Assessment of Readiness

   My current organization is ready for any changes to our school site's organizational health and structure. In a short survey written by me and distributed to staff from the board of directors (climate and culture) - 93 percent of staff (23) picked: We have been waiting a long time for change and are ready to fully cooperate with leadership to build a program based on academics and the Arts. Seven (7) percent picked “unsure.”  Because of the lack of school site leadership, this team's history of continuous improvement and innovation work in the organization has been ongoing but also reduced to patchwork and putting out scheduling fires when needed. My paper represents an attempt at organizational change in real-time while practicing nuanced leadership. 

Overview (My school site) 

     Culture: School workgroups have yet to grow warm to me or my leadership style. I am still building community, identifying allies, and learning where things are, including understanding the HVAC and other physical plant concerns. I have an inner workgroup that could be more reliable when completing tasks. While school culture wants to change, there are workgroup members whose cultural beliefs do not benefit the day-to-day operations of the school site. 

Real-time Case Review (culture) Narrative

      After carefully reviewing our SPED caseload via SPEDForms ™ -  I found that IEPs and 504 Plans have not been updated, and many are past due. I met with the building SPED lead to find out if there was an access challenge if she needed assistance, or if there were other catastrophic issues we could address. In my most excellent voice and smile, I told her the school is out of compliance, although if she thinks it is a staffing issue, we might be able to lean into Minnesota Statute section 125.091, Subd. 28 District Liability, which reads:

 “A district is not liable for harmless technical violations of federal or state laws, rules, or regulations governing special education if the school district can demonstrate that the violations did not harm a student's educational progress or the parent's right to notice, participation, or due process. This service division is applicable to due process hearings and special education complaints filed with the Department. (MDE, 2023).  

     I also talked with our due process clerk; her most significant challenge is that she didn’t know what to do and was never given training on SPEDForms or in-house processes for SPED students, IEP, 504 Plans, nor did not know the meanings of modification/accommodation (It’s also important to note, the employee never asked anyone about her job responsibilities; this includes three (3) CAO-Ss before me).   I learned in Corporate America that you don’t have to be that leader who terminates employees for lack of output. In this, I asked both SPED personnel how their jobs were going and what I could do to help the process; they resigned with less than a week's notice. The resignations represent a cultural response to workgroup social loafing. 

     I remedied the challenge by contracting with Designs for Learning licensed SPED team to come out to the school site (11/29/2023) to review and contact parents and set up SPED reviews until SPEDFroms are updated, and teachers have updated information. This will go on until just before Winter break. 

Organizational Structure

     Depending on the day, staffing or financing are the biggest challenges at my site. On the one hand, we have just signed for substantial amounts of funding from MDE and private sector Arts sources; on the other hand, we still only have three (3) licensed teachers and paras leading ELA, Math, Science, Social Studies, and Art classrooms. 

Organizational Systems and Processes

     My school site improvement initiative includes hiring teachers and updating employee and parent/family handbooks. Staff procedures need to be defined by positions and day-to-day processes. 

Step 9: Implementation Plan- What is your strategy for implementing your plan?

    Before I could do anything, I had to talk to the board chairperson and secretary. Since they have been monitoring my writing for this class, they understand the need to move forward and implement changes in hiring teachers, budgeting, and using the grants from MDE. My strategy is to lay out my teacher hiring plan, giving the paras the first right of refusal to see if they can get a license as Tier 1 teachers with the state. Our building culture denotes that we must keep the pairs in the classroom as teachers and supply professional development to improve them. My rollout is planned for our upcoming PLC later this week. 

Step 10: Plan Effectiveness- How will you evaluate the effectiveness of your study/initiative plan?

     My action research will consider qualitative measures that use a narrative to explain the current state of black-run charter schools and review solutions on why black-run charter schools become a challenge by looking into the blind spots of leadership in a school. Since I'm working in a real-time situation, I will evaluate the effect of this study by watching for change and human capital work groups, the effectiveness of new teachers brought in to teach core subjects, and the reaction of the current staff. My methodology gathers information via interviews, observations, and parent reactions to changes.