Alpaca

19 days until the Little Wins Workshop! ✨

If you lead a building, a team, or just want to lead better, this one's for you!

One day, two tracks, ten sessions, and three keynotes that will jump start your prep for your 2026-2027 school culture plan.

Join us June 10th for the virtual workshop 🎟️ getalpaca.com/little-wins-workshop

Meet Mike Smith Live 👋 Professional Misfit, Founder of The Bay, and one of our Little Wins Workshop speakers on June 10th!

His session is called Innovation by Design: Breaking the Rules Inside the Lines, and the name says it all!

This isn't a session about doing more with less or thinking outside the box. It's about figuring out exactly what your box is as a school leader - budget, staffing, district constraints, all of it - and using design thinking to solve real problems inside it.

Mike's session will be fast, interactive, and built to leave you with one or two ideas you can try the next week!

Early bird pricing closes EOD Wednesday!

Register for the June 10th virtual workshop at → getalpaca.com/little-wins-workshop

Announcing our next speakers: Genevive Core and Susan Toohey 📣

Their session, Growing the Shared Leadership Model, is built around a simple idea: when more people have true ownership over decisions, the whole organization grows.

They'll walk through how they've used surveys, team structures, and intentional transparency to move from leader-driven choices to team-driven ones with the kind of real-life examples that make you want to try something differently on June 11!

If you want more buy-in, less top-down, and a staff that feels heard, this one's for you!

Register today → getalpaca.com/little-wins-workshop

The Sunshine Superlatives activity in action ☀️

Shoutout to Becky Wagner and the team at Cleveland Road Elementary for bringing the Sunshine Superlatives activity from this month’s Alpaca Pack principal resource to life! We love seeing schools create fun moments of recognition, celebration, and connection for their staff.

Announcing our lunch keynote: Michael Bennett 📣

Michael has led classrooms, schools, and districts. And today, as Deputy Commissioner for P-12 Operational Support at the New York State Education Department, he's working at the highest levels of American education to make schools better for everyone in them, including the adults.

On June 10, he's bringing that journey to Little Wins Workshop!

His session, "Healthy Leaders, Healthy Schools: Prioritizing Adult Well-Being", isn't a policy talk, but rather a conversation with other leaders guiding schools today. It's the kind of message that only lands when it comes from someone who has actually sat in your seat and learned, often through experience, that you can't lead well when you're running on empty.

You'll hear where he came from, his unique perspective and experiences, and why he believes the most important thing you can do for your students might start with taking better care of yourself.

June 10 - Virtual Workshop - 12:30 PM CT

Get your ticket today 👉 getalpaca.com/little-wins-workshop

As the school year winds down, April’s data is a powerful reminder of the impact educators are making every day. 💛

Across 21,000+ Pulse responses, educators shared over 8,000 bright spots, with team support, student growth, and learning from colleagues leading the way.

There’s also a strong culture of showing up for one another, with appreciation and connection continuing to shape the day-to-day experience.

At the same time, energy is something to be mindful of in this final stretch. Many educators are feeling tired and stretched, and they’re naming simple supports that would help most like time to recharge and quick check-ins.

That’s where Alpaca Pulse comes in, helping leaders celebrate the impact and support their teams in simple, meaningful ways.

We’re heading to the LHRIC Tech Expo 🚀

The Alpaca team is excited to connect with school leaders and tech teams from across the region as we talk all things staff voice, connection, and simple ways to support your people.

Stop by Booth #7 to say hi, share a Little Win, and check out ready-to-use ideas you can bring back to your team right away.

If you’re attending, we’d love to meet you. See you there! 💛

Celebrating Kimberly's 4-year anniversary at Alpaca! 🎉

From Employee #1 to VP of Marketing, Kimberly has helped shape just about everything you see and feel at Alpaca. Our brand and marketing, how we show up for schools, the way we build with our customers. Her impact is everywhere!

She pushes us to think bigger, get better, and always ask: what should we do next? And somehow she brings both a high bar for excellence and a whole lot of joy to everything along the way.

We're incredibly lucky to have her on this team, and we can't wait to see what Year 5 brings ✨

Happy anniversary, Kimberly!

Read the full team letter → teamletter.getalpaca.com/p/four-years-as-employee-1-in-a-start

The final bell is almost here… and it’s time to celebrate 🎉

Our May pack recognizes the incredible impact educators have made this year and brings a little extra fun to the final stretch. Because the heart, energy, and dedication you’ve poured into your students deserve to be celebrated.

With a custom dance party button, confetti, and a fun way to celebrate each other, this pack helps close out the year on a high note.

How are you celebrating your team this month? 👇

One of the biggest takeaways from our new School Culture Report 2026: the Back-to-School energy and Teacher Appreciation Week gestures are meaningful and joyful (and very important!), but they aren't enough on their own.

Across 8 months and 33,144 pulse check-ins, one pattern showed up everywhere: positivity peaks at 82% in August, bottoms out at 72% in November, and then it climbs back through spring.

That arc is almost identical across schools, districts, and states. Which means the dip isn't a crisis, it's a pattern. And good news: patterns can be planned for!

The report breaks down 10 leadership practices that move culture across the entire year. A few that show up again and again:

→ Meetings and gatherings staff love to attend
→ Recognition that names something specific, not generic praise
→ Follow-through teachers can see and feel

Small, repeatable, and built for the months when energy dips, not just the weeks when it peaks.

Dig into the full report at the schoolculturereport.com 👈

We're looking for a Customer Success Coordinator to join Alpaca!

If you're equal parts communicator, problem-solver, and storyteller — this might be your role.

In this role, you'll:

→ Onboard new customers onto Alpaca's platform
→ Train school and district leaders to get the most out of our tools
→ Turn customer wins into stories, testimonials, and case studies
→ Advise our product team on what customers need
→ Travel to education conferences to meet customers (current & future)

You'll thrive here if you've worked in onboarding, training, or customer support, and you love being face to face with the people you serve. Bonus points if you've been an educator yourself, know your way around HubSpot, or can build a beautiful resource in Canva before lunch.

This is an in-office role at our HQ in Omaha, NE in the Millwork Commons neighborhood.

Know someone who'd thrive here? Tag them below! If that someone is you, apply at getalpaca.com/careers 👈