EA in Action: How East Grand Middle School Put Student Voice to Work

A Granby middle school joined MindSpark's Education Accelerator not to fix what was broken but to find out how much further a strong foundation could take them.

When Principal Jenny Rothboeck brought East Grand Middle School (EGMS) into MindSpark's 2021 Education Accelerator (EA), she wasn't looking for rescue. She was looking for room.

Teaching had felt stifled during COVID. Educators everywhere were holding things together through virtual classrooms and cautious returns to in-person learning, amid uncertainty and fatigue. Rothboeck, like many school leaders, wanted to help her staff reconnect with the purpose and energy that had been difficult to access during that period. An encouraging superintendent pointed her toward MindSpark’s EA at the right moment.

It felt like a breath of fresh air: a way to regain some normalcy, then push beyond it.

Their first EA project was to name the school's post-COVID values and proudly display them on the wall: Inspired, Empowered, Grand. It was an important starting point, not a slogan inherited from somewhere else, but a shared statement of what educators wanted students to experience at EGMS.

Two years later, EGMS came back for a second EA. This time, the question wasn't about the values. It was whether students actually felt them.

Starting With a Question, Not a Plan

MindSpark's EA is built for schools ready to move beyond off-the-shelf solutions. Rather than prescribing a model, it helps education leaders identify a focused problem of practice and build something agile, community-rooted, and built to last.

For the 2023 cohort, that meant asking a deceptively simple question: What would it actually feel like to be an inspired, empowered student here?

The answer did not come from a consultant. It came from listening. The team brainstormed ideas, spoke with students and began testing what would make school feel more connected to their interests, leadership and sense of belonging.

Together, they launched a range of extracurricular clubs, including graphic design, bike repair, martial arts and videography, shaped by student interest and championed by teachers. Programs that were not landing were cut. New ones were added based on what students said they wanted.

One phrase from the EA stayed with Rothboeck:

Do 1% better. Small changes make real impact.

EGMS entered the EA with an intentionally built foundation. The goal was to keep building on it, one iteration at a time, without waiting for a perfect plan before trying something.

"There was definitely trepidation at first," she said. "It wasn't canned, and it wasn't scripted."

That, it turned out, was the point.

What Students Did With the Invitation

When students were invited to stop being recipients and start helping shape the clubs, activities and experiences they wanted to see, they took it seriously.

Student leaders helped create a Bio Skills elective, install a new water filling station and expand mental health support. A green-screen production room opened. Student-connected clubs, including a t-shirt printing business, a bike shop and a ski shop, gained traction. A student feedback and mentoring team became a standing structure, not a one-time project.

By the end of the cohort, 100% of EGMS students were engaged in at least one club. The more telling proof came from a parent: “My child feels more comfortable at school, feels more at home, and knows they have a voice.”

That was the goal.

“At the end of the day, it’s really about the kids who want to come to school — and that they feel like they’re part of a team,” Rothboeck said. “This is not ‘adults versus kids.’ It’s students feeling empowered and inspired.”

The Mindset That Stays

East Grand’s two EA experiences did not produce a replicable checklist. They produced a shift in how Rothboeck thinks about leadership.

Educators, she will tell you, are really good at planning. They are not always as quick to move from planning into action. The EA helped her find that balance: be thoughtful, then give it a try. That lens still shapes much of her work.

The programs are still running, including The Claw student leadership club, the Bio Skills elective and clubs built around different student interests. The values named in 2021 are still on the wall. Now, they also have two years of student- and educator-driven decisions behind them.