TY - JOUR AB - Purpose As educators across the globe are tasked with taking teaching online, this paper shares a culture-centered approach to transitioning to education at a distance. Specifically, in this essay, a focus is placed on how one school preserved their collaborative culture among administrators, teachers and staff. The purpose of this paper is to provide guidance to school leadership during this public health crisis.Design/methodology/approach To ensure trustworthiness in this naturalistic inquiry, a triangulation was made of contributing authors’ perspectives to present theory-informed insights.Findings This school’s transition to online education was guided by a shared goal to not only move content online but also a rich participatory culture among staff. Critical forms of participation and community practices are presented that were pivotal in supporting teachers through the transition. Insights equip school leaders and administrators potentially remaining online, at least in part, through the next school year.Practical implications Schools undergoing the shift to teaching online should attend to cultural shifts and create conditions in which staff members can collaborate at higher levels.Originality/value New administrator-level insights are contributed regarding the organizational shift to teaching elementary school online, a minimally researched topic. VL - 121 IS - 5/6 SN - 2398-5348 DO - 10.1108/ILS-04-2020-0136 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/ILS-04-2020-0136 AU - Justis Nathan AU - Litts Breanne K. AU - Reina Laura AU - Rhodes Shannon PY - 2020 Y1 - 2020/01/01 TI - Cultivating staff culture online: How Edith Bowen Laboratory School responded to COVID-19 T2 - Information and Learning Sciences PB - Emerald Publishing Limited SP - 453 EP - 460 Y2 - 2024/04/25 ER -