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Every job Gonzalo La Cava has taken on begins with chaos. He relishes in the chance to see a system in flux, in need of support, and drive a transformational change, which he’s been able to implement in public education. The current chief human resources officer (CHRO) for Atlanta-area Fulton County Schools is a “second order change” leader. He’s able to identify the roots of school systems facing incredible challenges and create wide-reaching, lasting change for the better.
During his five years as CHRO for Florida’s School District of Palm Beach County, La Cava and his team were able to land a Sterling Award in recognition of their operational excellence and willingness to evolve to meet the needs of their students. As a principal, La Cava oversaw Title I schools, a federal designation that usually denotes high poverty, limited parental support, and students who need additional support just to get to the starting line of where their more fortunate counterparts are.
“My dissertation was on turnarounds,” La Cava says. “There is something about chaos that speaks to me. I know I can wrestle that darkness of chaos into the light. In twenty-seven years, I’ve never done a job that was easy. I’ve been selected for roles based on the need for change.”
La Cava has always been able to successfully work in challenging districts and positions, but one thing that has supported his achievements has been the vast network of leaders who believed and mentored him. As CHRO, La Cava had limited experience working in the business side of public education. However, his ability to lead teams, identify problems, and implement solutions have been the attributes that helped make him successful, landing his team the Sterling Award.
Since coming on as Fulton County Schools’ CHRO in 2022, La Cava has worked to create a better and more holistic environment for employees of the school system. The CHRO is well-accustomed to the statistics and data he needs to analyze in order to better address challenges. However, La Cava says diagnosing issues is often easier than that.
“I always say if people are not having fun doing work, there’s something that might be systemically at fault. Or it might be part of a culture issue that needs to be addressed,” La Cava explains. “That’s the first thing I notice. We do this job at least sixty percent of our time—and in education, especially, you must have that fulfillment because it’s a very demanding job. So, you must start with addressing some processes and assessments to see where you can start to drive change.”
Internally, La Cava is willing to throw some big stones to create the ripple of change he wants to see. In this case, that’s the “You Rock” award for his HR division. On a monthly basis, several HR employees receive an actual rock in recognition of their hard work.
What’s more? La Cava says he’s seen a similar trend over the years. In the beginning, employees want to talk about salary. But ultimately, recognition and appreciation become paramount. The CHRO believes that people fundamentally want to do their best work, and by celebrating those people, they understand that the larger organization sees their efforts and appreciates them.
“Incentivization in the education industry is different than the private sector. We must find a way to motivate leaders to care and build for the next set of leaders in more ways than just compensation.”
Gonzalo La Cava
More broadly, La Cava and his team engage on a differentiated career pathway for Fulton County Schools that is incredibly rare for any school system.
“We’ve created three phases that accompany employees through their whole experience,” the CHRO says. “Phase one is about how you become a Fulton employee. There is a twelve-to-eighteen-month orientation and onboarding, where we try to educate people as much as we can about everything that we do here.”
Phase two is more job specific. Employees can examine the various pathways of career advancement, such as how a bus driver can grow into a management role or how a teacher might get into leadership.
The third phase is about coaching.
“We have to ask ourselves, ‘How do we get people who have graduated in their roles to coach our new hires or people interested in growing their own careers?’” La Cava says. “Incentivization in the education industry is different than the private sector. We must find a way to motivate leaders to care and build for the next set of leaders in more ways than just compensation. I think it’s a critical piece of building the kind of culture where people continue to seek out new challenges.”
In creating change, La Cava says his own approach to transformation has undergone some gentle retooling. His parents, Uruguayan immigrants, instilled the CHRO with the need to work hard without excuse. La Cava is driven, and he knows that his intensity at times may be hard to encounter.
“I think I used to come in like a tornado,” La Cava says. “We fixed problems. But, at the end of the day, people were tired of the change. I’ve learned that you need to celebrate the successes first. Your people need to understand that they’re doing great work. And if you want them to come with you on a journey, they need to understand that we’re all in this together.”
La Cava’s success is, unsurprisingly, in part to his own high school counselor, Mr. Kelly. La Cava says he hadn’t considered attending college up until his senior year when his counselor helped him create a path forward to further his own education.
La Cava knows just how much power public education can provide its students, and he’s helping ensure that the adults responsible for empowering those students are empowered themselves.
Intalage imagines a future where students freely interact with teachers from around the world, either through technology or in person. We’re working to grow a network where America’s children have continual access to new ideas, new techniques, and new opportunities for learning. We’d like every child in the country to learn from an international teacher in some way, so they can engage with a world beyond their own. We believe this wider perspective will spark empathy, innovation, and commitment to knowledge. Students who develop these foundational skills will contribute to our country’s excellence and help pave the way for a brighter, kinder world. To learn more about Intalage, visit www.intalage.com or email [email protected].
