Core values guide TF school district

It is common practice for corporations and institutions to have a mission statement and core values displayed as a reminder of what they stand for, but for many organizations keeping those ideas alive and giving them credence beyond the pages they are written on is the challenge. “Just words” was the core value status Thompson Falls School District was trying to avoid.

“The work is never done, and it shouldn’t be,” said Thompson Falls School District No. 2 Superintendent Jason Slater. “It has been a long road to get where we are, but the progress we’ve made in solidifying our core values in mind and practice is evident.”

In 2013, the district set out to agree upon what the values would be for students and staff in the school community. An actual ladder was built with the core values painted on with school colors. More were created and posted at various locations on campuses.

Slater noted the words became the guidelines for everything from creating policy to conflict resolution, and the campuses became so saturated with support for the values that many students can name from memory what the district’s core values are – even kindergarteners.

“I just came from the kindergarten class where the teacher has obviously been using the core values with the students,” said elementary principal, Len Dorscher, who joined the Blue Hawk team the year the values were created, “those are some hefty words for primary-age students, but most of them can name at least two or even all of the words and have an understanding of what they mean.”

“Understanding” became the key to the mission to expand the values to carry over into daily life in the school community.

A District Leadership Team was created that involved administration, staff, volunteer community members and parents. The team met regularly on various district subjects, but one of the biggest projects has been taking the core values and turning them into something more focused for each representative group in the school community.

“We actually got the tools for this process from ProActive Coaching podcast lessons for Montana athletic teams,” Slater explained. “The ideas were so effective, I couldn’t understand why there would be more effort put into unifying athletic teams than into the district they reside within.”

Excellence, unity, compassion, respect and integrity were the bare bones used for the District Leadership Team to create practically applicable specific meaning for each group within the team.

“For example, the word ‘respect’ can mean different things to different people,” Slater said. “We had to figure out what these words mean to each of us in the district and how we can apply them in our positions.”

The result was a Core Values Declaration document put out by the team.

“This isn’t the first or last draft of this, by any means,” Slater explained, “but the process is just as important as the declaration.”

Rather than a contract or a policy, the document is the team’s declaration to the community of what they stand for and the mode of decorum that will be employed by those committed to working and volunteering in the district.

A small group of parents tackled the definitions of how they will apply the values. Slater noted that one of the most active and dedicated parents on the team is Shawna Purkeypyle, who has taken initiative to steer the parental movement.

“Shawna helped us survey other parents and conducted some at her pizzeria, Simple Simon’s,” shared Slater. “The input was compiled at the meetings to come up with the parents’ view on their own role in the district.”

Purkeypyle has two children and has been active in the PTO for years.

“The school has my kids eight hours a day, I can’t see not being a part of the district,” Purkeypyle said. “These District Leadership Meetings are the best way for parents to get their voice heard or to make a difference.”

To help gather parent input, she had a survey sent home with students for return. Out of the nearly 500 surveys sent out, only 18 were returned, and the similarities of the responses made it easy to create the parent viewpoint of the values.

“I would encourage more parents to be involved with the District Leadership Team,” Purkeypyle said. “It is a way to give back to the district that our kids are immersed in, as well as having an ear to the ground for the issues and exciting things that come up.”

The parents agreed they will show the value of compassion by “fostering an acceptance of others and acknowledging the feelings of others.”

As for the student body, it was decided that teachers would poll students in the classroom and all the input would be compiled and summarized to create their understandings of the core values.

“It was actually pretty amazing to see the results,” Dorscher noticed. “You could take input from a first grader and a junior in high school and pretty much lay them on top of each other – their understanding of the values and how to apply them in their own lives.” Dorscher also noticed that during a recent contest for a new school t-shirt design, the majority of the entries from students included (without prompting) the core values, and one of the winning designs by Solveig Nygaard incuded a depiction of the familiar ladder with all of the core values.

To make sure the core values are more than just words, those involved in the district refer to the values and their own applicable descriptions to make decisions and guide decorum.

“If we are striving to help create successful, contributing adults from their time with us in the district, we need to be on the same page on how to get there,” said Slater. “The declaration gives us that specific unity.” Having a specific plan makes for better educators, governing, and better chances at raising adults of substance, who will hopefully carry these ideas beyond their public school experience.

“As an administrator, I’m very proud of the dedication put into this declaration. This has more substance and meaning to them than I had set out to facilitate, they really ran with it,” he said. “As a member of the community, I’m impressed that our campuses have this kind of dedication to living and acting within the standards of the core values – some districts don’t even have values laid out or a mission statement that is applied daily.”

The District Leadership Team invites community members to join and become active in the education of children and campus community. The team will next meet Wednesday, Jan. 17, at 4 p.m. in the district board room.