While many schools embark on their fourth week of school, two of our partners in Cleveland are embarking on their fourth month of school.

Lincoln-West School of Global Studies and Lincoln-West School of Science and Health both opened their doors in early July after a robust design year supported by Springpoint. Throughout this full design year, Springpoint provided targeted and customized support that helped teams at both schools create and hone their student-centered models, prioritize their implementation requirements, and plan for launch. Now that the schools have launched, Springpoint’s support continues through the implementation phase, and will extend over the next two years as the schools iterate on their models.

Designing and launching a new school is a massive undertaking that is both challenging and rewarding. Upon launch, design teams constantly learn new things and adapt as they welcome students and bring school designs to life within the walls of the school.

For Chris Thompson, principal at Lincoln-West School of Science and Health, those walls are also the walls of the MetroHealth Hospital in Cleveland. This school is the first one to be located inside a hospital, which gives students access to MetroHealth’s clinical staff for lectures and mentorship as well as lab work and job shadowing. Students also experience a robust interdisciplinary high school curriculum that includes biology, English, Spanish, art, physical education, health, and more.

Mr. Thompson and his design team have learned a lot through designing and launching a school. Here are the top three takeaways from Lincoln-West School of Science and Health’s first few months:

• Reflect and stay grounded. There are innumerable considerations and priorities when opening a new school. It is easy to get side tracked or overwhelmed by everything from putting out fires to operational urgencies. It’s important to reflect on the mission and vision to stay grounded in your school’s essential elements.
• Focus on the instructional core. A new school needs a strong leadership team that partners authentically with teachers to create a solid academic program. There are so many operational elements to iron out in the first few weeks of a school’s existence, so it is not only essential to plan early for curricular priorities, but to retain that focus in the first few weeks too.
• Over communicate. Lincoln-West School of Science and Health has found it useful to send out a weekly email to staff. This allows the school community to share gratitude, impart motivation for this work, and stay up to date on upcoming events. They pair this with a newsletter for the wider community stakeholders to keep them aware and involved as well.

Take a look at how their first day went:

Irene Javier is the principal at Lincoln-West School of Global Studies, where students participate in curricular-based learning and service expeditions that include local, national, and international travel. The school has a focus on personalized instruction using smart technology that gives students the knowledge and skills necessary to grow and succeed in a diverse and evolving global society.

Ms. Javier and her design team also have many lessons learned through their process of designing and launching a new school. Here are the top three:

• Be flexible. Be prepared to re-group or recalibrate the structure and processes of a school’s original design. It can be effective to identify and set up checkpoints for both staff and students to ensure that design teams and other adults are responsive to changing realities and adaptable to new needs.
• Plan for additional capacity. Build in extra time and resources to coordinate and on-board new students. Lincoln-West School of Global Studies doubled their enrollment from day one and having extra adults on hand was key to success. Be sure to also think about the implications of this kind of growth regarding culture building and system implementation.
• Prioritize family engagement. Cultivate strong relationships with students’ families to encourage parent participation, increase communication, relay expectations, and invest families in their student’s learning.

See how Lincoln-West School of Global Studies took to the historical streets of Cleveland to learn about their community as a way to understand the world: