Earlier this school year, Superintendent Rick West and his team revealed the district’s new motto: “Belong Here. Excel Anywhere.”
After his selection as superintendent of Bloomfield Hills Schools in 2024, West immediately began work on his goals for strategic planning, specifically the Why, Vision, and Mission, the backbone of how our district operates. The first step in this process was the work to develop a new district motto.
While the initial discussions for strategic planning began pre-covid, West stepped into his position with a plan to refresh and redefine. Throughout the motto planning process, West made it a priority to ensure that all voices were heard. One way this was done was by taking as many surveys as possible to gain feedback from all stakeholders: staff, students, families, and community members. From there, a variety of focus groups were formed over the course of several months to invite collaboration from across the community.
“We had a very good cross-section of the community, our staff, and our students,” West said. “We were so proud in particular of what our students added to the process.”
According to those involved, these meetings and the work to gather a variety of opinions were a vital part of the planning process, exemplifying another saying the Bloomfield Hills School District stands behind: all means all.
The strategic planning meetings asked participants to spend time sharing stories about what makes the district unique and why staff, students, and the community have such pride in our schools. These stories were used to jumpstart the formulation of the new district motto. Participants recalled sharing successes of recent graduates, the deeply-rooted networks created within school communities, and the ability of a school community to stand behind and support its own through good and bad.
In examining the feedback from stakeholders, the work from focus groups, and the recommendation from an outside facilitator, one word seemed to be ever-present: belonging.
“We want to create the environment where every single person, every single day, at every single moment, feels like they belong,” said West. “That’s the culture we get to create together.”
As part of the process, the district leadership team worked through several potential iterations of a new motto before ultimately making their recommendation to the board. They wanted to ensure that the new motto language not only captured the heart of what makes Bloomfield Hills Schools unique but that the motto would also stand the test of time.
“I think [our past mottos] were good statements, aspirational, and inspirational, but they just weren’t known,” said West. It was important to him throughout this process that the selected language could be embraced by the entire district and that all stakeholders would work together to put the motto into action.
“We all get the awesome privilege and opportunity to really define what [the motto] means and really bring it to life,” said West.
Ultimately, for West, this process comes back to his “why” and the vision he has for students in our district moving forward.
“Student success is built upon a welcoming and empowering environment, providing pathways to individual excellence.” In other words: Belong Here. Excel Anywhere.
