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Summary of Conversation: Gary Sheng and Tim Eyerman (June 3, 2025)

This document summarizes a conversation between Gary Sheng and Tim Eyerman on June 3, 2025, primarily focused on the upcoming "Alphas Activate" event, parental engagement strategies, and Tim's transition into a new role focusing on charter school expansion for Alpha Schools.

1. Introduction and Gary's Role​

  • Gary explained his entry into Alpha via the Gauntlet AI program and his events background, which led to discussions with Joe Liemandt about a "Davos in the US except with an educational bent."
  • His current focus is on organizing events to gather local influencers, building on a successful event in late April. The upcoming June 14th event at the Alpha middle and high school campus is an experiment in this model.
  • Gary clarified his role: "If I were to guess where this could go, it's like something around events that grow the movement. Like, where it's it's not like so specifically just parents, but like it'd be in collaboration with parents, the Dean of parents."

2. "Alphas Activate" Event (June 14th)​

  • Purpose: To gather local influencers and parents to grow the Alpha ecosystem and movement, shaping the future of education.
  • CTA: Attendees to become "Alpha Activators" and commit to actions via "Alpha Activator Commitment Cards" (e.g., explore sending kids to Alpha, political leaders advancing school choice, journalists spreading the word, exploring international partnerships).
  • Parental Involvement: Tim, as the outgoing Dean of Parents, was seen as key to engaging current Alpha parents. Gary shared draft email communications for Tim to potentially send out.
  • Coordination with Jonathan Stewart (Head of Engagement):
    • Gary had recently been introduced to Jonathan and shared event details with him.
    • Tim agreed it was crucial to align with Jonathan: "I would want to just align with how he wants this to go out and and when... I don't want my email to go out the same day his goes out."
    • They decided to hold off on Tim sending any communications until Jonathan Stewart confirmed his strategy.
    • Gary plans to loop Tim into the email thread with Jonathan for synchronization.
  • Audience for Communication: Tim confirmed he could easily blast an email to "every single Alpha family" via their ParentSquare platform. He also asked if the communication should go to sister schools (Texas Sports Academy, NextGen GT), which Gary confirmed: "this is an Alpha's Alpha ecosystem thing, so including the sister schools."

3. Tim Eyerman's Transition and New Role​

  • New Role: Tim is transitioning from Dean of Parents to a new role focused on national expansion for Alpha's charter schools. "I'm gonna help with national expansion for our charter schools... helping with the authoring submission and then um eventual, like hearings and and approval process for all of these."
  • Background: Tim has a background in charter school and public education. He was instrumental in getting Alpha's Arizona charter school approved in December.
  • Relocation: He is moving back to Arizona, as the new role can be remote. He has informed Andy Price.
  • Timeline: He is currently "finishing out my time in Austin."
  • Event Attendance: Tim will not be in Austin for the June 14th event.

4. Future of the Dean of Parents Role​

  • Tim mentioned he'd be happy to download information with the new Dean of Parents: "whoever moves into that Dean of parents, um position, it's really, I'm really there to helpoubt."
  • He anecdotally noted the job posting for the new Dean of Parents seemed to align more with what Gary described (proactive, evangelizing events) than his own more reactive tenure: "I have led a largely reactive school year... I definitely think they're looking for someone to be more proactive and look to to host larger, like evangelizing events, like the one you're describing."
  • The hiring for the new Dean of Parents seems to be in progress, as the posting is no longer up.

5. Collaboration and Communication​

  • Both Gary and Tim emphasized the importance of collaborative work within Alpha's often overlapping ecosystem.
  • Gary: "I never want to be a perceived as as someone trying to like intentionally step on someone's lane... I'm glad to be in touch with Jonathan and you and um just just want to work collaboratively with everyone."
  • Tim appreciated Gary's draft communications for the event: "It looks like that's how I would have written it and how well how how my my GBT I built for my communication would have answered it, so it looks good to me."

Key Takeaways & Next Steps​

  1. Event Communication: Wait for Jonathan Stewart to respond to Gary with his communication plan before Tim sends anything to Alpha parents. Gary will loop Tim into that communication.
  2. Tim's New Role: Tim is shifting to a national charter school expansion role, leveraging his expertise in that area, and will be based remotely in Arizona.
  3. Collaboration: Gary, Tim (in his new capacity), and the future Dean of Parents will likely need to work closely on movement-building and parent engagement strategies.
  4. Information Sharing: Tim is willing to share context about parent engagement with Gary and the new Dean of Parents.

This conversation clarified Tim's evolving role within Alpha, coordinated communication strategies for the upcoming event, and set the stage for future collaboration on expanding Alpha's reach and impact.