Loyal School … “Ensure each and every student learns”
As you may be aware, the mission statement of our school took on a different meaning last year. A group of adults consisting of Chris Lindner, Nancy Popp, Doug Dieckman, Megan Dieckman, Rebecca Scherer, Erik Adams, Amy Humke, Sonia Suda and Jessica Kayhart met last January to spend the day brainstorming ideas, thoughts and words around what the mission of our school should be. The conclusion was very close to what you see now.
The statement was shared with staff and school board members to get their feedback, as well. Over the next few months a few minor tweaks were made and it was settled. We had a new mission statement that is centered around the most important part of our school -- our students.
So, what does this statement mean? It means that regardless of socioeconomic status, language identification, race, gender, or learning ability our school will work collaboratively to ensure that each and every student learns at grade level or higher. We realize that this may not just happen overnight and that we have to set goals and monitor our progress as we work through this, but we have committed ourselves to this mission and doing whatever is necessary to achieve this for our students. We now are working to get this statement out amongst our community. We are looking for creative ways to advertise and promote our mission and will continue to do so throughout the school year.
At a recent staff professional development day, we had the opportunity to lead all staff through an activity centered around building our vision and the behaviors and characteristics associated with our vision. Our staff was divided into groups and given the following scenario.
A reporter from Time magazine is coming to the Loyal School District to do a special article on the National School District of the Year! The reporter will be entering our school with a film team (taking pictures and videoing) from CNN to interview and film what it looks and feels like to receive an education at a nationally renowned school. Your challenge as a schoolwide staff is to provide detailed information and showcase the reasons why our district was chosen for this prestigious award. All areas of the school must be represented through the adult characteristics and behaviors (within your department or role at the school) that would be exhibited to our students, families and community.
What will the headline for this article read? This was the big question for our groups to tackle along with generating a list of characteristics and behaviors from the National School District of the Year.
Each group brainstormed for the next 30 minutes and generated their list and their headline. Here is what our staff had to share: -- Bang! Crash! Boom! Goes Small Town School -- School District of Loyal: Rising with Relationships -- Born 2 B “Loyal” -- Small Town School Produces BIG Impact -- The True Meaning of “Loyal” -- Loyal-Small School-Big Impact, working together for the best of EVERY student -- Small Town Making It Big!
-- Loyal ... It’s all about Teamwork - Community, Families, Students and Staff work together to ensure success -- Loyal Leads the Way!! -- Loyal to their Students Loyal to their Community -- Creating Connections for Personal Success This was a great way to get all of our staff together to discuss what a school could look and feel like and how we can work together to create this environment. We realize this is a big task, but we will continue to build on this experience each and every day.
