Full Schedule

1.  Start Small, Scale Impact: Building Adult Capacity to Accelerate Student Growth
Amanda Jamerson, Associate Principal, Shorewood High School

Meaningful school improvement does not always begin with a schoolwide mandate. At Shorewood High School, our instructional improvement journey began by listening to teachers, identifying existing expertise, and intentionally starting small. After surveying special education teachers about their core-content knowledge, we partnered with a willing group of Algebra and Geometry teachers to move from traditional support models toward a co-planning and co-serving approach in which general and special education teachers shared responsibility for teaching and learning.  This session will share how Shorewood High School used shared leadership through its School-wide Equity Leadership Team (SELT) to build adult capacity, structure collaborative planning time, provide ongoing professional learning, analyze evidence of student learning, and gradually expand effective practices. SELT also created opportunities for departments to make their learning visible through monthly Equity in Action spotlights highlighting changes in adult practice and their impact on students. Participants will explore how leaders can use teacher voice and existing strengths to identify a strategic entry point for change, build capacity with willing partners, gather evidence of impact, and create the conditions to scale effective practice without relying on a top-down mandate. Participants will leave with practical strategies for moving from a small pilot to sustainable instructional transformation.

Impact: Shorewood High School earned a 100.0 Growth Priority Area score on Wisconsin's 2024-25 School Report Card, including 100.0 Growth scores in both mathematics and English language arts. In mathematics, students with disabilities earned a 5.4 value-added score on DPI's approximately 0-6 scale, on which 3.0 represents average growth.

2. From Gaps to Access: What Leaders Must Do Differently
Yaribel Rodriguez, Director of Urban Leadership, AWSA

Closing achievement gaps across race, ability, socioeconomic status, and language is often framed as needing more interventions, more programs, or more time. In reality, the greatest opportunity lies in strengthening Tier 1 core instruction. Using case studies, research and local examples, leaders will identify the small, high-leverage shifts in core instruction and schoolwide practices that produce disproportionate gains for all students, accelerate learning, increase teacher efficacy and most importantly close gaps!

3. Key Issues for Elementary APs
Tammy Gibbons, Director of Professional Learning, AWSA

An elementary associate principal plays a crucial role in supporting the overall leadership and management of a school. They help create and maintain a positive and safe learning environment, contribute to instructional improvement, and foster strong relationships with students, staff, and parents. Given the unique role of elementary school AP, join us for an opportunity to connect, inspire and strategize to further increase the impact of the role. This session will be an engaging, relevant conversation facilitated by and for elementary APs.

4. Conflict and Communication
Adam Saenz, Keynoter

Conflict occurs when we are in relationship with others. In fact, the hallmark of a healthy relationship is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to successfully resolve it. Unfortunately, resolving conflict is not a skill many of us were taught. We’ll explore the fundamental causes of conflict and the dynamics that can escalate conflict. Finally, we’ll cover the tools necessary to navigate conflict successfully, including effective communication strategies. Based on the book How to Build Relationships That Work.

The return on investment for this time together:

-Participants will understand the role of emotion in conflict.

-Participants will understand the five-step conflict resolution process, including active listening skills, communication styles, and shared goal setting.

1. TBD
Ben Tashner, Principal, Holmen Middle School

2. From Isolation to Collective Efficacy: Learning Together to Impact All Students
Yaribel Rodriguez, Director of Urban Leadership, AWSA

Collective efficacy, our shared belief that we can ensure high levels of learning for all students, is one of the most powerful drivers of student success. Yet in many schools, adult practice remains isolated, limiting opportunities to learn from one another and grow together. This session will explore how school leaders can intentionally build a culture of adult learning through vicarious experiences—including instructional rounds, peer observations, and micro-teaching. Participants will examine how “seeing effective practice in action” accelerates teacher growth, strengthens alignment around high-quality instruction, and shifts mindsets from individual autonomy to collective responsibility.

3. High Impact Leadership Practices: Reflect on the Research, Return on the  Investment Back Home
Joe Schroeder, Associate Executive Director, AWSA

John Hattie is a globally recognized researcher who describes the impact of over 250 influences on student learning.  Typically, the focus of his work is on teaching practice. However, in this session, we will focus on the leadership practices that Hattie’s meta-analysis and others show have the highest effect size on student learning. This session will help you gauge your own practices alongside these top few and leave with approaches for bringing them to life powerfully in your school.

4. How to Escape Survival Mode
Adam Saenz, Keynoter

Each day presents new challenges for educators in the pandemic: student attendance, staff shortages, concerned parents, and the demands of our personal lives can leave us feeling like we’re just living to get through the day (or the hour!). It’s called “survival mode.” While knowing how to live in survival mode is necessary through these times, we do not want it to become our new normal. The good news is that we can make small physical and mental adjustments each day that will keep us from being driven by the chaos of external forces. Based on the forthcoming book The Stress Management Playbook.

The return on investment for this time together:

-Participants will understand the neuropsychology that drives survival mode, including the roles of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.

-Participants will recognize how survival mode erodes the ability to find opportunity.

-Participants will gain practical physical and cognitive strategies that can be used daily to reduce the negative impact of survival mode.

1. BOOM Sessions: Best Practices: Learning from the Expertise in the Room
These fast-paced BOOM sessions deliver high-impact insights in just 8-10 minutes. Our presenters will share proven best practices in Leadership Strategies that Improve Student Attendance and Engagement.  Get ready for quick takeaways, followed by a 5-minute Q&A to deepen your understanding.

• More Than a Ride: How the "But of the Month" is Transforming Our School Morning
  Elizabeth Streubel, Associate Principal, Mequon-Thiensville School District
  The Bus of the Month program turns positive behavior into a team sport. Instead of focusing on individual "don'ts," we’ve shifted the spotlight to teamwork and accountability.

• It's Not Just a Reinstatement. It's a Reset: Restorative Reentry After Student Suspension
  Amanda Jamerson, Associate Pricipal, Shorewood High School
  A student's return from suspension can be more than a procedural reinstatement; it can be an intentional opportunity to restore accountability, dignity, relationships, and belonging. At Shorewood High School, student reentry is approached as a reset: an opportunity to acknowledge what occurred while making it clear that a student's mistake does not define their place within the school community. This Boom Session will share one practical, high-leverage approach for transforming the reinstatement meeting into a restorative reentry conversation. Participants will learn how intentional opening language, student reflection, restorative prompts, family partnership, and clear expectations can help students process what occurred, identify who was impacted, and prepare for a successful return to the school community. Participants will leave with a ready-to-use structure and restorative prompts they can immediately incorporate into their own student reentry conversations. Impact: This restorative approach has been part of Shorewood High School's broader shift toward relationship-centered student accountability and contributed to a 69% reduction in office discipline referrals over three years, while maintaining clear expectations for student behavior and accountability.

• TBD
  Ben Tashner, Principal, Holmen Middle School

• Building Relational Capacity Through Daily Student Greetings
  Nicole Vinopal, Associate Principal, Eau Claire Memorial High School
  In just a few seconds, greeting students by name as they enter the school building and classroom door can create meaningful connections and set a positive tone for learning. This BOOM session will introduce the simple strategy, share the impact on student, and provide practical tips for making intentional student greetings a consistent part of the school day. Participants will leave with one easy, high-impact strategy they can put into practice immediately.

2. Code Your Own Solutions (Without Knowing How to Code)
Dave Van Nostrand, Associate Principal & Mike Murphy, Associate Principal, Verona School District

Right now, the widespread availability of AI tools and the ease of use of Google Scripts allows leaders with no experience in coding to create personalized tools to support their schools. We’ve written many scripts, with no prior experience in coding, no training, and no new budget line. We wrote a script that built a classroom observation tool that would automatically email a teacher feedback once we filled out a Google Form to facilitate quick meaningful feedback as we collected school-wide data. We created another script that automated a to do list to email a particular staff member on the first working day of a new project. This script supported our need to communicate and stay organized at a dynamic and fast paced school. These examples illustrate the powerful agency learning Google Scripts gives school leaders, and we want to give other administrators access to these tools. This session is for principals who want the freedom and agency to create their own possibilities. If you can identify a problem, you can code a solution.  We intend the audience to take away everything they need to start using Google Scripts. We will provide our slides, how to videos, and quick reference sheets. The key takeaway will be an awareness of what the tools can do and the resources to apply them to particular projects at individual schools.

This session will be hands-on. Participants will be invited to create a Google Script as we model their use and tell the story of how they impacted our work with scholars. There will also be some time at the end to workshop how different functions, tools, and formulas could support principals in their contexts. 

3. Who Do You Aspire to Hire?
Tammy Gibbons, Director of Professional Leadership, AWSA

Hiring is a routine responsibility for school leaders, yet in an era of limited applicant pools and uneven candidate quality, the challenge is building strong, effective teams that truly serve all students. A 2016 High Impact Leadership study found that only 48% of leaders are perceived as driving change and innovation, and just 44% are seen as developing talent for competitive advantage. This session will explore essential principles for thoughtfully planning and executing a hiring process that ensures the candidates you select deliver on the promises made in the interview.

4. A Culture of Care: Transforming School Systems Through Wellness and Connection
Aimee Schneidewent, Brookfield East High School & Jennie Katrichis, Brookfield Central High School

This session highlights how secondary schools can move from reactive discipline and crisis response to a proactive culture of wellness, connection, and belonging. Participants will learn practical strategies for building systems of support that include students, staff, families, and community partners. The session will explore how to embed well-being practices into daily school routines, align community resources, and create environments where both students and staff thrive. Attendees will leave with actionable ideas for strengthening collaboration, promoting whole-person support, and fostering a strong sense of community across their districts.

Impact: At Brookfield Central and Brookfield East High Schools, 94% percent of students agree or strongly agree to the statement, “My school provides me with a safe environment.”  94% of families agree or strongly agree, “My child’s school is a safe place to learn.”

4:30 Reception Sponsored by

1. From Observation to Impact: Leveraging Intentional Feedback to Improve Student Outcomes
Nicole Vinopal, Associate Principal, Eau Claire Memorial High School

Assistant principals can play a critical role in school improvement by using intentional observation and feedback to strengthen instructional practice and improve student outcomes. By establishing clear expectations, conducting focused observations, and providing timely, actionable feedback, assistant principals can identify trends, support staff growth, and connect instructional practices to improvements in attendance, behavior, and academic achievement. This presentation will explore how a consistent cycle of observation, feedback, coaching, and reflection can build collective efficacy, strengthen classroom practices, and turn leadership actions into measurable results.

2. "I  Wish Someone Would Have Told me That!" Exploring and Appyling Impactful Tools and Approaches to Common Leadership Challenges
Joe Schroeder, Associate Executive Director, AWSA

In this 75-minute concurrent session, which extends the previous breakfast general session learning, you will explore actionable ways to move forward amid real-world challenges that can stall leadership growth and impact. Building on decades of experience, Joe unpacks common developmental dilemmas and guides participants through a bank of relevant and practical strategies, tools, and resources to address them. Attendees will engage with these resources to build personal capacity, improve decision-making, and effectively support others. Overall, this interactive session will equip you with tangible methods to get “unstuck” and apply new learning directly to daily work across a host of common leadership challenges.

3. Pardon the Interruption
Tammy Gibbons, Director of Professional Learning, AWSA

Leadership is filled with constant interruptions, but what if those moments were opportunities rather than obstacles? In this session, participants will reflect on how daily disruptions can serve as catalysts for growth and service in schools. Drawing on 2022 research showing that 73% of people feel overwhelmed by interruptions, we’ll examine the biggest productivity distractors and strategies for setting boundaries that balance focus with meaningful connection.

4. TBD
Aaron Andres

5. Shaping the SAA Legislative Agenda: A Two-Way Legislative Update
Cody Lundquist, Director of Government Relations, SAA

Join SAA Director of Government Relations Cody Lundquist for an overview of the upcoming SAA’s 2027–2029 Evidence-Based Policy Agenda, and a conversation on how we bring your voice to state and federal lawmakers. Moving beyond a standard legislative update, this session launches a statewide engagement strategy built on real-time feedback from practicing school leaders. Hear what is on the horizon in Madison, share what your administrative team is experiencing on the ground, and help align our statewide policy priorities with your local realities.