CASE STUDIES

 

Maureen is transforming schools.

 

She is driven to use her vast organizational leadership experience, skills with innovating, and advanced studies to recreate schools that are welcoming, inclusive places where students pursue passions and define their purpose.

 

CASE STUDY 01

Being the Change Needed for Schools

PROBLEM

It took Maureen seven different high school models to get her two daughters through high school. Not finding any high schools that had the capacity to personalize and make student-centered decisions, she was discouraged.

ACTION

Determined to create a school that put students first, Maureen researched best practices, worked out a business plan, and created a caring and innovative micro-school in 2013.

RESULT

LEADPrep serves as a two-campus learning community where 6th-12th grade students are seen, heard, valued, and thriving. LEADPrep shares its resources with others seeking to create similar learner-driven, caring schools.

CASE STUDY 02

Welcoming the LGBTQ+ Student

PROBLEM

Some students choose LEADPrep to escape bullying about gender identity. Living in fear in school and not feeling safe exploring and expressing identity is a traumatic experience.

ACTION

Maureen created LEADPrep with a culture of love and belonging. Students are encouraged to self-advocate and create the learning environment they desire. The students created a LGBTQ+ club which sponsored events such as Heels Day.

RESULT

Students feel safe to express their identities and one student was proud to come to his graduation ceremony in makeup and a dress.

CASE STUDY 03

Supporting Youth Advocates

PROBLEM

The Bullock Garden Project (BGP) non-profit of New Jersey wanted to create a micro-school based on equity and learning in nature.

ACTION

Maureen coached the BGP founder through the Build Your Micro-School Course, 1:1 coaching, and the Leaders of Small Schools Mastermind group. She also donated the proceeds from her course and mastermind to the BGP to support BLM in our schools.

RESULT

Their Place Discovery Learning Center K-6 micro-school began in September of 2020.

CASE STUDY 04

Seeing a Need and Taking Action

PROBLEM

As a young teacher Maureen taught in an overcrowded high school (with 700 students per grade). Hearing the dropout rate and seeing students falling through the cracks, she knew that a personalized resource could create a safety net for those “lost in the shuffle.”

ACTION

Wrote federal grant; teamed with neighboring high school; recruited teachers in the building; created a school-within-a-school; focused on the students and service learning

RESULT

Creating Connect (SWAS in Rogers HS, Puyallup); students presented at national service learning conference and had 100% graduation rate

CASE STUDY 05

Collaborating with Child Experts

PROBLEM

Students needing added counseling, occupational therapy (OT), or speech and communication (SLP) help have to get it out of school and with no regular communication between specialists, parents, and school. Needs identified in the classroom seldom are communicated to the specialists.

ACTION

Maureen identified quality specialists and a need for tiers of support within the school.

RESULT

LEADPrep has a Dream Team that includes a counselor, OT, and SLP who work in the school, with families, and with teachers. Collaboratively, a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) has been created to make sure all levels of student needs are addressed.

CASE STUDY 06

Creating Inclusive Cultures

PROBLEM

In overseas schools, foreign-hire teachers (usually from the US) often get tuition waived for their children to attend the same school, while the in-country national teachers do not. This lack of equity creates disharmony in the faculty.

ACTION

Maureen’s final international school head position was in Guayaquil, Ecuador. She worked closely with the board of directors to break this tradition and allow the children of local teachers to also attend the international school on a tuition waiver.

RESULT

An equitable tuition model that has allowed students of IAA local teachers to study at IAA. Most recently, one graduated and was accepted into a US university.

CASE STUDY 07

Giving Back to the Community

PROBLEM

Families live on the vast Smokey Mountain garbage dump in Tondo, Philippines. Children often scavenge the dumpsite at night to earn money for their family. Then they sleep during the day and don’t go to school.

ACTION

Maureen worked with an international non-profit and wrote a grant and was awarded funds to subsidize school breakfasts. She also enlisted the international school teachers and resources at her workplace to train the Tondo teachers in Math Their Way…which uses scavenged items as math manipulatives.

RESULT

Student attendance increased and funding for a container-built school was secured to build affordable schooling closer to the families.

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