Lancaster Co. school latest to embrace ‘The Leader in Me’ program

The Lancaster Chamber of Commerce is launching a $2 million campaign to bring leadership programs to Lancaster schools.

The fundraising campaign was announced Friday as the Lancaster school district celebrated the initial successes of “The Leader in Me” program at Buford Elementary School.

Just six weeks into the program, Buford principal Andrea Ribelin said she is seeing changes in student behavior.

In “The Leader in Me” program, students use “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey to guide their behavior. One of the key principles is that every child can be a leader. Students are assigned various leadership roles.

Ribelin told two stories about her students embracing the program.

In one instance a kindergarten student made it his daily responsibility to help guide a blind kindergarten student to his classroom. In the other instance a second-grader told Ribelin that a student had been mean to him. In working to solve the issue, the students and Ribelin looked at seven habits to see how they applied to the situation.

The offending student realized he was not being responsible, Ribelin said. The other student, Ribelin said, learned to stand up for himself. Both learned how to resolve the issue. When one of the parents came to school, concerned about the situation, Ribelin said the students had already resolved it.

The actions at Buford are what “The Leader in Me,” is all about, said Chad Smith of Franklin Covey.

“Every child can be great,” Smith said.

Smith described “The Leader in Me” as a ubiquitous “everywhere” approach to leadership development that requires commitment from students, parents, teachers, administrators and school staff.

One of the challenges, said Gene Moore, superintendent of schools for Lancaster, will be to get parents to “buy into” the program.

“We have got to get the adults beyond the ‘I don’t have time to do it,’ ” he said. “This can’t be one more thing that comes and goes. This has to become part of the culture.”

The Lancaster Chamber of Commerce has been working with the school on other leadership efforts. The hope is “The Leader in Me” will be available to all 11 elementary schools in the county. The three-year cost per school is about $125,000, said Dean Faile, president of the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce.

“We would like for everyone to promote there is a future for students. It’s about planting the seed, tell students that they matter,” said Linda Blackwell, elementary instruction director for Lancaster Schools.

This story was originally published October 12, 2015 at 7:21 AM with the headline "Lancaster Co. school latest to embrace ‘The Leader in Me’ program."