This Isn't A Career Move. It's A Calling.

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👋 Welcome back to Harper Haven, your weekly blueprint for building a joyful and high-performing school for students and staff… without burning yourself out. I’m glad you’re here.

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🦄 In this this issue…

💜 The Leadership Reality: It’s not you; it’s them — why those first few months of turnaround work feel hard and what to do about it.

💜 The Leadership Move: the ONE thing more important than any strategy you’ll ever come up with.

💜 Field Notes: How to actually start this work and get quick wins

#LetsDoThis #ForTheCulture
— Alicia Harper

One of the first all-staff meetings legit felt like I was in the Twilight Zone.

I walked into that school ready to lead, but I wasn't ready for what I experienced in one of our first staff meetings.

Teachers weren't talking to each other.

There was no collaboration, no warmth… just silence and side eyes. When I started sharing my vision for our school schedule (including lunch + recess), I watched the eye-rolls. I heard the sighs. Teachers leaned over to whisper to each other mid-sentence.

When I opened the floor for questions, what came back wasn't questions. It was a coordinated list of all the reasons why every idea I had was wrong.

Yup. They were TRYING ME!

I took a deep breath because I genuinely could not believe what I was hearing and seeing. I legit felt like I’d walked into the middle of the Twilight Zone.

I ended that meeting early. I literally said, “Okay… in the spirit of preservation, let’s stop here and come back to this tomorrow.”

I knew the real conversations wasn’t going to happen in a room full of people performing their resistance for each other anyway. (Plus… I wasn’t ‘bout to let these people run up my blood pressure in my first month on the job. No sir, no ma’am.)

I made the decision to have 1:1’s afterwards, and what I found, made me pause. From their vantage point, their former Principal hadn't listened to them. The school had struggled under leadership they didn't trust, and they had decided — collectively and loudly — that they weren't going to be fooled again. The toxicity wasn't random. It was a scar.

Aight, bet. Challenge #1 accepted.

If you walk into that school looking for quick validation, a promotion, or a resume boost… hate to break it to ya’, but… this ain’t it, you won’t get it, and the work will break your spirit.

The move that changed everything wasn’t just a strategy.
It was a decision and a belief in what’s possible.

About six weeks into that first year, we got our first round of assessment results back.

35% proficiency in K-4 math.
30% proficiency in K-4 reading.

I remember exactly where I was when I saw those numbers and I wanted to curl up into a fetal position because… what. the. heck?!

Before we took the assessments, I knew it was bad.
After we got the results back? I realized this was bad bad.

So… I shed a couple thug tears, put my big girl pants on, and made a decision: I'm not leaving this school until we started producing excellent results. 

Point blank.
Period.

I didn’t have the perfect gameplan yet.
I didn’t even have the perfect strategy yet.

But I knew deep down inside of me that those results weren’t good enough for our kids and I wasn’t gonna stop until we got to a place where the results were good enough.

Aight, bet. Challenge #2 accepted.

The difference will start to show up everywhere.

In how long you stay in a 1:1 with a resistant teacher.
In whether you skip the hard conversations because you're tired.
In how you respond when your network/district/the powers that be pressure you into showing faster results than the work actually allows.

For me, the turnaround work showed up across three years of blood, sweat, tears, and sacrifices hard work:

💜 End of Year One:
Staff favorability went from 47% to 70%
Math proficiency went from 35% to 80%
No major growth in reading proficiency

💜 End of Year Two:
Math proficiency soared & was consistently over 85% and was #1 in our network
Staff favorability soared & was consistently over 90% and was #1 in our network
Reading proficiency increased to 70%

💜 End of Year Three:
Staff favorability was consistently over 90% and #1 in our network
Math proficiency was consistently over 90% and #1 in our network
Reading proficiency soared to 85% and was amongst the top schools in our network

There’s more. So much more.

But the point is… leaders have to start with what we have while holding on to the vision and belief of what’s possible.

And I didn't leave when the job was done. I left when I was called to have a greater impact by stepping into the Superintendent role.

The school called me in and I stayed until it was ready to let me go.

Start with ONE non-negotiable.

When you’re leading a turnaround school, trying to fix everything all at once will overwhelm you and your staff.

So pick one visible standard that signals the culture shift.

A few examples —
Every student is greeted at the door before they walk into the class.
Every classroom begins learning withing the first five minutes of the block.
Every lesson includes 8-10 minutes of discussion time.
Every room is clear and clutter-free.

Pick ONE.

Make it visible.
Coach around it relentlessly.
Celebrate the heck out of it when you see it happening.
SHOW your people what’s possible.

Consistency around ONE standard can begin to rebuild belief across the entire building. And belief is the foundation of every successful turnaround.

Each week, I share tips and tricks on how to build strong schools through sustainable systems and real-life case studies that you might have missed. Take five minutes to get caught up!

Everyone’s talking about these posts so join the conversation:

💜 We’re growing fast and hit another milestone on LinkedIn. 🥳 Come help us celebrate by checking it out here.

💜 Want to know what really happens in the week-in-the-life of a Superintendent, Founder, and Content Creator? What decisions need to be made and how they’re made? The WITL post is up. Check it out here.

💜 Truth is: there IS a best thing every school leader can do to see real growth and change in their school. Check it out here.

Thanks for kickin’ it with me!