An Open Letter to U.S. School Administrators
Hi I’m Caitlin.
As a fellow educator (albeit in the business realm), I’m excited to be connected with you. As you already know, healthy schools are foundational for creating lasting change in communities. So before I share more about myself, I want to say thank you for your work to make school a nourishing place for our children.
As a self-proclaimed “lifelong learner,” I credit my love for learning to attending school in Cheshire School District, Cheshire,CT , a New England town with some of the highest school rankings in the country.
When teachers and administrators are making some of the highest salaries in the nation it makes sense that students would have more opportunities to be supported, but what about when teachers and administrators aren’t compensated as much?
I would soon find out.
In 2018 I was encountered with a strikingly different scenario after moving to Nevada.
I was 31 years old, searching for apartments an I noticed how low some of the schools were ranked nationally. I didn’t have children of my own, but when I made friends raising school-aged children, I noticed there was more stress at home and inadequate support at school to fill the gap of students’ needs, especially during COVID.In 2023, my husband began working as a “Safe School Professional,” (a school counselor employed by a local non-profit) and by learning about his work I have began to discover how I could apply my 10 years of corporate knowledge of developing branding strategies to help schools increase community engagement and attract caring Educators for a higher overall state and national ranking.
A True Story
These are actual posters hung by an administrator in a high school. (Photos are redacted for confidentiality.)
When seeing these photos, your initial reaction might be a laugh, but let’s get inside the head of the administrator who hung these posters for a moment.
Perhaps after failing to find adequate posters, the administrator decided it best to create posters to fit the policies.
Maybe this was an attempt to connect with students by reinforcing rules in a comedic way. (Think South Park kind of humor.)
Either way, it’s clear there was a sincere effort.
Now let’s get into the heads of the students.
If I were a student seeing this, I might want to defiantly oppose my school leadership. I would find the attempt to connect insulting because the messages on this poster is reinforcing that I, a student, am not respected as an equal.
As sincere as the administrator’s efforts might have been to connect with students on their level, these messages are inadvertently fostering a sense of retaliation and disrespect towards administrators (not to mention for school in general).
Finally, let’s step into the heads of teachers who saw these posters.
Without clear expectations regarding school branding and policies to reinforce oversight internally, questions arise regarding chain-of-command:
Are faculty members overstepping by bringing concerns to the administrator?
What is the protocol for bringing concerns to the administrator?
Are staff supposed to just go along with the posters because the administrator decided it?
Whose job is it to verify whether or not these posters are appropriate?
Is there a standard to measure appropriateness?
How can all staff members be unified in messages we send to students?
With no clear procedures designated to address these concerns, staff focus on doing their job and return to minding their business.
As time passes without this being addressed, tension is carried by faculty and students alike brooding contempt instead of connection.
This is an extreme example, so let’s examine posters you may be familiar with and see why even these might be hurting the morale of your staff and students.
Have you seen anything like these before?
These posters are encouraging and positive, so what’s the harm?
Well, it’s not in the posters themselves, it’s in the nonstrategic way they are hung.
When administrators and teachers buy posters that are outwardly positive, but aren’t strategically placed in compliance with an overall strategy to reinforce school initiatives and values, the posters might actually be:
Sending students conflicting messages from administrators, classrooms and teachers
Highlighting the dissonance between school values and modeled behavior from administrators and teachers
Encouraging feelings of anxiety
Making it difficult to feel comfortable learning
When an entire school is not in solidarity with its mission, positive posters reinforce conflicting messages and what is actually being modeled by staff. This creates inner conflict in students and staff resulting in low morale for the school itself as well as for learning.
A Quick Evaluation of Your School’s Branding Toolkit
Below is a list of features most schools have without oversight from a branding strategy:
Initiatives: Verbal proclamations for the well-being of students, staff and community not measurable or backed by action.
Mission Statement: A sentence describing the school’s overall intended impact in the community as a result of serving students daily, but is not measurable or implemented in action, but is just a sentiment.
Tagline or Slogan: A phrase that reflects the school mascot.
Code of Ethics: A plaque or document staff and students read, but are not enforced.
Logo: A visual representation of the school’s mascot
Here is what each of these items become with a branding strategy:
Initiatives: Measurable goals or benchmarks for students and the community usually related to behaviors, mindset and values that are reinforced with participation from the community, students and staff on a continual basis. An annual or quarterly plan with SOPs accompany initiatives to measures progress and outcomes in the school and community.
Mission statement: A clear statement of a school’s actual impact made in the community as a byproduct of daily operations and as a reinforceable standard for all initiatives, behaviors, decisions and internal communications of school students and faculty. The mission statement is enforced with branding guidelines to train staff and teach students. SOPs accompany brand guidelines to further enforce brand compliance on internal communications and public outreach, as well as to reinforce brand compliant behavior models from staff.
Tagline or Slogan: A memorable phrase upholding the mission. Brand guidelines accompany the phrase to guide appropriate use in communications.
Code of Ethics: A moral code backed by the mission statement, initiatives, logo, values, policies and protocols to incentivize compliance from staff, faculty and students.
Logo: A visual representation of the school’s values, personality and voice accompanied by brand guidelines to ensure brand compliance wherever it is used.
The application of a formal branding strategy transforms these aspects into living entities which uphold a collective standard to unify and connect people of all walks of life as contributors of a greater purpose.
When executed properly with a step-by-step process, this unification becomes the catalyst for engaged students and staff which will draw more staff who care about the greater purpose you’re leading as an administrator and are committed to carrying it out with you at the budget you’re capable of providing. (And so much more.)
Thank you for taking the time to discover how a corporate-level branding strategy can help your school and greater community.
If you’d like to learn the step-by-step process to improve engagement with your students, staff and community, click the button below.
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