Craig Hockenberry: The 3R Academy
Craig
Hockenberry: The 3R Academy
Culture matters.
When I arrived as the Superintendent of Schools at Three Rivers there
were three major topics I had to lead the district through as soon as
possible. They were, development of core
values, strategic planning, and we had to address the poor culture of the
staff.
Every day I heard the words I have come to
hate….Morale, morale, and morale. We
could be feeding the staff a free meal during their lunch from food trucks and
teachers would be talking about how bad the morale is at Three Rivers. We would give them snow days, free spirit
wear, an amazing party during teacher appreciation week and the words continue to
come about their morale. There were
times I thought I was the captain of a pirate ship rather than a Superintendent
of schools. So to address the
issue of culture and boost morale we created the 3R Academy. This academy was a yearlong relationship
building academy. We started by picking
thirty-five people and each month we would plan a daylong event or events
around the city of Cincinnati. We would
get to know each other and build relationships.
The selection of people was very
strategic as we would invite custodians, bus drivers, instructional
aides, elementary teachers, middle school teachers, high school teachers, and
administrators. Our goal was to have
people that work in the same build get a chance to meet and build
relationship with people they normally would just pass in the
hallways.
We took them to places like the B & B Riverboats,
the Freestore Foodbank, the Museum Center, Urban Axes, the justice center, Camp
Joy, local colleges, and many other places. We spent the entire day working on
relationships. We fed them, we thanked
them, we made them laugh, and we watch them get to know each other and grow
together.
At the end of the journey we held a graduation
ceremony where they received diplomas and had a very nice dinner
celebration. Following the graduation we
immediately picked thirty five additional staff for the next class. We did 4 years of the 3R Academy which
included impacting one hundred and forty staff.
I have many fond memories of watching the staff engage with each other
and build amazing relationships. We made each year a totally different
experience.
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