Lamar Consolidated ISD is growing fast.

With nearly 50,000 students, more than 7,000 staff, over 70,000 devices, and multiple new campuses opening each year, technology leadership isn't simply about keeping systems running. It's about building an IT organisation capable of growing with the district.

In this episode of Strategic Syncing, Dr. Chad Jones joins James Symons to talk about what leadership looks like when technology has to work at scale.

Chad shares the pressure his team faced after a major Windows 11 rollout created unexpected device issues at the beginning of the school year, and why he personally went back into campuses on weekends to help reimage computers alongside his team.

They also explore how hypergrowth changes the way IT leaders need to think.

Processes that worked when a district opened one school may no longer work when six new campuses are opening in a single summer. For Chad, that means constantly questioning systems, empowering his team to find better ways of working, and surrounding himself with people who know more than he does.

The conversation also explores the culture Chad wants his technology team to represent: professionalism, respect, and kindness.

And in one of the episode's most interesting stories, Chad explains how he built a library of hundreds of short training videos more than a decade ago to solve a seemingly impossible challenge: training thousands of staff on a new student information system with a team of only two people.

It's a conversation about scale, accountability, innovation, and the leadership required to keep technology working when an entire organisation depends on it.