Author Description

When Brian Stephens asked me to help him organize a book of his years of experience in public school professional development, I was excited but overwhelmed by the prospect. I couldn't imagine a better use of my skills and passions as a writer, editor and educator. But in his fashion, his completion goals were ambitious. I told him, "But, Brian, I've been writing my own book for a decade." He was undeterred. He started writing chapter after chapter. It was an inspiration to see it happen so quickly and so efficiently. The thing is, the information is deep, practiced and fresh because it's used every day in CaissaK12's holistic services to help public school districts understand the landscape of educational options and what tools they can wield to help keep students and resources. Among the most valuable of resources discussed in this book is the human resource, in other words, it's you. When I began editing this book, I was intrigued by the depth at which Brian explores the value of empathy. The crux of this methodology is how to keep families in your district-how to keep your students coming back to build a thriving community and the budget to grow. What this book uniquely considers is how interaction with difficult student families poses an opportunity for leaving lasting positive impressions that win students back. The Customer Is Not Always Right! understands that this means school staff, faculty and administrators are placed in difficult situations with the potential to either drastically hurt or help their customers' experiences, and, as such, their bottom lines. For this reason, you'll find these rules promote a new kind of customer service that empathizes with families while reaching a common ground that fights staff burnout and turnover. In the middle of book production, I was invited to join a live, in-person training session. We traveled to a public school district to deliver intensive courses to sets of principals and front desk staff m