(I hope you had a chance to read my three earlier writings that described other elements of the NRHEG Strategic Plan . If you did not and you find you have questions, you can go to the school web site, www.NRHEG.k12.mn.us, and see some of the information there. You do not need to have read the previous articles to understand what will be said here.)

I have mentioned before that I feel privileged to be working at the NRHEG school district. The community support, dedicated staff, and established history of cooperation and growth all work together to make this district the kind of place I can invest myself in, just as all of you have.

But, like every human endeavor, it can be better.

Perhaps you recall from some of my earlier writings on this topic that the strategic planning process examines our district, its resources, and its actions from several angles, including socially, structurally, and financially. Having arrived at a realistic assessment of where we are, committee members then used the same perspectives to consider where we want to be in three to five years.

Today’s discussion looks at the topic of the “learning and working environment” in our buildings; to summarize, over the next few years the strategic plan suggests that we will be working to support students as they acquire good habits, while also finding ways to reduce the number of times students misbehave. 

If you are muttering under your breath right now, “What’s new about the school wanting students to behave better?” let me begin by acknowledging that this goal may sound obvious. But all of you who have raised or cared for children are already aware that trying to instill good habits is, shall we say, an on-going process. It is an axiom in education that it is not possible to make others learn; the objective must be to make others want to learn.

So how do we make students want to behave better? Of course, and unfortunately, the strategic planning committee does not have the answer…but we do at least have some answers. We will use our experience, our access to current research, and influences from our communities to help students see the benefits of positive choices. Under the leadership of teacher Mark Domeier, a committee has already been working to encourage positive behavior — you’ve heard the phrase “Panther Pride” and seen the PRRS (pronounced “purrs”) paw prints which remind students to be “Positive, Respectful, Responsible, and Safe.”

I hope you agree that the committee’s work has already had some benefits. Changing school culture takes time; because of this, the strategic plan calls for our staff and students to continue building their understanding of the PRRS program and how it can best be strengthened and expanded.

Another way that I hope to see the learning and working environment in our schools improve is by continuing to build an atmosphere of interconnected trust and mutual support. That is, I hope that all of us come to know and understand each other, so that we can genuinely work as a team.

This is hard to understand until you have worked in a school, but everyone here is doing many jobs at once. Even a simple project becomes a number of tasks being performed simultaneously. Permit me to illustrate. Pretend you have come into the building to do something very straightforward — perhaps sweep a hallway or change a light bulb. You get out your broom and begin to sweep…a classroom of students comes by on its way to any number of possible destinations…you must stop sweeping, be sure any dust is pushed to the side, and get out of the way yourself so that no one trips over you or the broom. Simple enough…but there’s a large, colorful eraser among your sweepings. One of the students sees it, stops in her tracks, elbows someone else, and points at the eraser. “That’s mine!” she calls out angrily. “Who took it and how did it get there?” Suddenly you aren’t sweeping anymore, you’re managing student behavior, whether you intended to or not. How long will it be, do you think, before you finish your original task?

If even sweeping can become complicated, think about teaching a class. The adults in the room are managing behavior, supervising resources, adjusting rates to be sure time schedules are adhered to…and we haven’t even gotten to planning and teaching the material, answering student questions, monitoring the level of learning, and determining and recording scores and grades.

I tell you all this not to complain, but only to explain why we educators — and here I am referring to every adult in our buildings — don’t get a lot of time to build an interconnected network of well acquainted individuals. We’re very busy doing our many jobs; most teachers will tell you they spend their entire day moving quickly from one responsibility to another, frequently performing a number of tasks at once. Someone told me one time that only an air traffic controller makes more decisions per hour than a classroom teacher.

For all these reasons, a year is only a good start in allowing me and the staff to get to know each other. I am an “open book” kind of person. I like to communicate freely, share my impressions with others, and receive honest feedback. I do not shoot messengers, and any “agendas” I might have are definitely not “hidden.” But I don’t blame those who have decided to wait and see whether they agree with my self-assessment.

One element of my leadership style is called “leading from the ground up.” I hope to help foster an atmosphere in which staff members feel welcome to conceive possible changes to the status quo, then take well ordered steps to set them in motion. As you can picture, there are many possible benefits to this “ground up” decision-making process; it can only be successful, though, when stakeholders feel that their efforts will be valued and appreciated.

Experience has also taught me the importance of well organized staff training. 

I am producing this series of articles because this is a dynamic time for our district. We have the PRRS program, new technology, new positions, many new state mandates to comply with, and everyone in the district is being asked to integrate these changes with the many requirements already in place.

If we do not provide everyone with the information and time they need to adjust, we are only setting ourselves up for failure. In addition to collaboration time, staff training is also part of the reason our calendar for September 2014 to June 2015 contains more days with a two-hour late start than in the past. These hours will be used in a variety of ways to help our teachers and our teaching become more effective. Strengthened networking and system wide cooperation will benefit pretty much every level of instruction, and so I am grateful that our school board showed its willingness to support this endeavor.

Thank you for staying with me through all of this. I hope reading this information is helping you see the ways the strategic planning process is important. As always, feel free to contact me with questions; my e-mail address is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; mail can be sent to the district office at 306 Ash Ave. South in New Richland.