Building Future-Ready Schools: Lessons from the Fast-Growing Districts

Dr. Jim: [: 00:00:00

I suppose that depends on the circumstances, and one of the bigger losses that you can take in the K through 12 space is when you fail a referendum. The stakes are pretty high in those environments because you obviously need the funding to fund the future growth of your district. What can you learn from that and how do you move forward from that type of loss, in a way sets you up for success the next time around In today's world.

Many districts are looking for ways to build a future ready district. In this conversation, we'll talk through how you execute after taking that big L on the first go around on a referendum and still set yourself up for success and end up winning.

s got a career spanning over [: 00:01:00

Dr. Cochran has consistently demonstrated a passion for fostering academic excellence, building strong relationships, and leading with integrity. At just 25 years old, Dr. Cochrane began his administrative journey as an assistant principal in a six a school district. Marking the start of a remarkable career in education.

r year span, most recently in: 2021

Beyond his professional achievements, Dr. Cochran is a devoted husband and father. He is been married to his wife Danielle for 26 years, and together they have three daughters who inspire him daily. Driven by his faith and commitment to serving leadership, Dr. Cochran continues to positively impact the lives of students, educators, and the community that he serves.

Jason, welcome to the show.

Jason Cochran: That's quite an introduction. Thank you. Good to be here.

have a fellow zone defenser [: 00:02:00

So I think that's gonna be an instructive conversation for a lot of our audience. But before we get into that. I think it's gonna be important for you to share with the audience a little bit more about your backstory and some of those defining moments in your career that helped shape your leadership philosophy and principles.

So why don't you tell us some of those key moments in your career that helped build you into the person that you are today? I.

Jason Cochran: When I reflect back over the key moments that define us as leadership, you can document the things. You can put on a resume. You can list the projects, you can list the elections. I think when you can really pivot and figure out what, when you were able to determine your why, that's what I.

[: 00:03:00

He took me in and I spent the next six years as his assistant a large large high school in Texas. So I had these kids over a period of time I had an experience with a student that tend to get in trouble in class and would come in and I would try to build that relationship and waste my breath.

l this to say years later, I [: 00:04:00

And if I keep my why, the relationships, whether it's with the community, with the kids, then this career is gonna be rewarding and I can do it effectively. So I can, I had many of those stories, but that relationship piece is the key to being successful in this profession and keeping that first and foremost.

Dr. Jim: That's a really great story and it actually.

o leadership pretty early in [: 00:05:00

That's a tough task. So how did you make, how did you navigate that transition successfully where you weren't irritating everybody around you as this young hotshot and you might, you probably have a district full of people that have 10, 15 years of experience on you. So what was that transition process like when you first got into leadership and what did you learn from that experience?

Jason Cochran: My first mentor was Jim Banister, and he was the principal that hired and gave me a shot, and he told me two things. He said, I need you to rely on your instincts. build relationships with kids and then provide an environment where the teachers can teach. You're not gonna tell them how to teach physics.

environment that they can be [: 00:06:00

I.

Dr. Jim: you mentioned something interesting there where you said the principal that you worked for. Saw something in you and then decided to give you a shot. Was this, did this catch you out of the blue? And if it did, how did you take that lesson and take the chance out of somebody noticing later in your career, because this sounds like it happened out of the blue.

Jason Cochran: I, that's a funny story because you'd have to know Jim Banister, but when he introduced me to the staff, again, I'm young, I come in a midsummer hire and he says, okay, ladies and gentlemen, this is Cochrane. It was between him and a monkey, and NASA got the monkey. And so he set that tone that we were gonna build that funny relationship.

e in the summertime. But, he [: 00:07:00

Dr. Jim: Switching gears a little bit you've come a long way from that 25-year-old and now you've been a superintendent for a while as well. What are some of those things about your district that you feel is important for the for the listeners to know and understand?

I.

. Has the rural history very [: 00:08:00

Dr. Jim: When I'm thinking about what you just described and also putting it together with your career history where you've worked at districts of all sorts of different sizes, how do you feel that diversified experience in all of those other districts has positioned you for success in navigating the growth trajectory of this district?

mes and you can grow in this [: 00:10:00

Dr. Jim: when I think about what you just described you're attributing your ability to [00:11:00] navigate in this environment and also your tenure in other environments, in large part, to your experience in some of those smaller districts where you had to wear a lot of hats, I would think.

And that feeds right into kind of my bias anyways. 'cause I've been a small, startup type organization. That's where I'm most at home because you get to wear a lot of different hats. The flip side of that is that as you get into these larger environments, I. You might feel the need to get into everybody else's kitchen and kind of pitch in where maybe you're not needed or even welcome.

So how did you scale yourself back so you're not getting in everybody's business as you started getting into these larger organizations? I.

u truly are going around the [: 00:12:00

This is how I'm gonna direct your answer. Or This is why I have to say no to it and be able to direct a conversation into the people that were supposed to make that call, for example. I had, I have a good relationship even with, good relationship with all my administration assistant principals, directors. Whatever you name it. But I had a board member call and say, Hey, this happened at the middle school. Their students were there and [00:13:00] to redirect them to the administration and not fix, finish that problem for them builds capacity with the people I serve as an elected board because they now go, oh, wow.

He knows where to point it. And the people that work for me goes, wow. He pointed in the direction and he didn't try to fix it for me. So there's a level of confidence on both ends, and I believe that comes from being approachable at both ends and not fake.

Dr. Jim: When I opened the show, I talked about recovering from a bond failure and you got a little bit of a taste of that when you started in this district. So tell me about what, what happened in those circumstances and what you learned from that first failure that you feel set yourself up for the future.

p transition, a board sees a [: 00:14:00

Or, now we can, are you the sacrificial lamb or are you gonna be the savior? And how's this gonna work? So we set up some, ideas of what that community needed to grow. And we strategically implemented a bomb ref bond referendum that we put in front of the community that failed on the first go round. So that, that was the first experience. And the ironic thing there is we knew the community the change. That community had never passed the bond. And and we had buildings that were built in 1927. And so we needed, we knew we needed to impact change, so going through that experience. that time I was writing my treatise for my doctorate and I chose to write it on how to pass a bond after one's failed in a previous election. And so it hit it home 'cause we were living it. And and so then we had to reset and pivot. but the good part going into it, we built the first bond that if we have to have a plan B. What's our approach? Because it was something that had [00:15:00] never been done before in that community. And we started with the practical aspect of it going, okay, what would B look like? And so we didn't, it was frustrating when it fell the first time, but I. The failure didn't hit the red light, it hit the green light on what next. And then we had to just begin to strategically plan and take several specific processes to continue to transform a platform in which we could begin to do another proposal.

Dr. Jim: What's interesting about what you described is that you, this was in a community that had never passed a bond previously, and this one that you rolled out failed and you have a contingency.

But how do you develop a contingency when the track record. Has been a series of nos and you just stack another no onto it. How do you build an informed contingency so that your plan B is actually realistic and does something differently and drives to a different outcome?

sed, we approached the first [: 00:16:00

And I'm using key words like we put, because what ends up happening is you forget. When you got into administration early on, the key advice that said, remember, it's not your district, it's their district. And if you ever start feeling it's your district, it's time to figure out another way to reestablish yourself or somewhere else to go. So I. What we have to remember in building capacity is it's as important to build capacity in what you're going to put in that proposal. It's also just as important to have the pieces where you can continue to gauge, buy-in on what your community wants, and to establish the parameters in which your community is willing to follow you. bonds get written and it's so obvious that, Hey, we need X, that they just go, and it's carte blanc. Now sometimes [00:17:00] when that's not the case, you had to find out other ways to establish buy-in from what your community needs. And it's gonna be in two folds. One, do they agree with the vision that you're willing to put out in front for those kids? But probably sometimes more importantly is. How much are they willing to believe in that vision and by how much I'm putting dollar signs with it. So you have to begin on twofold. Is your idea good? Is it developed by the consumers and b, is it within their taxable threshold? So we, you have to begin, we establish meetings and surveys that gave us a boundary, not only, Hey, do you believe this is a good idea, but. If the idea was presented and you leave that blank, if an idea that you can buy into is presented, would you buy in at a 7 cent tax base, 14 tax threshold, 18 tax threshold, and you find that sweet spot. And so you're balancing the community designed idea with a pre community proposal of this is what our [00:18:00] taxable threshold's gonna be.

And if you can align those two things up in your proposal, you bring back to the board from your community design. You've designed it basically A, on the community's financial willingness to believe in you, but B, on what they believe is a priority. When you can package those two ideas together, the next group of that, the next task of that group as you go down the pre-bond.

And that campaigning is not only how we educate, but how do we continue to gauge buy-in because we constantly gotta make sure that we're on target, that we pre-established with the two, that two version threshold. When you build your second capacity of a proposal. that's one of the things I think we did really well in Eastland, is we stopped.

put together for a proposed [: 00:19:00

Dr. Jim: And that's a really detailed answer. And if I'm taking that and condensing that down when you talk about gauging buy-in, there's an ongoing sort of listening exercise where you're getting the temperature of the community. I. As you're developing the bond structure through the entire bond lifecycle.

That's what I gathered from there. But I want to go back to something else that you mentioned in that process, which is your capacity conversation. I'm a little fuzzy on what you mean by capacity. So tell us a little bit more about baking in capacity into your bond conversations as you're working on buy-in.

What does that mean?

ndred dollars value of their [: 00:20:00

Dr. Jim: I like how you broke that down. It's [00:21:00] basically gauging what is the level of comfort in budget for this particular bond request that you're finding. At upfront. Or at least that's how I understand it in my head when I spin that forward. So theoretically you have this pool of money that everybody has said, yeah, we're comfortable with this.

How do you build flexibility into that pool of money to see how those investments are gonna be allocated? What was the process there?

Jason Cochran: I think that's again, what you have to be aware of when you're building those bonds. And that's the transparency in, what you're dealing with as you build with your community sometimes. And in my previous position we passed the bond for, from, for specific purposes. Remodeling and adding onto a high school for X amount, paying off debt for X amount.

community had the threshold [: 00:22:00

This community for Crumb is passionate about their school system. They're scared of the growth. And our goal is to keep prioritizing our kids and making 'em the number one thing safety and to make sure that we have the facilities that can match the growth that's happening to us. So as those became generic facility discussions, we had to create a template of. What that could look like, but also build the flexibility of of what, how to be flexible for changes that were to come. I can give you the end result of what we ended up passing in Crumb is we found out that our community being as small as we were now, and saying we want to vote on long-term change.

e of the things that I would [: 00:23:00

What was your strategy in getting those fence sitters or maybe the people that don't have a stake in the community as far as school districts go to come over to your side? How did that conversation go?

t keep. And those, even in a [: 00:24:00

And keeping that piece to [00:25:00] be the tax, 'cause the taxable base wasn't coming from large businesses, it was coming from the home. So getting to be able to identify what, when I go back to their threshold discussion, making sure the parents knew that once we establish a comfortable base, this is what we're gonna, this is what we're gonna ask for, and then going, okay how long till you come and ask again? That was the next big piece of that threshold as we begin to build that bond.

Dr. Jim: Okay, so that gives good context. There's another piece that I was curious about, and that's the whole idea of, you have this community that's going through a pretty aggressive growth cycle. They were rural, now they're this mid-size community, and now, in the future, at some point they're, they have 16,000 new homes that are slated to be there for the people that are.

aving with various people in [: 00:26:00

Jason Cochran: So that's one of the things that helped us build the bond policy that we finally passed. And what we passed was a $242 million bond for 42 cents. Which takes it close to the threshold in what you could get for a bonding capacity in the state of Texas, the. Kicker. And what we ended up working with the community, I mentioned that, they didn't wanna be asked over and over again.

process. If we vote now, we [: 00:27:00

We get another 90 million released without going to a vote. So they were able to empower their own destiny in part of that selection having to go back to the next 4,000 people that move in. And so they were able to take that small town communal vote and say, we're gonna help control the destiny over the next seven to 10 years. And that was part of this referendum was allocate a bond to keep up with growth. Growth, not a blank slate, but confidence in the district that says when it grows, these things will happen and this is how we're gonna handle it based on the finances that come our direction. they wanted to control their destiny. And so part of the success of that vote was we're deciding today. For the next 10 years of crime, ISD on how much we're gonna put in front of the kids. So they voted on the larger referendum for 242 million that we can draw down as we grow without going [00:28:00] back to the taxpayer and saying, do you wanna vote again?

Do you wanna vote again? Do you wanna vote again?

Dr. Jim: When you look at setting up the structure and planning for future growth, how did you bake in safeguards or guardrails for when the economic situation shifted?

have the growth get to where [: 00:29:00

We had the board vote on a final referendum to make the change. The public recommended based on what they, the taxable appro taxpayer approved. So we took those community meetings, came up with a reprimand, and proposed it to the board. Last November, the board approved to change to a middle school design then moved to potentially a remodel project in the future, but we left it open-ended on the initial end of the bond. Kept our [00:30:00] communication going and let the voter participate in the board actions that were being designed as we continue to make these plans, and we'll continue to do that as the market fluctuates over the next 10 years of construction for.

Dr. Jim: Yeah. I think the big thing that I like about this entire process that you've described is that there's an ongoing listening component that happens over the life cycle of these initiatives from concept to completion. That I. In and of itself builds in those safeguards where the community doesn't feel like you're getting something outta left field.

Really great stuff. Jason, I think one of the things that I'd like you to tie all together is you've gone through this entire exercise and you've learned from some of those failures on what to do effectively.

How did things turn out when you went to market with this bond and how is it set it setting you up for success in the future?

We targeted keeping up with [: 00:31:00

And we need to make some flexibility on our younger elementary schools. Two, we could pull it aside and make it a ninth grade campus and lower the numbers in our high school as we need to relieve the upper-end the upper-end age groups. The third piece we could make some transitions on a fifth and sixth grade center or a version of both. Depending on that's the what if if something out of left field comes up. to all that is. The community isn't gonna hear about that the first time, three years from now. When we need to make a decision about the middle school, we educate them along the way and include them in the process of the what ifs and the planning.

So when we talk about the new high school or the new middle school, we're also referring back to the potential plans at. Point a, point B or point C. And the whys, when we talk about establishing a we added a wing onto an elementary. They hear the why. The why was to build sustainable program that we can implement and move when we build new elementaries.

ementaries in the future the [: 00:33:00

Dr. Jim: Great stuff, Jason, if people wanna continue the conversation. What's the best way for them to get in touch with you?

Jason Cochran: The best way to get in touch with me is gonna be email Jason dot cochrane@chromeisd.net. Cru Id, you can follow us on Facebook. We have posts all the time. We do a lot of fun things. You can follow us on there. And drop a line right there. We have a communications director that would get straight to me from that point as well.

Dr. Jim: Awesome stuff. I appreciate you hanging out with us and sharing with us. The the, your story and particularly the things that you've learned from some of those missteps and how you built flexibility into this process. I think one of the key things that I take away from listening to this conversation is that.

If you want to get deep [: 00:34:00

And then the second part of the process is that as you start executing, you need to make sure that people are aware of how that execution process is going and any pivots that you need to make. I think in general then, this is not a K through 12 issue. I think in general, if you're keeping people looped in and minimizing surprises, you'll be surprised at how committed they stay to backing you and backing the initiatives and that those are important things that I've pulled out of the conversation that we had.

So for those of you who've been hanging out with us and listening to this conversation, we appreciate you checking it out. If you like 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 K through 12 leadership community.

ime where we'll have another [: 00:35:00