Featured Sessions

4 Steps to Overcome Chronic Stress, Improve Focus & Feel Calm and Confident Every Day

Learn the four most important steps to overcome chronic stress, prevent burnout, and balance the stresses of life and work. By addressing stress at its roots, you can live each day from a place of calm and confidence - more easily than you might think!  

Presented by:
Shonna Storz

Back to Basics: 4 Steps to Restore Health, Energy & Focus

Learn the 4 key elements of a healthy foundation: de-stress, eat, move and sleep your way to a healthier, happier you. Learn simple, practical ways to nourish your mind and body - without the overwhelm. 

Presented by:
Shonna Storz

Master Your Mornings

Come join Andrew in this early morning session to Master Your Mornings. What are the routines, structures, and habits you can put into place to jumpstart your day? Want to wake up earlier? Want to be more focused on your personal & professional life? Want to get that morning workout in? In this proactive, self-care session, Andrew dives into the following: 

• Mastering the first 60-75 minutes of each day
• Making time to do the things you want to do
• Build a shut-down evening routine
• SAVERS: how to start your day using SAVERS
• Books, distractions, zoning in, and more

It is challenging to lead if you are not filling your cup first. Make the important thing the important thing and get it done daily, and early. Keep Surviving & Thriving! 

Presented by:
Andrew Marotta
Port Jervis Schools, NY

The Art of Communication to Build Meaningful Relationship

Want to have better, stronger relationships with your stakeholders? Tired of getting/feeling “beat-up?” Want to improve your public speaking and communication skills? Have people coming at you way too hard and unsure how to best handle it? Need some effective strategies? Feel like you are being too reactive instead of more proactive in your relationships?

In this energy-filled workshop, Andrew will lead you through a variety of strategies, techniques, tips, and hacks that will help improve your overall communication and interactions with your stakeholders: staff, students, and parents. A few examples include difficult one-on-one conversations, body language, the ladder of active listening, how to own the large assembly setting, E + R = O, and your school and office energy, successful vs. significant, and more.

The goal of this workshop is to become more confident, comfortable, and prepared to handle the many complex and challenging social situations that are rapidly coming at school leaders in today’s world. 

Presented by:
Andrew Marotta
Port Jervis Schools, NY

Creating Schools Kids are Excited to Attend

Looking to breakthrough at your school? Want that amazing school setting that you hear about, but few attain? Do you desire to make a lasting impact at your school community? Collaborate and grow with Andrew as he leads this powerful conversation about creating an amazing school setting. Topics include: 

• Bringing amazing energy each day
• Creating student voice & choice
• Using technology & social media to tell your story
• Inspect what you expect, being present, being intentional
• Build a beautiful school setting and keep it that way!
• Smile, humor, and finding joy in it all. You can’t do it alone.

Andrew will share strategies for building collective commitments from stakeholders to create schools students are excited to attend.

Presented by:
Andrew Marotta
Port Jervis Schools, NY

Directors' Dialogue: Navigating Special Education Challenges

Bring the challenging questions you and your team are facing. In this collaborative session, we will work together to identify effective strategies for addressing complex situations involving parents and staff. Drawing on the experience of Teresa Combs and fellow directors, participants will gain practical insights and guidance from leaders who have navigated similar challenges. 

Presented by:
Teresa Combs
Fowler Bell PLLC

Principals' Playbook: Mastering Special Education & 504 with Expert Q&A

Special Education and Section 504 law encompass hundreds of federal and state regulations that can be difficult to navigate. Come prepared with your most pressing questions about implementing Special Education and Section 504 services for public school students. Engage directly with an experienced attorney in this area of law and gain practical insights you can apply immediately. 

Presented by:
Teresa Combs
Fowler Bell PLLC

Navigating Special Education Discipline: Civil Rights & Ethical Implications

Violations of disciplinary protections for students with disabling conditions are not just violations of the students’ rights to a free appropriate public education. Courts may determine that such violations constitute discrimination under federal and state disability laws, which may result in monetary damages against the district and, in serious cases, against individual administrators. These violations can also result in EPSB actions against administrator and teaching certificates. Come and learn rules you must follow to protect the civil rights of students and to protect yourself from liability for such violations. 

Presented by:
Teresa Combs
Fowler Bell PLLC

Engaging the Community through Contentious Issues

In an era when complex challenges and divisive topics often dominate the conversation, leaders must find ways to bring their communities together - especially when stakes and emotions run high. In this interactive and practical session, Dr. Jill Siler - former superintendent and author of Thrive Through the Five - shares a framework for building trust, fostering open dialogue, and navigating difficult conversations with clarity and respect. Participants will explore how to design meaningful engagement experiences, communicate facts and context transparently, frame discussions in ways that invite collaboration, and keep the focus on what matters most: the success and well-being of students. You'll leave with strategies to facilitate productive conversations, acknowledge differing perspectives, and guide your community toward shared solutions - even when the topic is challenging and the room is divided. 

Presented by:
Jill Siler, Ed.D.
Texas Association of School Administrators

What Gen Z Teachers Need and Why We Should Give It to Them

Gen Z (the igenereration) is graduating from college and entering the teacher workforce. They are technoholics who bring the strengths of self-awareness and entrepreneurism to our schools. As students, they experienced k-12 education amidst standards and accountability movementism the rise of school shootings, and a recession. Their experiences as students shape their view of school and the teaching profession differently than their older colleagues. In this session we will unpack the characteristics of Gen Z, what these characteristics mean for them as teachers, and share strategies for supporting them as they begin their teaching careers.

Presented by:
Katherine Marin, Ph.D.
University of Louisville

Leading Gen Z: Supports and Skills for the Next Generation of K-12 Teachers

Teachers born after 1997, members of Gen Z, are a generation of teachers who see and experience teaching differently than generations before them. Gen Z is diverse, connected, technoholic, socially conscious, and pragmatic. Their needs as novice teachers are different from generations before them. In this session we will explore specific practices school leaders can use to support Gen Z teachers through induction and mentoring.

Presented by:
Katherine Marin, Ph.D.
University of Louisville