Friday, March 28
Dr. Kurt Schneider
If You Want to Go Fast, Go Alone.
If You Want to Go Far, Go Together!
Join Dr. Kurt A. Schneider as he shares his insights on leading systemic transformation in education, with a focus on equity and inclusion for ALL learners. He emphasizes the importance of embracing unwavering inclusive values and practices that enable every student to reach their highest potential. Dr. Schneider highlights that elevating educational systems is a gradual process, one that requires prioritizing strong relationships and a deep understanding of diverse perspectives. Through personal stories and examples from his career, he demonstrates how fostering these values has led to increased achievement for all student groups in every community he’s served. Don’t miss this inspiring conversation on creating equitable and transformative learning experiences for all!
We are honored to have Dr. Schneider as our keynote speaker on Friday March 28th! Dr. Kurt A. Schneider is the Superintendent of TrueNorth Educational Cooperative 804 in Highland Park, Illinois. Under his leadership, the cooperative collaborates with 18 local school districts to meet the diverse needs of learners through a strong commitment to equity and inclusive educational practices. Dr. Schneider advocates for school, family, and community partnerships focused on establishing a rigorous core curriculum for all students and aligning human resources, policies, finances, and facilities to improve academic, social, and post-school outcomes for every learner.
Before his nine-year tenure at TrueNorth, Dr. Schneider served as the Assistant Superintendent of Learning for Community Consolidated School District 181 in Hinsdale, Illinois, where he co-led the Department of Learning. He was also recognized nationally for his work in systems change and raising achievement for all students while serving as Director of Learning for the Stoughton Area School District. Dr. Schneider’s work in inclusive service delivery earned recognition from the National Center for Educational Outcomes and the National TASH organization. He co-authored a book chapter on bilingual students within integrated comprehensive services and was honored as an Emerging Leader by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), where he also served on their Leadership Council. He was actively involved with Wisconsin ASCD, contributing as a board member and program planning committee member.
In addition to his leadership roles, Dr. Schneider has an extensive background in teaching. He has been an adjunct professor at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, teaching doctoral courses in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis, as well as pre-service methods courses in Rehabilitation Psychology and Special Education. He also partnered with university faculty to establish the national Integrated Comprehensive Systems Institute, which continues to be held annually.
Earlier in his career, Dr. Schneider was a special education teacher at the elementary, middle, and high school levels in the Madison Metropolitan School District in Wisconsin. He also served as a volunteer teacher and executive in Alexandria, Egypt.
Dr. Schneider holds a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis, as well as undergraduate and master’s degrees in Special Education, all from the University of Wisconsin - Madison. He holds superintendent, curriculum/instruction, principal, and special education administrative endorsements in two states, and has earned multiple certificates from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in subjects such as the Achievement Gap and Critical Issues in Urban Special Education.
Saturday, March 29
Season Goodpasture
Acorns to Oak Trees
Season will share her family’s journey from discovering and navigating the Regional Center system after her daughter’s diagnosis to becoming an advocate to breakdown the access and equity barriers that exist in tribal communities
We are honored to have Season Goodpasture as our keynote on Saturday March 29th! Season Goodpasture, is a marriage and family therapist and is Maidu and Paiute and a member of the Susanville Indian Rancheria in Northern California. She is the founder of Acorns to Oak Trees. Her passion has been to serve tribal families and communities through infrastructure and capacity building and programmatic development in areas of child welfare, education, mental health, and tribal court.
Prior to founding Acorns to Oak Trees, Season served as the director of social services for the Pala Band of Mission Indians for almost 10 years. Through her work at Pala, Season developed an extensive social services program, a tribal foster care program, a child support program, a mental health and equine program, tobacco cessation program, a comprehensive early intervention program, as well as substantially increased Pala Tribal Court infrastructure and capacity. Season’s efforts to expand the Pala’s Social Service program led to Pala being the first tribe in California to be able to conduct their own criminal background checks and ultimately paved the way for all tribes to do so through the passing of SB 1460.
Acorns to Oak Trees was inspired by Season and James’s oldest daughter, Harley, who has Autism Spectrum Disorder and their journey of discovering the Regional Center and navigating its system. Having lived and worked in Indian country for many years, Season realized that there were many service access and equity barriers that existed for tribal families with special needs, primarily due to lack of awareness and the huge disconnect between most Regional Centers and tribal communities.
After learning the high number of tribal children who are diagnosed every year with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), and knowing the difficulty she faced in navigating the system, she knew something must be done to reach and help tribal communities. Season reached out to California Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Developmental Services and shared Harley’s story and advocated for better outreach efforts to tribal communities.
After being touched by Harley’s story and looking at the data on tribal families, the department agreed that something needed to be done and policy was created that earmarked money in the state’s budget every year specifically for outreach to tribal communities. Harley is just one little Native American girl, but her life and story will have a significant impact on the lives of thousands of Native American children across California forever. Harley represents hope and exudes all that love truly is, she is one of the purest souls you will ever meet and is truly the inspiration behind it all.