“Culture is the set of norms, values and beliefs, rituals and ceremonies, symbols and stories that make up the ‘person’ of the school”

-Dr. Kent D. Peterson

University of Wisconsin-Madison

A strong staff culture can help motivate teachers and support staff members to innovate and forge the best solutions on behalf of students. Our team understands the importance of staff culture and we’re excited to share more about our recent project with Stoney Creek Elementary School in Charlotte, NC.

 

We partnered with Stoney Creek and Principal Susannah Barr from February-June 2018 with the goal of building a common definition and framework to support staff culture within the school. Throughout the partnership, we worked with Principal Barr to build a culture committee comprised of staff members, analyze a staff culture pre-survey data, conduct focus groups, test strategies, and analyze a staff culture post-survey.

 

“The work we did last year helped us identify ways to strengthen our staff culture and build a stronger community. We spent the summer creating culture building opportunities that have been met with great success this year! I appreciated the honesty, kindness, and candor that Greg and Ana offered each time we met. My staff feels more connected and aligned and ready to define how we operate as a team,” said Principal Susannah Barr.

 

By June of 2018, our team was able to collectively work with the culture committee and staff as a whole to agree on a common definition of staff culture as well as a plan to support and measure culture throughout the upcoming school year. Further, the post-survey results showed at least a 5% increase in five key staff culture focus areas and 80% of staff at Stoney Creek Strongly Agreed or Agreed in seven areas regarding the school working to better support staff culture.

 

“Our favorite projects are ones when we have the opportunity to work with a leader and their staff that are willing to adapt to feedback and implement solutions. In a relatively short time frame, we were able to gather feedback and work with the Stoney Creek staff to truly identify and build a framework to support staff culture. We can’t wait to see even more positive results a Stoney Creek this upcoming school year”, said Greg Schermbeck.

 

To learn more about this project or other services offered by SchermCo, please email Ana, Director of Projects, ana@schermdemo.wpengine.com. Follow our journey and engage with us on our social media platforms: FB, IG, and Twitter.