How to Weave Auxiliary Into Your School's Culture

"No time is wasted time when raising awareness of the benefits of auxiliary." Nancy Hartmann, Director of Auxiliary Programs at Pike School in Andover, Massachusetts, offered this wisdom in SPARC's recent After School Jumpstart program. A believer in building relationships, maintaining a positive mindset, and holding accountability, Nancy shared valuable, practical insight into how you can infuse auxiliary into the culture of your school.

Make Small Changes

After a 40-year career in youth development, Nancy has learned to appreciate the power of taking small steps toward the goal of promoting auxiliary. "Everything takes time and grace," she says, urging auxiliary professionals to stay positive, even when change seems slow. 

When she first arrived at Pike School, auxiliary's function during long days of professional development or conferences was supervised child care. It was exhausting and uninteresting for both staff and students, and since it was a free service for faculty and parents, it brought in no revenue. 

Nancy saw that this was a good place to make a change everyone could get on board with. Rather than trying to change auxiliary's time investment or insisting on a place at the table during PD, she and her team restructured their time with the students. Younger students now stay on campus for "themed project days," which keeps them engaged, while students in 2nd grade and older take field trips that are fun and educational. 

Both the staff and participants loved the changes. And parents, seeing the benefits of a more enriching experience for their kids, were willing to pay for it. What was simple child care is now a program that generates non-tuition revenue for the school

"Everything takes time and grace. Believe in and share your vision."

--Nancy Hartmann, Director of Auxiliary Programs, Pike School

Reach Out to Find and Create Allies

Reach out to faculty and staff in other departments by getting to know them. Ask a lot of questions and find out what they need so you can create mutually beneficial relationships. "Stay positive and persistent," Nancy says, "and be transparent about what you need."

Nancy's team discovered that very few faculty members were willing to volunteer their classrooms for auxiliary needs, so they made their after school plan first, figuring out what space the vendors and participants required. Then they approached teachers to find out how to make a plan that would work for both of them. 

"Ask what a successful plan would look like to them." Nancy says. "Listen to their concerns and validate them." Ask what rules or guidelines they would like to have followed. When teachers felt their concerns were heard and that their space would be respected, they were more willing to collaborate with auxiliary, and more likely to see the benefits of auxiliary for their students, making them allies with the auxiliary team.

Establish Trust with Respect and Accountability

Make sure your staff is trained on how to ask for and respect the guidelines other departments have for their space, and that they are consistent in adhering to them. Nancy found that their Athletic Director was reluctant to let her team use the sports facilities because he'd had issues in the past with the space being left a mess, especially with equipment being left out and not put away properly.

Nancy listened to his concerns and started small. At first, her team used the space for a minimal amount of time and established trust by always leaving the space as they'd found it. They ended every day by doing a walk-through to verify that all equipment was put away and the space was tidy. "Hold accountability and do a little extra at the end of the day so there are no surprises," she says. That extra five-minute check goes a long way to ensure a positive relationship with another department.

As you build allies through creating relationships and establishing trust, you build your confidence, too. Over time, you can deepen this trust, building powerful connections that allow auxiliary and other departments to work together. Now that Nancy's team has earned the respect of athletics, their director will reach out to work through any scheduling changes, seeing her as a fellow colleague and collaborative ally.

Don't Fix What Isn't Broken

Not everything needs to be changed. At Pike School, Nancy found that the system in place for running field trips already worked well. They efficiently ran the transportation, supervision, and management of health concerns for students. Instead of implementing their own field trip plan, Nancy's team reached out to the All-School Coordinator to leverage an established system, making their process easier and less stressful.

Stay Aligned With the School's Mission

Part of Pike School's mission is to foster an environmentally-friendly mindset in their faculty, staff, and students. To align with this goal, Nancy's team reached out to the food service department to make after school snack time more "green." They were able to collaborate to order food in bulk, serve lunch leftovers to avoid waste, use dishes and flatware from the cafeteria instead of disposables, and to recycle and compost materials and food. 

When auxiliary shows their willingness to adopt the established school culture and mission, it can encourage other departments to include auxiliary into that culture.

Final Advice

While not someone who spends a lot of time evaluating metrics, Nancy does use and value the knowledge that comes from SPARC's annual Compensation and Position Report . This is important information to have when you want to keep track of auxiliary's changing and ever-growing role in independent schools, and how your department compares. 

Finally, Nancy emphasizes the need to stay positive, noting that "everyone loves to be around a positive vibe." In the end, she says, "the kids are what's most important. As long as they're safe and happy, that's what counts."

SPARC maintains a powerful, growing collection of resources for auxiliary professionals, whether you're in after school, summer programs, or any aspect of auxiliary work. Join us today for access to professional development tools, videos, webinars, community support, and more!