CREATING & SUSTAINING

POSITIVE SCHOOL

CULTURE

Phil BoyteBOOK W

IE T
V
E
PR CERP
EX

This is a preview of my book,

Creating & Sustaining Positive School Culture.
I would love your feedback about it!
Creating & Sustaining Positive School Culture
is a guide for building the kind of school you
have always wanted. I would be honored to
hear your insights about school culture.
Please join the conversationtell me what
you know and what you need to know!

Join the conversation at:

www.philboyte.com.

This preview contains abbreviated

versions of three chapters of
Creating & Sustaining Positive School Culture,
to be published in 2015.

INTRODUCTION

As a buddy and I were walking to my car after a great

day with the graduating seniors at Dublin High School,
he casually remarked, I want my kids to attend a
high school that feels like this. I asked him what he
meant and he replied, The kids are saying hi to us
and everyone seems so relaxed and comfortable here.
It just feels right.
I was struck by his comment.
It just feels right is a perfect description of that
hard-to-define sense you have when you are in an
environment that is intentional, healthy, and inspiring.
When excellent school culture is carefully
created and consistently sustained,
school just feels right.
3

"Having seen firsthand the coordination between

student achievement and higher levels of school
spirit, I'm glad that there is now research
that reinforces this key relationship.
This encourages students, parents, community
leaders and all school personnel to support and
promote participation in school activities.
These activities build a student's self-esteem
and confidence as well as provide
lifelong memories."
Bob Gardner, Executive Director of the National
Federation of State High Schools (NFHS)

SCHOOL CULTURE BY THE STATS:

Students with great school spirit are:

91%

more confident.

87%

more likely to be active in their communities.

75%

more likely to perform

above average academically.

84%

more likely to desire to continue

their education after high school.
Statistics as per Harris Poll on behalf of Varsity Brands, September 2014.

When school feels right,

kids want to be there and they do well.
How do you want your school to feel?

CULTURE

HABITS
COMMUNITY

V I S I O N

T R U S T

RELATIONSHIPS
7

How have you formed positive

relationships at your school? Tell us at:
www.philboyte.com

RELATIONSHIPS
The quality of a schools culture
is defined by the quality of the
relationships amongst its staff.

THE NATURE OF RELATIONSHIPS

AMONG THE ADULTS WITHIN A SCHOOL
HAS A GREATER INFLUENCE ON THE
CHARACTER AND QUALITY OF THAT
SCHOOL AND ON STUDENT ACCOMPLISHMENT
THAN ANYTHING ELSE.

If the relationships between administrators and teachers

are trusting, generous, helpful, and cooperative, then the
relationships between teachers and students, between
students and students, and between teachers and parents
are likely to be trusting, generous, helpful, and cooperative.
If, on the other hand, relationships between administrators
and teachers are fearful, competitive, suspicious, and
corrosive, then these qualities will disseminate throughout
the school community. ~Roland Barth
10

RELATIONSHIPS ARE THE CORE OF GREAT CULTURE

How intentional are you about building relationships

amongst the adults at your school? I have asked this

question again and again, and the answer I usually get is
we have PLCs. Apparently, there is a widely held belief
that when people are together in the same space, at the
same time, meaningful relationships will naturally emerge.
That is a wildly optimistic (or lazy) perspective.
Given the frequency of this assumption, I have to believe
that a lot of teachers are routinely asked to collaborate
with people who they do not know or trust. If one is aiming
to build a culture of awkwardness, this is the way to do it!
It is imperative to the overall culture of your school
that you create and encourage meaningful
opportunities for your staff members to build
genuine relationships with each other.

11

POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS LEAD

TO GREATER RISK TAKING.
WHEN PEOPLE TRUST ONE ANOTHER,
THEY ARE FAR MORE WILLING TO
TAKE RISKS BECAUSE THEY ARE

CONFIDENT THAT THEY

WILL BE SUPPORTED WHEN THEY DO SO.

12

If you build relationships with students,

they will do anything for you.
~HD Weddell, Bend High School
At Union High School in Tulsa, the school administrators
host a leadership retreat every fall for 200 of their student
leaders. The retreat takes place at a camp an hours drive
away from the school. (A change of scenery to a location
where everyone eats and bunks together is always fertile
ground for relationship building.) Every year they have 25
adult staff members join the students at this retreat. The
staff members participate fully in all of the sessions and
activities.
I am sure you can imagine the kind of bonds that are
created between those students and staff members over
those two days. Students who normally only see their
teachers in a classroom setting have now slept in cabins
with them, played games with them, and shared meals
13

with them. Relationships are built and boosted over that

two day period and those relationships remain and grow
throughout the school year. Students who feel
connected to teachers and staff members because of
the time they spent together on the retreat are more
engaged in their classes, school activities, and overall
school culture, across the board. In turn, these student
leaders have a positive effect on their peers. The power
of relationship in building school culture is not to be
underestimated...as HD said.
How intentional is your staff about building
positive relationships with students? What can
you do to support and encourage them?

14

Build relationships with staff members by taking

time to have conversations about their lives and
their work. As a leader, ask these questions:
1. What is something about our school
that you think should never change?
2. What do you hope I will do, as a leader?
3. What are you afraid I might do?
4. How do you feel about professional learning?
Communicate to your staff that their feedback
is important and will impact how the school
functions. PRO TIP: Have these conversations
off campus!

CULTURE TOOLBOX: RELATIONSHIPS

15

How have you encouraged trust

building at your school? Tell us at:
www.philboyte.com

16

TRUST

Positive school culture is started

and sustained by trust.

17

ASSUMPTIONS ARE THE

TERMITES OF
RELATIONSHIPS.
~Henry Winkler

18

TRUST DRIVES CULTURE

One of my favorite people to talk about school culture with

is Ron Severson. Ron is the superintendent of the Roseville
School District in California. During one of our recent
conversations, he mentioned the Young Life motto:
You have to win the right to be heard. Ron believes this
motto is true and applicable to building school culture.
For leaders, winning the right to be heard requires building
two kinds of trust:
1) Character trust: doing what you say you are going to do.
2) Competency trust: performing your job at the level
required for your role.
Have you built both of these kinds of trust at your
school? What do you do each day, with specific
individuals, to build both character trust and
competency trust?

19

The building blocks of school culture begin with

relationships and trust. Building relationships takes
time. Building trust takes even more time.
As you build relationships and trust, bit by bit,
conversation by conversation, day by day, it can start to
seem like your bigger picture vision for your school is
only a fairytale that will never be realized. Take heart!
Those who come to trust you because they have a
relationship with you will want to execute your vision!
Humans have a built-in desire to trust and we all want a
trustworthy leader to follow. Taking the time to get to
know and sincerely listen to the individuals at your
school will pave the way for your vision.

20

NO WAR WAS EVER WON BASED

ON THE COMMITMENT OR EFFORT
OF A LEADER ALONE.
Ocean-sized belief and the worlds best laid plans
are all for naught if you dont have a team who
also believes, who trusts their leader, and is
equipped to carry out the plan.

Trust takes time to build.

Be patient. Keep building.

21

CHARACTER TRUST
AND COMPETENCY TRUST
BOTH HAVE FAR MORE TO DO WITH
YOUR ACTIONS
THAN WITH YOUR WORDS.

22

Be proactive about finding out what turns

people off about your personality and breaks
their trust. Then make the effort to adjust
accordingly. PRO TIP: How you think you are
is not how you are always perceived.
Guaranteed. Take a personality test. Then,
take a poll amongst your colleagues. Think
you come off like a teddy bear? You might
be thought of as a bulldozer. Find out!

CULTURE TOOLBOX: TRUST

23

What do you like best about the

community at your school? Tell us at:
www.philboyte.com

24

COMMUNITY

Community is being recognized as

an individual while at the same time
identifying with a larger group.

25

WHEN WE EAT TOGETHER,

WHEN WE SET OUT TO DO SO

DELIBERATELY,
LIFE IS BETTER, NO MATTER WHAT
YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES.
~Thomas Keller

26

WE ARE BETTER TOGETHER

This seems like such an obvious statement, and yet, it is a
concept that is easily lost amidst the demands of modern
education. I have listened to countless school leaders tell
me about how their schools are like silos, commuter
schools, like a group of stars shining on different planets,
etc. etc. These leaders have capable and caring staff
members who are each doing a great job but have little to
no connection with any other teachers or staff at their
school. Silos and stars and teachers who rush in and out do
create school culture...just not the kind of school culture
anyone wants.
How can you draw your people together? How can you
encourage them to communicate, collaborate and linger?
Eating together creates community. It is a simple and
magical fact. Dont know how or where to start building
community at your school? Start with eating together.

27

Invite the teachers and staff to bring lawn chairs and eat
lunch together outside. Teachers at Colfax High School
do this once a week on what they call Lawn Chair
Friday. Not only do the teachers and staff enjoy this, it
is also a great visual of community for the students.
Does your staff scatter around the teachers lounge
during their lunch hour? I heard of a principal who
solved the scatter problem by bolting the tables in the
teachers lounge together. Not surprisingly, lunch hours
became a fun time of conversation and laughter once the
teachers were sitting together while they ate.
Get creative and find a way to get your people
eating together. It is a sure fire way to build
community!

28

WE DONT DO THAT

Monte White, assistant principal at Del Oro High School for

27 years, shared a simple sentence that helped build
community and shape school culture at his school. If a
student used inappropriate language, was booing the other
team at a ball game or doing any number of other
unacceptable things, it was the norm for someone to tell
them: We dont do that at Del Oro.
It wasnt abrasive or confrontational, but it was a powerful
statement, says Monte. And, it was the norm. This phrase
was known, expected, and accepted. When a student was
reminded that we dont do that at DO, they understood
this was a reminder of the established standards.
Defining standards and adopting a universally used
phrase with which to maintain those standards
creates a strong sense of community.

29

THE EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE A STUDENT HAS

AT ANY SCHOOL IS ENTIRELY DEPENDENT ON
THE CULTURE OF THAT SCHOOL.

SCHOOL CULTURE IS
THE ROAD ON WHICH EFFECTIVE
EDUCATION TRAVELS:

BUILD THE ROAD WELL AND STUDENTS

WILL BE ENGAGED AND INSPIRED TO LIVE
TO THEIR FULL POTENTIAL.
ASSUME THE ROAD IS FINE, OR IGNORE THE ROAD,
AND STUDEnNTS WILL CRASH AND BURN.
30

Be bold about building community: Do you

have a lot of families on staff with young
children? If so, rent a bounce house and host a
picnic for them. PRO TIP: Let it leak to the kids
that there will be a bounce house (and other
kiddie fun) and they will do the advertising
to their parents for you! When the kids want to
come as much (or more) than the adults, rest
assured the adults will hear about it!

CULTURE TOOLBOX: COMMUNITY

31

CULTURE IS
AS
CULTURE DOES.

32

THANK YOU

for reading this preview excerpt of my book!

I would love to get your feedback about it on
my website, in person, or via email. Your
voice is an important part of the ongoing
school culture conversation.

~Phil
Feedback survey at:

www.philboyte.com
email: philboyte@gmail.com

33

FROM PHIL:

I am passionate about equipping school administrators,

teachers and student leaders to create and maintain
positive school culture. It is my dream to see the proven
methods for doing this spread far and wide. My hope is that
my upcoming book will provide the tools, insight, and
encouragement necessary to spark a school culture
revolution.
I encourage you to take the time to assess how your school
feels. Mentally set aside your role and responsibilities and
walk around your campus focusing only on how it feels.
Go into classrooms, the cafeteria, the gym, etc. There is a
reason phrases like you could feel it in the air exist. In
order to build positive school culture, it is crucial that you
personally experience what your school feels like.
Whether you are well down the school culture road or you
are lost and dont know where to start, there are answers.

34

Positive school culture is attainable and sustainable!

~P.B.

POSITIVE
SCHOOL
CULTURE
is built on relationships that are
dependent on trust which is
carried out through vision,
grows into community,
and is sustained through habit.
When culture is well built and
well maintained, it is a dependable
structure that provides stability for
everyone within its walls.
35

2014 Learning For Living

Learning For Living was established in 1984, from Phil Boytes vision
for building communities of caring on campuses around the continent.
We began by offering a support system and strategies for incoming
High School freshmen with our flagship program, Link Crew. We soon
realized that to transform both school climate and culture, educators
needed even more tools. Today, we offer a robust set of services,
programs, and curriculum, and we are proud to be helping passionate
administrators, teachers and student leaders around the world
transform school culture for the better. Together, we make school
feel right. www.learningforliving.com

CULTURE

is a hot topic these days.

And for good reason: culture makes or breaks companies,

societies, and schools. I have been learning and teaching
about culture for 30 years...and there is still so much
more to learn and do! In my years of studying what it
takes to create and sustain positive school culture, I
have collected a culture library with a wide range of
insights, proven methods, and words of encouragement.
The booklet you hold in your hands is an excerpt from
my upcoming book. It contains abbreviated chapters and
an invitation to share what you know and what you need
to know about school culture. I would be honored to add
your knowledge and experience to the culture library!
To give feedback about this preview
excerpt and to join in the culture
conversation, go to www.philboyte.com.
@philboyte

Phil Boyte
2014 Learning For Living