The end of the school year carries a mix of pride and exhaustion. While graduations and promotions mark important milestones, they also arrive after a year where equity-focused leaders have carried significant responsibility, often navigating difficult decisions and tensions.

This moment can be more than closure, it can be a reset. A time for critical self-reflection, one of the core components of the ACSA Transformative Educational Leader (ATEL) Framework.

Consider this your summer reflection: a simple, intentional practice grounded in R.E.S.T., relationships, and belonging.

R.E.S.T. On an episode of ACSA’s Critically Conscious Classroom (CCC), Tovi Scruggs-Hussein described R.E.S.T. as “restoratively embracing self today.” She shared how sometimes it’s about being intentional with micro-moments. Those of us who are guided by our calendar may need to block out some time in our hurried day. ACSA Past President Rafael Plascencia asked us to save just 10 minutes a day to take a walk, close our eyes, meditate, or even just breathe.

Reflect:

• What did you do this year to R.E.S.T.?
• How might you share or model this practice with others?
• What habit can you build now that you will carry into the next school year?

Caring for ourselves allows us to more fully show up for others.

Relationships Transformative leaders understand that strong relationships with students, staff, and families are foundational to their work. Through cultural humility and consistent engagement, communities come to know that leaders genuinely care. Dr. Joaquin Noguera shared on a CCC episode that “isolation, stress, and fatigue are recipes for death, disease, and disaster.” He stated that defeating isolation by building relationships and building community, especially towards shared understandings, is our work as leaders.

Reflect:

• How do you know that the leaders you work with genuinely care about you or about students?
• How does your school community know that you genuinely care?
• How have you engaged others who may feel isolated?
• What relationships have you worked to strengthen?

When relationships are grounded in trust and care, they create the conditions for true belonging.

Belonging Dr. Rene Rickard, our 2026-27 ACSA president, emphasizes the importance of a sense of belonging, the feeling of being accepted and valued, without hiding parts of who we are. During her inaugural speech, she said that people don’t have to be excluded for other people to belong. During the CCC episode on Mahmoud V. Taylor, Principal Pat Hansen-Schmitt discussed how stories can show how people are unique in many different ways, and how we can be kind. They discussed how erasing history and even “erasing the present,” as Principal Lester Powell said, silences certain identities. On another episode of the CCC, Dr. Cherina Betters discussed how we as leaders need to better prepare and support young educators to persist: “We have to make them feel like their story is important, their way of being is important, and that they have something to contribute.”

Reflect:

• What conditions were created for you to have a sense of belonging?
• What conditions are you creating to ensure everyone in your school community belongs?
• What specific spaces and messages would be important to have, so people truly feel accepted and valued?

This summer provides an opportunity for listening tours, outside of the hustle and bustle of school activities. This change up from the norm may offer valuable insight, while deepening trust with your school community.

As you reflect and recommit to your equity work this summer, remember to R.E.S.T.

Anthony Robinson and I commit to recording more Critically Conscious Classroom episodes this summer to support you. You are important to us. We see you.

Tracie Noriega, Ed.D., is ACSA’s senior director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Professional Learning Services.