Agenda Item
a. Relay Graduate School of Education ~ Leverage Leadership 2.0 Professional Learning and Coaching Partnership (Not to exceed $210,400)
Summary: Presented by: Champion Michelle Dillard, Chief of Schools & Leadership Division of Schools & Leadership
Request: It is requested that the Board of Education approve the partnership with Relay Graduate School of Education to deliver School Improvement training, school-based coaching, instructional rounds, and executive leadership support for school leaders in DCSD’s Area 2, Area 3, and Horizon schools for FY26. The total amount requested for implementation and coaching support is $210,400.
Why: To accelerate school improvement and build leadership capacity in priority schools, the district seeks to invest in professional learning aligned with Leverage Leadership 2.0. Relay GSE will provide a high-quality, evidence-based model to build principal and school leadership team expertise in instructional leadership practices such as teacher feedback, student culture, data meetings, and leadership planning.
Key reasons for this investment include:
Building Leadership Capacity: Relay’s hands-on model develops instructional leadership muscles through side-by-side coaching and practice.
Supporting Priority Schools: This work will directly support Horizon, Sustained Support, and DCSD Prioritized schools within Area 2, Area 3, and Horizon Area.
Aligning with Strategic Improvement: The content and coaching reinforce the district’s focus on targeted feedback, data-informed decision-making, and instructional excellence.
Sustainable Change: A yearlong investment in coaching, coupled with summer training, ensures durable leadership practices that positively impact instruction and student outcomes.
Details: Relay’s scope of work includes:
Summer 2025 Leadership Institute: Four days of in-person training for up to 150 participants focused on:
Student culture
Observation and feedback
Weekly data meetings
Leadership planning (Strong Start Playbooks)
School-Based Coaching: Embedded coaching through:
Eight full days of on-site visits across four priority schools
64 hours of virtual coaching for selected leaders and PLCs
Instructional Rounds: Two days of walkthroughs and learning experiences for up to 15 leaders per site, conducted across 2-4 priority schools
Executive Coaching: 12 hours of virtual executive coaching for senior instructional leaders
Financial impact: The purchase amount not to exceed $210,400 will be paid using general funds budgeted by:
GL Account#
100.1000.511600.01211.8410.1031.8010.020.0000
Contact: Mrs. Michelle Dillard, Chief of Schools, Division of Schools & Leadership, 678-676-0542
Effective: July 30, 2025 - June 30, 2026
Status: Approved by the Office of Legal Affairs
Relay Professional Education &
Dekalb County Public Schools
May 9, 2025
Mr. Derrick Hardy, Area Superintendent
Dekalb County Public Schools
1701 Mountain Industrial Blvd
Stone Mtn, GA 30083-1027
Re: Proposal for Relay Customized Coaching and Training
Dear Mr. Hardy,
Thank you for considering our proposal to support Dekalb County Public Schools
through our Customized Coaching and Training program. Crafted with our shared goals
in mind, our proposal aims to outline:
● Four days of summer training in the core Leverage Leadership Practices
● An approach to hybrid (site based and virtual) customized coaching and for high
priority schools
● An approach to engage all leaders in your network in instructional rounds for the
purpose of norming and practice
● Provide you with strategic thought partnership and implementation support
● Work within your budgetary parameters of ~$200k.
On the following pages, please find a comprehensive proposal. We offer this as a
working draft and welcome feedback in order to chart a path forward that will be
impactful, affordable, and feasible for all. I look forward to discussing when we meet.
Warm regards,
Dr. Ben Klompus
Vice President of PE Partnerships
Confidential work product. Please do not distribute.
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Proposed Scope of Work
Customized Leader Coaching and Training
Service Description What this entails Fee
Leader Enhance your organization's leadership with Relay's ● Four, 8-hour days of $100,000
Professional practice-based professional development (PD). Create a of in-person
customized scope of professional learning rooted in the professional
Development
proven principles of Leverage Leadership by Paul learning
Bambrick-Santoyo. Led by expert faculty, our training is ● Up to 150
(In Person) delivered locally and seamlessly integrated into your participants
professional development calendar. Here is the ● Cost Includes digital
Summer 2025 leadership training you selected for your leaders: course materials
including one pagers
● Leading Student Culture and session
○ Exceptional school leaders succeed by hand-outs
aligning their time, actions, and strategies ● Printing, operational
to build a thriving school culture. In this support, AV, food
session, participants will explore how and beverage,
culture—what you see and do and/or venue, can
daily—forms the foundation for an be added for
equitable and impactful student additional cost
experience. Participants will:
■ Develop their own school values
that support an equitable school
culture.
■ Design routines that align with
their values and vision for school
culture.
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■ Practice effectively rolling out one
of these routines to their staff.
○ Through guided activities and hands-on
practice, leaders will leave equipped to
create systems that bring their values to
life and foster a culture where equity
thrives.
● Leading Observation and Feedback
○ Exceptional school leaders excel by
strategically managing their time and
actions to maximize impact. Among the
most effective uses of a leader’s
time—alongside data-informed
instruction and shaping school culture—is
observation and feedback. In this session,
participants will:
■ Learn to build coaching
relationships founded on trust,
openness, a shared growth
mindset, and a commitment to
equity.
■ Identify and craft high-leverage
instructional and management
action steps for teachers,
grounded in the Great Behaviors
Framework (GBF) and structured
with clear "what" and "how"
steps.
■ Design and practice a coaching
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meeting using the “See It, Name It,
Do It” framework to ensure
actionable feedback and teacher
skill mastery.
○ This session equips participants with the
tools to lead transformational coaching
conversations that drive student and
teacher success.
● Leading Weekly Data Meetings
○ This full-day session focuses on preparing
leaders to effectively lead Weekly Data
Meetings (WDMs) to support teachers in
analyzing data and student work to
address learning gaps. Participants will:
■ Engage in a deep analysis of
student work to identify both
procedural and conceptual gaps in
student understanding.
■ Plan a targeted reteach designed
to address the identified gaps in
learning.
○ Additionally, participants will practice
facilitating a Weekly Data Meeting, where
they will support teachers in unpacking a
focus standard or task, analyzing student
work to uncover gaps in conceptual
understanding, and collaboratively
planning and practicing a reteach to close
those gaps. This session equips leaders
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with the tools and strategies to lead
impactful Weekly Data Meetings that
drive teacher development and student
achievement.
● Putting it Altogether: Strong Start Playbooks
○ To launch the first 30 days of the school
year, participants will begin with their
goals for the year, identify their priorities
for the first few weeks of school and then
determine what to monitor for and how
to do so. Using these key elements, they
will build a playbook to guide their work
for Week 1. Finally, they will be able to
plan a practice clinic to close gaps in
teacher skills as they emerge.
Dive into the heart of effective implementation with our ● Eight, 8-hour days $78,000
research backed, school-based coaching—a dynamic onsite (eg, (4) 2-day
approach that aligns theory with immediate, impactful visits)
School-Based action. The research is clear: the most effective leaders
Coaching prioritize instructional leadership. School and systems ● 64 hours of virtual
leaders work alongside an expert Relay coach to ensure coaching for priority
they are ready to “walk the walk” of impactful leaders and/or PLC
In-Person instructional leaders.
● Serve up to four
School Year Relay’s school-based coaching is highly adaptable; we priority schools:
25-26 tailor our approach to meet the needs and goals of your each school receives
community. quarterly, four-hour
● Job-Embedded, Side-by-Side Coaching: Local site visits
leaders will be immersed in real-time action,
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fostering immediate improvements through
school walks, feedback, action step creation, and
collaborative strategic planning.
● Professional Learning Communities (PLCs): Work
with a Relay coach to build custom rounds of practice
and feedback designed to build muscle memory
around key instructional leadership practices
Embedded into a day of onsite coaching, these
sessions can be up to three hours in length for up to
30 previously trained Relay leaders.
● Year-Long Commitment: Sustainable change
requires commitment. Our school-based
coaching packages start with a year-long
commitment, providing the continuity needed for
transformative growth over time.
A strong, normed culture of observation and feedback ● Two, 1-day $28,000
and practice is the lynchpin for systemic student school-based
achievement. This can be hard to build given the leaders walkthroughs
vast roles and competing priorities. Relay’s Instructional conducted
Instructional Rounds support teams of leaders to prioritize the time concurrently at 2-4
Rounds and space to build a robust coaching culture by building priority schools
collective skill around coaching, practice and progress across the district
monitoring.
School Year ● Up to 15
25-26 Instructional Rounds include: participants per site
● Campus Walkthroughs: Alongside a Relay coach,
teams of coaches walk schools, visit classes, and
observe instructional meetings to simultaneously
build coaching skill and set a shared vision of
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excellence, the building blocks of district-wide
success.
● Onsite Group Learning Experience: The day
culminates in up to three hours of professional
learning focused on applying and practicing the
learning from the campus walks and creating an
action plan to support each participant's
implementation moving forward.
Executive Level Navigate the thorniest implementation hurdles with the ● 12 hours $4,400
Coaching support of Relay’s executive level coaching, a service ● Virtual
designed to empower the most senior instructional
leaders in your system or cluster. Work alongside expert
School Year Relay faculty to architect solutions to address your
25-26 community’s most pressing needs.
Total $210,400
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