Illinois Principals Association

Aspiring School Leader Network

The goal of the Aspiring School Leader Network is to establish the mindset, leadership intelligences, and community of peers necessary for aspiring administrators to envision themselves as future learning leaders. This network is designed to serve pre-service leaders.

APPLICATION Fee: $750

Applicants may qualify for a $500 scholarship (awarded on a first-come, first-served basis) reducing the final registration cost to $250.

The Application Fee includes:

  • IPA Aspiring membership
  • All Network Sessions
  • IPA Education Leaders Annual Conference Welcome Reception
  • IPA Education Leaders Annual Conference (Day 1)
  • Opportunity to add Day 2 of the Conference for $50
  • Illinois State Capitol Advocacy Tour
  • The Principled Principal: 10 Principles for Leading Exceptional Schools book by Jeffrey Zoul and Anthony McConnell

Participant Outcomes

Learning Objectives

  1. Understand the impact that learning leaders have on their learning organizations.
  2. Explore the School Leader Paradigm, specifically investigating the intelligences that make you who you are as a leader.
  3. Understand the administrative job search process.
  4. Expand your tool box for leading deep systems change to improve learning through shared leadership.
  5. Understand the value of a Professional Learning Network (PLN).

Leading Objectives

  1. Identify your why and core values as an aspiring learning leader.
  2. Identify your personal strengths and opportunities for growth in the School Leader Paradigm.
  3. Engage in Domain-based situational leadership activities that build thoughtfulness and confidence.
  4. Develop the necessary components for an administrative job application.
  5. Identify people and resources for your PLN.

Network Leader

All members of the Network Team are experienced educators and school leaders. The Team Leaders will present the activities at all sessions which will be highly interactive and provide new learning, application strategies, pitfalls to avoid, reflection, and collegial sharing as well as resources and tools to support leadership development and actions. In addition, they will be available to individually support network members throughout the program.

Dr. Anthony McConnell

Superintendent, and IPA Consultant

Steger School District 194

Network Practitioners

Jeffrey Hoese

Principal, Fulton Elementary School

River Bend Community Unit School District 2

Svetlana Popovic

Principal, Hodgkins Elementary School

LaGrange School District 105

Michael Rodrigo

Principal, Wayne Thomas Elementary School

North Shore School District 112

Joe Sweeney

Principal, Old Quarry Middle School

Lemont-Bromberek Community School District 113A

Mentoring

New principals, assistant and associate principals, and administrators face new tasks, responsibilities, and decisions on a regular basis and need an “expert” to not only coach but to mentor and provide instructional mentoring. As part of the comprehensive leadership development offered by the Illinois Principals Association, highly trained and experienced mentors are available to IPA professional development program participants and districts. Find out more here.

Program Sponsors