The TeamWorks Perspective: Guiding Teams to a Strategic and Unified Vision with Transformative Strategies

Create a Unifying Back to School Message

THE OPPORTUNITY

Every fall, school hallways buzz with fresh energy. Students return with new backpacks, staff gather with renewed purpose, and communities look ahead with anticipation. Amid all the excitement, there’s one moment that holds extraordinary potential: the Back-to-School message from district leadership.

The “Back to School” message is a rare and powerful moment when the School Board, Superintendent, and Administrative Team come together to speak with one voice. In this moment, we have the opportunity to affirm our common goals and inspire a shared path forward.

Not only is the message themed around the district’s mission, vision, and core values, but also demonstrates support from one leadership level of the organization to another.   By demonstrating unity across leadership levels, clarity and trust is built in the district as staff work to implement the district priorities to the benefit of students.  Messaging in this way comes from:

• The School Board
• The Superintendent
• The Administrative Team

School Board Messaging

The school board instills confidence and active support for the district’s mission and key priorities through remarks shared at the start of the year administrative team meeting, statements at the first board meeting of the school year or via a communication to the administrative team. The simple presence of board members at key start-of-year meetings and events can be an impactful demonstration of commitment to the goals and work to achieve them.

The Chair and Vice-Chair often carry the message of the school board with vision and optimism. 

Items to include in the School Board’s message are:

• Anchor to the mission of serving students
• Emphasize shared values and the importance of alignment from the boardroom to the classroom
• Show appreciation for the personal and professional investment of the administrative team and staff
• Voice commitment to key priorities and initiatives

Superintendent Messaging

In a 5-7 minute message to the entire staff,  the Superintendent has the opportunity to clearly explain why the district is moving forward in its stated direction and how both administrators and staff will be supported in achieving these priorities.  This includes setting expectations, aligning resources with strategies, and prioritizing professional development needed in order to realize district goals.  Assuring all staff that the district is committed to supporting them will engender feelings of trust and confidence.

Important to this message is the alignment between the School Board member’s message, the Superintendent’s message, and the work of the administrative team and staff.  Having this alignment will help staff with focus, confidence, and clarity of purpose.

Items to include in the Superintendent’s message are:

• Set expectations
• Align resources with strategies
• Create conduits for administrative staff to be successful
• Work to support all staff through professional development

Administrative Team Messaging

During “Back to School” week, the administrative team will be working directly with staff.  While site and departmental administrators won’t typically deliver messaging to the entire staff, they will develop and implement processes and procedures to support the priorities of the district.  The administrative team will need to clearly articulate how the district priorities will impact their site and/or department and will engage staff in a collaborative process to ensure those goals are meaningfully integrated, ultimately benefitting all students.

Items to include in the Administrative Team’s message are:

• Set expectations
• Work collaboratively to develop actionable plans
• Integrate goals throughout their site and/or department

Practical Application

In the lead up to the Back to School messaging, all team members should meet to discuss the district priorities, who will speak to the details of the priorities, and ensure messaging is unified and consistent across leadership levels.  Important to this process is the willingness of all leadership levels to continue messaging as opportunities arise throughout the year. This process can be streamlined if the district has a dynamic strategic plan that has implementation structures embedded to help guide the team.

Resources and Tools

“How Leadership Influences Student Learning”  Kenneth Leithwood, Karen Seashore Louis, Stephen Anderson and Kyla Wahlstrom https://wallacefoundation.org/sites/default/files/2023-07/How-Leadership-Influences-Student-Learning.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com

New Leaders:  Leadership Changes Everything.  “Building Trust: The Most Important Back-to-School Initiative” https://www.newleaders.org/blog/building-trust-the-most-important-back-to-school-initiative?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Blog:  “What will define district progress this school year?”   Molly O’Connor, Managing Director, Strategic Research  https://eab.com/resources/blog/k-12-education-blog/what-will-define-district-progress-this-school-year/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Call to Action

If you haven’t included a School Board member presence in the Back to School message, please consider doing so as their visible support of district priorities and goals will strengthen the work of the upcoming school year. Share the key themes or focus priorities with your board members to ensure they are equipped to amplify and support them.  Additionally, ensure the leadership levels are unified in messaging and work to be accomplished during the school year.

Finally, if there isn’t a clear strategic plan consider working with a service that can facilitate this process in order to have clarity of purpose for years to come.

Closing Remarks

In closing, a unified “Back to School” message fosters trust across the school community and creates a more cohesive, effective way of working together to support students. When leadership delivers clear, consistent messaging, it builds confidence and provides staff with a strong sense of direction and support.

Services TeamWorks Provides:

TeamWorks provides services that support the unique work of school districts in operating with organizational clarity including:

• School Board Development
• Leadership Development
• Strategic Planning
• Executive Coaching
• Demographic and Enrollment Analytics
• Targeted Support

Visit our website at www.teamworks4ed.com

Tanya Prince, Associate Consultant TeamWorks   tanya@teamworks4ed.com

Paul Neubauer, Senior Consultant  TeamWorks   paul@teamworks4ed.com