Armfield Foundation Grant Supports Surry County Schools’ Groundbreaking Leadership Development Initiative

Client Profile & Challenge

Surry County, located in the foothills of North Carolina and part of the Piedmont Triad region, has a significant agricultural economy and a well-established, assorted industrial base. But as with similar counties in the US, attracting and retaining economic talent is a key challenge.

Surry County Schools (SCS) plays an instrumental role not just in shaping the minds of the future, but in bolstering the economic vitality of the county. The district’s strategy to attract more families and businesses is straightforward: develop a reputation of excellence and become known as the “leadership” school district of North Carolina. As stated by SCS superintendent, Dr. Travis L. Reeves, “We believe that everyone has the capacity for leadership, and making leadership development accessible to all will help us fulfill our mission of empowering youth to grow as citizen leaders and to achieve their dreams.” How could the school district stand out and drive this positive change?

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Solution

Surry County Schools (SCS) chose to partner with the Center for Creative Leadership, based on CCL’s research that investing in leadership development at all levels in K-12 education — from superintendents, principals, teachers, and staff to students — can drive transformational change.

The Edward M. Armfield, Sr. Foundation, a local foundation that typically provides scholarships to college-bound students graduating from public high schools in Surry County, granted an initial $150,000 to address this challenge, with a further commitment of $400,000 over the next 5 years.

“We are so proud to invest in the amazing leaders in Surry County through their partnership with the Center for Creative Leadership. We believe in the power of leadership development and know that our investment is creating real change in Surry County, North Carolina, and beyond,” says Mindy Oakley, executive director of the Armfield Foundation.

A design team from SCS, including administrators, teachers, staff, and students, collaborated with CCL facilitators to create the SCS Leadership Framework. This framework includes 14 leadership attributes categorized into 3 areas: Leading Self, Leading With Others, and Changing Your World. These attributes were used to develop lessons for students at each school level. To ensure teachers could authentically lead this initiative, we established a Teacher Leadership Academy, bringing together cohorts of teachers from the district’s 19 schools for leadership development.

Today, the SCS Leadership Framework is actively displayed and practiced in schools and classrooms, drives improvement efforts, and has become a core part of the SCS identity. Over the past 5 years, the Teacher Leadership Academy has seen 15 cohorts of teachers, and SCS principals and assistant principals receive regular leadership development training.

Results

By building and implementing a collective understanding of what Surry County means by “leadership,” the district has created a key differentiator that will help ensure its future growth and success. The program has reached beyond those who would typically receive leadership development, such as superintendents and principals. It has instead focused on every person in the system, all the way down to preschoolers, creating a systemic change in leadership.

By the Numbers

“The focus on developing leadership capacity throughout the district has been outstanding in Surry County. It has resulted in a system full of highly effective leaders that model and teach leadership to each other and to their students every day,” said Greg Cameron, Director of the Education Sector at CCL.

The partnership between SCS, CCL, and the Armfield Foundation highlights the transformative power of leadership development in education, setting a powerful example for other districts across the country.

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