Reviving the Professional Culture image
Scenario Summary

The scenario at Maynard High School is very daunting. The culture is depressing because there are 45 teachers, seven of these teachers teach core subjects and are leaving and one of the assistant principals has resigned. Now, as the new principal in July, I need to hire 16 new full-time teachers and one new assistant principal.

This will be challenging because this school seems to have a bad reputation and might discourage qualified teachers from teaching and bring the expertise that will be greatly needed to this school. Also, collaboration within the school is needed with quality PD for the curriculum, strategies to engage the students in meaningful academic concepts, and teachers to communicate and correspond in the professional community to stay updated with new ideas and concepts that will enhance their teaching skills. Thus, without these learning opportunities for the teachers, counselors, and other staff members, it would be imperative to establish a positive enrichment for all stakeholders to absorb and welcome this new school into the proper existences.

With this new year there will be three returning counselors and one new one. The office staff will stay the same, one administrator for the principal and two for the assistant principals, one attendance clerk and one receptionist. On my first day as principal, I will have a meeting with all staff members to see how they feel about the school, its culture, communication system with parents and community and how things were run. I also want to collaborate on ways to improve and keep the existing staff.

Since this school is in its second year of existence, there will be a new senior’s class of 450 students out of 1,100 ninth through eleventh graders. I want to have these students prepared for the real world outside of high school. Thus, this means that I need to investigate with their counselors their goals, dreams, and future so that we can guide them toward establishing them.
Also, I want their input in navigating our school’s success, including them in the overall structure of this school’s victory and accomplishments.

Mission, Vision, Outcome

Our mission at Maynard High School is to prepare our students to be critical thinkers, lifetime learners and conscience leaders of the future by fostering and engaging in real world problems and solutions, collaborating, and communicating within and around the community.
Maynard’s vision is to engage students in real world problems, collaborate in meaningful dialogue that respects, and tolerates differences among people. Students will actively engage in building their self - esteem, and consciousness as they develop their own thought process, learned skills to become critical thinkers, life - long learners, and leaders of the future.

Thus, students short term goals will be to communicating with counselors, administrators, and teachers how they vision our school to be, collaborate with peers on plans to incorporate their ideas into reality, and being responsible for their needs and academic success.
Student’s long-term goals will be to plan out their future and goals and how to give back to their community.

Collaborating for Data

To start the new year off, I will first conduct several meetings with the staff. The purpose of this meeting is to identify their goals in life and for the school, their personal achievements and strengths, and the ones for the school, the concerns that are and are not aligned with the mission, vision, and culture of the school. Starting with the assistant principals we will discuss and collaborate on these things to see if their vision is aligned with the schools and mine. Afterwards, we will conduct meetings with the different departments: teachers, administrative support, counselors, lunch staff, custodians, and yard supervisors etc. From here we as a group will decide the school’s goal, mission, and vision. I will acknowledge the strengths of individuals and their achievements to show appreciation for what they do. Also, to allow others to know this individual strength and collaborate with them for support when needed. (Deal, T. E., & Peterson, K. D. 2016).

Questions:

Some questions that will be discussed are: what is the current mission and vision? Why didn’t it work? What needs to be changed? What should our new mission and vision consist of that reflects our school, the students, and goals to ensure their success. Even though I have created one, I am asking for thoughts, opinions, and constructive ideas to make it represent the school. Once we have established our new mission and vision statement, we will have each department collaborate on ways to implement them. (Deal, T. E., & Peterson, K. D. 2016).

Student Meeting

The next meeting will be with the students. I want to hear their concerns, ideas and improvement plans that will help make them appreciate, anticipate, and engage in promoting the success of their school. In this meeting I will introduce the new mission and vision of the school, its purpose and how as a group we will establish them with collaborations and support from them, their parents and community. For the first two weeks of school, teachers will be engaged in gathering students’ concerns, what did and didn’t work from the previous year, and why? Achievements, what students want to make this high school spectacular, above and beyond all other high schools in the area?

Teacher’s Goals

The teacher’s goals are to establish class discussion to gather, analyze and help students make plans to incorporate their ideas into reality. For each department and grade level the teachers will split the grade levels up into several groups. For example, the math department will work with the 9th graders. The 3-4 teachers will divide the class up among themselves and gather, analyze then come together to implement a durable plan that will engage student’s ideas into existence. They will also have several representatives from each sub-group to inform their classmates of the collaborated plan they will do. Part of the goals are to allow students to use resources to communicate, gather and analyze their findings. These opportunities will help establish students to be engaging, problem solvers of real -life situations, critical thinkers, build self- esteem, and conscience of their environment as they lead their peers into meaningful achievements for this school.

Parent / Community Meeting

My next meeting will be with the parents and the community. The staff and I will actively engage with them through all media resources, surveys and meet and greet opportunities. This would be in a forum hall to allow others to see, engage and socialize within the community. Also, my goal is to inform all stakeholders of the new changes, give opportunities for them to participate, hear their concerns and achievement of the school and their personal stories to understand the community, their culture, and values. This will also help the staff members to get a better understanding of the students and their home life. I also want to be able to know what people’s expertise’s are, so I can get help from them within the community. Upon leaving this meeting I would hope to have all participants engaging, trusting in our ability to improve, incorporate their concerns and ideas into viable concepts that support our mission and vision of the future. I believe that using Brown, P., & Vaughn, L. 2015 approach of communicating with parents and stakeholders will lead to a positive school culture because they know and understand the mission, vision, and goals of the school. Also, this allows them to input, help navigate and participate in the process, which will unite the school and community into one.

Productive Family Relationships

Once the meet and greet had been established, the staff and I understood the family culture and dynamics, I plan on using the media outlets to continue an open communications line with the parents to inform them of the upcoming events, student achievements, concerns, progress with our new mission, vision, and goals. Teachers will also be using these platforms to connect with families at least 2-3 times a quarter as they inform them of the progress their child is making, (Deal, T. E., & Peterson, K. D. 2016), strategies to help students at home, (Leddy, H. G. 2019), and available resources that we offer for them and their child.
Another aspect that I will be incorporating with parents is from Deal and Peterson, Shaping School Culture (3rd ed.), is to have them volunteer 30- 40 hours a year. For this, I believe will help build a relationship with the school, make them feel comfortable in seeking help with problems, and it shows that we value who they are as individuals and with their culture values and differences. For students, this will be a very important learning opportunity for them to establish respect and tolerance for others because being exposed to the differences of people and cultures allows them to recognize and respect these differences. Also, it will establish diversity awareness and help the students understand other values and family dynamics. Thus, I still plan on establishing a school media platform asking parents for ways to continue our improvement plan and using the available resources from them and community. I think this will allow parents and community members to frequently voice their ideas, resources, and plans that I will read and bring to the staff’s attention. My plan is to connect staff, parents, and community members with the same ideas together and allow them to implement their improvement plan. I believe that giving staff members the opportunity to lead in a project (s) will help them revitalize their personal interest in the growing progression of the school’s mission, vision, and goals. (Cook, H. J. 2017). Also, allowing parents and community members to invest in our school will show that we want their support, trust on both sides is built and the interest in the community’s well- being is established. This platform will be an ongoing concept that will be part of our tradition, history, and communications within the school, parent, and community. (Deal, T. E., & Peterson, K. D. 2016).

I believe that many parents and the community will enjoy the efforts they have put in once they see and recognize how important their ideas are and they are working to build a better environment for their students to become leaders of tomorrow.

Productive Community Partnership

To engage the community in a partnership, I plan on using the same method as I did for the parents, which is to have an open media platform, (blogs, face book, twitter, etc.) to where they can see our progress, write concerns, strategies, ideas for upcoming events etc. I think this is a good way to keep them informed about what we are doing, planning and how these things will be conducted. Also, I plan on asking the community for donations twice a year and needed resources from their company and the health care department, free dental, vision and shots for our school’s student body For example, I would contact the headquarters of Home Depot/ Lowe’s and ask for paint, building or carpentry supplies. As a community we can organize a day to paint the school, classrooms, fix needed things that has been destroyed or falling apart. Also, I would get in contact with the Boys & Girls Club to help mentor, have a save place for some of the students, assist with homework etc. I believe that having these services will allow students and parents to appreciate what is in our community. These places help keep their child healthy both mentally and physically, brings the community and its resources together. This makes the community a valuable commodity and thus, it helps to know your neighbor and community because when a crisis occurs it is best to be served by people who know you and your medical history. This way they can better help/ protect you. I also want to establish an internship for my high school where they can learn skills firsthand from the business and college students coming in to help serve the needs of the students. For example, today’s schools have a high percentage of high needs students. These students are on 504 plans, behavior, IEP and SPED. I would like to have intern counselors in these fields to come and use their professional skills to help and mentor these students. It will help the students with their social and emotional needs, have someone to talk to while establishing a big brother/ sister relation, and over all help cope with the pressures of society. (Agape Corporations. 2021-2022). I believe that these things will institute a strong bond with our school and the community. Fostering students and helping them to navigate their needs will help ensure their success in the future. It is part of their critical thinking abilities and qualities of life- long learners that they will get while attending Maynard High School.

Public Advocacy

It is imperative as a leader to seek needs for the school when faced with financial deficits. Therefore, I plan to continue with the social media platforms and advocate for needed supplies. Again, collaborating with business and health professionals to allow intern students to spend their time on our campus. Also, to use the media platform to correspond with companies that have seminars/ Ted talks etc. for entry level positions so students can prepare for the next journey outside of high school. The plan is to help students build their self-esteem and consciousness as they engage in activities within and outside of the community. Also, as the local colleges/ universities have their interns’ complete hours with us, I would like to set up a senior/ junior day on their campus. Possible to have them mentor someone in the field they are interested in and allow them to shadow them for a few hours a couple of times in the year. Again, the purpose is to have students engaging, build self- esteem and confidence. Also, this will allow students to higher level learning, critical thinking, conscience of the different aspects outside of their comfort zone, while learning new things as a life- time learner.

Rationales

My plan for Maynard High School is to collaborate with all stakeholders to create and implement a positive cohesive learning environment that allows students to foster critical thinking as they help solve our problems of establishing a positive workspace for students and teachers. I think that applying this real -life situation will encourage students to want to impact the school’s growth but also leave an impact for future higher schooler of Maynard High. Also, I believe that once we are cohesive and becoming a positive environment than teachers will want to stay and be part of the growing community. I further believe that when collaborating and letting others lead in their expertise shows that I care and trust them to be successful, I value their expertise in doing the right things for the school, and I welcome others to lead the way, thus, encouraging leadership among my staff, and that I have enough self- efficacy in these decisions that will allow this team and school to flourish. (DeWitt, P. 2017). With the confidence I have in my team I know the collaboration and team building of stakeholders will be an ongoing event and tradition within the school. I believe people want to be part of a winning team and this allows them to participate in their child’s education theoretically, financially, and physically while ensuring trust, parent, and community involvement. Also, I think that a power struggle is not the best way to teach and incorporate the mission, vision, and goal of our school. I believe that letting students critically think about problems and solutions will build self-esteem, social consciousness and foster them to become leaders of tomorrow and life- long learners. We must allow students to make choices, grow from them, and then guide them to social- consciousness decisions that will benefit all and not just a few. Thus, engaging students in our mission, vision and goal revitalizations is a good way toward accomplishing the objectives because this is not a one- time fixer upper but will take several school years to operate and make it decent and more years to make it right.

Development, Structure, Conclusion

In conclusion, I believe that Maynard High School will be a positive productive school that is supported by its community. When stakeholders come together to collaborate on the mission, vision and goal, focus on the students learning, and allow others to help in their expertise, then the school will prosper and develop students who are engaging, critical thinkers that is consciencely aware of the real-world problems and solutions. Their understand of these things will instill tolerance and respect of others and their differences, build their self- esteem, become life-long learner as they develop into a leadership role that listens, collaborates and inspires others around them.


Reference
Agape Corporations. (2021-2022). https://www.apageschools.org/lcap.html
Brown, P., & Vaughn, L. (2015). COMMUNICATION: The Unspoken Key to School Culture.
Principal Leadership, 15(7), 32- 37.
Cook, H. J. (2017). A Community of Collaboration. Principal Leadership 17(5), p. 50-53
Deal, T. E., & Peterson, K. D. (2016). Shaping school culture (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA:
Jossey- Bass. ISBN-13: 9781119210191
DeWitt, P. (2017). Many Hands Make Light Work: How collaborative leadership leads to
collective efficacy. Principal, 97(1), 28-33
Leddy, H. G. (2019). Involved Minority Parents Enhance the Quality of Educations School.
Education Digest, 84(8), 55-61