Have you ever wondered what a school principal does at work before the teachers and students come back? Well, here’s a peek behind the curtain.
There is a lot of planning that goes into preparing for a school year. It begins before the end of the previous school year, and does not stop for a summer break. District staff work behind the scenes all year long and administrators hit the ground running as soon as their contract year begins.
On August 2, principals’ second day back at work, the USD 490 administrative team attended an admin retreat at the Kansas Oil Museum. The purpose of this annual meeting is to work on leadership team-building, set a direction for the school year, and drill into some purposeful planning before staff returns. This year’s district theme is “Tell Our Story.”
“If we’re going to tell our story, we need to start from the beginning,” Superintendent Jenifer Davis said.
Administrators learned a little bit about the history of El Dorado and how that history shaped the community and schools we know and love today. After reading a chapter titled “A Brief History of El Dorado” from “Downtown Historic Survey,” they shared something they learned that made them proud of our town and its people. A few highlights included:
- El Dorado had the first all-woman jury in the nation.
- In 1917, El Dorado provided 13 percent of the nation’s oil supply.
- Whether facing outside aggression, natural disasters, or any number of challenges, the people of this community have a history of rallying together to protect and care for each other.
Think about that for a second. Our community – because of the people that live here – has a history with national significance. By knowing our roots and acknowledging our resiliency, we can look to the future with pride.
One of the team-building exercises required the administrators to pair up and do a scavenger hunt. Instead of asking them to look for specific items, the hunt required them to look at things from a new perspective. They were provided eight themes, and they had to find a photo that they believed fit each category and explain why.
One great example came when three groups took a photo of the same thing. It was the lineup of old oil company signs next to an oil machine of some sort.
The first group said the image was “risky business” because so many of those oil companies are no longer in business. The second group said the image meant “success” because so many companies were able to successfully find oil to drill. The third group felt the image best represented “future.” The pointed to a barely noticeable gas station in the background of the image. They explained their reasoning that the oil was (and is still) pumped out by those companies, and after going through a refining process, is still being used today, and will continue being used by future generations.
In the oil drilling industry, a Gun Barrel was a tall cylindrical holding tank that used gravity to separate water and gas from the oil. This was another exhibit that the groups had a variety of perspectives on.
One team identified it as Risky Business because if a fire started on the top, there was a cannon they used to blast a hole in the side in an attempt to try to save the oil. Another team felt it represented Success because it was able to turn raw content into a purposeful product.
“The Gun Barrel we saw in the museum was used to separate impurities from the oil,” EHS Principal Erin Nichols said. “Much like we, as educators, work to refine our students.”
After lunch, the team spent time going over the nuts and bolts of being school leaders. They reviewed expectations, resources, changes, and the vision for this coming school year.
Selecting this year’s theme was not a superintendent whim. It was a conscientious decision to empower our staff and students to be the narrators of our school district’s story. After all, nobody knows our story better than the people who are in it. Stories are historically how people relate to one another and pass down traditions. They are a way to know where we have been, so we can more clearly see where we are going.
As we welcome new administrators and staff, it is a perfect time to re-connect to our district and community history and lay a common foundation so we can all move forward together as #PartOfThePride.
“When we have the courage to walk into our story and own it, we get to write the ending.” – Brené Brown