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When the System Fails, Your Strategy Can’t

  • Writer: Whitney Harris
    Whitney Harris
  • Aug 25
  • 2 min read

What school and district leaders must do now—especially when the big systems feel unstable

In the past month, we’ve seen the Department of Education gutted. Mass layoffs. Restructuring. A Supreme Court decision that opens the door for widespread dismantling.


For many educators, this isn't just political noise. It's confirmation of something we’ve long known: You can’t count on the system to save your school.


When federal support pulls back, leadership pressure shifts downward.And that’s where you come in.

Here’s the truth no one’s saying loud enough:


  • Federal uncertainty doesn’t pause the school year.

  • Your staff still needs clarity.

  • Your students still deserve structure.

  • And your strongest leaders still can’t do it alone.


If your strategy isn’t designed to hold up when systems fail, you don’t have a strategy. You have a wish.


This moment calls for local clarity like never before.


Your team needs more than policy updates and calendar reminders.


They need to know:

  • How decisions will get made

  • What the school year actually prioritizes

  • How they’re protected from burnout when support systems vanish

  • And what role they play in keeping the mission alive


What I’m seeing in the field right now:


  • Schools starting the year without a clear PD or leadership development plan

  • Meetings dominated by crisis response instead of proactive direction

  • Coaches and APs absorbing roles that should be distributed, but no one has named the structure

  • District leads feeling like they’re holding too many spinning plates, and wondering how long they can keep it up


And all of it?

Reactive. Unsustainable. Unpredictable.


If your external systems are shaking, your internal structure must be solid.


This is the year where “good intentions” aren’t enough. You need strategy that:

  • Plans for instability

  • Builds leadership redundancy

  • Protects the people doing the heaviest lifting

  • Creates clarity without needing a memo from D.C.


This is what I do with the leaders I support.


Whether it’s through a planning intensive, an executive coaching session, or leadership development consulting,II I help teams move from survival mode to strategic alignment.


Because no matter what’s happening at the federal level, you still have a school to lead.


And you deserve to lead it well.


 
 
 
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