Collaboration. Commitment. Change.

Bradley Wilson is Superintendent of Schools in Chelan, Washington and 2022 Washington State Principal of the Year.

The concept is not new. Like it is for many schools and districts across the nation, community and family engagement is one of our major goal areas of the Lake Chelan School District’s strategic plan. Oftentimes, though, this well-intentioned goal can mean an increase of asking the community to engage rather than going out and engaging with the community.

In the rural North Central Washington Lake Chelan School District, we have approximately 1270 students. Taking all students K-12 out to the community via a newly developed homecoming parade took unprecedented levels of collaboration, commitment, and change. When Chelan High School principal Jamie Pancho brought the idea of a K-12 homecoming parade forward in September of this year, it was easy to jump to the many questions of potential logistical nightmares involving 1200+ students marching down our Mainstreet on a Friday afternoon. Questioning the validity of doing so during the school day was also an easy out given our emphasis on enhancing student learning.

While reflecting on the many barriers that immediately surfaced, another question arose. “Can we really say we are committed to community engagement if we will not commit to being flexible in efforts to engage with them?” We decided to choose to commit to doing what was needed to make a run at this new engagement endeavor. Principal Pancho and Athletic Director Evan Reister committed to doing all the internal and external leg work to make it happen, and district leaders committed to supporting the endeavor of having students district wide out of class for a first ever all district walking field trip in the form of a parade down historic Woodin Avenue. Commitment of leadership is great, but this was not a one or two person operation.

Bringing our students and staff together with the community in an all-district manner took a tremendous amount of collaboration. A major step was bringing our K-5 elementary school into the fold. Typically, homecoming week is a high school centered time in Chelan. Inserting a K-12 event into the agenda was a challenge. Inserting a K-12 community-based event into the agenda was a collaborative challenge. Pancho and Reister visited an elementary staff meeting to present the idea and cover logistics. Elementary administrators and staff quickly jumped on board and plans began to take shape. Our district transportation department was engaged to bus our K-2 students to the parade starting point to reduce the amount of walking they would have to do. District maintenance staff committed to providing extra support for the route other elementary students would walk from school to the parade start. Elementary, middle school and high school administrative and counseling staff were assigned to spots along the route for supervision.

The high school band weighed in with where they could be stationed to best bring their musical energy to the day. Also at this time, community partners were being engaged. A parade permit was approved by the City of Chelan. Plans were shared as breaking news on local radio station KOZI. Local emergency management services, police, and fire department officials agreed to partner and have personnel and vehicles involved. School and community social media outlets hyped the event as middle school and high school staff was alerted.

Downtown businesses were alerted and encouraged to take part in the day by wearing school colors and spirit gear. Entities like North Cascades Bank made arrangements to have all staff in Chelan Goat gear for the day. All of this was happening for the first time ever and other past practices were not. This was change.

As mentioned earlier, homecoming has typically been a high school centered event in Lake Chelan. On Thursday evening, high school student athletes, coaches, and the band would gather downtown for some games and to sing the fight song. A few parents would join. On the Friday of the week, high school students would take part in a school spirit oriented event like a field day or pep assembly.

Now, we had students K-12 making banners, designing spirit gear, and preparing their pom poms. All students were now part of homecoming literally right in the middle of our community. By being willing to have the event during the school day, no one was excluded. No one had to worry if they could get a ride to town from a parent to take part or take time off from after school jobs. Students walked side by side through the community with their peers regardless of status or demographic subgroup.

Community members, families, and business owners lined the streets to cheer the students on and see them as a united K-12 student body representing all that is right about our schools. A change had been made in practice and the change led to celebration by all.

Following the parade, private and professional social media in Chelan were flooded with pictures of smiling students, staff, families, and community members, all dressed in school colors. At that night’s football game, it was all that patrons talked about. Compliments flowed as did ideas to make next year’s parade even bigger and better. Our Lake Chelan School District vision is all students and staff achieving, believing in their potential, and contributing compassionately to their community. Students and staff definitely hit the contribution bar with this. By principal Pancho bringing forward a new idea and leaders district wide committing to a new way of pursuing our goal of community engagement, a new level of collaboration took place and homecoming in Chelan changed for the better.

Supt. Wilson's story inspires collaboration, commitment, and change. The impact this story can have reaches far beyond the small community of Chelan, Washington. Schools are not a destination in the community. The school is the community. The community is the school.

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