The Weekend Brief - August 2, 2026

Insights, Inspirations, and Reflections

“Iron sharpens iron; competitive excellence is drawn out by those who refuse to let you settle.” -Traditional Adage

What I’m Excited About…

Tomorrow Marks Day One: Visibility, Culture, and Tone

Tomorrow marks the official First Day of School for us…this means welcoming over 13,000 students back through our doors. This is always an exciting time, marked by an overabundance of positive energy. I would encourage any leader heading into a new launch to aggressively harness this momentum to set the standard for the entire year ahead.

For our leadership team, this upcoming week is centered entirely on visibility. As an executive, your presence is your single most powerful tool for connection, safety, and motivation:

• Be Out Front - Stand at the front entrance every morning and afternoon during student drop-off and pick-up.

• Leave Post-it Notes - Get into classrooms and leave short, handwritten notes for teachers on their desks. Simple Post-its offer a quick, highly meaningful way to show immediate appreciation.

• Utilize Passing Periods - Walk the hallways and cafeterias during lunches to check in with students. A quick hello makes a world of difference.

This is also the moment to establish your communication cadences. Consider how daily announcements, staff updates, and community communications establish a clear, positive foundation for the entire organization.

An Opening-Week Checklist for School Leaders:

• Campus Walk - Take a walk around your grounds. What minor details need to be updated, fixed, or removed?

• Community Partners - Connect early with local adopters and community business partners.

• Update Welcome Messages - Align your opening messaging across the website, social channels, and media outlets.

• Express Early Gratitude - Send short, handwritten thank-you notes to the operations, custodial, and administrative staff who did the heavy lifting to get facilities ready.

• One-Page Highlights - Distribute a concise “one-pager” outlining key district talking points and goals for constituents.

• Convene Key Groups - Hold your initial alignment meetings with site councils, PTAs, operations teams, and labor representatives.

• Capture the Learning - Immediately log what worked (and what didn’t) to refine your Opening of School playbook for next year.

What I’m Reading…

The Public School Promise…

As we get ready to head into the first week of school and prepare to welcome 13,000 students through our doors, I’ve been thinking about what we mean when we talk about the Public School Promise.

Right on time, I came across a great piece from Dr. Kim Moore that really hit home. Keep in mind…I’m a romantic and a traditionalist at heart. My fondest childhood memories are rooted in my neighborhood, playing outside from sunup to sundown in the summer, riding the bus to the local neighborhood school with all the kids on my block, Friday night football games, and attending summer sports camps at the high school. For me, the Public School Promise has always been about that organic connection that exists between a school and its community.

Dr. Moore captures something essential…as educational leaders, our job isn’t just to manage operations; it is to collaborate with families to create this genuine sense of belonging.

In an era dominated by market-driven “school choice,” too many spaces have turned community members into consumers and education into a transaction. That shift fundamentally alters how people interact with their schools, their neighborhoods, and one another. Education should never be viewed as a transactional product; it is a relational covenant.

Traditional public schools remain the single institution in American life explicitly designed to welcome every child, regardless of background or need. This should never be about catering to a specialized market niche. True success is far more than enrollment numbers, budget efficiencies, brand appeal, and market share. Success is about culture, equity, local partnerships, and protecting the core programs, from the arts to athletics, that give our kids a place to belong and connect.

As we kick off this new school year, we have an opportunity to do much more than open our buildings. We have the opportunity, if not the responsibility, to build the community and create that sense of belonging for each of our students and our families.

What I’m Pondering…

Urgency and Alignment…

“If you’re ambitious, I’d highly recommend working in an organization or a team where people have your similar sense of urgency, or you will slowly go insane.” -Casey Jacobsen

Agreed.

When there is a fundamental mismatch in urgency, an organization’s performance ceiling will always be dictated by its least committed leaders. Surrounding yourself with team members who share your drive isn’t just about efficiency; it’s about protecting the operational ceiling of the entire organization.

What I’m Listening To

The WSJ Leadership Institute Presents: Leaders

This is turning into one of my routine listens. Episodes drop about every two weeks. These ~30-minute short-form interviews featuring high-level CEOs fit perfectly into my commute home after Dan Patrick and Colin Cowherd wrap up for the day.

A recent episode featured Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian. His perspective on organization and culture provides a few key leadership takeaways worth noting:

• Customer service starts internally

  • Bastian talks about exceptional customer experience not necessarily starting with the customer first, but being built by prioritizing your employees. When your team feels supported and valued…the culture naturally translates to the front lines.

• Value drives choice over price

  • Delta’s research shows that ticket price isn’t necessarily the deciding factor for travelers. I would completely agree, especially on flights over two hours or those requiring a connection. Reliability, comfort, and service quality outweigh saving a few bucks…a reminder that people will invest in a superior experience.

• Culture as a competitive moat

  • In an industry where planes and routes are virtually identical, Bastian emphasizes that culture is the one asset competitors can’t easily duplicate. This concept really transfers into a lot of different industries…

I will say that his insights have me rethinking Delta, but more importantly, his insights offer a nice reminder for any organization…if you care for your people and protect your core culture, the rest of the operation takes care of itself…This is a solid add to your drive-time rotation.

What I’m Watching…

The Odyssey…

This is a good one. Definitely worth the watch, and this definitely requires viewing on the biggest possible screen, ideally IMAX. This is designed to be an experience…IMAX allows you to appreciate the outdoor landscapes, ocean voyages, and the effects for the Cyclops and the giants.

I generally appreciate story over spectacle; my personal benchmark movies will always be narrative-driven classics like A Few Good Men and The Shawshank Redemption. That said, I’ve always loved Homer’s epic, and Christopher Nolan’s cinematic adaptation of The Odyssey is designed to be experienced on the largest screen possible (ideally IMAX). Nolan elevates his version, and his visual execution requires, and deserves, the theater environment. Nolan includes the traditional epic adventure, the connection between Odysseus and Penelope, and he provides the theme of loyalty resonating from Eumaeus’ character. In addition to the visual effects, Nolan also does a nice job of providing a study of war…There is trauma, guilt, and loss.

My criticism would be that the interaction between the original mythological story and these themes can be uneven at times, but the story, the acting, and most importantly the visuals are worth the hype. I highly recommend it, but it has to be in the theater, and it has to be via IMAX to appreciate the purpose of this one…