Being a school district technology leader can feel like a constant race against the urgent. The demands never stop, the pressure only grows, and there's rarely enough time, budget, or expertise to get ahead of the chaos. Most of us choose to work harder — until we realize that harder isn't sustainable. Our ability to deliver value is diminishing, and we aren't becoming better leaders.
Arkable Leadership exists to change that difficult reality. It's a place to work smarter, not harder: to shift your time from the urgent to the important, and to lean on the generosity, skills, and hard-won experience of peers who genuinely understand your world.
The goal is practical and personal at once — build better systems, lead more effectively, develop your staff's potential, and enhance your career while reducing stress and reclaiming more work-life balance. Don't go it alone. With support and mentoring from your peers, you can focus on the important instead of continuing to drown in the urgent.
An EdTech Leadership Circle is a small, committed, and confidential group of K-12 technology leaders who meet regularly to help each other lead the important, not drown in the urgent. Each Circle is six to ten members — curated so everyone faces similar realities. Members meet about eight times during the school year about every five to six weeks for roughly two hours, with the same trusted group all year.
Each meeting follows a consistent rhythm. There's an accountability round where members share the results of a commitment made at the last meeting. The heart of the meeting is "the Ask" — one member presents a real, current challenge, and after group questions and feedback, two or three members work together to generate ideas and concrete recommendations for consideration at the next meeting.
Meetings also include a rotating theme — cybersecurity, funding, staffing, vendor decisions — and close with each member setting one commitment for the next accountability cycle. The through-line is your North Star: one or two important goals you're working toward all year, so every commitment moves something that matters.
What's required is meaningful but light. You come prepared (reading a member's written "Ask" ahead of time), participate actively in the room, and follow through between meetings — completing the step you committed to and doing one short, roughly fifteen-minute check-in with your Accountability Partner. About once a year you'll have the opportunity to present your "Ask" and ; a handful of times you'll help someone else with theirs.
Annually, that's only about ten to 15 hours of work outside the meetings themselves. This is a group for active participants, not spectators - by design. The effort is concentrated when it's your turn and light when it's not.
