Owner Reflects on Palm Beach Preschool's 10-Year Anniversary
By Karla McCurry
Ten years ago, I began my journey in the early childhood education community. I took on a challenge of owning a business in a field where I had a passion.
My prior education, an MS in Communication Disorders, and my experience in the field of education helped me identify curriculum and developmental weaknesses in my program, but I didn’t know how to properly hire, manage, motivate, and train staff to fill in the gaps.
One of the first things I took advantage of was the SEEK Scholarship. Understanding the cost of education and paying for my college degrees myself, I was amazed how SEEK paid for EVERYTHING.
I first used it to obtain my Director’s credential and later to complete many SEEK
approved trainings, mostly focusing on curriculum studies such as CLASS, GOLD, and
Conscious
Discipline®.
About two years ago, my director encouraged me to join the business cohort.
Karla McCurry, Owner of Palm Beach Preschool
I was apprehensive because it had been so many years since I attended credit courses, plus my work schedule was already overburdened. After reviewing the course outline of the business cohort and knowing SEEK was paying for it, I couldn’t pass up this opportunity.
With the knowledge I’ve gained from the business cohort, previous trainings in CLASS, my 10 year love and study of Conscious Discipline®, the opportunity to participate in the Conscious Discipline® pilot, and my own personal experiences in business management and marketing, things are beginning to “click” together.
I’ve always had a difficult time expressing my vision and outcomes for my students, staff, and parents. However, recently, I have adopted a shift in our school’s cultural environment.
As I have learned in my business classes, culture is one of the most difficult things to change in an organization, but it is the most important aspect of a business. It helps define and differentiate one business from another. It’s what sets you apart from others. It’s what makes you unique.
When I discovered how my love for CLASS and Conscious Discipline® related to my philosophy of early childhood education, and my unspoken vision, I began taking steps toward a cultural change.
There have been many steps my administrative staff and I have been implementing, but one important part has been the development of core values.
Our core values keep us on track for success. We use our core values to guide us in all of our decisions. Core values help us attract staff and clients that have the same values. Our staff and parents have been exposed to our core values. When we are torn on how to make a decision, we let our values guide our way.
We discovered why we do, what we do and how we do it to reach our goals. We believe we need to follow our values to be able to achieve our product.
Each company’s values are different. Our school has selected five core values: Emotionally Supportive Environment, Respect, Trust, Fun, and Quality Education. We chose to place our values in a ranked order with the belief that the next value cannot be properly achieved without achieving the prior values.
Our icon is a staircase that acts as a visual reminder of the ranked order. We have defined each value, so there is no ambiguity. To learn more about our core values, visit palmbeachpreschool.com.
There are many books and resources on how to develop business core values and how to start a cultural change in an organization. Simon Sinek was my inspiration. He has authored several books, but his book titled "Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action" and his YouTube Ted Talks were my motivators. He is a great source for all leaders. He is brilliant and motivational.
For 10 years I’ve known in my heart why I love early childhood education, but I could never put it into words. Our new core values have helped me express it more clearly to others.
Without the help of SEEK, I don’t know if I would have discovered it. This is just the beginning of our cultural change. We have a long way to go, but positive results are already being noticed.
