Join Us for the TALAS & Central TALAS Summer Leadership Summit 

TALAS and Central TALAS invite you to the annual Summer Leadership Summit, a powerful two-day gathering of superintendents, senior district leaders, and educational partners dedicated to advancing Latino leadership across Texas.

“Fuerza in Our Roots, Poder in Our People” celebrates the cultural heritage, collective strength, and shared commitment that unite Latino educational leaders. This summit honors the power of our history, values, and purpose in driving student success and shaping the future of education.

June 22–23, 2026 | Concordia University

June 22, 2026

Lunch and two breakout sessions

Evening Inaugural President’s Dinner (additional cost) recognizing outstanding chapter leadership and L3 Cohort 12 participants

June 23, 2026

Breakfast and lunch

Three breakout sessions

Featured breakout with Miguel Cardona, former U.S. Secretary of Education

Closing keynote and book signing with author Robert Alfaro, Baloney, Baloney, Baloney!

Together, we will explore how our roots ground us, our people uplift us, and our unity empowers the future of education.

Early Bird registration is available through March 30, 2026.Don’t miss this inspiring and impactful leadership experience!

Cancellation & Refund Policy

All registration and sponsorship fees are non-refundable. If you are unable to attend, your registration or sponsorship fee will be considered a donation to TALAS. Upon request, a donation acknowledgment letter will be provided for your records.

I.

“Your response to a challenge defines you more than the challenge itself.”

II.

“Compete against yourself.

When you look outside — your rivals, your industry, your luck — there is always something to blame.

When you look inside — your process, your effort, your rate of learning — there is always something to improve.

Average looks out. Elite looks in.”

It’s tough being the boss. Many people have expressed this sentiment over the years, from William Shakespeare (“Heavy is the head that wears the crown”) to Voltaire (“With great power comes great responsibility”). And yes, both of those lines have been invoked to describe the profound weight carried by Peter Parker in his lifelong solitary mission as Spider-Man.

School administrators are not superheroes, of course, but we are often expected to perform at superhuman levels. To be a great administrator, however, requires good, ongoing, and actionable feedback on your own performance and on the performance of the school in general. We all know that tracking student achievement data is important, and many of us follow demographic trends, suspension data, and budget cycles, and use other metrics to reflect on how things are going. But there are also many intangibles, like teacher morale, parent impressions of the school, and student experience, that won’t be captured in test scores but are nonetheless central to a school’s success.

When I considered the switch from being a kindergarten teacher to an administrator, I thought about the impact I wanted to have on a school’s culture. As a teacher, I prioritized relationships with students, often conducting home visits and partnering with families to ensure academic success. I engaged students in inquiry-based learning opportunities that were a catalyst for growth as evidenced by data. There were initiatives and partnerships that I established in my classroom that I knew could benefit the larger school community.

Superintendents who recognized my efforts and nudged me into school leadership often encouraged me to document my impact on students and what was working in my practice. Additionally, supervising administrators challenged me to consider how I could scale my practices into specific action steps or a road map to transform instructional systems.

Forget Balance

Don’t balance tough and tender. 50% truth is a lie. 50% kindness is manipulation.

Don’t show up being gentle one minute and a sledgehammer the next.

Kindness makes you miserable when you can’t confront difficult situations. Stress goes up. Relationships are fake. Pleasing sucks the life out of you.

Truthfulness without kindness pushes people away. Expectations are billy clubs. Anger permeates interactions.

Kindness and truth don’t compete; they’re glorious together.