Andrew Farley, Principal of Brookfield East High School (BEHS), is described as a student-first leader. He strives to ensure every student feels emotionally and physically safe, appropriately stretched and challenged, and supported by trusted teachers, advisers, and coaches. He firmly believes that the success of a school is directly correlated to the level of engagement at that school.
To gather student voice and engage students, Principal Farley launched a principal’s cabinet. Each year the Principal’s Cabinet, a group of 50 student-leaders representing all grades, reflects on core values and sets goals and action plans to best align to the school culture. This group built an operational definition for the school’s mission, “Dedicated to Academic and Human Excellence” as “Being better tomorrow than you were today.” Their insightful work added a 30-minute resource block to the daily schedule, secured funding for a $700,000 Learning Commons/Library renovation project, and solved operational challenges such as cafeteria capacity issues.
After facing several tragic losses of students to suicide, Principal Farley led the establishment of the first Hope Squad in Wisconsin. Hope Squads consist of peer-nominated student-leaders who serve as points of contact for students who need mental health support. Hope Squad suicide prevention programs reduce youth suicide through training, education, and peer intervention. In addition, the BEHS Hope Squad leaders built a comprehensive wellness framework that addressed the importance of nutrition, sleep, priority-setting, organizational tools, and resources to support each student’s mental health. The Hope Squad leaders have transformed the school community through their hopeful leadership and continual presentations to the staff and student body. BEHS is a Hope Squad national demonstration site for other schools.
As part of Principal Farley’s vision, the school redesigned traditional classrooms and office spaces to maximize student engagement. For example, BEHS has state-of the-art classrooms for LAUNCH (authentic professional learning pathways), a multipurpose common space, the Excellence Center, and a Courtyard. These spaces support opportunities for collaboration, problem solving, and inquiry. Recently, Principal Farley and students worked with the School Board and contractors to redesign the library into a new Learning Commons.
A collaborative team with community business partnerships implemented a student-run coffee shop, the Spartan Union. The Spartan Union includes a business curriculum and student employees earn business credits in marketing, management, hospitality, or finance. The Union has increased cross-discipline learning with the Computer Science department which built an application for online orders.
Outside the Union is a courtyard, a shared space largely maintained by student groups and furnished by their fundraising efforts. The Union serves as a hub for the school’s community fundraising efforts, including local and regional toy and food drives, mental health awareness events, Hope weeks, and other campaigns. Andrew Farley is an inspirational servant-leader who has had a transformational impact on the entire Brookfield East community over the last nine years. He and the BEHS faculty have developed a strong and positive school culture focused on the whole student and their experiences.