Susan Marino-School Builder
Your Partner in Building
High Performing School Systems
Leveraging
lived expertise,
researched expertise,
and support to build with you.
Build new or existing schools with Susan Marino-School Builder. She provides comprehensive school system start-up expertise, support to build up school system leaders, professional development for education leaders, and school improvement expertise to help you build successful school systems.
About School Building
Building a high performing school system is about coordinating the many components of an organization to effectively work together. It requires deep awareness of the community; connection to needs of the people you serve; complex organizational management; strategic planning; persistent reflection, evaluation, and adjustment; and the understanding that each and every decision will impact outcomes (sometimes the smaller decisions have the greatest effect).
Building each school is a truly unique process. "Best practices" and "evidence-based programs" are a starting point, but they are often studied or implemented in isolation, not in consideration of the full context of building a school system. Building a successful school system requires organizing the many complex pieces of the puzzle not in isolation, but together. When one thing changes, the school builder must consider the ripple effect of that decision. For example, a new literacy program likely impacts hiring, the schedule, finance, federal programs, reporting to the state, data analysis, the MTSS structure, parent involvement, and more (depending on the change).
Leveraging my experiences, research, knowledge, and past successes, I can help position new and existing school leaders to build schools the communities they serve dream of, and schools that best leverage their resources toward great achievements.
About Me
My name is Dr. Susan Marino
I am a school builder.
I build schools and nonprofits from concept to success.
My research builds on personal experience with a deeper understanding of
building public charter schools in Missouri and that which leads to the greatest
successes (or not).
I also build existing schools
from where they are to where they want to go.
I am a builder, a developer, and an innovator with more than 20 years of expertise in education. I built two successful school systems from the ground up: building the systems, structures, and cultures that provide foundational strength to successful organizations. I build existing schools from their current reality toward their long-term goals. I develop the leaders and teachers who make school systems successful, and I develop the comprehensive programs and school systems that lead to great outcomes for students.
And, I innovate. As one state board member stated in one of my charter renewals this past year: “You are doing exactly what the original concept of charters was – to innovate, to change, to move with the times, instead of the times moving you.” I have developed every component of a school - you name it, I have built it - not just once, but several times. I borrowed not just from others’ ideas and best practices, but drew upon my formal research and lived experiences to design new approaches to meet the needs of the moment and the community being served.