Rachael Maves: Hi everyone, you are listening to the Rachael Maves podcast and I'm Rachael Maves, your host. Today we are speaking with Dr. Rody Boonchouy. Rody is the superintendent of Winters Joint Unified School District. Prior to this role, he served as the associate superintendent in Davis Joint Unified School District and led national and international school reform efforts with the Buck Institute for Education. He also serves on the California subject matter project concurrence committee and the state board of education's practitioners advisory group.

Rody, thank you for joining me today.

Rody Boonchouy: Thank you for having me. It's an honor to be with you.

Rachael Maves: Well, I'm excited because you and I don't really know each. Other. And usually when I have guests coming in that I've connected with beforehand, I already know a little bit about their career journey, but this is going to be a first for me as well. So, I'm excited to hear from you. Why did you choose a career in education?

Rody Boonchouy: I would say that education chose me. Actually, you know, after I finished college, I didn't know what to do, where to go, and so I worked all these seasonal jobs like commercial fishing and driving tomato trucks and started traveling around the world. And I found myself in the jungles of Laos teaching conversational English to local villagers for room and board. And I continued to travel around the world, went to Argentine, ina, and taught professionals more advanced English and really got the hook in. Me. So when I came back, stateside went all in, get my teaching credential, became an English teacher and I've been running ever since.

I think an important part of my educational journey is I've always been enamored with cutting edge, progressive, you know, educational practices and philosophies, whether it's project based learning or the use of technology in the early days, and so I've always been an advocate for how can we really, you know, take education to the next level and support all students based on all their needs.

Rachael Maves: I love that. Okay. So, I have to back up for a second, because you're the first person on the show that I've heard so far that got into teaching, because they used it to barter. So, tell me a little bit about that. Like, that's just such an amazing pathway.

Rody Boonchouy: Yeah. Well, I was roaming around Southeast Asia and just, you know, experiencing the world and culture, and I found myself in this small village and there was an opportunity to do work. It was there are mulberry farms, banana, bananas and mulberries, and so travelers could work to for room and board, and I saw that there wasn't anyone, you know, working with the kids or any of the v, any of the folks that live there, and so I pitched. You know, let's work on some conversational English. That'll be my way of contributing to the. Farm.

Rachael Maves: Oh, I love that. That's great. So then in English, focused on English. So middle school, high school, what was your area?

Rody Boonchouy: Yeah, all the above. Mostly high school. Taught in Southern California for a few years. I'm I'm from the Inland Empire, product of the Riverside Unified School District and then moved up to Northern California and taught in Davis for a good chunk of time. Part of my teaching in endeavor in Northern California, in Davis, was opening up a brand new innovative magnet school, a high school through the new tech network. It was all about using technology.

Delivery of project-based learning as the primary instructional practice and really coming up with a way to help students that just didn't succeed in the traditional model. And then that led me to the nonprofit sector as well, where I supported professional development for project-based learning around the country and world.

Rachael Maves: Oh, I love that. So, why a superintendent? Like, what was it that gave you a draw to have that be your next step and where you're serving right now?

Rody Boonchouy: Yeah, that's a very good question. You know, you know, a lot of my time and efforts been focused on teaching practice, on educational moves, on tactics, on way strategies to engage. Students. That's where my heart is. I mean, I'm an educator through and through. And particularly working with the Buck Institute and working with school districts around the country, you know, you become more attuned to the structural and systemic and institutional factors that either enable or hinder educational reform.

And so that's what got me into the administrative journey and became a principal. But as superintendent, you know, I mean, at this point in the organizational hierarchy, if you will, I mean, the buck stops to me and I continue to lead a system that perpetuates a lot of the challenges that I've bemoaned over most of my. Career. So, I think the superintendency is a good way to become sensitive to and aware of all the factors that either support kids or don't. Yes. And that's, I think that's my journey now.

Rachael Maves: Yeah. I love that and that I really do feel like that echoes what my experience was as a superintendent. Like I went into it thinking I love systems and systems make sense to me and I do think sometimes if we get systems right, then it removes a lot of barriers. And there are all these other factors that I don't think I fully understood until you sit in that seat, that create additional barriers to even being able to address some of the systems. So I'm I'm glad that you're in that role, Rody, and would like an aside just some other time. Would love to continue to unpack then, as you're like peeling back that onion, what that means and looks like.

Absolutely. There's a kind of a perfect segue into our next question, which is really just around what keeps you up at night. You've had a pretty big career and what you're holding. You sit on some pretty well-known advisory boards, especially in the state of California, and I'd love just to hear from your lens and the work that you're holding and the conversations that you're. Having. What really weighs heavy on you right now in this education setting?

Rody Boonchouy: Absolutely. So, I need to tell you that we had we celebrated our class of 2025 a week and a half ago, so we're out of school for the summer, so there's a little bit more sleep happening at night. But yeah, there's. You know, this is a really interesting time in public education, particularly post pandemic, where, in many ways, I feel like we're trying to find ourselves as an institution. And refocus after the massive disruption that was the pandemic. I think the first and foremost is we're very aware and attuned to the many needs of our students, the whole child needs, if you will.

I mean, we know that we're always you know, charged with addressing the academic growth of our students, but we see so much needs for social, emotional, mental health support, behavioral support. And it's we all see it as educators. And so what does that mean for us as institution? We know that we have to perform well and support academic, you know, mathematics and ELA proficiency, and we also need to support the socialization and developing these skills for students to be able to function together in a social. Society. Yeah.

And so that is a big piece of what's on my mind. I think the technical challenge that compounds that is that in this world right now, at least in California, you know we have so many categorical programs and efforts in place to address these needs that sometimes it becomes quite difficult to juggle implementation of a variety of programs whilst trying to stay focused on meeting the needs of the students. So we're we're in implementation. Mode quite often, it seems. So I think that's one thing that can be a challenge.

Rachael Maves: Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Where there's just that kind of layer upon layer upon layer that everybody's having to.

Rody Boonchouy: [speaker uncertain] Yeah. The, I think the thing that really keeps me up at night, and this has kind of been a lifelong. Sleep. Challenge for me is the question of: are we adequately preparing our students through our system for the world today. Yeah. And that one sits on me very heavily.

You know, our, the current paradigm of public education, was created in response to the industrial revolution, you know, at the turn of the century, and for over a century we've been modeled after. You know, that particular structure that served the purpose of that day. Yeah. And so now, in this very dynamic world that we live in, with artificial intelligence and you know, social networking and machine learning and globalization, and you name it, it's a fundamentally different landscape that our children are entering. You know, as young adults and as leaders of tomorrow. So are we.

Has our education system evolved and aligned to adequately prepare students for that reality? And that I have lots of questions about.

Rachael Maves: You know, it's funny. This is going to take us a little bit into like philosophical, and it's something that I've been chewing on for like a number of years is. In education over the trajectory of the last decade, probably even more, there's been such a massive influx of technology and at a very rapid rate and for the first time in education history. I would say and you know anyone listening to this, if I'm wrong, please push back, send us a note in at PERSK. But for the first time in education history, the students actually come in knowing more than the teachers. And it often puts me in this place of wondering what the impact then of that is, where they are moving at a different rate and being able to engage with where the world is headed, when those who are holding that space of leading that work a, actually are at a.

Disadvantage. Where we are behind the ball of where they are. And I even think about that with my own kids. Like I give my kids a Kindle or I give them a tablet and what they can do so fast is like night, day over where I am. But it's, it's something that, like, has given me pause. How do we reconcile that right now in that space, within education?

I don't know if that resonates with you or thoughts that you might have around that, but it's, it's an interesting time that we're in, for sure.

Rody Boonchouy: Yeah. Per, I think it's a wonderful observation and really captures the reality of the world of our young people right now, because they're immersed in their, in the. Technology. That's how they communicate. That's how they socialize. That's how you know that's that's their world.

So the question then for us, you know, for us as educators is: what does this mean for schools and what is our? What is our objective? How are we, you know, moving towards that objective in order to support students in relevant ways to go out and function successfully in the world.

Rachael Maves: That's right. When they have all these skill sets and all these competencies that are so advanced coming in now.

Rody Boonchouy: [speaker uncertain] Yeah, that's right.

Rachael Maves: So, as you think about that, Rody, and you think about your work as a superintendent and even on CPAC, like, what are two ways that you're thinking about that we can move? Forward?

Rody Boonchouy: Well, yeah, the as a superintendent, the question that we've asked ourselves as a community, given the context of these museums that we're, you know, that we're kind of reflecting through, is: what are we trying to achieve as a school in the community of Winters? What do we want our students to leave with so that our district, so that they're successful in college, career, life, and beyond? Because it feels like there are so many needs we see from our students. We're inundated by so many different, you know, programs and efforts and plans, all from a good place. Yeah. That sometimes we feel a little scattered and maybe not as focused.

When everything's a priority, you know, nothing's a priority. So, how do we, how do we create a focus? One of the ways we are doing that now and I think this is something that we can might consider even as a state or country is just getting super dialed in on what our vision is for public education. What is it we want our students to achieve? What are the outcomes so that they can be successful in college, career and life? We know that academic content mastery, mathematics, ELA, science and so forth is critical, but alone is insufficient in this world.

Today. I have all the answers right here, you know, to the qu. But how we think, how we approach novel circumstances, how we problem solve, how we work with each other, how we adapt and are resilient, I mean, when we don't even know what the world's going to look like in a decade from now, let alone 20 or 30 years from now then what foundation do we need to provide our students to be successful? Right, so I think that conversation with the community for us. You know, we went to our entire community, our staff, our students, our business community, our parents, our migrant community, Rotary, all any anyone that we could access and ask that question, what skills and competencies do we want our students to leave? With?

And that was the formation of our graduate profile for the Winners Joint Unified School District, which essentially is a set of a set of skills that we've prioritized as a community that we believe our students need to be successful. And that is one step, very important step just to give us a north star so that we can focus on aligning our systems and structures and so forth to those outcomes that we, as a community, believe are important.

Rachael Maves: Oh, I love that. That's such a great, tangible like way to start to bring in all of those voices to help define that, which is so.

Rody Boonchouy: True. And part of the work, I think, of schools is how do we get that pulse of what's going on within the community so that when the students leave that one, it's not a brain drain, and then, two, that they have that space here and are able to be successful. That's, yeah, wonderful. You know, another important part of that is how critical it is to listen to students, ask students this question and elevate their voice, because if they're coming in with all this knowledge and schema that is, you know, foreign to many us adults because they're just immersed in technology, we need to listen to them as. Well. They know quite a bit, have quite a bit of insights on what they want or need to be successful in life.

Yeah, absolutely. So they.

Rachael Maves: We're going to move to our last question, Rody, and I'd love to hear from you. And this is one of my favorite questions that I get to ask is what question in education that are we not asking? That we probably should.

Rody Boonchouy: I think it's. I always get a sigh. I always get the sigh every time I ask that question. I mean, I think it's. It's just based off of what we've just been talking about. I think that question is: are schools, you know, meeting the needs of students for the world today?

And I think, and you know, that's a very complicated and complex question. Because there's so much that schools and education are responsible for, but telescoping out, you know, as a field, and asking ourselves: are our schools as an institution, is it aligned with the needs of the world of work today, of the, you know, of our civic needs today, and having a very just, I think, a reflective conversation about our institution? Because if we just stay within the technical we, you know, we continue to tinker with the systems that we currently exist in. But I think, you know, coming out of the pandemic and this world of artificial intelligence I'm no AI expert, but this is a massive disruption. That will change the face of education and all industry around us. So, how do we take a moment to reflect on whether or not we're going the right direction?

Rachael Maves: Yeah. Yeah. I love that. Well, thank you, Rody, for your time today. I really appreciate our conversation.

Rody Boonchouy: Thank you. Honored to be with you.

Rachael Maves: Friendly reminder, everyone that Parsec Education's updated early bird sale is live until October 31st. Get 25% off tickets for the 2026 Measure What We Value Summit happening February 4th through 5th in Fresno, California. Don't miss this limited time offer and the opportunity to experience our incredible MC Brandon Leak, season 15 winner of America's Got. Talent. Secure your tickets now at parsecsummit.com.

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This transcript was created from the episode's captions and lightly edited for readability. It may contain small errors; please refer to the audio for exact wording.