Meaningful Support for Your Leaders & Staff

Concerned that your team is being pulled in too many directions or students aren’t engaged?

IT’S TIME TO GET MORE NEEDS MET & EASE THE TENSION

Unclear job descriptions, constantly changing roles, and a lack of resources to meet students’ needs can create a broken staffing system and teachers being pulled in too many directions. And it’s frustrating to everyone when administrators are stretched too thin and the grind of daily management gets in the way of long-term program development. It can lead to everyone feeling undervalued and overworked. I know I felt that way.

After working in boarding schools for many years, I was just as fed up as you are. Working 60 hours a week with a baby at home was enough for me to hit my breaking point. Even though I had asked for change, my school could only support me so much with the resources that they had. I thought I would have to settle for this, until I discovered a whole new way.

Since then, I’ve put everything I’ve learned into a few programs designed especially for boarding school leaders and their staff. These have already changed the lives of many people…are you ready for them to change yours?

Student Life Program Assessments

Boarding schools are being pushed to demonstrate their value in every area of the student experience to concerned parents, boards and staff. To that end, enhancing your student life program beyond “the way we’ve always done it” needs to be a top priority for schools who want to thrive.

The problem is that it’s challenging to objectively evaluate an institution that you call home, colleagues who are your neighbors, and programs built by some of your best friends.

Student Life Program Assessments (SLOA) provide that objectivity and radical honesty that can be nearly impossible to establish from within a community. When working with us on a SLOA, schools gain a set of colleagues who are outside of their community and can be forward thinking, keep an open mind and are willing to look beyond what has always been done to determine just where improvements to the student experience can be made.

Ultimately, the student experience is a key metric to the success of the school and the SLOA process with our team creates a liberating space for students to be heard without worrying about how their feedback will impact their relationships with adults on campus. Students who have participated in the process report feeling more empowered to speak up and participate in the active growth of their schools.

The SLOA report compiles all of the community feedback to identify trends, with attention paid both to strengths and opportunities for improvement. This confidential reporting structure allows all participants to speak freely about their experiences at the school. In capturing a broad range of experiences and feedback from students, faculty, staff, and parents, the recommendations in the report get beyond what a small group of school leaders may be considering and broadens the conversation to include fresh ideas and industry best practices.

Student Life Operations Assessments can be scaled to fit your program’s goals, size and current needs. Whether you need an extra set of eyes to review your student handbook before it goes to print, or a full-scale audit of all your student life programs, policies, and staffing, we can help. SLOA’s typically include a multi-day campus visit and can be completed in three to six months depending on the scope of the project. SLOA’s are completed with your school’s culture and traditions in mind and your plans for the future at the forefront.

Professional Development

Parenting other people’s children is no small task, and students deserve to have well-trained adults leading them in the dorms and throughout the experience. But when dorm parents, advisors, deans, directors, and other student life educators are “learning as they go,” students become guinea pigs instead. Unfortunately, few professional development programs focus on the student and residential life experience.

We specialize in custom-designed sessions built for the needs of your faculty, from first-year dorm parents to seasoned professionals and program leaders. Our custom-created professional development programs for boarding schools focus on your student and residential life roles. They are a terrific opportunity to gain insight and knowledge about highly relevant topics from an outside expert while partnering with colleagues to refine your residential life program best.

Each session is designed to open dialogue among colleagues to keep the conversation flowing in the following days and weeks. Case study work allows your faculty to work through complex scenarios and the nuances of decision-making in a supportive setting, setting them up for success when students and families test boundaries during the school year and helping administrators identify weak points in communication workflows before emergencies happen in real-time.

We all know that job descriptions can’t quite capture the reality of all that happens during a typical day at a boarding school. Our professional development programs allow teams to work through expectations together, and your faculty will leave their session with increased clarity on what they need to do to be the most effective dorm parent and residential educator.

Even better, our boarding school professional development programs create training for faculty and staff that doesn’t require your time to plan. Sessions can be customized entirely to your needs and your school to help with new faculty orientation, topic-specific faculty workshops, student leader training, and even sessions for parents who need help adjusting to life as boarding school parents.

Our workshops are designed to fit your school’s needs. Rather than lecturing, we deliver training through interactive discussions, small group work, and active self-discovery so that your faculty and staff enjoy their professional development experience and feel invested in their growth and that of the school. Workshops are also available for groups of student leaders at your school!

Imagine Your School Being Completely Supported

Imagine a staffing system that doesn’t feel broken. A school environment where everybody feels valued for their expertise and job roles are clearly defined. One where staff isn’t constantly being asked to do more work, and there are clear distinctions between personal and professional life. It may sound far-fetched, I know, but I promise you it is more than possible for your school.

STRONG LEADERSHIP

Principals and school leaders take the initiative and makes promises that they can keep

ENGAGED STUDENTS

Students are focused, on task, and there are generally enough resources to meet their needs

CLEAR BOUNDARIES

Distinctions between personal & professional life are clearly defined and respected

Jackie coaches with a level of objectivity that neither my administrators nor I can have on any given day. Being coached allowed me to step out of the daily grind to get perspective in a conversation with a person who was not part of the structure of decision-making for the school, which allowed me to trust that she was not holding back for any reason.

Director of Residential Life, RI

Throughout our work together, it’s just been so good to have a thought partner, someone who can validate some thinking, push us in other directions when needed, and act as the stop-gap during the decision-making process. Jackie’s guidance reminded us to stop and investigate before we made assumptions and identified the ongoing work that needs to be done to continue to improve the student experience.

Vice President, Mount St. Charles Academy, RI

Jackie was a calming presence for me during a time of transition and new challenges. Being a new administrator can be a lonely position, but Jackie quickly became someone I could trust. She was a cheerleader for me on hard days and understands all the layers of this life and this work. I appreciated her flexibility around scheduling, her perspective from all of her experience coaching others, and her honesty.

Director of Residential Life, HI

Overcome the Overwhelm & Create a Better Learning Environment

There’s a way out of being overworked and overwhelmed. A way where priorities are clear instead of always shifting. Where school leadership makes promises that they can keep. I’ve been through it all and am here to help your school get to the other side. If you’re ready to start seeing your school leaders taking the initiative, feeling confident that there are enough resources to help students, and having a staffing system that works, let’s get started. Click below to get in touch.

Questions? Click here to contact us.

Jackie O’Rourke

CONSULTING & COACHING FOR BOARDING SCHOOL LEADERS & THEIR STAFF

Jackie O’Rourke has served many roles as a boarding school faculty member, from teacher, coach, advisor, dorm parent, and dorm head, to activities director and Dean of Residential Life and Leadership. Jackie also spent seven years as a summer faculty for the professional development organization, The Association of Boarding Schools, onboarding new faculty members and teaching residential life workshops. Throughout her many years of first-hand experience, she knows exactly how boarding school policies, programs, and routines impact students, staff, and admins—for better or worse. Her expertise and passion for creating better learning and working environments have helped many boarding schools across North America to increase student engagement and reduce staff overwhelm.