Benchmark – Reviving the Professional Culture 1

Benchmark – Reviving the Professional Culture

LaShondra Evans

Grand Canyon University: EAD 513- 0501

January 31, 2021

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Maynard High School is in its beginning stages of development. The campus has only

been open for one year. The opening principal has resigned along with one of the assistant

principals. There are also seven teacher positions open for the next school year. Maynard is off to

a rocky start and part of that is because there is a safeguard of stability missing on the campus.

A top priority for me is to make sure that the staff is taken care of, to create a sense of loyalty

towards the campus. As the new principal, I want to create an atmosphere of unity and working

together towards a common goal. The first step in ensuring this is by sharing the mission and

vision of the campus.

The mission for Maynard High School is to create lifelong learners that are productive,

contributing members of society by guaranteeing that each student has educational experiences

that enhance their confidence, integrity, self-awareness, and passion in today’s global

community. The vision behind the mission is the following:

 We will accomplish our mission by cultivating excellence in every using the best

research – based teaching practices.

 We will treat each student as equal individuals with unique potential.

 We will incorporate and use technology in the curriculum to keep students competent in

the modern world.

 We will help each student reach their full potential by filling any academic gaps.

To determine a desired outcome, one must identify the problem and specifically ask

themselves, “What am I trying to solve?” Maynard High School needs a solid foundation to get

the campus on the right path to build a legacy of teacher and student success. From my

observations, it’s clear that the curriculum and professional development is not working, which

is a recipe to create frustration for the teachers and students. Overall, the campus is lacking the
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necessary systems that need to be in place so that the campus can run like a well-oiled machine.

The campus is also lacking a sense of loyalty and pride. Once the proper systems are in place, the

staff will take pride and therefore become loyal to what the campus stands for. My hope is to

reduce the turnover rate at which this campus has started. Two critical parts of the leadership

team have abandoned the new campus without completing the school year, so how would you

expect teachers stay when the going gets tough? With this being said, an immediate goal is to

secure the staff vacancies. By the end of the next school year, my goal is to have created a

campus with a positive culture.

I believe that the staff should have a voice in choosing their leadership. I will create a

hiring committee to aid in securing all vacant positions. This committee will consist of the two

current assistant principals, instructional coaches, counselors and 2-3 current teachers. When

hiring for the assistant principal position, the associate superintendent over my campus will be

involved with that interview. All other positions will use the hiring committee without the

associate superintendent. The teachers for the hiring committee will be teachers who apply for

the committee on their own accord. These teachers will be chosen based on feedback from peers,

the current assistant principals, and their application. Once the hiring committee is secured,

interviews will began to fill the current and future vacant positions. Once interviews are

completed for a position, the committee will first make an initial anonymous vote for the top

three candidates. Once the top three candidates are decided by the votes, then another voting

process will began. This time each member will openly discuss the top three candidate’s

strengths and weaknesses. From there, the candidate for each position will be chosen.

To lay the foundation towards creating a positive culture, I would conduct a campus

needs base assessment for the current staff. I want the staff to know that their voice and opinion
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is vital to campus. The needs based assessment would account all perspective voices such as

paraprofessionals, school psychologist, speech pathologist, and relevant district leadership that is

for the Maynard campus. The key data points in the needs assessment will be student

achievement, school culture, technology, and family and community involvement. The needs

assessment will be extremely valuable information because it will give me a baseline on all

aspects of the campus. The needs assessment will allow me to identify what is working for the

campus as well as making first steps towards improvements for the campus. I would keep the

needs assessment anonymous to allow participants to be completely honest without feeling like

they are at risk of getting in trouble. The results of the needs assessment will help determine

many decisions but I also can see priorities that need to be established from my own

observations.

A great leader always establishes a great team around themselves. I would get to know

my administrative team and have them to get to know each other personally and professionally to

form an unbreakable bond. I would establish roles and responsibilities amongst the team.

Everyone needs to grow and without proper evaluations, teachers are not sure of their strengths

and weaknesses. I would make certain that the assistant principals are well trained on giving

walkthroughs and evaluations. As an administrative team, we would learn, reflect, and come

together in agreeance on what a good evaluation looks like.

A school will make very little impact on student achievement without a viable

curriculum. The impact is even less if the curriculum is not use correctly. I have observed that

teachers are lacking the guidance and facilitation on the available curriculum. To resolve this

issue, I would establish department heads for each content and elective classes. The department

heads would be trained on the curriculum relevant to them, becoming experts. They will also be
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trained on the PLC model to conduct productive PLCs. A productive, well run PLC is one of the

most powerful tools for student achievement as well as teacher growth and achievement. The

curriculum would be established during PLCs. The department heads will create a “we’re all in

this together culture” in the PLCs. This family minded culture will become the norm on the

campus. Teachers will observe each other, highlight teachers that are doing well and support

teachers that are struggling. When struggling teachers make it to the other side and are excelling

and growing, it becomes a celebration for everyone because of the togetherness atmosphere. To

take the curriculum to another level, I would have the professional development be a

collaborative interactive face to face session instead of having teachers download the information

to complete on their own.

I will change the culture of the staff to become positive by being consistent, transparent,

fair, and humorous. I would establish an open door policy among the teachers and staff. I will

give the staff special treats and pick me ups on a regular basis. I would also have my

administrative team lead with a servant leadership style, putting teachers and students first. The

leadership team would have the mindset that if teachers are taken care of, the students will be

taken care of. I would also create opportunities for teachers to become leaders or take lead in

projects for the campus.

To creative a positive culture and school spirit for the students, I would have behavior

and academic incentives. I would create a student advisory board to represent the voices of the

students. I would also conduct a needs assessment among the students. This would give me

information on student concerns such as safety, sports, and academics.

The parents and community are critical stakeholders towards the culture of the campus. I

would create opportunities for parents/community to come to campus to receive information

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about the campus or various events. I would make sure that Maynard High School has an

account on all social media platforms to inform parents about special events. Parents would be

able to volunteer throughout the school year. I would create a welcoming atmosphere to the

parents and community so that they would feel comfortable on campus grounds.

Maynard High School is just getting started and I plan on working diligently to create a

campus of love, family, and friendship while excelling at student achievement.

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References

Brown, P., & Vaughn, L. (2015). COMMUNICATION: The Unspoken Key to School

Culture. Principal Leadership, 15(7), 32–37.

Wilbanks, J. (2018). An Award-Winning Way to Partner with Parents. Education Digest, 83(7),

53–57.

Leddy, H. G. (2019). Involved Minority Parents Enhance the Quality of Elementary

School. Education Digest, 84(8), 55–61.

DeWitt, P. (2017). Many Hands Make Light Work: How collaborative leadership leads to

collective efficacy. Principal, 97(1), 28–33.