COVID-19 Principal Discussion Panel

6 Leading Principals Share Their Journey

Harnessing technology to digitally run schools in a pandemic:

Embracing change, lessons learned and success stories

A Conversation for and by Education Leaders

Wednesday, April 14th
2pm – 3pm EDT, New York
Limited seat availble: This session is capped at 250 participants.
Register now to avoid disappointment.

It’s now just over a year since COVID-19 dramatically changed our lives and thrust unprecedented change upon our education system. Join session host Phil Weinberg — former Deputy Chancellor for Teaching and Learning for New York City Public Schools, the largest school system in the nation — as he asks a panel of six principals how they’ve harnessed technology to both survive and lead the transformation.
Attend this virtual discussion panel brought to you by Operoo — as we share lessons learned, success stories, and discuss opportunities uncovered through necessity and the sector’s pandemic response.
For details about our panelists, and the topics they’ll be discussing, scroll down the page.

Meet our panel

Get to know our guest speakers

Phil Weinberg

Session Moderator,
Senior Partner at quill.org and
former Deputy Chancellor, NYCDOE

Phil has spent his entire 35-year career in the education sector. He began his journey as an English Teacher in 1984, progressing to Principal at the High School of Telecommunication Arts and Technology — a role he held for 13 years (2000 – 2014). As NYC DOE’s Deputy Chancellor for Teaching and Learning (2014 – 2018), Phil oversaw Teacher and Leadership Development, Teacher and School Evaluation, Curriculum Development, Professional Learning, School Accountability, Assessment, the development of system-wide Collaborative Practices, Computer Science Programs, Career and Technical Education, and Continuous Learning work for NYC’s 1,800 schools serving its 1.1 million students.

Deirdre DeAngelis

Principal at New Dorp High School

Deirdre is a proud NYC educator with enormous leadership experience. Working as Assistant Principal for Special Education throughout the 90s at the High School of Telecommunication Arts and Technology (1991 – 1999), Deirdre is the current Principal of New Dorp High School (1999 – present).

Mark Erlenwein

Principal at Staten Island Tech

Having spent 21 years at Staten Island Technical High School, and six as Principal, Mark is a dynamic education administrator who uses enthusiasm, creativity, innovation, leadership, teamwork and technology to make education individualized, highly-engaging, data-driven, transparent and goal-oriented.

Trish Peterson

Principal at Robert Fulton School

Trish Peterson first joined PS8 in 2016 as Assistant Principal and was appointed Principal the following year. Trish holds a master’s degree in Early Childhood and Elementary Education from Bank Street College of Education, beginning her teaching career at Packer Collegiate Institute in 1993.

Tiffany Hicks

Principal at Walter Francis Bishop Magnet School of the Arts (PS 160Q)

Tiffany started her career in 2001 as a NYC Teaching Fellow. She became a literacy coach in 2005, followed by her acceptance into the New Leaders Aspiring Principal Program where she served as a Resident Principal for one year at PS 161. In 2013, Tiffany was appointed Principal at PS 160Q.

Moses Ojeda

Principal at Thomas A. Edison CTE High School

Moses started his education career as an IT Instructor for NYC DOE (1998 – 2008). In 2008, Moses was appointed Assistant Principal at Thomas Edison CTE, becoming Principal in 2012. Moses also holds a degree in Educational Technology Leadership from Adelphi University (2006 – 2009).

Karen Ditolla

Principal at Mark Twain IS 239 for the Gifted and Talented

Karen has been Principal of Mark Twain Intermediate School since 2012. Beginning her journey in the classroom teaching social studies, Karen held a variety roles, including Guidance Counselor, Assistant Principal, District and Regional Administrator, and Network Leader.

About the Panel Discussion

Why attend?

Listen-in as fellow education leaders pinpoint the technology-driven strategies, tactics, approaches and processes empowering them to operate in a COVID-19 world.

Areas covered include:

1. Virtual school operations:
Staff processes and workflows

Operating schools during COVID-19 has forced the education sector to adapt fast. With little physical interaction, the need to implement scalable, repeatable, online-only processes and workflows is stark. How did you empower staff to complete recurring tasks remotely and keep your school operating virtually? From distributing learning packets to parents and students, collecting consent for new policies, and deploying digital staff approval workflows; to tracking student engagement and responding to requests for information.

Learning Outcomes

2. Parent / family engagement: 
Staying connected in school life

Strong parent participation and community engagement are key drivers of student success. What communication methods and channels have proven effective for keeping school communities abreast of changing circumstances, parents engaged in the learning process, and feeling heard? And, how do you integrate (sometimes difficult) feedback into your decision-making process?

3. Mitigating health risks

What processes and practices are being used to monitor, mitigate and report COVID-19 transmission throughout your school community? How are you systemizing your approach to health management to simultaneously ensure reliability and that resources remain focused on learning outcomes?

COVID-Safe Schools
Access and equity for all learners

4. Managing equity and access
for all students

How are you managing the ongoing availability of flexible learning arrangements? How can you ensure equity and access for different cohorts of students, while effectively delivering instruction in a way that maintains learning outcomes for all? What are the systems, approaches and solutions you’ve found to support remote education and to evaluate the effectiveness of digital learning?

5. Moving forward:
Game-changers and challenges

Crisis creates opportunity. If you had to cite your biggest pandemic silver lining, what would it be? What’s the positive change you’ve implemented or stumbled upon, in regards to the way you run your school, which you’ll keep long after the pandemic has gone? And, what’s the biggest challenge NYC schools face when it comes to moving on from COVID-19?

Teacher Performance

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About Operoo (formerly CareMonkey)

Operoo is a School Operations and Productivity Platform. Operoo is helping thousands of schools and other organizations around the world to eliminate slow, expensive and repetitive paper-based tasks. Operoo empowers schools to save time and resources by automating operational tasks and workflows, increasing staff productivity, parental engagement and student participation.

Streamline and digitize any school process, drastically reducing the associated costs: From permission forms, payments, and school trips; to medical information and emergency contacts, incident reporting, staff agreements, student onboarding and more. And, effectively communicate with staff, parents and your whole school community in over 100 languages with Operoo’s multi-language capability.

With Operoo, ensure every dollar and every minute possible is focused on students, rather than wasting resources on operational inefficiencies.

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