When Brandon HuBrins walked into Ellington High School in the fall of 2020 as the new assistant principal, the school was battling — but surviving through — the many challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. As HuBrins got to know his new community, he noticed that something was missing: Ellington lacked a clear, unified identity. “We didn’t do a good job of explaining who we were or the importance behind our values. We were just trying to show up in the building and make everything work each day,” he observed. A quick look at the school’s website and even the physical building revealed not only different versions of the school mascot and inconsistent colors, but also a community trying to find a cohesive identity to rally its students and staff around. Brandon shared, “I felt like there was a better way of defining who we were.” He reached out to their Jostens representative, Ericka Metevier, who introduced him to resources designed to help schools do exactly that: SchoolMark® for defining identity and Renaissance for supporting school culture and climate.

SchoolMark Process: Bringing Clarity

The leadership at Ellington High School wasn’t looking for another trend-based initiative. Instead, they wanted to understand what was currently working for them, what wasn’t and how they could align under their singular identity as Knights. By bringing together staff, students alumni and their Board of Education for a community roundtable, they worked with Jostens school identity expert John Jenson to define their core beliefs. Throughout the process, HuBrins shared, “We didn’t create new values, we just doubled down on the things we already said we believed. We started holding each other accountable to those things and getting on the same page about who we are once we had that in place.” Concluding the community roundtable, “We coalesced around two important ideas: Every successful Knight has to SUIT UP by developing our skills for the challenges ahead and STAND UP by using our skills to face those challenges.” 

Knights Community Buy-In

STUDENTS

When Ellington decided to refresh their Knights identity, they knew buy-in from the entire community was essential. The school chose a strategic time to make visual updates during spring break and aligned the unveiling with a regional Jostens Renaissance conference they were hosting following the break. Over 450 student and adult school leaders from neighboring districts attended the event, and their admiration for Ellington’s refreshed look helped to validate the changes for Ellington’s own students. The rollout even included a partnership with an Emmy award winning artist to release the school’s theme song “Suit Up, Stand Up” on Apple Music and Spotify. As Hubrins noted, “(for high school students) it’s not cool until enough people say it’s cool,” and seeing their school celebrated by others made them excited about the new vision on campus.

Staffulty™ (Staff  + Faculty)

Equally important was gaining the trust of their Staffulty. The administration was aware of “initiative fatigue” and guaranteed this wasn’t just another program. “We promised our teachers when we started this journey that whatever we do, it’ll be aligned with what we know is already working in our school and how we can either improve what we’re doing or get rid of the things that don’t,” Hubrins expressed. Through intentional inclusion in the process, staff and faculty found renewed clarity and direction regarding their roles. To keep their trust, the school has been transparent with Staffulty, using anonymous surveys to gather feedback and consistently communicating how that feedback is being used to make adjustments. By focusing on “evolution, not revolution,” Ellington built on its strengths, creating a new identity that was a natural extension of their existing culture rather than a forced change.

Evolving Their Renewed Spirit

The Knights’ newly defined identity has become a source of renewed school spirit for everyone. Where school gear was once limited to athletes, the entire community — from the art society to the ski club — can now proudly display their mascot on branded school merch. Ellington also started to use unifying class colors to energize its pep rallies, which have increased from one to three per year, and evolved to recognize the achievements of all students, not just athletes. This shared ownership has created an enriched culture where students and staff alike feel a genuine sense of belonging. “At a faculty meeting, one of our teachers told us that the work we’re doing in culture and climate has not only made school a place that feels safe, but a place that’s fun and we want to be. When you hear staff say that it tells me that the work matters,” Hubrins stated.

The Data

Building a stronger school culture isn’t just about feeling good and having fun; it’s also about seeing real, measurable results. Ellington’s data tells a powerful story of the impact their work has had. The school’s district-wide surveys, which include feedback from students, teachers and parents, show significant gains over the past three years:

• The percentage of students who feel physically safe at school rose from 88% to 94%, while those feeling emotionally safe increased from 74% to 86%.
• Beyond safety, the data also reveals a renewed sense of connection and belonging. Student responses to the statement “my teacher cares about me” rose from 82% to 91%.
• The number of students who feel they have at least one trusted adult they can turn to increased from 90% to 96%.
• This sense of community is also reflected in the data, with students feeling they are a part of the school community rising from 77% to 85%.
• More students feel they have the opportunity to contribute in meaningful ways, with that number growing from 82% to 88%.

This positive trend is no accident. These improvements are the direct result of consistent culture work using Renaissance. As Sara Sausker, Director of Jostens Renaissance, puts it, “Ellington’s results don’t surprise me at all. Nearly a dozen studies have been done on Jostens Renaissance, and they show that when students and teachers enjoy coming to school, success follows. Not only does the school just feel better, test scores and graduation rates go up, discipline referrals go down and teacher retention is impacted in a positive way.”

Continuing the Evolution: Renaissance Culture & Climate

The powerful changes at Ellington High School are a testament to ongoing, consistent effort. The school’s leadership knew that this wouldn’t be a short-term initiative. To ensure the new culture wasn’t just a slogan, they created a dedicated Culture & Climate Team and a Journey to Knighthood curriculum using resources from Jostens Renaissance. They introduced tools like The Green Room videos to help Staffulty get familiar with the new direction as well as Character & Wellness videos and discussion guides to support teachers in creating meaningful classroom conversations. Utilizing The Idea Exchange and the Renaissance Results Formula™, they also developed the Super Badge — a tangible recognition reward that students can display on their ID cards. These badges unlock special perks like unlimited hall passes or discounts at the school store for good grades, attendance and behavior. The success of this initiative has been so great that Ellington High School is expanding to partner with local businesses to support Super Badge earners with exclusive discounts, showing that the work at Ellington is making an impact far beyond the school walls.

Journey to Knighthood

Ellington’s dedicated Journey to Knighthood curriculum, an initiative created to further integrate their new identity into their culture, is communicated to students through their advisory time or “roundtable sessions.” This four-year curriculum was developed by teachers and students and is built on four core pillars: Reward & Recognition, Emotional Intelligence, Heritage and Storytelling. The Journey to Knighthood was born out of a clear need for stronger connections, as seniors previously reported that they couldn’t name five students in their advisory period. What was once seen as “busy work” by teachers has been transformed into a time for meaningful conversations, reflection and growth. The initiative helps students and teachers build stronger bonds, and students create a portfolio of reflection essays that they can use to prepare for college and other opportunities after graduation.

From Surviving to Thriving

Moving from simply surviving to truly thriving is a journey that requires a clear vision and ongoing culture work; and that’s exactly what Ellington High School gained through the SchoolMark process and with the support of Jostens Renaissance. Before their focused work on identity and culture, the school was full of great work happening in isolation. Talented teachers were building strong bonds with students and creating wonderful experiences, but they were working in separate silos — no one could explain how their efforts were connected. This led to a fragmented culture, initiative fatigue and lack of clarity of what it meant to be a student or Staffulty member at Ellington. By taking stock of everything happening in the building, the process brought the entire community together to build a cohesive culture and Knights identity. This unified approach has created a stronger, more connected school, and as Assistant Principal Hubrins shared, “We’re proud of the work we’ve done.”

Learn more about Ellington’s story

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