6/12/14

Dr. Klein,
Over the last several months, Kristin Weber has performed mentorship duties for my office. Please accept this letter as
evidence of her successful completion of her mentorship. In the forthcoming paragraphs, I will provide both a
description of several projects in which Kristin participated as well as some of my assessments of her performance and
growth.
Our school district is working to examine (and potentially implement) a new structure for our high school schedule. This
is a significant undertaking and girded in a context of wide internal and external dissatisfaction with our current
scheduling model. As part of this work, the committee determined that a values assessment of our community was
necessary to inform the schedule examination process. An online survey was issued to a wide variety of stakeholder,
which resulted in hundreds of raw responses. Kristin designed and implemented a series of community dialogue
sessions, where community members (including staff and students) were invited to analyze the survey results and then
synthesize the results into feedback to the committee. In doing this work, Kristin demonstrated the ability to both
design and implement a facilitation process which created transparency and ensured trust in how the data was
presented. In her personal facilitation, Kristin demonstrated skill in several key leadership areas: promoting individual
voice for all members of a diverse group, focusing a group on the data (rather than the opinions of individuals) and
developing a concise synthesis from a large data set. I clearly saw Kristins intentional utilization of a wide variety of
facilitation techniques as she worked with these groups. She prepared thoughtfully and this preparation allowed her to
be both nimble and focused in her work as a leader.
Internally, our district is working to begin the implementation of the Next Generation of Science Standards, which will
likely be the new State curriculum for k-12 science. At this time, a team of secondary science teacher leaders are
developing implementation plans for this shift. Kristin and I collaborated on the facilitation planning for leading this
group through their initial work sessions. Kristin brought both content expertise and facilitation skill into the process. In
this work, Kristin demonstrated the ability to guide teachers though implementation thinking which can be a struggle
for those that are not accustomed to working on the broad stage of system-wide implementation. Also of important
note, as we were working together with the facilitation, Kristin was quick to provide adjusting feedback to me as her
peer. Her confidence and honesty improved my performance as a facilitator. I firmly believe that as a result of Kristins
work, the work product produced is much better than what the team would have crafted with only my services as
facilitator.
I have truly been impressed by Kristins performance and growth throughout her mentorship. Kristin is a school leader
who will have many opportunities in front of her and I was fortunate to have been able to work with her and learn from
her. In the event that you need additional information, please do not hesitate to contact me. You may reach me on my
cell phone at 616.283.6899.
Sincerely,

Jon Manier
Executive Director of K-12 Instructional Services