Alliance for Catholic Education
Friends,
This week I'd like to share a short 'ancora imparo' story about school culture and the value of constantly polishing it.
Last week, the teachers at St. John the Evangelist Catholic School in Tucson, Arizona were worried about their school culture. They had worked hard on it, and as the school grew from 130 students to nearly 350 over four years, they managed to maintain a strong, positive, intentional culture through persistence, vigilance, grit, and zeal. So when they started seeing a pattern of inappropriate language in the middle school, they grew concerned and raised the issue at their faculty meeting. The principal, Keiran Roche, wanted to maintain the strong school culture he and his team have worked so hard to build by jumping on this problem right away and encouraged them to address the issue in their "Thunder Club" mentoring groups. So he sent an email out to his faculty that read, in part:
Thunder Clubs: This week when you meet a big topic of concern has been inappropriate language with the middle school. Please have a word in the ear with students about appropriate language especially if you have 6th grade students. Talk to them about what is appropriate and what is not and how to respond if someone brings up inappropriate conversations.
Rodney Pierre-Antoine, director of the Notre Dame ACE Academies, is included on the faculty listserv at St. John, and when he saw Keiran's email he saw an immediate opportunity for the principal to use this moment to polish up the school culture. He called the principal right away and reminded him, "You know, when I read your email, I immediately thought about one of the root beliefs you have posted throughout the school - that at St. John, we are 'doers of the Word.' Have you thought about how you could talk about the kids' language use in relation to that root belief?"
That simple question was all it took. The principal replied immediately, "I didn't even think of that. Great idea. Thanks for the reminders to keep school culture front-of-mind - and please keep 'em coming."
The principal was right to worry about the culture in the face of even a seemingly small pattern of infractions, because like a lot of us, he buys into the broken windows theory of school culture, that "the little things can become the big things." But in his haste to deal with the problem, he missed a key element of culture building.
Being intentional about school culture is, in part, about addressing issues when they come up; it's about interventions. But it's also about HOW you intervene, and it's about WHY you intervene the way you do. And the strength of a school culture - I think - is related to the distance between the root belief that drives that intervention and the intervention itself.
In his next email to his team, the principal reduced the distance between the root belief and the intervention - and he inserted a few more root beliefs while he was at it:
Important reminder that Thunder Clubs start at 2:35pm tomorrow. Here at St. John the Evangelist one of our root beliefs is "Every Minute Counts." Please display the root belief "Every Minute Counts" by picking up your students at 2:35 pm from the classrooms.
Our root beliefs are truly driving all that we do. Please note again the purpose of the Thunder Clubs is the little conversations you are to have as the adult mentor. Both our root belief "Doers of the Word" and "Nothing Short of Excellence" should be mentioned tomorrow as you talk to students about appropriate or inappropriate language in the middle school.
Thank you for making Thunder Clubs an exciting addition to our school culture.
Strong school culture isn't just about fixing broken windows - or correcting inappropriate language. At St. John, for example, it's about helping kids understand what it means to be Doers of the Word and not abusers of words. What root beliefs drive the interventions that are happening at your school? How tightly aligned are the beliefs and the interventions? Are the beliefs explicitly communicated consistently and energetically?
One last note - the thing I love about this example is that it shows how principals who are awesome at this kind of work need reminders too. Keiran Roche thinks more about his school culture than any principal I know. St. John is an exceptional example of strong school culture. But nobody does it 100% right 100% of the time, and I love that Keiran's response to Rodney was not to be defensive or backtrack but instead he expressed gratitude for the ideas and asked Rodney to "keep 'em coming."
- Christian
PS For an example of Keiran's capacity to communicate his school's beliefs and values consistently and energetically, take a look at this recent article about the school in the Archdiocese of Portland's paper. This is one seriously on-message school leader.