Dear Reader,

A few weeks ago I went to the grand opening of the new building for the school I founded, which opened in 2013 with 113 fourth and fifth graders.

When the first class graduated from 12th grade in 2021, I graduated as well, starting my small business working to help PK-12 school leaders navigate organizational shifts and transitions, ensuring their teams are aligned and effective so their students thrive.

I’ve been in touch but I tried to give my amazing successor some space: when I left, 95% of the staff stayed and I didn’t want to blur any boundaries or be a well-meaning (but potentially meddling) auntie.

Especially since 2023, when my kids and I moved to New York, it’s been hard to get back: we go to Chicago when they’re off school and usually the school I founded is also out of session.

So when we went back on August 21st, it was literally a stunning experience.

Usually I find writing easy, but I’ve had a really hard time putting into words what it felt like five years later to see…

• A teacher who told me she couldn’t do it past this year–and I told her “you’ve got what it takes, this is just hard work and you're going to retire here.” She’s in Year 9 now–and found her husband at work as a bonus. 🙂
• The (new to me) Assistant Principal of Culture coming up to me talking about The Code, the manifesto I wrote in 2018 that codified our cultural practices–telling me about the PD session they’d had the week before on that
• Seeing a teacher who had left and come back once when I was there, then left—come back again. An incredibly talented high school math and science teacher, she spoke movingly about why she had come back, “this time for good.”
• One of our founding board members–who I spent hours with literally driving around the community looking for buildings in 2011—was the Owner’s Rep on the development project for the permanent space, helping realize a long held dream. Our Founding Treasurer came to celebrate and it was like old home week.
• The community leaders who attended–seeing those relationships thrive through the transition meant the world to me. I had just driven by the second-largest church in the community on the way to the event, telling my oldest how I spoke at services 3 weeks before she was born and the pastor kept saying “Now, Beth, don’t have that baby now”—and a member of the leadership who attended came up and took a picture of my kids and I to share with the pastor and his assistant whom I became close to.
• Hugging my friend Donna who now leads the Community Action Council–and remembering two dear leaders on it who both passed away suddenly in the last few years.

​I knew it would be a great day but it blew me away.

Processing it afterwards, I’ve been overwhelmed with how much of what I started has lasted beyond me–and given the work I do with so many people who want their legacy to outlast them, it’s given me fresh food for thought on why that’s happened.

It comes down to values/mission, relationships, and systems.

1. When decisions are rooted in the mission–and tied to the core values–they last beyond any one person.
2. When relationships are valued–the power of those lasts and transcends beyond any individual and connects to the institution.
3. When all of this work is systematized–it takes on a life of its own.

I have theories on which of these is the hardest–most difficult to actually apply in action.

Before I share those though–I want to hear your ideas–what do you think is the hardest of these?

Hit reply and let me know (just writing the number is fine!)--I want to see if I’m right. Ofc feel free to add more detail but for now just curious which of these feels most challenging to make live?... there will be more to come based on what I hear.

Take care,

Beth

ps. I mean it, tell me what you think about these (including if I’m missing anything!)