‘The Tools of Hope:’ Student Success Flourishes at Reeds Spring High School

When Reeds Spring High School Principal Brandon Weldy first arrived on the job in his new building in the summer of 2023, to repaint the library and do some carpentry projects alongside his son, the first dial he reached for wasn’t the air conditioning in sweltering southern Missouri heat, but what he calls the school ‘climate’ dial. He saw that school pride and spirit were lacking, and as a result the high school had room for improvement in behavior, attendance, and participation in school activities. Reeds Spring, one of ten Missouri GRAD Partnership schools, has since been a journey to rewrite what it means to be a successful student.

Situated northwest of the tourist hub of Branson, MO, Reeds Spring high school has about 550 students, drawing from five different rural communities. This is Reeds Spring’s first year participating in the GRAD Partnership, a national initiative that encourages and supports schools in efforts to use high quality student success systems that empower schools to graduate all students ready for the future (for more on the GRAD Partnership, and RSC’s rural cohort, see here). Reeds Spring’s participation in the GRAD Partnership is supported by Drs. Rhonda Bishop and Denise Cunningham, Co-directors of the Missouri State University Center for Rural Education, a part of RSC’s Missouri Hub.

For Brandon, moving the climate dial was an attainable first step in eventually moving the academic dial at Reeds Spring, and played to his strengths as a relational leader. He shares that when it came to school climate, “we went from a one to a nine in about two months, and it's all just by being visible and being relational…we've upped the ante for our kids, I would like to think our kids feel safe.” Early results have been encouraging, both from the perspectives of students and the administration.

The students, particularly those who have been at Reeds Spring a long time, feel and appreciate the new culture throughout the building’s red-and-white walls. Keaston, a senior, notes that “[Brandon] came in all of our sophomore years, and, you could tell, as soon as he came in, the culture just completely flipped to more of a friendlier environment– kids were more willing to learn and be involved in things.” Brandon, of course, deflects credit, praising his fellow educators for buying in and the students for assuming agency over improving their school culture.

Early in his tenure, Brandon established his ‘pack’ of student advisors, who offered ideas and brainstormed improvements to boost morale and relationships. Homecoming had become a sparsely-attended affair, and with the help of his pack, Brandon and his leadership team flipped it into a celebration of school spirit. He describes that “they came up with all these ideas, and I just footed the bill…we had like eight different types of outdoor games. We had a dance session section. We grilled them all hot dogs.” After about forty attendees in year one, that number jumped to 400 this past year, surpassing even the most optimistic of expectations.

To grow buy-in around both daily attendance and participating in culture-building events, Brandon and his team created a point-system, where grade-level classes compete to win prizes. The winning grade for attendance in a given week will get 100 points, whereas a behavioral referral will cost a grade points. Attending a popular sporting event such as football will also gain points, but there are more to be earned for students who go to less-visited events such as theater or volleyball. Keaston has become a big proponent of this system, and notes how it’s changed his school experience: “I've gotten more into school activities myself. I feel like that has boosted, not only my happiness, but also being able to put stuff down on college resumes as well.”

Utilizing the funds that Reeds Spring received through participation in the GRAD Partnership, with additional support from the Community Foundation of the Ozarks, has helped Brandon and his team purchase some of these incentive prizes and support culture-building activities. When layered on top of a building with strong student-adult relationships, the result has been a space where students feel valued, seen, and part of the pack. Kenleigh, also a senior, describes that feeling: “Throughout school, I haven't had the greatest outside-of-school life my last four years, but in school, it's my safe space... And I do enjoy coming to school and talking to my peers and my teachers and everything.”

Bella, a Reeds Spring senior who entered the district when she was in the 7th grade, notes that the atmosphere created by the teachers at Reeds Spring is far different to what she experienced in previous schools: “Everyone here, they're like, ‘I want a relationship, because we’re going to help our students.’ If you have a relationship, you're going to know their struggles, their problems, and it's a way better way to connect with them. All of our teachers, they don't just say, ‘Oh, hey, how's your day?’ Like, we will sit down and have conversations. And it's amazing to me, because a lot of teachers don't do that.”

While students see Principal Brandon Weldy out in the halls during passing times and lunch, less visible is the hard work that he and his student success team put in to identify and uplift students in need. Student success teams are an integral part of implementing student success systems, which focus on a) student-centered mindsets, b) real-time, actionable data, c) strong, supportive relationships, and d) strategic improvement actions. Brandon describes that “every Tuesday, we meet as a student success team, and we look at four pieces of data. . . The four pieces of data we look at are attendance, behavior, academic [performance], and then the fourth one is teacher referral.”

If a student pops up in two of the four categories, the team immediately forms an action plan to get them back on track. Brandon notes that “every action plan looks different. Sometimes it's weekly check-ins. Sometimes it's having a parent come in to address some things.” If a particular staff member feels they know the student well, they will be the one to set up an intervention, leveraging the strong, supportive relationships within the building. By meeting weekly, Brandon and his student success team are able to act quickly and decisively, rather than waiting for quarter or semester breaks to act. All told, attendance is up 1.5%, an improvement that Brandon and his staff are quite proud of.

Two and a half years into his principalship, some changes to the school are quiet, others loud. One loud positive: the lunch room, which thanks to cultural improvements and the new Missouri no phones-in-schools law, is now filled with chatter and conversations. Another came in the form of outside recognition: In 2023, the Southwest Missouri Association of Secondary School Principals named Reeds Spring High School Principal Brandon Weldy the Exemplary New Regional Principal of the Year. A quiet change can be seen by looking up in one hallway, where seniors each get to decorate one ceiling tile, a subtle mosaic of the individuality that each student brings to Reeds Spring. They get to take that ceiling tile with them, as a reminder that while at school, they learned, they grew, and they mattered.

For Brandon, that feeling is everything. “I just want them to start seeing what we see in them academically and just know that whenever they walk across the stage, they have everything they need to be successful, no matter what it is they're going to do. A lot of kids see their current reality and think that's a permanent reality, [so we are] just giving them the tools and the hope, just giving them the hope that there's something that is out there.”

Rural Schools Collaborative would like to thank Drs. Rhonda Bishop and Denise Cunningham of Missouri State University for their leadership as a GRAD Partnership Intermediary, and for facilitating RSC’s visit to Reeds Spring. RSC would also like to thank Beth Hughes and the Community Foundation of the Ozarks for their support of the GRAD Partnership in Missouri.