What's Your Guiding Philosophy?

This is our building's guiding philosophy: "The Student is Always Worth It!" Every day, every student is worth our time, our effort, and our best. Our students are the reason our school exists. Anything less than quality instruction, strong relationships, and a positive attitude would be wrong.

As a school community, we have discussed our mission, vision, values, and goals.  We have taken time to study the status quo and dream about what we could be and what we want to be known for. Needless to say, our former mission had been around for a while and had grown to be wordy and in need of new life. Coming in as a new principal, this was an area I wanted to focus on.  Without a meaningful mission, the vision, values, and goals, and the school community as a whole plateaus, rests on its past successes and becomes irrelevant in our changing world.

In a time when we focus so greatly on a number of pressing issues, it can be unintentional, yet easy to ignore the culture and health of our learning community. Taking time to reevaluate our purpose and commitments can be a great culture builder.  Last week during our staff meeting, we worked through an activity from "The Ten-Minute Inservice" by Todd Whitaker and Annette Breaux. We brainstormed 10 things we are proud of at our school.  My plan is to share this list with parents and community members to showcase our pride in St. Patrick School and the good things we are doing.

In preparing for my role as a principal, I had numerous opportunities to reflect on my beliefs about education and what I would dream of as an ideal school.  Ideal schools do not exist in and of themselves, they are created. It cannot be the work of one administrator, teacher, or parent to create the ideal learning community.  It must be a joint effort, with all stakeholders sharing in the conversation. Our personal philosophies and values drive our passion for what we do.  Capturing the philosophy for an entire building or district requires monitoring, evaluating, and above all listening to the people served by your school.

This is what we discovered at St. Patrick's School. The student is always worth it because parents trust our school to provide unique and transformational learning experiences for their children.  The student is always worth it because our staff is here for each child, ready to meet their needs. The student is always worth it because our students will be the leaders in the community sooner rather than later and they deserve the best preparation to be successful.  This is what guides us. What guides you?