Education Week - February 17, 2021 - 44

LESSONS
From the
Leader
Have a shared,
compelling vision

as, say, a half nelson. But Vander Linden sees a clear
connection between his work as a technology guru and
his coaching gig.
" Wrestling is about hard work, perseverance,
dedication. It's about goal setting, " he said. " We let life
pin us down and we feel sorry for ourselves, and that
creates a pattern. Wrestling is the ultimate example
of that in sports. ... To be successful as an education
administrator, as a wrestling coach, you have to come up
with a shared vision. "

The vision-whether for

A 'field of dreams' gamble pays off

technology, teacher training,

Back in 1994, Vander Linden helped get the
district-and several of its neighbors-on board with
an innovative idea that is still paying dividends for
Burlington. He was intrigued by the power of technology
to transform instruction and offer more options to
students, particularly those who lived in small towns
like Burlington. But at that point, Burlington's internet
simply didn't have the speed to handle things like
interactive online courses. And the cost of running fiber
optic cable from the closest service center, some 90
miles away, would have been tough for the small district
to swallow on its own, he said.
So Vander Linden teamed up with other local leaders
and created a network that would help the entire county
stay connected by pooling costs. The Coffey County Area
Network, or CoffeyCAN, includes three school districts, six
public libraries, six medical facilities, and all of the county
government buildings.
In the 1990s, the group only had an inkling of what the
network could accomplish. It was a " field of dreams "
mentality, Vander Linden recalled: " We hadn't even
envisioned what great teachers, great education people
[could] come up with for this network. They don't know
what those great ideas are until they have the network in
place to begin with those ideas. If you build it they will
come. "
Vander Linden has helped lead efforts to upgrade the
system through the next two and a half decades, to make
sure it continues to meet Burlington's needs.
CoffeyCAN might sound like something straight out of a
Folgers commercial, as Vander Linden acknowledges, but
over its 25-year history, the network has made it possible
for every student to stream video or participate in digital
lessons at the same time.
The district has been able to " take students on [virtual]
field trips, " across the nation, Vander Linden said. " It's truly
two-way interactive distance learning. "
From the comfort of their classrooms, students have
been able to visit the Mark Twain House and Museum in
Hartford, Conn., the Cleveland Institute of Art in Ohio, and
the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown,
N.Y. One high school in the county uses the network
to bring in physics and Spanish instruction remotely,
since officials don't have the budget to hire separate
teachers for those subjects.
" We can easily create an interactive distance learning
environment at the drop of a hat, " Vander Linden said.
" It has allowed us from this small rural county in Kansas

a new initiative, a school
building, or your athletic
team-should be one that
a collective of people can
agree moves the organization
forward and inspires action.

Surround yourself
with great teams
When serving on any team,
remember that the roles
are dynamic. Each project
requires that responsibilities,
from leader to worker, shift for
the various team members.

Strive to be a
servant-leader
Understand that leadership
is not about status; it is
about serving others. As
a technology leader, we
talk about 24 x 7 x 365: Our
systems will be up 24 hours a
day, 7 days a week, 365 days
a year. Our job is to serve our
teachers, administrators, staff,
students, and our educational
community.

44 | EdWeek Leaders To Learn From | February 17, 2021

[to] connect across the nation to a variety of learning
resources. "
These days the network allows the district-and its
neighbors-a level of network performance that many
small, remote school systems envy.
Nationwide, just 48 percent of districts currently
provide the target bandwidth of 1 megabit per second,
per student in the classroom, according to a November
2020 report by the nonprofit Connected Nation
(formerly EducationSuperHighway) and Funds for
Learning, a consulting group, both of which have
helped lead a decade-long push to improve school
connectivity. Small rural school districts especially
struggle with this issue.
Propping up those fast speeds is the unglamorous but
critical work of building infrastructure. CoffeyCAN has
been able to purchase two internet pipes extending to
different geographic areas-Kansas City to the northeast
and Wichita to the southwest. That means if there is a
cable cut in the Kansas City metro location, Burlington isn't
" down for hours or even days, " Vander Linden explained,
because there is another pipe in the opposite direction.
" There are redundancies that we have been able to
put in place that small organizations would not have
the ability to do, " Vander Linden said. " I tell everybody
we have the technology infrastructure of a Fortune 500
company, even though we are very small in comparison,
individually. "
Possibly the network's greatest test, though, occurred
last year, when Kansas ordered public schools to close
for in-person instruction due to the coronavirus. In part
because of its strong connectivity, Burlington was able
to begin working with video conferencing platforms, like
Microsoft Teams, a few years before the pandemic hit,
so teachers were already familiar with the software.
" I felt like we had a head start because we had been
talking to our teachers about using those tools for virtual
learning, distance learning opportunities, " Vander Linden
said. What's more, the district had a 1-to-1 program for the
past seven years, meaning kids were used to learning with
the aid of devices.
Still, 15 percent of students did not have access to the
internet at home. But thanks in part to CoffeyCAN,
the district was able to set up 20 hotspots around the
community, including at parks, libraries, and school
parking lots.
For the students and teachers who did not have sufficient
connectivity for online learning, the district handed out
hotspots to some 30 families, said Craig Kuhlmann, the
assistant technology director for the district.
Building a team of tech-savvy teachers

The foresight that Vander Linden showed in helping to
build CoffeyCAN is typical of his leadership, Kuhlmann
said.
" He's always done a good job of looking ahead. What
technologies are coming out, what new is being done, "
Kuhlmann said. " He's always willing as a leader to dig into
whatever needs done. "
Vander Linden still pushes himself professionally to bring
Education Week - February 17, 2021

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