Scenario+2+Whole+School+Change

= Scenario #2 - Whole School Change =

You are a part of a dynamic administrative team at Rocky Mountain School of Excellence. (Have you heard of it?) Your team meets weekly to discuss ways to best utilize your resources in an effort to support the needs of students in your building. Rocky Mountain School of Excellence is a tuition-free public middle school which serves approximately 700 students. Due to budget cuts, falling test scores, and a declining enrollment, your administrative team has decided to think 'far outside of the box' in order to best meet the needs of every student in your school. Since the school opened in 1985, it has been a traditional neighborhood middle school with a schedule to match. RMSE has always served students using a 7 period day for their classroom instruction. Resource, TAG and ESL students have previously been served using the pull-out model.

Your team has decided that you need to change the way you conduct business. You are rolling out a new Fall schedule for students and staff. This schedule will change from 7 periods to blocks, and pull-outs will begin to be push-ins. You will be asking that the teachers collaborate closely with their Resource, TAG and ESL teams in order to scaffold learning for students based on the Colorado Academic Standards, not isolated skills. This will undoubtedly be a second order change for all stake-holders within your community. Today is May 1st and your school year is scheduled to end May 28th. Time is of the essence.

Your Task: Using chapter 15, develop a communication action plan with specific and sequential steps on how you will support your school-community through this second-order change and lead them towards acceptance and ultimately support. If you need to draft any form of communication outside of your staff, please ensure that the Director of Communication (Tom) has reviewed and approved your writing. Be prepared to share your plan at your next principal's meeting, as the district is eagerly awaiting how your schedule change impacts your school and community.

Work through these questions with your team:

1. Who do you notify first? Second? Third? 2. What method of communication will you use with each of your stakeholders? 3. How will you build and maintain trust with your community as you move through this second order change?

For motivation-- Glance at this TED Talk which we watched during our Vision in Leadership course: [|**http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action?language=en**]**)**