Written by MSTA staff attorney Hank Jenkins, July 2026
It’s hard to believe that, as we look at the calendar, July is here and summer is almost halfway over. Before long, August will be here, and parents will be buying back-to-school supplies, schools will be holding “Meet the Teacher” nights, and the next academic year will be off and running.
With the approach of a new school year, it’s important to think about the relationships you want to build with students, coworkers, and the administration you work for. When conflicts arise in the future, taking the time to build strong relationships now can determine whether a small conflict turns into a job-ending catastrophe.
Build trust with your students, but maintain appropriate boundaries.
It’s important to establish trust and respect with your students to help create a positive learning environment within the classroom. These types of relationships with students also ensure happiness and success among teachers.
A strong relationship with students must involve appropriate professional boundaries established by the teacher. The education and welfare of students should be your number one priority, and maintaining boundaries helps ensure that priority is achieved.
Some of the things you can do to establish appropriate boundaries with students include:
Building relationships with coworkers means building a collaborative, professional environment.
Just as in any working environment, there are going to be people whom you connect with and people you don’t. However, it’s important to remember that a school building needs to be a collaborative space and not a competitive environment among teachers. School buildings that have a positive culture among their employees are the most successful for their students.
To build strong relationships with coworkers, work to address concerns and conflict directly and professionally, avoid workplace gossip that can damage trust or create harm, and support colleagues while respecting differences in teaching styles. Most importantly, if a concern arises that cannot be settled by talking it out, follow the district policies for filing a grievance or resolving conflicts.
Building trust with your administration means being flexible and following directions.
Whether you're new to the profession, new to the district, or have worked a long career within the same district, a positive relationship with administration may be the most important relationship you can have.
An educator who is new to a district needs to have a good understanding of what the administration expects. If you don’t know or are confused about expectations, don’t be afraid to ask.
If you are a teacher who has been in a district for many years but has a new administrator coming in, be flexible and understand that things may, and probably will, operate differently. Just because an administrator is changing things from the way they have always been does not necessarily mean that it is bad.
Educators who are resistant to change or who ignore the directives of their administrators often find themselves being brought into disciplinary meetings and facing improvement plans.
However, even if that is the case, understand it is not the end of the world. Often, an improvement plan just means there are things that a teacher can improve on, which is true for every person alive. Be open to hearing constructive criticism and understanding how your administrator would like things done. Too often, a teacher’s reaction to a Professional Improvement Plan will turn a small matter into a major, and possibly job-ending, conflict.
Another relationship for you to keep in mind is the relationship you have with the MSTA legal staff. Our job is to help protect you in all the relationships you may face within your school district. As you prepare for the new school year, don’t hesitate to contact the MSTA Legal Services Department if you have questions or concerns about any of the matters above.
Contact the MSTA Legal Services Department at 866-343-6186 or email legalservices@msta.org.