IBC recognizes George, PRLHS

Priest River Lamanna High School principal Matt George is getting a bit of recognition by the Idaho Building Capacity in the group's annual report.

The report highlights successful programs from across the state that have received intensive support through the Building Capacity Project through the Idaho Department of Education, University of Idaho, Idaho State University, and Boise State University. 

"Mr. George is a creative and committed educator who works tirelessly for his students and staff," Superintendent Joe Kren said. "As a result a culture of improvement and academic excellence has been established and we are starting to see growth in student achievement in all academic areas as well as student pride in their school."

While the high school had a leadership team before, this year the school worked with a "capacity builder" as part of the IBC Project.

"[The previous team] functioned very well, but the team was facing a building culture afraid to take risks and jaded by a revolving door of new administrators," IBCB officials said in a story published about George. "The leadership team has always been high functioning, but felt defeated and exhausted from having to recreate the wheel every time a new administrator was hired."

Working with the IBC Project and a capacity builder was invaluable, George said. With their guidance, the PRLHS principal said the school "turned over" its leadership team to a new round of members this year.

At the high school, George said the team defined leadership as listening to each other and not just sharing their own opinions, but rather those of all of their colleagues. 

Last year's leadership team led the effort to create "The Spartan Way," designing a culture and climate of learning that did not end when students got their diplomas. It both defines expectations for everyone in the district and establishes a shared belief of the "5 Rs":  responsibility, respect, reflection, risk-taking, and relentless.

While the school hasn't fully implemented "The Spartan Way," the current leadership team is continuing that drive. With an "all-in" attitude by the team, George said he feels they can make a real and sustainable change.

"Tremendous gains have been made in classroom management directly related back to what the leadership team saw as the highest needs," George said in the report. "On walkabouts around the building, our students were obviously engaging in lessons and activities. This was not consistently true before the work they put in. None of that would have happened without staff buy-in. I feel they nailed it in identifying the things we needed to work on that the entire staff could rally around, stay focused on every day, every class."

Given the challenges of the past year, George said having an expert like the capacity builder has made a tremendous difference.

"We cannot underestimate the power of simply having an expert like a capacity builder tell you that what you are trying to do will make a difference ... just don't give up," George said. "That is probably the biggest thing we needed."