👋 Welcome to a 🔒 subscriber-only edition 🔒 of Ruckus Makers — the newsletter for bold school leaders who Do School Different. Each week we drop fresh content across our signature styles:
The Reframe → Mindset shifts in 90-seconds.
Dot AI → Supercharged leadership prompts and custom gpts
MEH → The Onion meets Education. What could go wrong?
First in Line → Exclusive access to content before the bookshelf.
The Automatic School → A system that moves you FROM bottleneck TO breakthrough
The Hot Seat → Coaching calls turned into case studies
Digital Danny → Your 24-7 AI-powered leadership coach trained on 4M words of content and ten years of coaching experience.
You can learn more about this premium newsletter here.
The Undercurrent
Jordan heard the first whisper in the hallway. Then the second. By lunch, it wasn’t just a whisper.
“She acts like she’s the only one with a plan,” someone had said — not knowing Andre was within earshot.
He told her out of respect.
“It’s coming from inside,” he said gently.
Jordan nodded. “Who?”
He hesitated. “Carla.”
Carla. Department chair. Instructional Leadership Team. The one who’d clapped the loudest during last month’s staff meeting. Who’d once told Jordan that Franklin finally felt like a school again.
Jordan shut her office door. Sat down. And felt it — that low, sharp ache of betrayal.
Not disagreement. That she could handle.
But this?
This was personal.
She stared at the corner of her desk where the Decision-Making Matrix sat. The 90-day plan. The Flywheel map she’d printed. All the evidence. All the alignment. None of it softened the sting.
She picked up her phone.
Scrolled to Max.
Paused.
Then tapped.
It rang once.
Twice.
“Hey you,” he answered.
Jordan blinked. “You picked up.”
“I always say it. Call when you need something. So I mean it.”
Silence on her end.
Then: “It’s not the district this time. It’s... someone here. Leadership team. They think I’m going rogue. That I’m making all the decisions.”
“Are you?”
“No. But maybe I’m not looping in everyone fast enough. Or maybe they’re just uncomfortable with change.”
“Or maybe,” Max said, “it’s not about the process. Maybe they just don’t like watching you rise.”
Jordan exhaled.
“I keep wondering if I should go talk to her,” she said. “Clear the air.”
“You could,” Max said. “But not every critic needs a coffee meeting. Some people are handing you their own insecurity — and calling it feedback.”
Jordan was quiet.
“You’re not wrong to feel hurt,” Max added. “But don’t lose altitude over one voice. Especially if that voice is protecting the old way.”
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Ruckus Makers to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.