Seven Lessons I Learned on Building a School Community

OPENING A NEW SCHOOL - 7 LESSONS LEARNED

In mid-March of 2009, I began my tenure as the first principal of St. Francis Xavier High School in the fast-growing community of Riverside South in Ottawa.  I was given just over 5 months to get it ready for the nearly 800 students who would walk through its doors the day after Labour Day.

Much to my chagrin, I discovered early on in the process that there was no step-by-step guide to opening a new school.  I was also surprised to find that there was very little research and/or theory on how to do this right.  Though I was too busy at the time to do much reflecting on the experience, I did vow that when I got the time, I would write about the lessons I learned.   

With VP Bonnie Campbell touring St. Francis Xavier under construction

Lesson 1: Building a school takes time, effort, and planning; building a school                               community takes even more!
Normally, when a new school is built, its boundaries are carved out of those of an existing school, and all or most of the students come over from one pre-existing school. This was not the case with St. Francis Xavier. Its boundaries were formed by taking sections of three different high schools and an intermediate school.  Thus, its first group of students were relative strangers to each other and brought with them to St. Francis Xavier many different experiences of school.  Likewise, teachers were selected from these 4 schools to form the first staff of St. Francis Xavier.

With such a patch-work student body and staff, I realized that the first task was establishing an identity for the new school - one that would take the very best practices and traditions from the 4 schools in order to create something unique and meaningful.

St. Francis Xavier Under Construction
May 2009

Lesson 2: Listen to the students, staff, and parents; let them provide direction
In the spring prior to the year the school opened, I went to the four schools out of which St. Francis Xavier was formed and met with the students who would attend the new school. I also met with the staffs and with groups of parents. I asked for their help in branding the school by selecting its name, school colours, and an official school crest. The ideas that emerged, particularly from the students, were incredible.  The students selected distinctive school colours (garnet & rust gold), "Coyotes" as the name for school teams, and designed the crest.  The students felt empowered, and they were proud of the choices they made.

 Unveiling at Official School Opening
of Student-Designed Official Crest

Lesson 3: Be an Advocate for Student Agency

Once the students realized that their views were being solicited, I knew I had to support the choices they made or risk losing their trust.  In addition to convincing our Communication Department that students really could design a professional-looking school crest, I spoke with the building planners to explore ways that the colours the students chose could be integrated into the construction of the school.  Our Planning and Facilities Department staff was very receptive and downright enthusiastic about this idea and came up with a fabulous idea: The school colours (plus balancing accent colours) were used on the floors and walls of the classrooms and hallways of the school and even on the lockers.

School Atrium Ready for First Day of School
Note the student-selected school colours on the floor

Lesson 4: Don't Go It Alone

If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes an entire school board and school community to build a school. Looking back, it seems every department in the Ottawa Catholic School Board contributed to the successful opening of St. Francis Xavier High School - from the Planning Department to the Purchasing Department to pretty well everyone connected with the Student Success Department.  I quickly learned just how committed everyone with the Ottawa Catholic School Board was to providing students with the best opportunities possible.

As the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the official opening
suggests, it takes an entire community to build a school

Lesson 5: Communicate, Communicate, & Communicate - Electronically!
As an experienced principal and former language arts teacher, I had always viewed myself as an effective communicator; however, nothing in my career had prepared me for the sheer volume of questions and degree of uncertainty and anxiety that opening a high school brought.  I learned that the only effective solution was regular electronic communication.

Rather than try to collect and manage ever-changing email addresses of students, parents, grandparents, and interested members of the community, or direct people to the school website, I invested in a product called Flash Alerts, which gave me the capacity to push out weekly updates on the school (including a countdown to its opening).  Any interested party simply went to a web link to sign up to receive the updates.  Not only did this service spare me endless hours of conversation but, more importantly, it allowed me to build excitement about the new school and focus on the positive aspects of forming a new school community.

Yours Truly Speaking at First
St. Francis Xavier Staff Meeting

Lesson 6: Keep The Moral Compass on True North
To quote Stephen Covey in Principle-Centered Leadership, "When managing in the wilderness of the changing times, a map is of limited worth.  What's needed is a moral compass." (94)  Although I recognized the importance of listening actively to the opinions and ideas of all stakeholders in the emerging school community, I also realized the wisdom of Covey's moral compass.

Fortunately, the Ottawa Catholic School Board had 3 core principles that kept me focused on what was important - Success for students, success for staff, and stewardship of resources.  These priorities, viewed always through the lens of gospel values and the social teachings of the Catholic Church, kept me from becoming distracted by countless less important considerations.

Mural Depicting St. Francis Xavier designed to reflect
 the Gospel Values at the core of  the school's culture

Lesson 7: Stay positive, take care of yourself, & enjoy the ride
This last piece of advice sounds easy and self-evident, and yet, looking back, it's probably the good advice I least took!  During the long days both leading up to and right after the opening of the school, I was so focused on getting things done and so worried about not messing up that I wore myself out at times and missed out on some of the fun. 

Opening a school is a great honour - a once-in-a-life-time experience, and if you can avoid the trap of letting your ego get the better of you and realize that, as principal, you are only one small part of the process, it can be one heck of a great ti me!