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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