, right? Musical people think music's the most important. You shouldn't spend anything on athletics. Athletics thinks athletics the most important. How do you spend it?
Speaker 3:So, you know, I have to keep everybody in check and then go back to, Hey, we have to increase the academic results. We have to keep students safe. So how is this conversation doing that? So that's the way I've I've handled it over the years.
Speaker 2:So music and academics often think like that. Special education also thinks like that. And you're a budget man. You know that for the relatively small enrollment of your students in special education, there's a disproportionate amount of funding allocated to special education. So let's go get into that with that lens of Sure.
Speaker 2:The resources provided to you by the state and local governments for special education. How are you prioritizing closing some achievement gaps among your students to help them academically in the wake of their disability? What are your priorities as a district for the years ahead to better meet the needs of students with those disabilities? We know that some categories at Chartiers Valley disability classifications are higher than others. How are you meeting those growing and diverse needs?
Speaker 3:So again, I have to give all the credit to my special education staff and my leadership team. So I have a special education director and assistant director that are not only in house, but all the students we have in outside placements, they have to attend all those IEP meetings and keep in touch with all those, but those are still our students. Right? And so it's really the burden of that falls on them more than it does me. I'm just there to support them.
Speaker 3:How are we meeting the needs? You know, every superintendent will tell you that special education is the largest unfunded mandate. The other, the other negative aspect for a superintendent about special education is it's lawsuit driven, not education driven. So somebody wins a lawsuit somewhere about some disability because somebody did something wrong. And then there's new case law that comes out that changes what school districts have to do and what they're, if they're here to, but there's no funding attached to that.
Speaker 3:And so we just know every year it's gonna cost us more than we could ever gain. And we know every year it's gonna the expenditure's gonna increase a little bit more. But school districts are really in a bad spot when it comes to special education law. The due process, the transient population that often happens with special education students, you sometimes inherit IEPs that another school maybe agreed to, and you try to meet with the parents, but once someone agrees to something, it's so hard to get something out and it might be a service you don't provide, but now you have to provide it. So if there's just a lot of dollars driven to special education, but there's nothing you can do about it because again, it's lawsuit driven.
Speaker 3:What we have done and you know, to answer the question about what are we doing as a district and what does miss Fiori, our special education director do very well is she tries to slow down that process. Right? We don't wanna over identify kids just because maybe they're having a tough time or they're struggling. So, you know, the MTSS process, our student assistance process, those are all geared to provide resources for any kid that's struggling and then trying to identify what's their barrier to success. Sometimes it's an attendance issue.
Speaker 3:Sometimes it's a home issue. Sometimes it's a mental health issue. You know, it's not always a special education learning disability issue. And so we try to slow down that process, put resources in for kids, almost treat it like they have an IEP. Get the team together.
Speaker 3:All the teachers that are in contact with the child, the guidance counselors, our school psychologist, get a team approach. And then, you know, after all that's exhausted, maybe the child does qualify for special education. So that's really what we, what we have to do with our own students. Now, you inherit a lot of transient students that come with IEPs. And for those students, it's just about building that relationship with parents that, hey, we're on your side and we want what's best for your child.
Speaker 3:But special education should not be a life sentence. It's not a place you go to and it's, hey, my child has an IEP in third grade and they're gonna ride that IEP and the goals are never gonna change till twelfth grade. That's should never be the point. And that's not her point. Her point always is let's get them help.
Speaker 3:And when they're succeeding, let's chart start lowering some of those supports and let's see how they do. That's our goal and our mentality. And and really she established that and I just support her.
Speaker 1:That is awesome. I also feel like it's really teacher driven, just that entire approach. Teachers, we know that we want you to do 50, things at once, but let's kind of slow everything down and make sure that we're helping kids who maybe we don't know exactly where to help them, but let's try the other strategies that you may try for students who have these lists of accommodations. There is nothing wrong with giving kids extra assistance when we're still trying to figure out what they need and kind of what they don't need.
Speaker 2:Daniel, I have another topic for you. And now that I'm looking at our time, we are nearing the end of today's conversation, which just went so, so fast, but you have brought up on a number of occasions, school safety. And I know that in the Western Pennsylvania region, led by our mutual friend, Keith Hartbauer, shout out Keith, former superintendent of Brownsville City School District, he has been leading the charge on what he's dubbing the Pennsylvania Safe Schools Summit. And I know that you've done some work with him on that. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And did a number of school safety initiatives at the district. Tell us a little bit about what the landscape and the appetite in your region for increasing school safety looks like. We know that it's a growing need, there's unfortunately news headlines nearly every day by this point of breaches of school safety and catastrophic events. You don't want your district to be the next one, and you don't want Pittsburgh to be the next one either. But the reality is not every school is in a position of one, identifying solutions that meet their needs, and two, funding them.
Speaker 2:So it sounds like you've bucked that trend a little bit in a really great way so that you're proactive. Tell us about what that Safe School Summit has looked like, what your engagements are, and how school safety is getting embedded into your culture.
Speaker 3:I have a lot of respect for Doctor. Hartbauer. I, I knew him as an administrator back in the day at Peters and have watched him throughout his career. We've, we've kind of went through education together about the same age and about the same amount of experience. And, this new category where he's focusing his time is definitely a valuable one.
Speaker 3:And so I think what, what Keith and his team are providing is just that place to go to force us all to the table, to make sure we have a dedicated time to talk about what's going on around school safety. The last thing you wanna have happen. And I was very frustrated probably about ten, twelve years ago when I felt that, you know, we would have a, a school shooting and something would happen and there would be all this news media coverage about it for the days and weeks to follow. And there, it would fall off. It would get quiet, and then it would be the next school shooting.
Speaker 3:And it's just, you know, as educators, and especially I think as superintendents and principals, you take responsibility for those kind of acts. And it's like, you you can't help but think, what would I do if that happened here? And it's our worst fear. Right? And so the problem is that people don't address it as part of the budget process.
Speaker 3:People don't wanna focus the attention on their time. You know, my principals come into work in a in a morning and you go in 20 directions. Right? And so the the SAESchool summits force us to the table and sit down and just talk about this. And so you have to do that because we meet about everything else.
Speaker 3:You know, there's there's special education monthly meetings. There's finance monthly meetings. There's, you know, obviously AI events that everybody wants to be a part of now because it's new and it's trendy, But you have to get back to those little things. And I think my takeaway for what the work Keith is doing and his team is sometimes we put policies and procedures in place that we don't update. And so you spend time with the new procedure or the, or the trend, and then you never get back to what does the policy read.
Speaker 3:And so they're big on talking about that. So if I would leave tomorrow, somebody else should be able to step into my shoes and know what our procedure is. Right? It shouldn't just be, you know, proprietary to my brain here. You know, it should be laid out and spelled out.
Speaker 3:And so, you know, sometimes, and that's, you know, one of my flaws is I move so quick and I wanna go, all right, let's go. Let's fix this. Let's go. I have to remember to go back to policy and, and what is then in our board packet, what's in our emergency response plan. And so, you know, he's an all, his team is an all inclusive, you know, inclusive approach to that to make sure you're not leaving any of those gaps.
Speaker 3:So that's been my takeaway from working with that. And it's definitely something I've needed.
Speaker 2:That's awesome to hear. And I hope that the summit and all of the work that you find yourselves doing together and the neighboring Pittsburgh area school districts are doing serve as a blueprint for other regions of the country, because we know we all need it of how to effectively carry out systems change and implementation to get ahead of the curve and prevent the next school shooting or to prevent the next scabbing or the next like some other breach of security that schools unfortunately unfortunately are write just breeding ground as we're seeing. And I think that, you know, there are couple of people who see news headlines and want to be like, okay, I'm next, which is a terrifying thought. But addressing the underlying problems surrounding mental health and preventing the next instance, especially when you're on campus is of the utmost priority. I'm glad to see that that's working so well.
Speaker 2:I hope others can learn from that. Thanks for sharing your thoughts there. Doctor. Castagna, we are at the end of our time today. I have one more question for you that we'd love to pose to all of our guests.
Speaker 2:If you want to take a moment to think through it, please go ahead and do so. That question is, what does being an exceptional educator or being an exceptional leader mean to you?
Speaker 3:Well, I think to me, that means, taking risks. I mean, it's all about when I when I began as a superintendent in 2011, I was 35 years old. I was the youngest superintendent in a room when we had the 42 schools from Allegheny County meet. And I just thought there was a way a superintendent should talk, a way a superintendent should look, a way a superintendent should act. And I hated it.
Speaker 3:I hated it. I was like, this is not me. And I think students and teachers and even parents can kind of sniff out when you aren't being authentic. Right? And so it took me a couple years to realize that, you know, you bring your personality with you, you know, just like teachers.
Speaker 3:Every child has a teacher that they see a little bit of themselves in. Right? And we aren't perfect and we don't live in a perfect profession and we don't deal with students that come from perfect situations. So we don't have to pretend we're perfect. Right?
Speaker 3:Just be yourself and bring your personality and you'll, you know, relate to a lot of people. So around that, I learned that I had to break off and try things that didn't fit into the process that maybe my colleagues defined how superintendents should do things. Right? And so it was just a point where I was like, I don't wanna do it that way. And so you have to take risks that you believe in and take chances on the things you believe in.
Speaker 3:And you will be surprised, and you'll shock yourself like, wow, it's a lot easier than I thought that was gonna be. And why did I hold back for so long? So, you know, my advice to to new superintendents is always like, be yourself and take risks. If you wanna try something, try it. Try it.
Speaker 3:So what if it doesn't work out? Change it. You know? Adjust it. But don't feel like you have this mold you have to try to fit yourself into because that's just not real and it's not authentic.
Speaker 3:And and I think it comes across that way.
Speaker 2:I think you're a living living, breathing example of exactly that. Like, be yourself. I'm showing you, you know, heart of my sleeve kind of a thing, and you're not going to be as effective of a leader without ruffling a couple feathers along the way for better or for worse. I think that playing it safe has never gotten anybody too far. And to quote the movie from years ago that I'm sure you watched sent shockwaves through the social media ecosystem of the social network.
Speaker 2:I think the quote that Mark Zuckerberg's actor was playing was something on the lines of billions of friends without creating a few enemies. So lesson learned from that line is you won't be able to achieve amazing things if you're straight laced and doing everything to a tee. One, will take too long, and two, you'll get pushback that will stop you in your tracks. To that end, Daniel, I'm so glad that you shared all of your stories, successes and challenges along the way throughout your tenure. We are so grateful for your leadership and all of the morals that you stand by.
Speaker 2:So thank you for sharing those. You're exceptional. It sounds like the staff that you're cultivating at your district is exceptional. I hope they enjoy and appreciate your leadership style because as unique and hopefully refreshing as it is, it's not one you come across every day. So I hope that they're as empowered as they should be by the way that you kind of pass the baton forward for them.
Speaker 2:So thank you.
Speaker 3:Thank you both. I enjoyed this. And I would I hope to follow-up a year from now and talk about all the things we've done in the next twelve months as well.
Speaker 2:That'd be some fun.
Speaker 3:I'm holding to it. We're gonna keep moving. We're not stopping. I promise you that.
Speaker 2:You're gonna be our recurring Friday before Thanksgiving guest.
Speaker 3:All right. That's a deal.
Speaker 2:I love it. Amazing. Daniel, thank you again. Antonia, thank you for leading today's conversation. And for all of us listening to today's episode of the Exceptional Educators Podcast, thank you again for joining us, we will see you on our next one.