What do consultants called Mindman and PsychoGuys have to do with education? A lot in the South Butler County School District, it turns out.

While students stayed home Nov. 11, about 190 teachers and staff from the district's four schools -- South Butler Primary, South Butler Intermediate, Knoch Middle and Knoch High School -- gathered for a storytelling session, complete with funny hats and props.

It was the culmination of a collaborative project shepherded by Mindman Inc. and PsychoGuys LLC, of Pittsburgh, that was designed not only to inspire but to help heal rifts and rebuild a better sense of community among the educators.

The district in recent years has been struggling with enrollment decline, sweeping building reconfigurations, high turnover and retirements, new board members and protracted union negotiations -- all of which have stretched the cohesiveness of the faculty and staff.

"I think this school district has been through a lot," said Leanne Meyer, president of Mindman.

Ms. Meyer's company started in South Africa and has served entities such as the U.S. Navy, Highmark Blue Cross/Blue Shield and the Allegheny County Department of Human Resources.

Mindman helps organizations manage change by encouraging people's imaginations and getting them to work together in a collaborative effort.

Mindman has often collaborated with PsychoGuys, which consists of two social psychologists, Michael Sipiora, a professor at Duquesne University, and Frank Lehner, who earned his master's degree there.

In his work Mr. Lehner, or "Psychoguy Frank," as he refers to himself, tries to understand why people are not engaged with their work.

"They all want to be good teachers and develop the students they teach for the 21st century," he said.

By combining storytelling with surveying and social psychology, his company helps transform a group of individuals into a unified whole.

"It's a grounding that really gives the school a kind of reality that it wants: You are what you do," he said.

Together with Mindman, PsychoGuys started the process of healing rifts and building a common vision for the four schools by surveying every teacher and member of the administration. The questionnaires asked individuals to construct school histories and to examine why they were teachers.

"All the teachers took part in writing the story," Ms. Meyer said.

Volunteers from each school prepared presentations that were made before the entire group.

The narratives varied, very much in character with the personalities of each school. The primary school told its story using a narrator dressed as a wizard and a large placard with fancy script reading "Once upon a time." Staff from each of the district's four municipalities wore silly hats and carried big pictures of castles representing their different kingdoms.

The intermediate school used the form of a video documentary featuring the very staid Principal Thomas Tibbott, a 35-year employee of the district, wearing varying glasses frames as his narrative progressed through time.

The middle school educators gave a Power Point presentation featuring slogans, photos and pop songs such as Barbra Streisand's "Memories." Their story ended with the principal stating, "This is what we do, children. And we're not here for any other reason."

With their shortcut hair and their shirts and ties, many of the high school staff resembled recently returned members of the National Guard. Their slide and lecture presentation reflected a more formal culture within their school, markedly different from the other three schools.

"This process was a gift of hope. Answers generated from inside the school are better than anything you or I could generate," Assistant Superintendent Lynn Logelin told the assembly.

The next step in this process of creating a collaborative vision for the future is to present the narrative histories to the school board.

Although it has not been scheduled yet, Dr. Logelin said the school board is looking forward to hearing the stories.