Don’t Blame the Snowmobile: Creating Conditions for Teachers and Students to Thrive
Imagine unloading a snowmobile in the middle of a desert.
It is a remarkable machine—powerful, well-designed, and built to travel quickly across difficult terrain. But in the desert, it struggles. Its track churns through the sand. Its engine strains. No matter how hard the driver presses the throttle, the snowmobile cannot perform the way it was designed to perform.
Now imagine that same snowmobile after a heavy snowfall.
Suddenly, it glides. It climbs hills, crosses fields, and carries its rider through terrain that would stop almost any other vehicle. The snowmobile did not become more powerful. Its design did not change.
The conditions changed.
In the right conditions, it could finally perform to the best of its abilities.
The same is true in our schools.
Teachers bring extraordinary talent, knowledge, creativity, and commitment to their work. Yet even the most gifted educators can struggle when they work in conditions that leave them feeling unheard, unsupported, or disconnected from the decisions that affect their classrooms.
That does not mean they are incapable.
It may mean we need to take a closer look at the conditions surrounding them.
Research supports the importance of that environment. Josephine Campbell, writing for EBSCO, identifies four essential characteristics of a positive learning environment: safety, engagement, connectedness, and support. When those conditions are present, students are more willing to participate, develop a sense of belonging, and engage deeply in learning.
However, before teachers can consistently create those conditions for students, leaders must work to create those conditions for teachers.
When I arrived in Buncombe County Schools in 2022, 80.14% of our teachers agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, “Overall, my school is a good place to work and learn” on the anonymous North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Survey.
That was encouraging, but it also meant that nearly one in five teachers could not say the same.
Four years later, in my final year as superintendent, 95.17% of our teachers agreed or strongly agreed with that statement. Even more remarkable, 98.08% of our teachers participated in the survey.
Even more remarkable, the 2026 survey was administered during a year with no state budget being passed (meaning no raises for teachers or staff) while health insurance rates had climbed, leading to a functional decrease in pay. This was also the first full school year after Hurricane Helene had ravaged the area, tragically leaving behind death, loss of homes and businesses, and students who missed over a month of school. In the midst of those challenges, teachers were asked about their job satisfaction.
The increase from 2022 to 2026 represents a fifteen-percentage-point leap in the number of teachers who viewed their school as a good place to work and learn.
Those numbers matter.
However, they matter not simply because they look impressive on a report. They matter because each response represents a person. They represent a teacher who walks into a classroom each morning carrying the tremendous responsibility of helping students learn, grow, and believe in themselves.
So, what changed?
There was not one program, one initiative, or one person responsible for this growth. There had been no purchases of miracle curriculum aids, nor the addition of expensive consultants. It was the collective work of teachers, principals, support staff, district leaders, Board of Education members, families, and community partners who believed that creating better conditions for educators would also create better opportunities for students. We believed that we had the capacity and the will to improve teaching and learning conditions in all 45 of our schools, benefiting each of the approximately 22,000 students.
We worked intentionally to empower teachers in school and district decision-making processes.
We did not simply ask for their opinions after decisions had already been made. We invited teachers into the conversations where important decisions were being considered. Their experience, wisdom, and proximity to students made their voices essential, not merely helpful.
We created a Teacher Advisory Council, a Student Advisory Council, an Exceptional Children Advisory Council, and refocused our Parent Advisory Council in each of the schools. We routinely met with our School Counselors and School Social Workers. We ensured that every meeting with Principals, Assistant Principals, and Directors included an Open Forum where participants were invited to share any concerns, questions, comments, or compliments they might have.
We worked to improve our School Improvement Teams' focus and improved our use of Professional Learning Communities.
We worked to authentically value what teachers and others told us.
Listening is more than allowing someone to speak. Authentic listening requires leaders to seek understanding, respond honestly, and follow through whenever possible. Teachers needed to know that sharing their perspectives could and would make a difference.
We also worked to be hyperpresent in schools and classrooms.
Being hyperpresent is not about making ceremonial visits or appearing long enough to take a photograph. It means being consistently present where the work is happening. It means walking through classrooms, listening to teachers, talking with students, celebrating progress, and noticing obstacles that leaders can help remove.
We worked to support educators in their work.
Sometimes that support involved providing resources or professional learning. At other times, it meant removing a barrier, answering a question, solving a problem, or simply reminding someone that they were not carrying the work alone.
Finally, we passionately told the stories of our teachers and students.
Public education is filled with remarkable people doing extraordinary things every day. Those stories deserve to be told. When leaders consistently recognize the work of educators and celebrate the success of students, they help build a culture in which people know that their efforts are seen and valued.
These actions helped strengthen the same conditions that research identifies as essential to learning: safety, engagement, connectedness, and support.
Teachers felt safer sharing their perspectives.
They were more deeply engaged in decisions.
They experienced a stronger connection to the work of the school system.
They knew they were supported.
Those conditions do more than help people feel better about where they work. They influence what happens in classrooms.
Campbell explains that students respond both intellectually and emotionally to their learning environment. A supportive environment can create feelings of happiness and positive expectation, while a physically or emotionally stifling environment can produce distress or dread. In a highly positive environment, students ask more higher-level questions. Creativity, curiosity, flexibility, persistence, and revision become habits that are consistently encouraged.
That is the kind of environment great teachers want to create.
It is also the kind of environment leaders must create for those teachers.
Improving teaching and learning conditions was not separate from improving student achievement.
It was part of improving student achievement.
As teacher satisfaction grew, Buncombe County Schools also experienced historic academic success as demonstrated on the 2026 State Assessments and School Performance Grades.
Forty-one schools improved their overall grade-level proficiency.
Grade-level subject-area proficiency increased in nineteen of twenty areas across the school system.
Reading proficiency reached the highest recorded level in every grade from third through eighth.
Math proficiency reached the highest recorded level in grades three through six and in eighth grade.
For the first time since 2017–2018, Buncombe County Schools had zero schools with an “F” School Performance Grade.
Four schools exited the Low-Performing designation.
Nine schools improved a letter grade, the largest number of increases since before 2015–2016.
Not one school declined in letter grade, also a first since before 2015–2016.
Every school in the North Buncombe District earned a “B.”
Behind those districtwide accomplishments were powerful stories of individual school communities.
Emma Elementary, W.D. Williams Elementary, and Charles D. Owen Middle earned a “C” for the first time since 2018–2019.
North Windy Ridge Intermediate earned a “B” for the first time since 2018–2019.
Valley Springs Middle earned a “B” for the first time since 2017–2018.
Johnston Elementary grew from an “F” in 2023–2024 to a “D” in 2024–2025, and then to a “C” in 2025–2026!
These achievements belong to the educators and students who did the work.
They belong to the principals who encouraged their teams, the teachers who refined their instruction, the support staff who cared for students, the families who partnered with schools, and the students who persevered.
The connection between improved teacher satisfaction and historic student performance should not surprise us.
When teachers feel trusted, they are more willing to innovate.
When they feel heard, they become more deeply invested in decisions.
When they feel supported, they can devote more of their energy to students.
When they know their work is valued, they are more likely to bring their very best to it each day.
The benefits can extend far beyond a single lesson or school year. Campbell notes that positive school experiences can help students withstand negative experiences elsewhere in their lives. In other words, a positive learning environment does more than improve academic performance.
It can help build resilience.
Creating positive teaching conditions is not a softer alternative to maintaining high expectations. It is one of the ways leaders make high expectations attainable and sustainable.
Certainly, strong working conditions do not eliminate every challenge. Schools are complex places, and no survey result or performance measure tells the entire story. However, the lesson is clear: the environment leaders help create has a profound influence on what educators and students are able to accomplish.
When people are struggling, leaders are often tempted to push harder, demand more, or search for someone to blame.
Sometimes, we need to pause and look at the desert.
Do our teachers have meaningful opportunities to influence decisions?
Do they know their voices matter?
Are leaders present enough to understand what they need?
Are we removing obstacles or unintentionally creating them?
Are we supporting their work and telling their stories?
A snowmobile in the desert is still a remarkable machine. Its inability to glide across the sand does not diminish what it is capable of doing.
It needs the right conditions.
So do people.
Leadership is not about creating talent where none exists. It is about recognizing the extraordinary talent already present and creating the conditions in which it can flourish.
Don’t blame the snowmobile.
Change the conditions.
References
Campbell, Josephine. “Positive Learning Environment.” EBSCO Research Starters, 2020. https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/education/positive-learning-environment/
North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Survey. “2022 District Results: Buncombe County Schools,” Question 10.6. https://adincsurvey.azurewebsites.net/#/nctwcs/2022_NCTWCS
North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Survey. “2026 District Results: Buncombe County Schools,” Question 1. https://adincsurvey.azurewebsites.net/#/nctwcs/2026_NCTWCS
North Carolina School Performance Grades. “2025–2026 Buncombe County Schools Results.” https://spg.accountability-dashboards.net/#v=district&c=&s=ALL&y=2026&k=110
“Buncombe Schools Report Fewer Low-Performing Schools and Proficiency Gains.” Asheville.com, September 17, 2026. https://www.asheville.com/news/2026/09/buncombe-schools-report-fewer-low-performing-schools-and-proficiency-gains/
Image Credit
Image 1 - Generated using ChatGPT by OpenAI from a prompt developed in collaboration with the author, November 1, 2026. I added text to the image using PowerPoint.
Image 2 - Photo by Spencer Davis on Unsplash
Image 3 - Photo I took during a Buncombe County Schools District Advisory Council Meeting
Image 4 - Photo by Austin Langlois on Unsplash
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