FHSD Unpacked: Creating a Culture of Excellence
The FHSD Culture Blueprint is deeply involved in everything we do across Forest Hills School District, and many staff members took great care when developing this framework to guide and support all members of the FHSD community. Culture is the focus of the third edition of the 2025-2026 FHSD Unpacked series—intended to explore one key area of the school district in detail, providing a more comprehensive picture of what goes on in FHSD.
What is the FHSD Culture Blueprint?
Our Culture Blueprint describes the values, beliefs and skillsets that guide intentional, everyday efforts to cultivate a culture of excellence.
A culture of excellence is about so much more than academic performance. It is about each and every one of us doing our part to be excellent people—individuals who care for each other and get the best out of ourselves and those around us. The FHSD Culture Blueprint helps clarify the culture we strive to create and sustain, but documents do not build culture—our actions do.
Every Moment Matters
Our goal at Forest Hills School District is to ensure Every Moment Matters. We know that every interaction, both big and small, has the power to positively change a student’s day and make a difference in their life.
This goes beyond a simple phrase or tagline—it is a driving belief that guides everything we do in FHSD. Each of us has the ability to positively impact those around us and it is important to be mindful of those moments. We encourage all staff members and all students to embrace this approach by making the most out of every moment each school day.
Defining Our Values and Beliefs
The FHSD Culture Blueprint is the culmination of the efforts of approximately three dozen staff members, representing all school buildings, departments and job types. This group of teachers, support staff, administrators, custodial staff and more spent several weeks ahead of the 2023-2024 school year to identify and clearly define the values and beliefs that are critical to the district’s culture. We wanted to be sure these key areas properly represent our school district and our community.
Connections: Stronger Together
By respecting each voice, serving and supporting others, and being honest and authentic, we try to embrace our shared value of Connections. At the end of the day, we want everyone in FHSD to treat others the way they would like to be treated. We work hard to create a safe and inclusive learning environment where everyone feels heard, seen and valued. It is also critical to show empathy, understanding and compassion to others.
Why We Do It: To Foster Positive Relationships
Ownership: I Get To
The value of Ownership reminds us of the importance of doing the work, leading by example and encouraging and empowering others. Everyone in FHSD should take responsibility for our individual actions and hold ourselves accountable to those results. We want to inspire others to follow our positive example through our actions, behaviors, words and attitudes, and we want to provide those around us with support and encouragement to be their best selves every day.
Why We Do It: To Accept Responsibility with Passion and Purpose
Growth: Transform Tomorrow
We can live out the value of Growth when we seek and value feedback, reflect and take action, and step outside our comfort zones. If we strive to be a little better today than yesterday, and a little better tomorrow than today, those small steps of growth will add up quickly over the course of the school year.
Why We Do It: To Create a Better Today
Empowering Leadership
Every individual in FHSD—students, staff, teachers, administrators, family members and more—serve as critical leaders in our school community. A student who makes an extra effort to be kind to a classmate sets a positive example for his or her peers. A staff member who takes ownership and responsibility by stepping up each day to meet the needs of their students or colleagues demonstrates the values we try to exemplify.
20 Square Feet
The concept of 20 Square Feet is a reminder of the reality that everyone in FHSD has a sphere of ownership. Each of us is responsible for developing our part of the culture and our part of the learning journey. The way we behave personally—the way each of us manages our 20 Square Feet—is what determines our culture.
What we do in our 20 Square Feet makes a difference.
Performance Pathway of Leadership
The Performance Pathway of Leadership describes the system where leaders create the culture that drives behavior that produces results.
Nothing impacts performance more powerfully than culture. Nothing impacts culture more powerfully than leadership.
As we indicated above, EVERYONE in FHSD is an important leader to those around them. A culture of excellence will drive excellent behaviors, which in turn feed back into our school district's culture and help improve outcomes for everyone.
Event + Response = Outcome
This simple and powerful framework provides a way to be intentional about how we respond to various situations in our lives. An event plus our response will deliver an outcome. In many cases, the event will be something that is outside our control, and this approach allows us to focus on what positive outcome we want to see and how we can craft an intentional response to make that desired outcome a reality.
This applies to all facets of life, professional and personal. The key is to focus on how you choose to respond and how that response can deliver a positive or desirable outcome.
Click the cover image below or click here to view a copy of the FHSD Culture Blueprint. You can also find additional information on our website here.
