Rachael Maves: Hello everyone, you are listening to the Rachael Maves podcast and I'm Rachael Maves, your host.

Today we are talking to Michael Krause with over 25 years in education Michael brings to the table a wealth of knowledge about how school districts operate and how to work with teams to ensure success at all levels He began his career in education as a substitute teacher working his way into administration He became a chief business officer superintendent and now currently serves as a board of trustee for the at Alento

Unified School District, Elementary School District. He possesses a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance and Economics, a Master of Arts in Human Resources and Management, a Master of Arts in Educational Leadership, and is currently pursuing his doctorate in Educational Leadership at Oklahoma University. Michael, thank you for joining me today.

Michael Krause: Hey, good morning. Thank you for the opportunity.

Rachael Maves: So I'm really excited for this conversation and I think feel like the unique lens that you're bringing into this story and this career. Tell me a little bit about how you chose a career in education.

Michael Krause: Absolutely. Well, again, thank you and good morning to everyone. You know, I had to look up, I'm a big nerd by happenstance, but I happened to look up what parsec was because I was like, I don't know that word. And so I learned something this morning that it is a distance in the universe.

Rachael Maves: You

Michael Krause: And very interesting that your company uses that because I like to learn things that I don't know. And that's one of the things that I've always tried to do all my life and in part to our students to always continuously learn things that they don't know and ask questions or seek out information. And so that's what I've done. So why did I choose a career in education? Well, it really didn't come.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Michael Krause: by choice really to be honest with you and it was a happenstance and one of the things that I learned about you is that you're from Tennessee and so I don't know if you can see my Tennessee Valls hat I'm in California. I was born in New York and raised in New York. Yes, but we I grew up we moved to Tennessee and I finished high school there and then went to Alabama. boy, here's my Alabama hat. Yeah, I know for college.

Rachael Maves: Go Vols, or bleed an orange over here.

Rachael Maves: Michael Krause (02:21.645)

and I got my undergrad in finance and economics and became a stockbroker with Edward Jones Investments. But I was originally from New York and when 9-11 happened, I literally dropped everything I was doing and joined the army. And I actually went through MEPs in Nashville, Tennessee, and went to training at Fort Jackson, then San Antonio for my medic training. I was a medic in the army. My last duty station was Fort Irwin, California, outside of Barstow, California.

And while there on my days off from the army, I needed to make a few extra dollars. And so somebody suggested, hey, you've got your bachelor's. Have you ever thought about substitute teaching? I'm like, not really, but hey, I'll do it if it's extra money, right? I said, how hard can it be? Well, I started doing that on my days off and that's how I got actually into education and realized that with my knowledge that I had and my passion for seeing others succeed, that this is an opportunity to

really help our next generation to learn what we could teach them and help them succeed. And so that's how I got into education. And from there, I worked full-time from substituting to a full-time teaching position in Victorville, California, and then got into administration. I got the administration bug and said, well, let me just get my admin credential just to see how it would be.

Rachael Maves: Mm-hmm.

Michael Krause: You know, and so then somebody said, Hey, you ever thought about being a chief business officer? I'm like, what is that? I have no idea in schools what that was. so, and moved into a little place called Baker, California, where the world's largest thermometer was. And that was my first opportunity to do that. Yeah, I know it's, it's on the map, but it's that that is still there. It's, but believe it or not, they have a great school district out there. K-12.

Rachael Maves: you

Rachael Maves: you

Michael Krause: And at that time, I think there was about 180 students. And so I started my chief business officer career out there with Baker Valley Unified. And then I've worked my way up in education and got my admin credential, my tier two, and then my chief business officer certification through here in California, Casbo and through USC as well. So I've been very passionate about teaching our next generation of students, whether it's what I taught was business classes.

Rachael Maves: Mm-hmm.

Michael Krause: when I was teaching or just in general, how can we provide the education that they need, the quality education they need to be successful in their future. And so that's kind of how I got into education really, I'd be honest with you, it was just by chance on a, I have some days off, let's see what we can do. And, you know, never looked back.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Rachael Maves: So I'm excited, Michael, to just dig a little bit deeper into some of the perspective that you're bringing into education, having this really strong background in finance. now...

kind of moving over into that board seat role. Before we get into our normal questions, I'd love just to hear from your lens. What do you feel like the public sector, us in education, could learn that would be critical to take away from the private sector or from just the finance background and business lens that you have?

Michael Krause: Well, I know it's this way in the entire United States, but especially in California is the funding. There is a lack of funding at the state level for school districts across the state. Some, depending on where you're at, have more money than others because of what they call basic aid. So their property taxes are a lot more in those areas where they receive, but it's very few across the state. And so the majority of districts are struggling, have been struggling for years with how to...

Rachael Maves: Hmm.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Michael Krause: afford teachers, how to afford pay raises, how to afford classified staff in the classrooms. And so one of the things that I've been an advocate for for many years is that private-public partnership. How can private industry, not just with funding, but with mentors, with collaborating with school districts and helping them fill those gaps where the state, unfortunately, because of the lack of revenues, there is an issue.

And so I've been advocating for years. How can we build those private public partnerships financially as well, but also mentoring, also coming in and showing students here's what your future could look like. Having workshops, having the conferences for our teachers and our classified staff and our management as well. Because we just think about educational people coming in and doing it. But you know, there's so much knowledge in the private sector to bring into our schools and into our district offices to help.

Rachael Maves: Mm-hmm.

Rachael Maves: Mm-hmm.

Michael Krause: all of our staff get better at what they do and then that trickles down to making sure that our students get very good at what they do.

Rachael Maves: Yeah, yeah, I agree. So as you think about the lens, the different perspectives that you have, having been a teacher, CBO, superintendent, and now board member and thinking about the current district that you're serving, what are the one or two things that really keep you up at night?

Michael Krause: You know, since the pandemic, it's interesting. Before the pandemic, we thought that everything was going fairly well. And then we realized after the pandemic that there were some things that we needed to work on. You know, the pandemic, the COVID pandemic, it didn't create learning gaps. In my opinion, it exposed them. And so one of the things that I've been focused on in all of my roles is academic recovery for our students. How can we engage our students more in the classroom? Because they've had that time off and it was just a

Rachael Maves: Mm-hmm.

Michael Krause: weird time and even in my life when I think back to it. But a lot of things that were affected are the mental health and are not only for our students but for our staff as well and how are we addressing those things. And so, you know, in my mind some of the things that I continually research and keep me up at night is how can we focus on instruction and acceleration for our students since the pandemic.

What does that look like? Is it stronger teaching, maybe early literacy interventions more? What are we doing as far as targeted supports for them? But we also need to rebuild and engage their well-being. Their social emotional supports and meaningful learning are no longer optional, in my opinion. We've got to really look at how are we affecting their social emotional supports, because if they come to school and they are not socially or emotionally ready to learn,

they're not going to learn no matter what we have in place. And so I continuously have these conversations with my colleagues across the state, across the nation, to be honest with you. What are you doing in your area, neck of the woods, so to speak, that may be working for you because we can't live in silos anymore. And so that's one of the things that I really believe since the pandemic, we've got to get out of our silos and really have those conversations. And they're tough conversations because we don't want to admit that maybe our schools are not

Rachael Maves: Mm-hmm.

Rachael Maves: Thank

Michael Krause: where they ought to be. Maybe our test scores are not where they ought to be, but unless we start really addressing them and accepting that where they're at and then figure out how can we move forward, we're never going to really support our staff or students as we look to the future.

Rachael Maves: for you.

Rachael Maves: Yeah, you know, I, so I did a little digging on you ahead of time too and I saw the article that you had in AXA just talking about that budget roller coaster and the reality of fiscal volatility within districts, especially right now with declining enrollment and the impact that has.

Michael Krause: Thanks.

Michael Krause: Yes.

Rachael Maves: And you touched on something that I thought was really critical just around that return on investment and how important that was from your lens when you were a CBO of being really clear around what to keep and what not to keep. mean, from your experience there and what you're saying, like being honest about where things are and what's performing and what's not, how did you evaluate the things that were most important for your district at that time?

Michael Krause: Absolutely great question. And you know, we can't do things alone. We have to work together and that includes management. It includes board members. It includes classified staff. It includes our parents. It includes our students. So one of the things that I was very keen on is bringing our students and parents to the table to pick their brain about maybe why are they not able to get to school for attendance wise, right? What is it that may be stopping them from learning in the classroom?

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Michael Krause: Is it the curriculum? Is it the way it's taught? What is it that we could look at that could assist them? And who better to hear from than our students, right? At the end of the day. And, but we also had to look at all of the programs we had. And what I use the phrase strategically abandoned. And what that means is we can't just keep adding programs just because we want to add programs without looking at what do we already have?

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Rachael Maves: That's right.

Michael Krause: Is it working? Is it not working? And stop throwing money at something that may not be working. What is the, and I'm all about data. And I believe that data speaks volumes as to whether a program is working or not, whether.

a system is working or not. And so we had to really look at that and say, hey, is this working or not? And it was, you know, we had to say there's no sacred cows in our industry. We've got this phrase, sacred cow. No, well, that's mine. You can't get rid of that, but it's not working. And so we had to really have those crucial conversations, but at the same time, figure out how to support all of our teachers, all of our classified staff or management. mean, the training, the learning starts from the minute that child gets on the school bus. Really, that bus driver.

Rachael Maves: Yeah, that's right.

Michael Krause: until the time they leave at the end of the day. And so we wanted to make sure that we were looking at how can we support all of our staff, all of our students. And it was tough. There were some tough conversations, but in the end, that's what needs to happen in order to decide, collectively, this is not working. We all agree it's not working. So what are the next steps? What are the programs maybe that are working? We don't want to reinvent the wheel sometimes, so we can always look at what others are doing that might be working, but at the same time, we're unique.

Rachael Maves: Mm-hmm.

Michael Krause: every school district is unique in their community. And so that's why I wanted to bring in the community, have those conversations.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Yeah, so as I think about some of the things that you're bringing up, Michael, like one, just needing to really spend some time addressing some of the mental health and the social emotional well-being of students, but then also being able to have those honest conversations of what's working and what's not working. How do you see, like what are two practical ways that a practitioner listening to this podcast, whether it be a CBO or superintendent or even a board member, could move forward?

Michael Krause: That's a great question as well. have to really, we have to look at the structures that are in place and we can't keep doing like we did with fixed.

Rachael Maves: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Michael Krause: classroom schedules, isolated classrooms, limited flexibility. We really have to look at what does the future hold for our students that are learning now? What does the future look like for them? And you know, one of the things that I recommend is that we strategically look at enrichment periods, extended learning opportunities. In California, we've got ELOP funding where we can extend the day. Very important to not only extend the day, but how are we extending that day and what kind of learning is going on? Is it extra tutoring? Is it interventions for re-

reading, is it interventions for math? you know, reading and math are probably our two most struggling topics that our students have these days. And so if they can't read, that's the, to me, reading is number one, because if you can't read, you're not going to understand the mathematical assignments and the questions in math or science or history. So how can we really affect the literacy starting at preschool?

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Michael Krause: build those partnerships with our local preschools, with our TK classrooms and our teachers and find out how we can support our youngest students because that's where it really starts. If they can't read by third grade, they're destined to struggle the majority of their academic career. so we want to really look at, it's not about, know, sometimes it's not about doing more, it's about doing what matters most. And that's a phrase I like to put out there and tell people because.

Rachael Maves: Mm-hmm.

Michael Krause: They always think, if we do more and more and more, then we'll get better results. But it's really about, hey, let's look at what really matters most. What is going to be the most effective intentionally and sustainability? How can we sustain these programs that are working for our kids as we move forward? And so that's one of the things I would recommend to people is look at what really matters most. And again, every district's unique, every state's unique, but still at the end of the day, it's all about our students at the end of the day.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Mm-hmm.

Rachael Maves: Yeah, it's interesting just listening to your

the way that you're thinking about things, Michael, because you have such an intersection of, yes, that finance lens, but you're talking like a practitioner. And we haven't really touched on your role as a board member. So I'd love just to hear, when you think back to your days as a soup and now sitting in this role as a board, what do you think, like, what do you wish you would have known as a superintendent? Where do you feel like there are just some misunderstandings that we have around

around what the board role is or how to support the superintendent.

Michael Krause: absolutely. I truly believe that in any district there should be more education of board members. And what I mean by that is whether it's workshops, whether it's presentations at every single board meeting on academics, here's where we're at. Here's where we need to be. And here's where we here's how we should get there. Here's our recommendation how to get there. Right. And so I think that in any district, including when I was superintendent, I should have probably spent more time on

Rachael Maves: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Michael Krause: the academic part, but there's so much school business that has to be done at a school board meeting that when do we get back to talking about students and academics? When you look at any school agenda, it is just full of everything else. You know, and it, I mean, we're at a board meeting for four hours and maybe about an hour of that is on academics and students. mean, in my mind, we really should focus on the majority of a board meeting on talking about

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Yeah. Yes. Yeah.

Michael Krause: How do we support our teachers and our classified staff and what programs? But unfortunately, the business of school business takes up the majority of many, many districts' time at a board meeting. So I really am working with my colleagues across the state, fellow board members, on how can we look at that? How can we spend our time that we have? We only meet twice a month as a board. And that's really not enough for board members or for the public.

Rachael Maves: Yes.

Rachael Maves: Mm-hmm.

Rachael Maves: That's right.

Michael Krause: to really get a bird's eye view of what supports our students are really needing at the end of the day.

Rachael Maves: Well, and I found too, I'm not sure what your experience was like, but when I was a soup, I think I made...

I made the assumption that the things that were most important, which is outcomes for kids, right? At the end of the day, that is our job. It is to ensure that students have access to a high quality curriculum and instruction and graduate able to move into whatever future that looks like for them. Whether it's, don't really care if it's career or college, but they have what they need to be successful. And I think I had in my head that it would naturally be a

common understanding and realized very quickly that if I actually didn't set that container, then it was going to get filled with things that people are really passionate about, but may or may not move the needle. And I'll give you a quick example. This is my, my confessions of, you know, the, your fail forwards that you have in education. had like one of my first stakeholder feedback sessions for the LCAP and

I had put out, you know, all of these actions and just kind of like a brainstorming session of where people wanted to go.

thing that like people were most upset about were wanting electric vans. And it just caught me totally off guard, Michael. I mean, our chronic absenteeism rate was 34%. And I thought, of course we're going to, you know, move in this direction. But I didn't, I actually didn't create the container ahead of time. And because of that, it got filled with all those other things. And I do wonder, you know, to your point about

Rachael Maves: and how do we really support boards? We've been doing a lot of work with AJ Crave Hill and the work that he does around boards of how do you make those things front and center and what does that mean and look like and how do you unify together around this common vision of what is really critically most important and spend your time there. So it's been an evolution of, I agree. There's a lot of work we need to do to support what that means and looks like, not just, think, with boards, but also for our super

that are coming into that space.

Michael Krause: Well, as you're probably aware, there's a lot of people that don't want to be a superintendent anymore in California. I don't know about the United States because the tenure is about 18 months and it spooks a lot of people because they're there and then they're gone. And, you know, and that's not good for our students because they need consistency. Our staff need consistency right at the end of the day. But the last time I looked, it was about 18 months. And so it's really, I think, good people that might be great superintendents.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Michael Krause: are not wanting to go into the profession because of that. They see that and they're like, nope, not for me. It's not something that I want to do.

Rachael Maves: Yeah, it's not easy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So this is our final question as we wrap up together. What question in education are we not asking that we should be?

Michael Krause: Well, I think for me, and it's very important, is how can we support the whole child? We've talked about supporting them academically on many of your podcasts and in many conversations across the state.

Rachael Maves: Mm.

Michael Krause: But how can we really support the whole child from the time that they come to school till they go home and then at home? What are we doing to follow up with their parents or their guardians? And what is going on at home that maybe we can give them resources for, whether it's a trauma that they've endured. In Atalanta, we have five prisons around us, literally five giant prisons. A lot of the families move here because of their families that are incarcerated there. So you know there's a lot of trauma that's coming with our families

and our students to school already. But across the state, I see this as well, ever since the pandemic, the social emotional mental health of our students, what are we doing? We talk about academics, which is, believe me, important, but how are we supporting our students with counselors, with more therapists, with more school psychologists? What are we doing with the parents? How are we handling their parents? Because a lot of parents don't know how to support their children. And I see this across the state.

Rachael Maves: Mm-hmm.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Michael Krause: But yet, are we asking those questions? How can I support you as a parent? It's not only the student that we need to educate, but we also really need to concentrate on helping our parents get educated on how they can help their students succeed. And I think across the board, if everybody is working together and have those crucial conversations and asking those questions, then I think at the end of the day, you're going to see student test scores increase. You're going to see parent participation in activities at schools, because in your experience, you've probably seen the same thing. You have a meeting and you invite parents and

very few show up, And so, but what are we doing to get those parents to the school sites to understand how they can help their children as well? And so I think that's a big thing. And then also the last thing is what are we doing as far as career technical education? Are we continuing to raise the bar on imparting that knowledge from private public partnerships, having them come in, talk about careers in career technical education, whether it's welding or plumbing?

Rachael Maves: Mm-hmm.

Michael Krause: or any other of their careers because I think there's a shortage in the United States. In California, we see it a lot. And we know that not every student's gonna go to college. And that's okay. We have to accept that fact that it's okay. But here's another pathway for our students to go into career tech.

Rachael Maves: Mm-hmm.

Michael Krause: right at the end of the day and have those crucial conversations and ask those questions. What would you like to do as a student, right? Because we're kind of telling our students where they should do, but we're never really asking them the question, hey, you ever thought about a career and what would you like to do? And then work on helping them find that pathway that would be a good way for them to move forward.

Rachael Maves: Yeah, I love that, Michael. Well, thank you so much for your time today and for coming on the podcast and just sharing a little bit of your expertise from all these lenses. I really appreciated our conversation today.

Michael Krause: Absolutely. Thank you so much for your time.

Rachael Maves: As we wrap up everyone, you know PARSEC Education has a variety of free resources on our website built to support your mid-year strategic plan updates. That includes climate and culture questions that you could consider, your budget planning for the 2026-27 school year, and a number of additional resources. Check out what we have at parseceducation.com slash resources.

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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.