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May 01, 2024

Understanding and Supporting Staff: Navigating Expectations and Performance

Written By: Marissa LaBreque, Hanna Institute

As a director or leader in early childhood education, expectations can often be a complex dance between what we anticipate from our staff and the realities they face. It’s common to encounter situations where some team members may not meet the expected standards. It can be challenging to decipher where the responsibility lies. No matter how passionate and qualified your staff is, there will be times when performance flounders. Here are some trauma-responsive tools we use to not only improve outcomes but to deepen connections.

Unpacking Expectations

At times, it’s easy to assume that staff members who aren’t meeting expectations are simply choosing not to perform well. Most of the time, we find that a deeper examination reveals various factors are contributing to this scenario. Consider these aspects:

• Diverse Skill Sets: People bring different skills to the table, which may not always align with what we perceive as essential. Recognizing and valuing these diverse skills can lead to a more balanced and effective team dynamic. Sometimes just making a list of the traits, skills, and habits of individual staff members can unlock ideas about how best to activate your team.
• Trauma and Life Experiences: Past traumas or adverse life experiences can significantly impact an individual’s ability to perform certain tasks or respond to challenges. Understanding these underlying factors is crucial in offering targeted support. This kind of understanding takes time and trust, so just know that it often isn’t about you.
• Triggered Responses: Tasks or situations that resemble past traumatic experiences can trigger survival mode responses, hindering cognitive functions essential for problem-solving and rational thinking. Give yourself and dysregulated staff members 30 minutes to cool off and come back.

Supporting Staff Performance

When faced with subpar performance, adopting a supportive approach can yield better outcomes than solely focusing on reprimand or criticism. Here are actionable steps to consider:

• Identify Barriers : What obstacles are impeding your staff’s performance? Assessing physical, belonging, and cognitive needs can provide insights into potential areas for improvement.
• Skill Development : Determine which skills need enhancement and create tailored strategies to support skill-building. Providing clear expectations and opportunities for growth can motivate staff to excel.
• Normalize Mistakes : Encourage a culture where mistakes are viewed as learning opportunities. Debriefing after incidents allows for constructive feedback and promotes continuous improvement.
• Celebrate Progress : Acknowledge and celebrate staff improvements, no matter how small. Recognizing their efforts fosters a positive work environment and boosts morale. You can add shoutouts to regular meetings or staff emails.

Effective Leadership in Action

As a director, supervisor, or leader, your role extends beyond evaluating performance; it encompasses fostering growth and resilience within your team. By embracing empathy, clear communication, and a growth mindset, you can empower your staff to reach their full potential.

Reflect on your leadership style and consider how you can enhance support for your team’s skill development. Embrace curiosity, avoid judgment, and celebrate the journey of continuous improvement.

In conclusion, navigating staff expectations and performance requires a nuanced understanding of individual strengths, challenges, and the underlying factors influencing behavior. By prioritizing support, skill development, and a positive work culture, you can cultivate a team that thrives amidst challenges and achieves collective success.

If you would like to learn more, you can sign up for Trauma-Equipped Training with our supervisor add-on built specifically for Head Start California directors and leaders.

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Developmental Milestone Expectations in Early Head Start

This program and others that serve infants and toddlers offer your child a safe place to learn. We know you are your child's first teacher, and we want to work with you to care for your child. As your partner in your child's education and care, we are dedicated to:

• Valuing your culture, beliefs, and traditions in raising your children
• Listening to your concerns and sharing ideas on healthy child development
• Supporting and encouraging you throughout your child's time in our program
• Sharing your child's progress in our program through daily reports
• Helping you find community resources, such as those for food, housing, and medical care
• Contacting you in case of an emergency by using your baby's emergency contact phone numbers

We are committed to helping your child meet his or her physical needs, following health and safety guidelines, supporting your child in meeting milestones, and creating strong bonds between your child and caregivers. These handouts can help families learn more about milestone development, what to expect in a Head Start Program for each age group, and how to form partnerships with physicians.

Caring for Your 2-Month-Old

This resource can help families care for their 2-month-olds. Topics include feeding (formula and breast milk), safe sleep, diapering, immunizations, environment, relationships, and tummy time.

Caring for Your 4-Month-Old

This resource can help families care for their 4-month-olds. Topics include feeding (bottle feeding and solid foods), safe sleep, immunizations, environment, and development.

Caring for Your 6-Month-Old

This resource can help families care for their 6-month-olds. Topics include feeding, immunizations, healthy gums and teeth, development, and staying healthy.

Caring for Your 12-Month-Old

This resource can help families care for their 12-month-olds. Topics include nutrition, physical development, establishing routines, healthy teeth, and language and literacy.

Caring for Your 18-Month-Old

This resource can help families care for their 18-month-olds. Topics include nutrition, physical development, learning through play, and staying healthy and safe.

Caring for Your 2-Year-Old

This resource can help families care for their 2-year-olds. Topics include dealing with challenging behaviors, learning through play, language and literacy, and toilet training.

Caring for Your 3-Year-Old

This resource can help families care for their 3-year-olds. Topics include social and emotional development, language and literacy, and learning through play.

Caring for Your 4-Year-Old

This resource can help families care for their 4-year-olds. Topics include physical development, social and emotional development, language and literacy, and creative arts.

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Mustangs News · May 6 THIS WEEK IN MUSTANG ATHLETICS

Softball opens ohsaa tournament play this week.

The Lady Mustangs Softball program played in 3 games last week. The Lady Mustangs fell to Medina 4-2 and also fell to Mentor 6-4 before rebounding to defeat Normandy 11-5.

This week, the Lady Mustangs will travel to Magnificat on Tuesday before returning home on Wednesday to host the first round of the OHSAA sectional tournament. The team will conclude its regular season on Saturday when they host Shaker Heights in a DH.

BASEBALL STAYS ATOP GCC STANDINGS IN 3 WAY TIE

VARSITY The Varsity Mustangs upped their record to 11-9 and remained tied atop the GCC after splitting two nail-biters with co-leader Mentor. The squad dropped the first of the 2 game set 2-1 in Mentor as the Cardinals walked it off with an unearned run in the bottom of the 7th. Austin Payne and Caden Papson combined on a 6-hitter for the good guys. The offense was led by Jude Fisher, Brady Eckert and Tommy Farkus with 2 hits apiece. The Guys in Green returned the favor with their own 2-1 win when the Cardinals came visiting the next night. Jude Fisher, MJ McNabb and Caden Papson held the #13 ranked Cards to just 3 hits in the win. Murphy Kelly led a 7 hit attack with 2 knocks. The Mustangs head into the last week of the regular season in control of their own destiny, with 2 game sets against Shaker Heights and Brunswick. A clean sweep will guarantee no less than a tie for the GCC chip.

JUNIOR VARSITY The JV squads turned in their best work of the season, combining for a 4-3 week. The JVA ‘Stangs went 2-2, splitting a pair of games with Mentor, dropping a tough walk-off loss at Avon, then finishing the week with their best effort of the year, a 5-2 win at Nordonia. Zak Zellers and Max Krabec had solid performances on the mound, while Johnny Payne, Jake Moravcik, and Caden Balser led the offense. Meanwhile, the JVB squad had its best week of the season, going 2-1 and posting its first back-to-back wins. After dropping the first of their 2 game set with Mentor, the young Mustangs bounced back, winning the second matchup on the road against Mentor in a 9 inning affair, then finishing the week with an 18-12 slugfest at Avon. The B-Boys raked 23 hits in their 2 game streak, with Drew Batteiger, Brady Pelsnik and Alex DeMarco leading the hit parade. Patrick Byrne and Tony Harris were clutch on the hill in preserving the W’s.

BOYS LACROSSE BUILDING FOR STATE TOURNAMENT SEASON

Girls lacrosse wraps up regular season.

It’s hard to believe that we are in our final week of the regular season. The tournament draw meeting is this Friday. After the meeting, we will share the tournament schedule/bracket. Tentatively, our regional qualifying games are May 16-May 22, and regional finals and semi finals are May 23-June 1. All players are welcome to travel to games.

Varsity girls went 1-1 last week, with a tough loss to rival Medina and a win against Olentangy Orange.

Congratulations to our five seniors who will be graduating this month. We hope you cherish and enjoy every minute of these final last days of high school. We wish you all the best in your next chapter!

BOYS VOLLEYBALL PREPARES FOR OHSAA STATE TOURNAMENT SEASON

On Thursday the volleyball team traveled to Cleveland Heights for their final GCC match of the season. The Mustangs won in straight sets 25-10,. 25-12, 25-18. Walko and Papandreas each had 7 kills. Butera, Kravec and Pinzone each had 2 aces, Butera had 16 service points. Slonaker had 4 blocks followed by Curtis Lofgren-Perrot with 2. Anthony Pinzone dished out 22 assists on the evening.  John Papandreas went over 100 kills for the season.

On Friday the Mustangs played host to St. Ed’s High School. They lost in 3 straight sets 11-25, 24-26, 17-25. Papandreas tallied 6 kills, Devin Ward tallied 3 aces to go with his 10 service points. Luke Slonaker recorded a season high 7 blocks. Kevin Walko had 7 digs to lead the Mustangs.  Luke Slonaker went over 50 blocks on the season. John Papandreas and AJ Butera cleared the 200 service points mark in a season.

The Mustangs finished the regular season 10-10 and were 7-5 in GCC play. JV Matches

JV Beat Medina in 2 sets JV Beat Cleveland Heights in 2 sets JV Lost to St. Ed’s in 2 sets

Varsity Boys Tennis Prepares for OHSAA Tournament

Varsity Boys Tennis (8-6, 3-2 GCC): The Mustangs went 4-0 on the week to extend their win streak to 5 matches. Strongsville won its home finale against Avon B 4-1 before winning three straight on the road at Amherst Steele 5-0, North Ridgeville 5-0 and Olmsted Falls 4-1. Will Jevec (2 singles) and Carter Estrela (3 singles went 4-0 on the week while Xander Blair went 4-0 at 1st doubles, winning the first three matches with Marko Ostryk before picking up a win over Olmsted Falls partnered with Param Oswal. Rabaul Sanghvi (1st singles) and Jack Ingram/Jake Watts went 3-1 on the week. Seniors Drew Bianco/Colin Ogrean added an exhibition doubles victory for the Mustangs against North Ridgeville. The Mustangs wrap up the regular season on Monday at North Olmsted before traveling to Springside Athletic Club on Wednesday for the OHSAA Sectional Tournament.

JV Boys Tennis (9-1, 4-0 GCC): The JV Mustangs defeated Amherst on Tuesday 5-0 to increase their winning streak to 8 matches before Friday’s match with Aurora was cancelled due to rain. In the match against the Comets, Noel Tocaj, Chaatwik Nettem, Jignesh Dave, Archie Wahl/Evan Czech and Luke Trezbuckowski/David Neaterchuk were all victorious. Although Avon, North Ridgeville and Olmsted Falls were unable to field full JV teams for a match this week, the Mustangs swept the JV matches in each of those matches. Strongsville will host North Olmsted Monday for the season finale.

TRACK AND FIELD TEAMS SET TO COMPETE IN GCC MEET

Wednesday, May 1st:

Mentor 90.5, Strongsville 46.5

Despite the loss to Mentor, there was a lot to celebrate. Once again with great weather comes PR’s. For those who don’t know what occurs in the team meeting at the end of the meet, I have each coach provide their favorite moment or performance that took place in the meet. A lot of times, it’s not the top guys that score but the guy that has been working all season to PR or hit a goal and this was one of those meets where it was not necessarily points scored but a season/career-best that finally happened.

Olmsted Falls Bulldog Relays:

With Prom on Friday night and many of our athletes in attendance, it created opportunities for other guys to have a chance at a big invitational and see what they could do.

Young guys that stepped up:

Bradley Krause improved his mile time by 6 seconds to 5:01 and placed 5th overall

Bryce Wilke improved his high jump performance by 5” going 5’8”

Top points earners were:

Jack Dillen with a 1st place finish in the 110M Hurdles (14.67) and bested a 5’10” jump in the high jump as well as a 13’6” jump in Pole Vault

Pole Vault relay of Peck (11-0), Waite (12-0), and Dillen (13-6) finished 2nd overall.

High Jump relay of Limke (5-0), Wilke (5-8), and Dillen (5-10) finished 5th overall.

Wednesday, May 8th & 10th: Greater Cleveland Conference Championship

The meet will be held at Brunswick High School this year. We will have 2 buses departing at different times. 1st bus will depart at 2:30 with all field events. 2nd bus will depart at 4:30 with the remaining participants. This will happen on both days.  HERE  is the schedule for both days. Tickets can be purchased  HERE .

GIRLS TRACK

Mentor 81, Strongsville 56

Despite the loss to Mentor, there was a lot to celebrate. Once again with great weather comes PR’s.

With Prom on Friday night and many of our athletes in attendance, it created opportunities for other girls to have a chance at a big invitational and see what they could do.

Young girls that stepped up:

Ava Therrien with a high jump PR of 4-10

Logan Zawie with a shot put PR of 29-4

Heidi Storm with a pole vault PR of 6-0

Friday, May 10th: Unified Track Meet

We will be hosting a Unified Track Meet during the school day for our Unified Sports Teams.

Monday, May 13th: Mentor JV Invitational

This will be the last chance for many of our athletes. This is a JV meet so points scored do not count towards a letter but results will count.

Thursday, May 16th: Cross Country Meeting

Tuesday, May 21st: Track & Field Season Banquet

Our season ending banquet will take place at 6:30 in the Auditorium.

MUSTANG CHEER CAMP

SHS Cheer will be hosting their annual Mustangs Cheer Camp for students in grades 1st-8th. Join our high school cheerleaders for a day of learning new chants, cheers, jumps. Cheer camp attendees will get to cheer with SHS cheerleaders on August 31st. Registration and payment due by May 1st. Scan the QR code on the flyer for more camp details. If you have questions please email Coach Orlosky at  [email protected]

MIDDLE SCHOOL COLD PIZZA

Hall of fame nominations.

The Strongsville High School Athletic Hall of Fame Committee is seeking more nominations for future Hall of Fame inductees. If you know of anyone that is deserving of a nomination, please click the link below for more information and to nominate a former alum.

HALL OF FAME NOMINATION FORM

NEW ATHLETIC WEBSITE APP UP AND RUNNING

STRONGSVILLE HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETIC SCHEDULE FOR THE WEEK OF MAY 6- MAY 11, 2024

Please check the online calendar listed below for the most up to date information and schedules. The calendar is constantly changing and sometimes take up to 24 hours to sync with the Athletic Website. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the athletic office for more information.

Click on the link below for the latest Strongsville High School Athletic Calendar

https://www.rschoolohio.org/ public/genie/1214/school/4099/

You can also click on the link below to visit the Mustangs Athletic High School website

http://www. strongsvilleathletics.org

HOMETOWN TICKETING FAN APP

NEW TICKETING PRICES FOR THE GCC

The Greater Cleveland Conference (GCC) will be raising admission ticket prices for all athletic events beginning in the 2023-2024 school year. In May, GCC principals approved the increase in athletic ticket prices after GCC Athletic Directors conducted a review of ticket prices for surrounding conferences in Northeast Ohio and found most to already be at these price levels. Ticket sales revenue generated from the events is the main source of funding used by member schools to cover costs for sports and the overall athletic department budget. While costs of game officials, security, sporting equipment, along with all the other costs associated with these events have increased and ticket prices have not. The increase is intended to help offset costs without sacrificing family, student and community experiences. This is the first price increase the GCC has issued since the formation of the league in 2020. The GCC consists of member schools Brunswick, Cleveland Heights, Euclid, Medina, Mentor, Shaker Heights, and Strongsville.

Varsity Football:

$10 at the gate for Adult/Student General Admission

$8 Adult Presale flat fee until 2 hours before kickoff (was $7)

$5 Student Presale (no change)

*Season tickets for home contests are at the discretion of the home school

Varsity/JV (All other Varsity Sports):

$8 Adult/Student (was $7)

Freshman or JV (stand alone):

$5 Adult/Student (was $4)

Middle School Sports:

Senior Citizens Ticket Prices

Free admission (no change)

Distributed by individual schools, GCC passes admit one spectator per pass

GCC Tournaments:

No charge for pre-school age children

No Senior Citizen passes accepted

ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT OFFERS SEASON PASSES

STUDENT PASS:  Once again this year, the Athletic Boosters will pay upwards of $7500 for students to attend sporting events FREE OF CHARGE, EXCEPT for Boys Basketball and Varsity Football. In Boys Basketball and Varsity Football, students MUST purchase a ticket to be admitted into the contest. The Student Pass, which will cost a Student $50.00 for the year, will allow them to get into any Boys Basketball and Varsity Football game at no charge with the pass. In total, there are 16 games between Boys Basketball and Varsity Football, which gives the Students a savings of $30.00 by purchasing the student pass. If you have questions on the Student Pass, please reach out to the Athletic Department.

All Passes will be scanned in at the ticketing gate just like any other ticket and the passes can be stored digitally in the spectator’s phone.

CALLING ALL ATHLETES- IMPORTANT ELIGIBILITY REMINDER

Just a reminder. All athletes need to be enrolled in and pass at least 5 credit hours to be eligible for any Athletic Team . If you have any questions about your schedule or think you may NOT be enrolled in enough credits, please see Mr. Ziegler immediately or visit your guidance counselor. ELIGIBILITY IS DETERMINED BY THE QUARTER GRADES AND NOT THE SEMESTER GRADES. IF YOU ARE DEEMED INELIGIBLE, YOU WILL BE NOTIFIED BY THE ATHLETIC OFFICE. PLEASE CHECK YOUR CCP CLASSES AND MAKE SURE YOU ARE ENROLLED IN THE CLASS AS OF THE START DATE OF THE SEMESTER

GREATER CLEVELAND CONFERENCE INFORMATION

JOIN THE ATHLETIC BOOSTERS

Please help support Strongsville High School student-athletes by joining the Athletic Boosters club. Membership information is available at  https://www. strongsvilleathleticboosters. com/ . Strongsville Athletic Boosters has donated over $800,000 to Strongsville City Schools Athletic Programs and provides incentives to SHS individual sports teams based on membership. There are different levels of membership, which provide great Athletic Boosters gear. Sign up today!!

Strongsville Athletics Gear

Anyone interested in purchasing Mustangs Athletic gear can do at the link below. Please keep in mind that this site is open 24/7 365 days a year and everything can be customized by sport. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to the athletic department

PURCHASE MUSTANG ATHLETIC GEAR HERE

#WeAreStrongsville

SHS ATHLETICS

Email:  [email protected] Website:  www.strongsvilleathletics.org Phone:  (440)572-7118 Twitter:  @scsmustangs

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