Why I’m Turning Thirty Years of Mistakes Into a Curriculum
Three new series launch August 3 to give new leaders the coaching I never had
I started my career in Montgomery County, Maryland, one of the largest school districts in the country, with a training structure most young administrators never get. Assistant principals and principals came up through a well-designed program there with mentors, a cohort of colleagues working through the same questions at the same time, and regular training on specific leadership problems rather than generic inspiration.
When I left the principalship, the formal structure disappeared with it. Nobody built an equivalent for central office leaders. Nobody prepared me for what it would mean to run a medium-sized district without the resources or the built-in supports that had shaped my first sixteen years in the profession. I found that gap the hard way, in my first superintendency in Wilson County, North Carolina. I made mistakes such as asking principals about discipline before I understood their suspension rate sat at thirty-eight percent. The questions I asked cost me trust, and it took months to earn back.
A coach would have caught that before it happened, but I didn’t have a coach. I have spent years since thinking about what a formal coaching relationship would have meant walking into that seat, and what it still means for anyone walking into a superintendency today without the deliberate professional preparation behind them.
On Monday, August 3, I will launch three new series in a paid tier to build that structure for the people who never got it: A Field Guide for New Principals, a Field Guide for New Superintendents, and a series on Systems-Oriented Leadership about the operational skills that never show up in a leadership textbook but decide whether a district actually runs. My free posts will keep telling the stories. While I designed each series for a specific audience, joining the paid tier will give subscribers access to all three. These series exist to name the lessons inside them and turn those lessons into something you can use before you make the mistake yourself, not after.
Dr. Sean Bulson is a practitioner-scholar, professor of educational leadership, and the 2024 Maryland Superintendent of the Year. He served as superintendent of Harford County Public Schools from 2018 to 2026 and Wilson County Schools from 2011 to 2016. Subscribe for weekly posts on educational leadership, equity, and district transformation.