Charter schools have been legal in Washington for just over a decade, and Excellent Schools Washington founder Julie Kennedy has a blunt read on why the start was rocky. The sector decided Washington was different from everywhere else, and then hit every headwind other states had already worked through.
In this episode of The Stronger Podcast, Mike Montoya sits down with Julie, Executive Director of Excellent Schools Washington, to talk about twenty five years of building schools and leaders, and what a ten year old sector needs to do next.
Julie grew up in Bellingham, attending the same schools her parents and grandparents did. She was a fourth grade Mathlete converting base ten to base six in her head before falling asleep. Her cousins walked into the same buildings through different entrances and got a different message about whether they were worth investing in. She was rejected by Teach For America in an early round and landed at North Star Academy in Newark through the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, as a long term sub and homework helper. She stayed at Uncommon Schools for more than a decade, helping grow the New York region to fifteen middle and high schools.
Julie now runs Excellent Schools Washington as an investor, pooling philanthropic dollars and backing schools and founders who can grow. She and Mike get into what leaders opening a second campus always get wrong about scaling culture, and why good enough has cost Washington students decades.
Tune in to hear about the four month policy paper Julie wrote in graduate school and the family funeral that landed on the day she presented it.
Chapters:
🌲
01:46 Meet Julie Kennedy: fourth grade Mathlete, third generation Bellingham student
🚪
04:27 Same schools, different entrances: what a building tells a kid
🙃
07:51 Rejected by Teach For America, then placed at North Star by luck
🎁
12:24 Building the muscle to hear one hundred percent of the feedback
🧩
22:29 The second campus mistake nine out of ten leaders make
💰
25:31 A mini Charter School Growth Fund for Washington state
🧭
27:51 Washington decided it was different: how good enough became the bar
🌱
37:27 152 Uncommon alumni now work at the schools that taught them
🪑
40:57 What Brett Peiser asked a 22 year old candidate in a hallway
⚖️
47:28 The tension between strategy and urgency, and giving yourself grace
Links:
Explore Excellent Schools Washington's work and connect with Julie on LinkedIn to follow a charter sector that is only ten years old. Her ask on this episode was direct: talented people with a high bar for what students can achieve, and an open invitation to come see Washington in July.
Stay strong.
Episode 39