This episode of Standing Tall delves into the leadership journey of Tom Livezey, from his classroom beginnings as a third and fourth-grade teacher to his 17-year tenure as a superintendent at Oakridge Public Schools. Tom shares lessons learned, challenges overcome, and strategies for success. He emphasizes the importance of communication, innovation, and hands-on leadership in fostering a collaborative and thriving school district!
Leadership Journey: Tom shares his path to the superintendency, emphasizing the pivotal figures—“giants”—whose shoulders he stood on.
• Athletics and Leadership: Lessons from sports shaped his understanding of teamwork, resilience, and effective systems.
• Innovative Communication:
• Tom weaves together 30+ funding sources to support district initiatives and sustain improvements.
• Hands-On Leadership: Tom exemplifies a “lead from the front” mentality, taking on tasks from classroom cleaning to administrative problem-solving.
• Building leadership teams at all levels, empowering teachers to co-create school improvement plans and allocate resources.
• Balancing Work and Life: Tom discusses fitness, family adventures, and discovering joy through his daughter’s love of fine arts.
Key Takeaways for Leaders:
1. Transparent Communication: Build trust by clearly explaining decisions and inviting feedback.
2. Hands-On Leadership: Be willing to step into any role, setting an example for others to follow.
3. Resourceful Thinking: Navigate funding challenges creatively by blending multiple sources.
4. Empowering Teams: Develop leadership at every level and encourage shared decision-making.
5. Integrity as a Legacy: Focus on doing the right thing consistently, even when it’s challenging.
Learn more about Oakridge Public Schools.
Connect with Tom Livezey on LinkedIn
Connect with Randy Lindquist on LinkedIn
If I have any superpower, that would be one of them, have to develop leaders. To develop leaders. That's what it's all about, is working together as a team and trying to get everybody on the same system. And usually the winds come.
Welcome back to standing tall. Voices in leadership. I'm your host. Randy Lindquist, superintendent at the Muskegon area, ISD. If you're here, it means you're ready to dive into another episode where we explore the minds and experiences of incredible leaders who are making a real impact in education and beyond. Whether you're a teacher looking to step into leadership role, a principal navigating the complexities of school leadership, or an administrator at the top of your district, you're in the right place. Each week, we bring you candid conversations with leaders who are not only changing the game but redefining what it means to lead with purpose and vision. And today, I'm especially excited about the guests we have lined up. We're going to talk about communications as a leader, bringing resources into a school district to support the many needs of students and families and many roles a superintendent has to play in a district. I can't wait for you to hear the insights this leader has gained from their journey. So wherever you are right now, whether you're commuting, taking a walk or just taking a moment for yourself, thank you for making standing tall a part of your leadership journey. We choose to go to the moon. You can't do it alone. Team,
Team. Embracing change. There is no courage without vulnerability. Being brave. Attitude. Reflect leadership. Captain,
can you rumble with vulnerability,
not because they are easy, but because they are odd? Can
you stay in tough things, or do you tap out? I have a dream learning how to get back up and keep moving forward, learning how to rise.
Let's stand tall today. We have Tom Lizzie, superintendent of Oak Ridge public schools, joining us on standing tall. Welcome, Tom, hey. Thank
you. Appreciate being here.
Tom. We're calling this podcast standing tall, and kind of base it on the Isaac Newton quote, If I stand further than others, it's because I stand on the shoulders of giants. So talk to me about your journey to the superintendency and whose shoulders you have stood on in your leadership journey.
My pathway to the superintendency is pretty traditional. I started out as a third and fourth grade teacher, moved up into administration, instructional technology specialist, start stint at Grand Valley State University as a professor there, assistant principal, curriculum director, Assistant soup. I traveled the country over 100 school districts across the country, consulting on school improvement and data use and systems and processes so and then 17 years ago, January one, I became superintendent.
17 years was pretty impressive. It's been a bit you know, our journeys are pretty similar because I also was an elementary school teacher and did the instructional tech route and some of those same things. So it's, it's not the most common way to get to a supernatural but obviously, you've made it to the top, and you've done well, and it's a good route to get there, isn't it? Well, it
turned it down twice before I finally better time, but it's turned out okay,
yeah, I actually think so as well. So you were a college running back. Our listeners need to know that you're jacked, obviously, and that we that still shows today, which is good, but what lessons did athletics teach you that you still apply today in your role as a leader,
you know athletics was my ticket to a college education. I'm the only one in my family with a diploma, much less a master's degree at that, so I feel absolutely blessed, but sports is really what prepared me and the influences in my life, for my coaches, and if anything, you just see quality leadership, some how people come together, how he's I played individual sports. I gravitated toward the team sports because that's what it's all about, is working together as a team and trying to get everybody on the same system programs and implementing things with high fidelity, and usually the wins come when when you got a team working together. Yeah,
that's great. And strong coaches are strong leaders on and off the field, right? So that's important too, as a role model to kids too. Absolutely,
I still have a relationship with my high school football coach to this day. So there's been many a conversation with memories and leadership and Denny Patzer, I still hold him in high regard.
That's awesome. Great. Tom, one of the things I really admire about you is your innovative communication efforts. You have focus groups and brainstorm amazing campaigns, like it's happening Oak Ridge and the show up campaign you've done around attendance in your district. You're one of the first superintendents around West Michigan to lean into vertical video. You've pioneered technology that's let you communicate quickly with families. Why is communication so important, and why is it one that tends to get overlooked?
It's all about a belief, and it takes an. Community to be successful, and so trying to reach out to the community in unique, creative ways and how they want to receive the information. It was really the mindset of why I choose the methods and categories of communication that I do with my instructional technology specialist background, it comes somewhat natural for me to try to use some of those venues to try to reach people, as well as some of these avenues allow you to get feedback from the people. So the communication becomes two ways. So that's I don't know that it's that creative. It seems pretty common sense to me, and it comes as a natural pathway for communication for me with giving my skill set, so I appreciate the compliments, and I hope to continue good communication with our community. Yeah,
I've often told people, you can never over communicate, right? So the way you look at different ways to get to your community, and I like the perspective of feedback too. Like I want to hear the voice of my community, also, you have to be somewhat creative and innovative in that approach to get that you can't just have one newsletter and think that's going to make it happen,
right? Absolutely, everyone's got their preferred method of communication. I can tell you some things that have not worked. It's clear to me that the voice messages that go out, people are not real attracted to that method, although they are, they welcome my snow day calls early in the morning.
That's the one phone call they look forward to, right?
They love hearing my voice on those days Absolutely. So it's
not always awesome drone videos or great board relations when you're a leader or innovative learning techniques and technology, but leadership sometimes can be hard and lonely. I know you've experienced that, and I want to know what's been the hardest season of your leadership journey, and what lessons did you learn through that.
Well, before I get to the hardest, I want to at least affirm some of the positive, because my current experiences right now are the best in my career. So my current union leadership from all different labor groups, they're just good, decent human beings, and we have a relationship that we can communicate openly, problem solve issues, and decide on what's best for the district, even when some of those difficult conversations need to take place, it's always open communication. So particularly through the pandemic, the leadership in the unions at that time, I could not have gotten through that difficult time without that true team spirit. And that transformed our school district in many ways, but on a positive way, we got that through that together and Bree Batman, Todd Lowry, there's some of the names of the people that were just wonderful to work with in a really difficult time. So that's on the affirmation side, both at the board level as well. My next Board member will be the 35th board member that I've worked under since. So most of that turnout turnover was early in my career, so there's been a little slower turnover at this point, because there's less difficult things that we're experiencing. Certainly in the state and across the country, there's a lot of challenging things happen in school board rooms, but as a unit, our school board is uniquely openly that they still have vigorous, vigorous deliberation at times, but they come together. It doesn't spill over in the community, and they make decisions what's best for kids. But that wasn't like that. 15, 1617, years ago, when I first became a superintendent after turning it down twice, like I said, first year, $400 probation, and you're asking employees to take pay freezes over four years, and so that was a difficult and that's not what I had anticipated. That's not what I anticipated coming in as a superintendent that you get to tear down, not what you signed up for. Was not what I signed up for. It's like I got into this, particularly in the click room, where you get to deal with positive, clear, awesome leaders that are developing improvements across your district, and you become a superintendent, and then that's not a great way to build positive relationships when you don't have the money to do so. But that was certainly either the pandemic or the great recession back in the early 2000 10s was most difficult parts of my career, and I just look at how we got through that, and I would say the pandemic was much easier because I I got to work with those quality leaders, like I said, in working through that really boosted the spirits a little bit despite the really difficult situation. It was, yeah,
you persevered through some tough time to know that. And it was because you stand tall that that happened. You had that constant vision and kept your your sites focused on what we needed for the district. That's pretty impressive. I've seen you step in and where the head of tech director, curriculum director, communications director, and many other things in your district. You mentioned some of the things up to leading up to your career as well, and the things you've done, but other leaders sometimes take them. More hands off approach and say things like, I have no idea how that job is done, right? I don't know how that works. That's what I hired you for, right? And how much familiar does a leader need to have with the different roles on their team?
Well, I added one more to that last week, GSRP administrator working with preschool kids, and got to clean up some puke from some kids, and I don't know that I follow. So
you're a hands on leader, then hands on with a puke absolutely
but anyhow, the
you know, that's just what good leaders do. I mean, it's I can't say that. I pause and reflect and say, What would a good leader do? It's just there's things that need to be done, and you just lean in and help out where things need to be done, tough situations right now, we got great people, but we don't have enough of them. So I've literally packed down the vacuum on the back, on my backpack and been cleaning classrooms due to not having enough custodians. I've helped out with filling in at a building level with administrator not looking for kudos for anything. If I'm expecting everybody else to step up with a positive attitude, if the superintendent's just sitting in his office telling people what they should be doing, that's not going to be received for a while. So I got to be willing to show up and do what do what everybody else is doing. And that's
called being a good role model, right?
Yeah, inspect what you expect. Expectize expectations, and everybody else hopefully will contribute. Yeah,
absolutely. That's awesome. In your opinion. What's the most important ingredient for creating a truly collaborative team environment?
I'm gonna go with transparency. When people trust the decisions that you're making, and you are transparent with how you came to those decisions granted in emergency situations, you're going to make decisions pretty quickly. You're not going to ask people their opinion to respond to it to an emergency. But I'm really proud of the systems that we're building at Ottawa bridge with our everybody talks about teeter leadership, but investing in doing so we have, I think it's like 15 to 20% of our OEA unit, which is our teachers union, serving in a leadership capacity called our district continuous improvement team. And this year as the third or fourth year that we've been facilitating these processes, and this is the first year of those years that I've totally moved this to the building level and let this being led at the building level, in collaboration with their principals. So they are literally writing the school improvement plans, to looking at the data, helping out with particularly with some of our grant money with Title One at risk, they are helping prioritize some of the expenditures. When you are that transparent, you empower people to be able to do the decision making. That's actually getting results. I think that's where the positive relationships are coming, as well as progress. Absolutely.
Yeah. I think that hands on approach is really important, and empowering people to be a part of the solution is pretty critical to success. I know you're a great systems thinker, and you've created great systems within the district, but that includes the people within that system, which is pretty important. I
think, yeah, you have to develop leaders. To develop leaders, right, right? Hopefully my building administrators feel like they're empowered and that they can develop the leaders at their building level, because not one person can do it all. We've all got to pull together to make these things happen. Yeah, absolutely
for sure. You know, sometimes we admire how other leaders overcome big obstacles, but when we face our own challenges, it's easy to get stuck and call them insurmountable. Um, I know, as a leader, you don't let obstacles stop you, and I and you've found ways to do anything you can to support Oak Ridge staff, students and families. You talk about how you use braided funding to make sure Oak Ridge kids get all the resources they need, and how you didn't let setbacks keep you from making that happen for Oak Ridge public schools.
If I have any superpower, that would be one of them. So quick. Fact, Oak Ridge is in the bottom 5% in the state on a taxable value per pupil. So when we go out for bonds, they don't go very far. Doesn't generate a lot. It doesn't generate a lot. You get some school districts generating $100 million we're generating $16 million on things like that. So, so it's not by choice that I just think it's a good idea to go after all these different funding sources. I think I'm managing 33 zero different sources, right about my assistant, and I keep track of all the things apply for all these grants. And so, yeah, you complimented me about the systems thinking and the details that, and there's a lot of details and red tape and going after some of these grants, and all of them have different rules. And like I said, if there's any superpower understanding all the rules and how to braid some of those things, how you can fill positions and sustain those positions with pieces and parts of different revenue sources. And figuring out how to sustain those over the long term. That takes a lot of time and effort and reading to truly understand all the different red tape and how to manage all that. Now it's much prefer not to have to go through all of that. Just put the money in the foundation allowance and let us work together to make progress as as a school district. But those sources are out there, and we don't have a choice. Then if we're going to deliver a competitive education, along with across the in the school district, as well as compete against school districts, even though we're collaborative here in Muskegon County, we're still trying to offer the best education we can within each of our districts, and that's how we do it, yeah, to braid all those funding sources together to sustain improvement efforts.
I mean, 30 different grant sources is mind blowing to think about. That's just incredible that you can apply for those, but then manage those even on top of that, I do think we need to get you a red cape that says branded braided funding on the back, and you can wear that in your district? Would you do that
for us? If I'm tall enough to
wear that Sure?
Can you give me a specific example of one of those sources that has impacted Oak Ridge in terms of bringing that resource to the district?
I can give you many different things. I mean, with three or four different categories of Esser fundings or art fundings that came in through the last few years. Combining that with 31 A, 31 double A, Title One, title two, Title Three, some of the safety funds that first you're getting 90 7c then you're getting 31 double A, and trying to one one time money the next one sustainable. Funny, so I mean, right, there's, I think, 11 different examples there that alphabet soup too. It's alphabet soup is trying to put all these things together and trying to make sure that you're following all the rules for each of those. And the hardest part is making sure that you can sustain these things long term. So those are, I don't know how many examples that you want, but filling these positions part of the I'll go to that mental health or even the facilities one, there was no way that I was going to generate enough money to get climate control HVAC systems in our school district until some of these ARPA Esser funding monies came about. And when we went to our community to ask for a bond to get 16 million, I told them that not only we're going to do that, but we're also going to go after some of these grants and did an energy performance contract with people. So we got two and a half million dollars worth of energy performance that the savings from energy was paying for the improvements in our school district. So it's just thing after thing after thing that you have to piece all these things together. As I just don't have a single funding source to manage it all. And I can't put it on the back of our community, right? We will have to come back to our community at some point to make some of the facilities improvements. But they need to know that I'm doing everything I can without having to go back to ask for them for the money. We're going to do the best we can to find the money so they don't have to pay for it. Yeah, and
you've jumped into the Medicaid world as well, looking at that, trying to figure out how that funding source, which is pretty minimal, when you really boils down to things, how can that impact your district? You've looked at really every resource possible for Oak Ridge to get resources to the students and families. Yeah, that's
another good one. There's billable services that are out there that you can get the service to pay for itself through the billable service and putting those systems in place and getting staff to understand that these case loads and the billable services that we can do is what's maintaining the services that we have in our district. Yeah,
quite a balance. What advice would you give other leaders that want to try to acquire funding in this fashion?
Dig into the details you have to, unfortunately, it takes a lot of time and effort to find these sources. Some of them are just baked into the school aid budget that you actually have to apply for and you have to meet. They give you very short deadlines, and so burning the midnight oil was one good piece of advice. Is she's just gonna have to dig in and read some of these things to apply for them. So there's it's really not that difficult. It's just tedious and tenuous to be able to meet the deadlines and put all those pieces together. And I've been around long enough where I know all the pieces and parts and where things fit, so it might take me a little less time than the everyday first year superintendent getting in the seat,
yeah, but you have to have an unwavering focus on getting it done right? You do? You do.
And I'm blessed with some incredible people. My assistant is absolutely amazing, and she and I can pull these things off pretty well. If we can get our teams to help coordinate and gather the information for us, maybe
have the future after when you retire as a grant writer or support person in that regard,
this is not what I find joy.
When I retire, I'm gonna find something that brings me joy. There you
go. I like that. So you've mentored many young leaders in Muskegon County, Kent County, Ottawa. You're very, very involved at a state level with masa, etc. But what's the best piece of leadership advice you've given to someone that you. Issue had known earlier in your career,
that's a great question.
I can tell you some good practices that I've learned over the years that I have passed forward to many people, and I fit this into the category of labor and board relations, one of the best practices that my school board and I are continuing to do is anytime that we have a single board member turnover, the entire school board and I go through what's called one on one training with the Michigan Association of School Boards, MSB, and we establish an understanding of how we're going to operate together. We develop a code of conduct that they sign ceremonially every single year at an organizational meeting. We have a strategic plan where every three to five years we develop that together, but during that training, it's a three hour training all the conversations of norms and expectations that many school boards deliberate, if not, argue over and cause a lot of the stress for a school district. And we just figured out, we figured out a way to be collaborative, and what the expectation, what a superintendent's role is, what a school board role is, is where a lot of conflict happens in school districts. And I am so thankful that I've got the positive relationships there that the level of trust and understanding what my role is, and supporting and supporting me in things that I do for the district. And likewise, I know what their role is, and I'm not trying to pull one by the school board. I know what I make recommendations they make decisions, and I get them the information to make those decisions, and that works pretty well for us. So that would be one area that I think is, sounds simple, but it's rather profound that a lot of people don't do, no. It's
surprising. What people don't realize, in terms of that relationship between a school board member and a leader like yourself and a superintendency, that's just kind of an unknown. And I think sometimes people come into those rules thinking they're going to be running the district, which is not the case, obviously. So setting that stage early like that is a really strong foundation to that strong board you have moving forward. Pretty critical.
Absolutely, it's a world of different going from having one boss to seven and getting that seven to speak as one voice takes openness and people who just genuinely care about kids and not personal agendas. Yeah, yeah,
awesome. So like on the football field back in the day, you are an absolute powerhouse as a leader. We've talked about how you tackle big problems and get around obstacles so well, I feel like you do everything at a high level, you know, and it's important for your district that you do that that way. So how do you stay balanced and find time for yourself amidst the workload of leading a school district? That's a tough one for Supernaturals in a job like you have, is that balance between work life, right? How do you make that happen?
I don't know that I do a very good job of that, but I can tell you what I attempt to do. Fitness and exercise is definitely where I go to and I have a wife who enjoys hiking and walking the dog, and I get to join her occasionally. We like to do adventure travel. When we actually do travel, which is every two to three years, we try to do a big trip together as a family. My daughter is incredible, and we are just spending time with her. She's definitely into the fine arts, and she is incredible at it, and that's definitely getting me into a growth zone for me, because I I've played baseball, wrestling and football, football in college as well, and so this fine art stuff is definitely new. But I absolutely love that my daughter has found a joy, and I find joy in that. And we've actually started going to Broadway shows together to, oh, nice, expand my grow me as a person, and just see her find joy in what she loves too. So between the family, the fitness, I think those two where I go to find balance,
awesome. What's been your favorite Broadway show so far?
Hamilton, my daughter got the video and watched it 65 times. Oh, my buddy actually saw the Broadway show, and she can literally sing every word of every single song while she was sitting there in the audience. So that was pretty amazing. Wow,
that's awesome. Well, Tom I'm ending every podcast with what we're calling a rapid fire session. So it's time for rapid fire. Are you ready for these?
I'll do the best.
Well, just respond quickly and see what we think about these questions. All right, here we go, rapid fire. Do you believe in aliens? No,
no, there's no life out there
anywhere. Haven't seen any Yeah,
I'm on the same page. Just wanted to double check with you Sure. So maybe
would you rather give a surprise presentation to your board of education that you weren't prepared for, or perform a spontaneous dance at a pep rally in your high school
for the right amount of money, I would dance? Whoa. Oh, really, high school? Yeah, it takes, it take a bit, but I'm
gonna start taking up a collection I would like to see that. Let's
see if you can pull that off. Rule with my board, full disclosure, no surprises. So I couldn't understand that dishonor that agreement that we have
sticking with a similar high school theme. Would you rather chaperone a high school dance or a JV football game in the freezing rain,
I'll go with the dance. Wow. I'm
surprised at that one too. Really, yes,
I don't like being cold.
I chaperoned a dance once when I was in Greenville and I didn't care for it. It was just, yeah, high school. High school was a really odd to me as an elementary guy, right?
I would actually attended a dance before in my district, and it was relatively harmless, just like high school, I just stand along the wall. Yeah,
exactly, right. Perfect spot for it, exactly. So you mentioned fitness before and workout that you're workout machine. What's your favorite cheat meal? Pizza? Oh, I love pizza. Yes, Herb grilled Granville or by the mall. Oh, nice. Even every special place. Special place, awesome. Yep. Favorite part of your job,
superintendent is the best and worst job that I've ever had. So best part of my job, I love accomplishments. It's a fault of mine that you're I'm always driving for the next best thing to accomplish. And so best part of our job is just the winning part. The winning part is when you're seeing achievements and seeing students grow and develop and accomplish things, getting the awards for student achievement athletics is great, too. I think that's good to be balanced with that. But accomplishments that's that's always the thing to go for the next best thing. Yeah, what
author or book has had the biggest impact on your leadership? Oh,
author or book.
My high school, my college football offensive lineman coach gave me a book called making the big time where you are. Frosty Western was his college coach who wrote the book, making the big time where you are. I've read it several times. It's just one of those simple read books that you can just get through, real easy, whatever you're doing, make it the best that it can be. Was really about the topic of the book, wow, making the big time where you are. Yeah, all right. Is
it available? Can I look it up on Amazon? Absolutely, it's out there. I
might have to look at that if you can't find it on a bar. What you borrow mine? Oh, very cool.
So what advice would you give to Tom Lindsey, right out of college? Right
out of college? Oh, boy, um,
get after it, you know, that's
best advice. These are more thought provoking, a little bit more than just quick hitting ones, man. These are pretty profound questions, you know, you know, back then it was all I couldn't believe I was getting paid to be a teacher as going through college and being able to develop and to a career I landscaped my way through college, digging holes and filling them was a big motivator for me to finish that degree, and then I actually get paid to be a teacher. So when I were to look back and say, get after it, I mean, it's just get in there and to be a great teacher. And I learned and grew a lot in my first year, a few years as a teacher, and here I am today. So very thankful for the experiences that I've had.
You've definitely gotten accurate, for sure, for sure. All right. One last thought provoking, rapid fire question, What's one word do you hope to find your legacy?
Integrity is has where I'll go with that. It's like, I talk about making a big time where you are, but it's all about being a good person. Integrity is probably the most foundational thing that you know I can think of. Is being a good leader. Lead with integrity.
Awesome. Well, Tom, thank you so much for being a guest and standing tall. I really appreciate your insights as a leader, and I certainly know that our listeners have gained some great information to use in their own leadership journey. Thanks for being here.
Thank you. And one last record, I just completed my first standing tall experience. Yes,
add that to your resume. Absolutely. Thanks Tom, thank you. Well, I'm gonna bring in producer Ben to dive into that and see what the kind of takeaways he got from that interview with Mr. Tom Lizzie from Oak Ridge public schools. What'd you think, Tom, or what'd you think Ben,
I wish I was half the leader. Tom Lizzie was man as I think about how I'll stand on his shoulders as a giant leader. I thought just all he was saying about a leader has to be willing to do all the jobs in an organization hearing him put on that, you know, vacuum backpack and vacuum up puke, like a lot of superintendents would think, that was beneath them, and that speaks volumes to the culture he's building. And those are the type of leaders that you run through a wall for. And I want to be a leader like, Yeah, what
a great role. Model for a staff to see him with that vacuum on his back. I kind of want to picture that myself sometimes should add
it to the album art for this episode. Just Lindsay cleaning up some Yeah. I
also found intriguing how much he has to do to weave together funding to make things happen for kids in his district. Yeah.
And I think that's an intimidating thing for everyone. And what impresses me about him, you give him any intimidating task, and he knows that things that seem impossible just takes hard work to do. And I've seen that from him so many things where it's just like there's an elephant before Him. He knows he can eat it if he just does it a bite at a time, and that's what he's doing
absolutely well. I thought that was a great guest to have on standing tall. I hope you all enjoyed it, listeners and until then, please keep standing tall.