Building Trust

On a survey given to every employee of my district and every parent of a student in my district, I saw some very interesting results. However, the one that jumped off the page at me was the absolute lack of trust between the teachers and administration. This is not just teacher to administrator but teacher to teacher as well.

At our opening meetings everyone seemed in agreement that we needed to work on this, and all appeared open to the task. Then, the first set of comments came out with all of the feedback from the opening meetings.

We collect all of the comments and send them out, so we all know what was said. In the commentary people labeled others’ speech as “negative” (which we’ve discovered mean someone does not agree with the speaker, usually an administrator) and “whining” (when one department noted how their class make-ups were demolished by a new program being implemented). This department will have twice the number of students repeating classes and twice as many special ed. students in their classes.

These kinds of comments have to go. They attack the speakers and do not refute ideas. I’m just not sure what the right avenue is to address these with the staff. I’ve thought about just stating my feelings during a staff meeting, which will of course make me “negative” too, or sending out a carefully thought-out and worded e-mail (which makes me a rabble-rouser because some people think they just cause trouble). What I think I may do is talk to the other department heads at the next department head meeting and see what they propose we do to combat this form of name-calling. I would go to the principal, but I don’t have much confidence she would address the staff about it. Maybe I can try that anyway.

Without trust we will advance no further in our building goals. Any suggestions?