[00:00:00] Dr. Jim: Thanks for joining us today. This is your friendly neighborhood town strategy nerd, Dr. Jim, how do you build broad support in your community to help drive much needed improvements in your districts, launching and successfully delivering major initiatives in the K through 12 spaces, particularly challenging because you have a very diverse set of internal and external stakeholders, successfully navigating all of those stakeholders can be difficult, but it can be argued that navigating community stakeholders is potentially the most challenging aspect of getting approval for major initiatives. Why is that the case? Because many in the community won't directly benefit from an initiative that's focused on school infrastructure.

Leaders within districts have to do an exceptionally good job of building the case and building momentum within the community to gain support. So how do you win that support? That's the question that we're going to answer in today's conversation. And it's focused on building a win win proposition that delivers much needed resources [00:01:00] for the district and sets the community up for long term success.

So who's going to be leading us through that conversation? Today we have Dr. Brandon Lunack, who is the 11th superintendent of the Moorhead area public school districts in Grand Forks joining us today. He's a Grand Forks, North Dakota native, and he earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of North Dakota and a K through 12 principal and superintendent's license, as well as a doctoral degree in educational leadership from Minnesota State University, Morehead.

Brandon has taught physical education and health for Climax Shelley School District in Climax, Minnesota from 1997 to 2005. He was a superintendent elementary principal in the Amarato public school district in Amarato, North Dakota, from 2005 to 2011. And he led the district through a facilities upgrade that was partially financed with a grant for energy efficiency.

More recently, he's been in the role of superintendent for. From 2011 to 2014 Brandon was the superintendent of the Waban [00:02:00] Ogama White Earth Public Schools, where he led the district through construction of a preschool addition to the elementary site. With the help of a grant through the Minnesota department of health and human services.

And in 2014, he joined the Moorhead area public schools district as the assistant superintendent of finance and operations, and then became the superintendent in 2018. Brandon and his wife, Melissa have been married for a while and have two, two kids, Bryson and Aislinn, and they reside in Moorhead. Brandon, welcome to the show.

[00:02:28] Dr. Brandon Lunak: me, Jim.

[00:02:28] Dr. Jim: Yeah, I'm I'm looking forward to this conversation. And I think one of the interesting things about this discussion that we're going to have has to do with your fairly deep.

Experience in getting facilities improvements through through various districts that you've worked on. But before we dig into the details of that, I think it's going to be important for you to share with the listeners and viewers, some of the key things in your career that shaped your overall [00:03:00] leadership philosophy and principles as you stepped into this

[00:03:04] Dr. Brandon Lunak: Yeah. So I've been in education now since 1998 and I've come across or have been involved with many. Many folks along the way, many parents, many students, many peers, but I'd say the one individual that, that influenced me or helped shake me, shape me the most was the superintendent that hired me in Climax, Minnesota.

And when you start out. In education, you start out thinking that you're going to be a teacher and a coach for the 27, 30 years that you're in the profession. And I was no different than that. And until one day that superintendent sat me down and he said, I think you've got what it takes to be an administrator.

And at that time, I really didn't know what he meant. So I took his advice and went out and got those certifications. [00:04:00] And in 2005, I got the call from Emirato and that's where my administrative career began. I'd have to say Walt Donatson was probably the biggest factor in me pursuing administration.

And I thank him immensely for that.

[00:04:15] Dr. Jim: That's a pretty interesting story that you shared, and I appreciate you sharing that. What it leads me to wonder about is, when you look at that conversation, it seems to be something of a chance conversation that occurred.

I get the impression that it came out of the blue from your perspective. So if that's true, how have you taken the chance out of those development conversations in how you currently lead people?

[00:04:39] Dr. Brandon Lunak: So I think when. Leading people, I think it's important that number one. You're honest with them, right? You're real. You're not you're not going to pretend to be somebody you're not. Value getting up every day and interacting with the community, our people here and But at the end of the [00:05:00] day, I think one of the things that I want people to take away from me and what I want people to understand is that I value those opinions of those people and I want people to walk away feeling like that I gave them the time and they believed that they were heard and listened to.

So when it comes down to leading people, I honestly believe. It's the golden rule. You treat them like you would like to be treated.

[00:05:27] Dr. Jim: That's a really good principle. And I think it has a lot of legs in a lot of different contexts. I think one of the things that can be challenging about that, and especially your point about you like the fact that. Are you hope that people walk away feeling like they've been heard within the K through 12 space with the pace that exists within there where everybody's got a million things to do your ability to do that might be easier at the district level.

I don't know if that's true, but a lot of that. Impact is felt at the educator level based [00:06:00] on what principles do or don't do. So how have you leveled up your principles so that they're much more hands on and making sure that they're creating an environment where their teams feel like they have a voice and they're being heard.

[00:06:13] Dr. Brandon Lunak: I think the one thing that we can instill in our principles or instill in the people that report to you is the fact that I want them to feel confident enough in themselves that they're not afraid to try new things, or they're not afraid to be, Honest. They're not afraid to have those difficult conversations and sometimes they go well and sometimes they don't go well, but I think the biggest thing that we can instill in our people is the fact that we are going to fail at some point.

And I want them to know, in no uncertain terms, that if we have students at the [00:07:00] forefront and we fail in terms of trying something new, that's okay. When it's not okay, is when we stop trying. And so I want our folks to know. That in no uncertain terms, you will always be supported if you're always trying a new way to connect, not only with kids, but with families, with parents, with even their peers.

And I think we've over time, I think we've gotten gun shy with that, especially with COVID. And we got to a point during that time when it wasn't okay to fail. And I think we lose our creativity when we do that. And we lose our authentic our authentic, our authenticism or whatever word I want to use there.

To to continue to try to continue to evolve to get better, because when we evolve and get better, ultimately, our kids end up as the benefactor of that. Our students become the ultimate in moving forward. And I think if our staff and our students [00:08:00] get better. And our community feels empowered like that.

I think there's nothing that can stop us because we're not afraid to take a step. We're not afraid to step out of our comfort zone and then jump back in and say, Hey, that worked, that didn't work. And what can I do to be better? And what can I do to make myself better?

[00:08:20] Dr. Jim: I really appreciate you sharing that perspective. And I think it's valuable in helping to build an innovation culture and what you're describing where your expectation is constant effort and constant attempts at moving forward that really drives an innovation culture.

So I think that's really important. I want to switch gears a little bit and get your perspective on the Morehead community in general. You stepped into that role. And then you work your way up to the current role that you're in. But what did you observe when you first? Took over

[00:08:49] Dr. Brandon Lunak: when I came to Moorhead in 2014, it was an exciting time here. There was unprecedented growth. If I could take you back to 2002, the community had [00:09:00] a bond that passed at I think it was 51 percent and they were closing schools and building new ones with the hope that they would stabilize enrollment at around 4, 500 students.

And when I got here We were bursting at the scenes. We were experiencing growth. I don't think the district had seen in many years and we were running out of space and in fact we were so short of space that we had to move all the district kindergartners to the district office building, which is at the probes field center for education at that time.

And that meant that all elementaries then were basically grades one through five. And so we had a real dilemma on our hands. And in 2014 when I got here, we were just initiating a 10 year facility plan. And then that 10 year facility plan, the work that came out of that was recommendation of a new elementary school addition onto the middle school and then the potential for a new high school.

And in that order. [00:10:00] And so we went out in 2000 15, I believe and passed a bond of $78 million. And that was the construction of our newest elementary. In addition to our middle school. And that accommodated some of the growth. And in that, in, in that bond, or because of that bond, we went and shifted from a K4 or a K5 district to a K458 from a K568.

And that. 78 million was used to build that and then we continued to look at what the needs were from that facilities plan. And in 2019, we introduced to the community, the high school bond. And that's been where we've been since 2019 with covert that. Plan has not gone as, as fast as we'd like it to.

We're still constructing that building, but that's where, that's what happened. That's that, where was that when I came here to Morehead, it was just an exciting time with a lot of growth and we're now a district of 7, [00:11:00] 200 students. And so when you're hoping to stabilize declining enrollment at 4, 500 and you're now at 7, 200 there's been some pretty good growth there.

Up

[00:11:10] Dr. Jim: When you look at that level of growth and you're, working on going to bat again for additional resources to to build more facilities what was your game plan when you started doing that work? What was your strategy in terms of, okay, who do we need to mobilize?

Who do we need to talk to? How do we pull this off? In potentially in an environment where you know, many communities don't want to have that level of investment into their school districts

[00:11:38] Dr. Brandon Lunak: 2015 was a little different than 2019. In 2015, we really relied on the 10 year master facilities plan. And it wasn't that difficult to sell because we couldn't fit our own kindergarten in the neighborhood school. And so when you've got kids that are literally crawling out the windows and you've got elementaries even that are [00:12:00] one through, grades one through five and your largest one was 900 kids in it, it's not a difficult sell per se to say that you're out of space.

I think sometimes the difficult sell is sometimes the tax impact that might come about when you're asking for. That kind of that size of a bond to build those facilities. And so the approach in 2015 was slightly different than 2019. Only in the fact that we did a survey and we did a survey in 19 too, but we did a survey in 15 and we really tried to tailor the bond to not only that.

It was the space issue, but we also tailored the bond to what the community said they wanted to see out of the school. So one of the examples I can come up with was out of that survey was safe and secure entrances. So we made sure that we played to the strengths of what the community really wanted to see in the schools.

And then we promoted that as [00:13:00] well as the need for the space. So the survey really drove where where we went in 2015.

[00:13:06] Dr. Jim: So I like how you leverage some of the survey data to inform how you're Messaging and also building these facilities what other things were brought up by the community that helped inform how you actually went into the community to Push for these needed resources

[00:13:24] Dr. Brandon Lunak: In 2018, we formed a high school facilities task force and it was made up of I'd say 30 to 40 people. I think we went with 40 because. There's always the 10 that can't make a certain meeting or, whatever. And we hired facilitators that had built facilities in the past and were retired Minnesota superintendents.

And so they really helped us lean into a really neat process that we started and then how we ended. And with that, we started actually before November of 19, when we had our [00:14:00] vote, we started a year ahead with the Facilities Task Force and did a community survey once again, and took all that information and continued to expand on it and let the committee and let the, let that Facilities Task Force group really drive where we felt They wanted the district to go in terms of facilities.

And we lined up a lot of opportunities for them from field. We called them adult field trips, but we took we took trips to the twin city metros and toured some new high schools. We toured Alexandria who had a new high school and we went to Bismarck, North Dakota, because they had both a remodeled high school.

And a brand new high school. And then they had a career academy and we just got to tour that one by chance. And on our way back, before we had the next facilities task force meeting, one of those committee members talked to me on the bus and said [00:15:00] that we need to really look at that career academy. And I encourage that community member that if you felt that strongly about it, then you got to bring it up.

In the facilities task force meeting, and I'll be darned if he didn't do that, and they all did a dot vote on it at the end of the meeting and there was, I believe, 32 people in attendance that night 31 voted green, which meant goal. And there were no red dots on the wall or the sticky paper, and they, the only one that didn't vote was me because I didn't want to feel like we were influencing anybody.

And so that was really an organic thing that popped up. And I really believe it was the career Academy that that really got the community excited for the new high school.

[00:15:43] Dr. Jim: So when you look at the community career academy being the engine that drove that drove that initiative, looking back, what did you find out about why that was so important and why that was the galvanizing force in terms of moving that forward?

[00:15:59] Dr. Brandon Lunak: We [00:16:00] obviously we're a growing community. We know we're in the metro of Fargo Moorhead with Fargo, West Fargo on the North Dakota side, Dilworth to our east here on the Minnesota side. And between all those communities and Horace included in that Horace, North Dakota, we have a population that's almost a quarter of a million people.

And so when one of the biggest things that we keep hearing here is workforce development and what are we going to do to keep our population here? What are we going to do to retrain them? And how can we do that? And when the the economic development corporation, the chamber, when they heard that we were looking at a career academy as part of our bond, they got all, they got really excited and they asked also, how can they support and get the word out?

And they were very. Excited. But I also think to some degree, our community was excited to hear that. And not only were they excited to hear that, I think they were even more excited [00:17:00] to know what we were doing in terms of how we were going to build the Career Academy. And what we did was unique in that as well, as we took an old Sam's Club Building that was shut down and we re energized it and turned it into our career academy, which faces I 94.

And so when you're coming into more head and you see this big building that's got the big M on it, and it's just. And it's an absolute beacon when you come into the community. And that's what the first thing it's extremely exciting. And I think the community got behind the fact that we were willing to take an old building or an existing building, cause it wasn't that old and turn it into an educational facility.

[00:17:42] Dr. Jim: When you look at a big initiative like this you can't be the only person that owns all of the messaging in terms of getting the stakeholder buy in across all of those different different communities.

So how did you leverage your internal team, your internal leadership team within the district to [00:18:00] Play a role in advancing the message and the importance of getting this push forward.

[00:18:04] Dr. Brandon Lunak: In the fall of 2019, Jim, we had we hired a new Community, a communication marketing and communications person, and she's fantastic, and she sat us down and she designed a communication plan or a communication playbook, if you will, on how we were going to attack the 2019 referendum. And so what we did is we formed a team of our local administrators from principals to executive directors to supervisors, and we met every Monday morning.

And the first thing that we did is we talked about did you hear anything over the weekend? What's the word on the street? Because one of the biggest challenges we had to overcome in this was the misinformation challenge. And because of those Monday meetings and how we divided up who [00:19:00] was going to be where we believed really helped influence our community because we strategically placed certain people in certain pockets of the community where we knew that there was influence.

And we use that to our to our advantage. And we just, and again, one of the big things that we could never do as district employees was tell people how to vote. But the biggest thing we could do is provide information. And so when there was any inclination of misinformation, we used that individual that could go into that pocket of the community and had influence.

And. We made sure that information was corrected and that the real information was there. And that seemed to work very well because at the end of the day 76 percent of our community got on board and valued that plan enough. To give us their trust and their support [00:20:00] with another hundred and ten million dollars just four years later after giving a 78 million.

So those things aren't lost on me and we're very appreciative that we live in a community that says, yeah, we'll get behind you. You give us a good plan and we'll get behind you. And our job is to continually prove to our community that we have a good product and we have a good plan and we continually earn their respect.

And this was a big. Step in that direction, and I couldn't be prouder of our group and our community for rising up and giving us that support.

[00:20:31] Dr. Jim: No, that's a good illustration of how you can leverage relationships on your existing team to build stronger messaging and stronger alignment across the community. So I think that's a use case. That's really interesting to talk about and deploy in other environments. One of the other things that I'm thinking about is when you look at a project like this and you've had a series of them, series of referenda efforts, series of building projects going back to When you started and somebody tapped you on the shoulder of, [00:21:00] Hey, you might have a pathway in administration.

How are you leveraging these different large projects and initiatives as a development tool or a development engine for that leadership tier that's underneath you? And even down into the educator level, was there any process that you use to develop further develop your existing team within the district?

[00:21:20] Dr. Brandon Lunak: Yeah, I think we did that through those Monday morning meetings and how we assigned and gave people the autonomy to say, go out there and present the information because we couldn't, we could have the information on a piece of paper and a little, And a little, this is how you handle this situation, or this is how you vote.

But for those people to go out and actually have to interact, we had to trust them to do that. And again, it comes down to trust and it comes down to belief in the people we have that they could go in there and make an investment and come out with people believing. And correcting misinformation, because you know how difficult it is to sometimes correct the [00:22:00] misinformation.

I had two kids, right? And sometimes the first one that got to me was the more believable one, even though that might have not been true. So this is no different. And so for our people to have the courage. And the autonomy to go into those groups and those pockets of people and try to correct that misinformation by using their strengths and using their ability to build relationships with those groups was amazing because there's certain pockets of those communities that I couldn't have gone in and had a, and had the same type of influence that maybe somebody else did by going in there.

We could have said the same exact same thing, but because they have trust and belief in that one individual. Helped us immensely moving forward.

[00:22:45] Dr. Jim: So when you're troubleshooting all of these. Potential issues that come up in those Monday meetings. How did you collaborate on what the right messaging would be in response to these things that you're hearing?

[00:22:57] Dr. Brandon Lunak: We did that on, that was part of the Monday morning meetings [00:23:00] too, is to make sure that we had, the right look for is, or the right messaging to send out. And we were very deliberate about what. Was the right information. And so we were very deliberate on those Monday morning meetings to address whatever those rumors were.

And we brainstormed ways and I, and specifically, I can't remember back to those meetings or give you a specific example, but we were very deliberate on how we would attack that based on what was said. And what needed to be said to counter that. And so I give our group a lot of kudos because it took a lot of time.

It took up a lot of time, even to, maybe even correct one piece of misinformation and then to make sure that information didn't spread to another pocket of the community. We were very deliberate and then our communications person, the one thing that she did really well is she also took that information [00:24:00] and we sent out flyers or backpack, what we call backpack stuffers.

And in there was the information, not telling them how to vote, but it was information that we put in those kids backpacks. So when they got that, they saw those frequently asked questions and they got what the answers, what the true answers were, not necessarily what. the neighbor was saying or what the piece of misinformation was.

[00:24:25] Dr. Jim: So I like the The stuffers, as you call it, as part of your communication strategy. And I also see that you leverage key people in these different community groups. But there's a certain segment of the population that don't have kids in the district. And might not be involved in any of these community groups.

So what was your plan to reach out to that segment

[00:24:49] Dr. Brandon Lunak: Great question, Jim. And one of the things I'll answer there is we have a we have a senior living center in the community here, right? And we made sure that if there was an [00:25:00] area or a pocket that had a lot of individuals that didn't have a connection to the school, We were there giving a presentation and we were there being very deliberate about that.

So we had a couple of presentations set up for Eventide. So the seniors, the senior living folks would hear the information from us. We would go to the Moorhead Business Association, for instance, we would go to the service clubs, the Kiwanis, the the Lions clubs, the, And basically anybody that would have us we made a presentation to, and I don't think we left any stone unturned as you start approaching 75 presentations in a community of 35 to 40, 000 people you're going to, not only are you hoping to get everybody, but you're also overlapping too, because a lot of those people, you might present to one group and they're a member of the service club over here as well.

We were very deliberate about, communicating to service [00:26:00] clubs, communicating to city council, communicating to whoever would help us get the word out or needed to hear what the actual facts were. And. We didn't overlook that demographic of the community as well. And we were, like I said, there was a lot of stuff that went on, but there was a lot of deliberate planning in terms of how and who we talked to during that time.

[00:26:26] Dr. Jim: So it's good that you had an element or at least a piece of your strategy that focuses on members of the community that don't have a connection to the school. I think the area that I'm getting stuck on is answering the question. What's in it for them? So if I'm sitting on the other end of that presentation.

And I'm a member of the community. I don't have any kids and I don't want to pay more in taxes. This does nothing for me. What was the message that spoke to somebody like me that's sitting in that audience thinking this is just going to make my costs go up.

[00:26:55] Dr. Brandon Lunak: First of all, I think the biggest thing that we can do with folks like that is [00:27:00] empathize with them, right? And I think if we can do a nice job. Of putting ourselves in their positions of saying, simply, I understand and there were those people we came across Jim. And one of the things that I tried to do is say, I am going to feel this just like you are.

I am a homeowner in this community and I am going to feel the impact of the tax increase as well. I, again would make them feel, or I tried to make them feel like, you know what, at the end of the day, if you don't support the plan, I understand completely. And I wanted them to know that even though they may not agree with the plan, I still was appreciative that they were there to listen.

And I hope that they went away feeling better knowing that. I wasn't giving them a sales pitch. I was really just wanted them to know and thank them for. Their ability and them giving up their time [00:28:00] to listen and at the end of the day, that's all we ever asked for is an opportunity to present what we believe are the facts and what we believe is important and how we want to move the district forward.

They don't have to agree. That's what's wonderful about living where we are. We get diverse opinions, no matter what we do, but we also have to respect those diverse opinions. And I think to some degree. We also can learn from those folks too, because they might have thoughts and they might have ideas that have merit, whether they support the plan or not, and we need to be we need to have the ability to listen to them and value what they say, even though it may be difficult to hear because they don't.

necessarily support the plan. That doesn't necessarily mean they don't support your district. So at the end of the day, we have to keep that in mind. And that was one of the things that I want. And I wanted folks in the community to understand is that, Hey, you know what? [00:29:00] I don't agree with what they're selling me, but I do appreciate that he valued me being here.

[00:29:05] Dr. Jim: Great stuff, Brandon. And I think I think this roadmap that you Talk this through is a really important one.

What I'd like you to do is when you think about the entire discussion that we've had, and even some of the things that didn't get brought out in this discussion, if there's another leader that's listening to this and they're trying to navigate building community alignment and support for these sort of initiatives, what are the key things from your story that they should be paying attention to and use in their environments to help get that support?

[00:29:36] Dr. Brandon Lunak: I think the first thing that needs to be done is you have to give yourself some time. Okay. So for instance, and I'm not saying that what I did or what we did here in Moorhead is the end all be, is it, is the be all end all to what we need to do, but it worked here. And so one of the things I'd really recommend is that get out and take your time.

Don't rush this. If it takes a [00:30:00] year for you to set the table. Take a year and know what your community needs in terms of time, right? We did that facilities task force and we had 30 people on it. And it took us, we did that a year prior to the bond vote. And then the second thing is I would encourage the, anybody that's going this route to leverage your resources.

In terms of people. There are people in your community that would be willing to help. That get, to get the message out. Willing to lead a committee. Your own team would be willing to help lift this up and help carry some of that water. Don't be afraid to delegate some of those things or give some of those things to Some of the people or some of your team that reports to you whether that's your executive directors or your supervisors, but at the end of the day, rely on those people that are willing to help you carry.

The [00:31:00] water, so to speak, because if you don't have people that you can rely on or community members that you can go to school board members that you can rely on, you're really on an island out there by yourself. And it's really difficult to do this work without relying on others in the, when you rely on others, don't just rely on them to carry out a message.

Make sure you hear them in terms of what their thoughts and what their. Ideas might be, because their idea might be the difference between this passing or not passing. So we have to have an open mind as we build towards a successful November election. And, funny thing about relying on people. When you empower them and you rely on them in an authentic way, they will run through the wall for you and they will help you bring this thing home.

And ultimately as a school district, we don't want to do this thing over. So [00:32:00] let's get it right the first time and let's rely on those people to help you bring it home. It's no different than coaching. You can't win without great players. We're not going to win without great people and good people in the community.

So we need to leverage them. I believe in that wholeheartedly. And I believe that's what got this thing to the finish line.

[00:32:20] Dr. Jim: Great stuff, Brandon. If people want to continue the conversation, what's the best way for them to get in touch with you?

[00:32:24] Dr. Brandon Lunak: They can get in touch with me through my email, through LinkedIn.

[00:32:30] Dr. Jim: I appreciate you hanging out with us.

And I think this is a really interesting conversation about how you can systematically build support across a broad array of stakeholders for a massive project for the community. And a lot of the things that you said and highlighted in the back end of the conversation is important to pay attention to.

I think the one thing that I would add to that, and what I Particularly liked about this conversation is about the time that you spent [00:33:00] in communicating the value and the need for these initiatives to constituencies that have nothing to benefit from. And I think bringing those along, those folks along and communicating the vision of what this means for the broader community is really important.

And what I draw that to. Is when you mentioned the need for the community or members in the community to have people remain within the community post graduation and how can we help the community get stronger? That's a really compelling vision. And I think that piece of the exercise is really what leaders should define well, when they go forward in their communication plan, because to those people who don't have any students in a district, don't have any deep ties within the schools, That vision of what tomorrow looks like within the community can be what pushes them over to be to lending support in this.

So I really appreciate you sharing that piece of the story with us as well. For those of you who have been listening to this [00:34:00] conversation, we appreciate you hanging out. If you liked the discussion, make sure you leave us a review on your favorite podcast player. If you haven't already done so make sure you join our community.

And then tune in next time where we'll have another. leader hanging out with us and sharing with us the game changing insights that help them build a high performing team.