“Trust Accelerators” is a proprietary leadership concept developed by InitiativeOne and incorporated into its leadership transformation methodology. InitiativeOne is a national leadership institute that partners with organizations and public school districts to strengthen leadership alignment and build healthy, high-trust organizational cultures.
Expressing gratitude, assuming positive intent, communicating with respect, engaging in the district’s culture, and “delivering the mail” during difficult conversations are examples of the Trust Accelerators, a proprietary leadership concept developed by InitiativeOne and used within its leadership transformation methodology.
These practices are helping shape the leadership mindset at Tomorrow River Schools in central Wisconsin, Superintendent Ryan Ruggles says. “To us, it means something deeper than just ‘norms,’” Ruggles explains. “It’s how we do business and how we treat each other every single day. We try to live our trust accelerators.”
Gratitude and treating people with positive intent are two InitiativeOne Trust Accelerators that cover celebrating the achievements of staff and students, along with communicating kindly and directly.
“It’s not easy work that we do and so we have to make sure that we are mindful and celebrate the efforts of everybody on our team,” Ruggles notes. “We want to recognize all contributions that people bring to the table.”
Getting students, staff and stakeholders engaged in school culture relies on aligning everyone’s vision around continuous improvement. One foundation for shared goals is the district’s portrait of a graduate, which emphasizes character, communication, citizenship, critical thinking and collaboration.
“Delivering the mail,” an InitiativeOne leadership concept guides leaders when they must convey challenging messages related to issues with multiple layers or variables.
“We talk about shared accountability, and I think that that’s a huge piece that we’ve been able to get a lot of buy-in from staff members and community members as well,” he adds.
How Tomorrow River builds trust and excitement
“Public displays of learning” are a key aspect of continuous improvement at Tomorrow River Schools. The intent is to engage students more deeply in project-based learning by having them demonstrate new skills and knowledge.
These demonstrations allow teachers to better assess student progress beyond traditional tests and have now become regular practice in Tomorrow River’s classrooms.
“A lot of times, we bring our parents and community members in for these public displays of learning,” Ruggles notes. “Students are getting good practice at presenting their learning to others, and it builds trust and excitement with the community about all the things that we’re doing here.”
Presenting publicly also requires students to demonstrate the five key skills in the district’s portrait of a graduate. It tells the story to the group of towns that Tomorrow River serves that the district is developing students who will become productive citizens with strong character and great communication skills.
“Those are skills that translate to wherever our students are going to go when they leave our district,” he observes.
Asking students about AI
Ruggles and his team have involved students in discussions about the appropriate uses of artificial intelligence. Educators asked middle and high school students about how they were already using AI, what they found useful, and what worried them. That input shaped a three-tiered framework:
- Level 1: Students use AI as a brainstorming partner
- Level 2: Covers more complex AI-assisted work
- Level 3: No AI use is permitted. Teachers communicate which level applies to each assignment, giving students clear expectations rather than blanket restrictions.
The district’s AP Statistics students took it a step further, conducting their own survey on student AI use and presenting findings to both the school board and faculty. The results, Ruggles noted, surprised some of the adults in the room.
“Sometimes the adults assume that kids are doing more negative with it—but we didn’t find that with our survey at all,” he says. “The schools that are struggling with AI are not engaging students in those conversations.”
The key to adopting AI or any new edtech is knowing its purpose for learning, adds Ruggles, who co-authored Successful Middle School Instructional Technology with Tim Schigur. “There are a lot of schools out there that are one-to-one that have never really discussed the purpose of being one-to-one or their expectations for how staff members will use that technology,” he observes.
‘The place to be’
One of the clearest signs of the district’s healthy culture is its high teacher retention rate. Tomorrow River is fully staffed at a time when some districts struggle to get applicants for open positions.
“We’ve established ourselves as a district that values its employees, listens to them, and takes care of them,” Ruggles says. “I like to put people in the position to be successful and figure out what hurdles I need to remove out of their way.”
Ruggles also relishes the district’s role as a hub for the communities its schools serve. “On a Friday night during football season and in the winter during basketball games, this is the place to be,” he concludes. “Our community is incredibly supportive. There’s a lot of pride in our schools and a lot of support.”
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: AI-powered search is changing how students choose colleges
