Being Effective, Asking Probing Questions & Representing Your Community – Session #4
May 15, 2025
Description
Our students need student-focused school board leaders who can interpret student achievement reports, prioritize improved outcomes, and build consensus with persuasive communication skills and school funding basics.
In this series, you will learn where to find the information you need, how to communicate persuasively and effectively, and management strategies to help your school district improve.
Each session will be based on a section of Dave Trabert’s latest book, 8 Things to Know about Running for School Board. This book does not distinguish between conservatives and liberals, Democrats and Republicans, or other political leanings. It aims to help candidates and school board members advocate more effectively for improving student outcomes.
If you are a board member or considering running for your school board, you can get your free copy here: 8 Things to Know about Running for School Board – Kansas School Board Resource Center
Schedule
- April 24 – 6:30 pm CDT: Lesson 5: Communicating Using the Six Powers of Persuasion
- May 1 – 6: 30 pm CDT: Lesson 1 & 2: Student Outcomes & The Purpose of a School District
- May 8 – 6:30 pm CDT: Lesson 3 & 4: Adult Behaviors Need to Change & School Financing
- May 15 – 6:30 pm CDT: Lesson 6,7 & 8: Being Effective, Asking Probing Questions & Representing Your Community
About Dave Trabert
Dave Trabert is Chief Executive Officer of Kansas Policy Institute, where he also does research and writes on fiscal policy and education issues. He is the lead author of three books: 8 Things to Know about Running for School Board (January 2025), Giving Kids a Fighting Chance with School Choice, and What was Really the Matter with the Kansas Tax Plan. His other published work includes “Student-Focused Funding Solutions for Public Education” and “Removing Barriers to Better Public Education.”
Trabert was an appointed member of the Kansas K-12 Student Achievement and Efficiency Commission. He serves on the Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force and co-chairs the Education Finance Joint Working Group for the American Legislative Exchange Council. He graduated cum laude from West Liberty University with a degree in Business Administration.
About Melanie Sturm
Melanie Sturm is the founder of Engage to Win and The Win Coach for leaders of all stripes—elected officials, candidates, corporate executives, policy analysts and advocates, students, and non-profit and movement leaders. She is a sought-after persuasion coach, dynamic speaker, and powerful writer. She teaches how to inspire an audience—even skeptics—to follow your lead, not based on what you say but what your audience hears you say.
Melanie’s prior work experience is in finance: International Finance Corporation (private sector affiliate of the World Bank), Morgan Stanley (London) and Drexel Burnham Lambert (New York). Melanie has an MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France, and undergraduate degrees in international relations and economics from Tufts University.