Grant Solem oversees Litchfield Community Education, which features a wide range of programming to help serve the greater Litchfield community, including:
Dragon Kids Club before and after school care and full-day summer programs
Youth and adult enrichment, activities, and recreation
Youth and adult trips, including youth trips on nonschool days
Preschool
Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) Programming
Only a short time into his tenure as community education director, Grant has seen a lot and learned much about what the role requires as a leader and community member. We sat down with Grant last month to learn more about his early days as a community education director.
Early challenges and opportunities:
Staff turnover and hiring new team members fast
Building trust and relationships across departments
Quick wins and efficiency improvements:
Adding recreation programs
Integrated athletic programs into community ed
Face-to-face rapport building
Implementing Arux to streamline operations
Enjoy our enlightening conversation with Grant, exploring his unique perspectives and experiences in community education.
The path to a community ed director
From student success to community education
What were you doing before your role as community education director?
Before my role in community education, I was the district's student success coordinator. I was working with students to help them realize and achieve their full potential. I worked with the students in that role starting the 2021 school year. I started as the interim community education director in March of that year.
The interview process
What was the process like getting the job?
I interviewed in front of around 12 people. The district had all the principals in, someone from our community ed advisory council and community members. It was a long process, but it's necessary for this role. You need to answer to a lot of people and communicate with them.
First days on the job
Initial goals and priorities
What were those first days on the job like? Was there anything specifically on your mind coming in? My main goal for my first two months was getting to know the program's last two years. I wanted to understand the budget, and I wanted to improve efficiency within our team. I wanted to ensure we had the right people in place to be as efficient with our budget as possible and that we weren't going backward.
My second goal was to build a strong relationship between high school athletics and community education. I was able to help bridge that as I coached football, so I worked within the school and got to know the other coaches. That was a strategic relationship I wanted to make stronger so we (community ed) could help out as much as possible with things like helping run youth sports.
Balancing short- and long-term objectives
Did you break any of your goals into specific timelines or expectations?
I had a couple of short-term goals regarding creating more efficiencies within our program, and my long-term goal is to create the best relationships with the people I interact with. I had to figure out how to do those two things.
In those first six months, I wanted to look at how we could expand our youth and adult enrichment opportunities. We had some pickleball classes, we had some youth classes, but we could add more. One of the biggest things we've done in my time here is add more recreation opportunities.
Also, I wanted to help the theater group in those first six months. Until I started, Litchfield Community Theater was pretty dependent on the school and wanted to become more independent, so we've been able to help achieve that.
One goal I set for myself was to avoid getting in the way of the preschool. I wanted to ensure I have what they need, but I will be out of their way as much as possible because that's not my area of expertise.
Early challenges and opportunities
What were some early obstacles when you started as community education director?
Staff turnover and hiring new team members
The people who were here when I took the role left within the first couple of months, so I had to hire two new employees early. That wasn't easy; we didn't get a ton of applicants, but now I have the best team.
And they've been proving that when you get the right people on the right spot, it makes your job as a director incredibly easy, especially if everybody's rowing the boat in the same direction. It makes your life a lot easier. The three of us are all going in the same direction and have the same plan and goals. It makes it enjoyable to come to work every day.
Building trust and relationships across departments
As I mentioned earlier, when I entered the role, I saw opportunities to strengthen community education's relationships with other aspects of the district. That was important to me.
Quick wins and efficiency improvements
What were some of your quick wins after stepping into the director role?
Integrating athletics programs into community education
My first quick win was running all wrestling through community ed. When I started, wrestling ran all their programs through us except for the Youth Wrestling Association, so I decided to run everything through community ed. The athletic director agreed. That's a pretty specific example, but quick wins are significant.
Face-to-face rapport building
I was getting out there, sharing my vision of community education, and creating relationships with people face-to-face. It allowed for people to rely on me early. Getting the district and community to believe we could take on new stuff was a compliment and essential to our program.
Everything was face-to-face. I wanted people to understand what my tone was and what my nonverbal communication was like. It was sharing, talking with people, and ensuring everyone knew we were there to help.
Implementing Arux for streamlined operations
You talked about increasing efficiencies. What were some things you implemented to help improve efficiency during those first few months? Arux is probably the best thing I've done in this community education role. It's made everyone's life a lot easier. The simplicity of the technology has just made everything easier.
Surprises and learnings
Did anything surprise you after you took the role?
The reality of being the final decision-maker
If something needed to get done, I had to be the one to do it. In a previous role, I worked as a college admissions counselor, and there's always a step above you that always took care of things. Well, now I'm that step above.
So that was a surprise for me right away when I was in my early 30s and lacked management experience outside of coaching. So now, realizing that you're in control is unique.
Balancing budget focus with human impact
Sometimes, you get very consumed with numbers, budget, etc.
And I've reminded myself that there are always people behind those numbers that, as important as it is to ensure that you're not losing money, there are people behind those numbers who have invested their own time. So remember that.
The importance of showing appreciation
That's probably something I wish I would do better — how to show people I appreciate what they're doing. In general, people need to feel supported and appreciated, and not everyone always feels that way.
Looking ahead
What are you excited about with Litchfield Community Education?
Plans for team expansion
I'm currently trying to add another employee. I have two fantastic team members in the office now, and if I had one more, it would make this place even better. That's what I'm most excited about — the possibility of adding another full-time position within our community education program.
Developing the "We're here to help." ethos
I would love for our slogan for Litchfield CE to be, "We're here to help." Because that's what we do.
We help the older adults in our community be as healthy as possible through recreation, clubs, or trips.
Or our theater group — making sure we have three great shows. We're here to help put those shows on — or our youth rec opportunities and coaches trying to build on their programs.
We're here to help you as much as possible, market those, and get signups. I plan to continue building on that throughout the community so everybody knows we're here to help.
Advice for new community education directors
What advice would you give to new community education directors or someone aspiring to be a community director?
Building relationships with passionate program leaders
Go out and find the people who care the most, and get out and talk to them, show them that you care about what they care about because that's just going to increase everything that you have going on.
So show that you care about what they care about, and you'll be fine.
Maximizing limited resources to support key initiatives
Within a school, you have to be fit regarding the budget. You'll always have limited resources, whether time, money, or facilities. All of those things are limited, but that's where building those relationships can help.
The rewarding nature of lifelong learning programs
Community education is so rewarding, and I always get excited about it.
For example, it's not unusual for us to simultaneously have a 75-year-old and a six-month-old in our building. Both are learning something.
One might be taking a driver's class, and one might be working on crawling correctly. But it's not out of the ordinary to have those two groups of people within our building at the same time learning.
And where else does that happen outside of community education?