What do I think?
What do I think?
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- Administrative and Board transparency is vital. The community is best served when it is proactively kept apprised of on-going District progress and future goals.
- Equal opportunity for ALL students is achievable. First, students without special educational needs are entitled to the resources necessary to help them achieve baseline mastery in core subjects. Second, students with special educational needs are entitled to the resources necessary to help them achieve mastery that is commensurate with their challenges. This means that although all students may not receive the same resources (including curricula) within the District, all students will have equal access to success.
- Character Education is essential in all schools. Just as academics and extra-curriculars are an expectation, so should basic character education be foundational for a well-rounded public school experience.
- Fiscal Responsibility Without Year-Over-Year Deficits. Operational deficits are not acceptable as a matter of common practice. Vendor management, purchasing oversight, and resource allocation monitoring need to be a priority. The Board, the Administration, and the community should keep at the forefront the understanding that maintaining the District is as much a fiscal endeavor as it is an educational endeavor.
- Board oversight of the Administrative Central Office needs to be renewed, and Board policy should be established that explicitly outlines that the Superintendent performs operational duties at the discretion of the Board. As elected Trustees, Board members can, and should, embrace the arduous task of reviewing the efforts of all Central Administration departments. This previously has been left to the Superintendent to manage, with unacceptable results. Moreover, Trustees should be working closely with Central Administration on initiatives from the very onset, not waiting until administrative proposals are on the table before getting involved. As well, all Administrative Office hires should be reviewed by the Board and only granted with Board approval.
- Open community dialogue at all open Board meetings should be the standard practice. The District has had a long-standing internal policy of not allowing open dialogue between Board members, the Administration, and the community during open business meetings. This internal policy should be modified to allow reasonable, open dialogue between the Board, Administration, and the community, while maintaining proper decorum at all open business meetings. The Open Meetings Act allows for such appropriate discourse, and many other Districts across the country embrace this open dialogue practice.
- Single Web application for all class/course communications district-wide. It is suggested that, in this age of technology, there should be a single, district-wide application that can replace the various and ever increasing number of blogs, websites, internal applications, phone Apps, etc. that are utilized daily by teachers, parents, students, and administrators for homework, general communications, notifications, etc.
- Initiatives that address perceived achievement gaps need to be defined very clearly. In short, the District should be proactive in its concern regarding all students who are not receiving adequate resources to propel them to baseline mastery in core subjects. This is the specific parameter in which achievement gaps should be defined, measured, and ultimately eliminated. In contrast, the District should not focus on creating a hypothetical environment where all students would need to score at the top in order for the District to be considered successful in having eliminated an achievement gap. Rather, the District will have successfully eliminated an achievement gap when all students are successful at baseline mastery in the targeted core subject(s).
- Key curricular decisions should be statistically compelling, not anecdotally hopefully, since our intent is to respond to life as it is, not as we hope it will be. As a District, we have been reticent to roll-back curricular decisions that have not panned out. I believe the teachers and the students suffer the most because of this reticence. For example:
- The migration to a collaborative-based instruction model for grades 8-10 mathematics was premature and likely ill-advised, especially as it relates to its impact on the bottom quartile of students in that subject.
- The current, whole-language (with some phonics) approach to English language instruction, with minor emphasis on spelling, does not serve the bottom quartile well and potentially limits top achievers unnecessarily.
- At present, an average of 15-18 minutes per day is spent teaching foreign language during the elementary and middle school day. However, foreign language studies at that educational level is a self-imposed District mandate, that best should be removed. That class time would be much better spent on core subject mastery--especially English language spelling--which would immediately boost language arts achievement, especially for the bottom quartile. Most realize that spelling and reading are inextricably linked, such that good spellers are good readers. That said, better spellers and readers can anticipate higher achievement on language arts testing metrics. Further discussion on this topic is here: https://sites.google.com/view/bobsaadforschoolboard/foreign-language-choice-vs-mandate
- The current, trimestral format for course scheduling is problematic on several counts, whereas a semestral format would resolve many problems, as well as, create opportunities for progress. For example, there is likely not enough time to teach enough content for all levels of Integrated Mathematics sections in only 2 trimesters (which is the current path), but there would be ample time for this content within a semestral format. Also, within a semestral format, a block scheduling approach of 2 distinct blocks of 4 classes per day, would accommodate for 8 classes per semester, with large, desirable blocks of teaching time per day. It is also suggested that staffing within a semestral format would be more favorable to effective teaching and learning.
- Invariably, some programs and courses will need to be eliminated to ensure adequate resources for emerging programs, more in-depth focus on core subjects, and/or to accommodate for the needs of specific student populations. It is good for us all to keep in mind that resources are not unlimited and that educational needs change over time. A collaborative approach between the Parents/Guardians, Teachers, Administration, Board, and Students can reveal the best available options, remembering that often some things have to be let go in order for better things to emerge.
- Compromise and collaboration are essential for success. This applies to relationships at home, at work, in our schools, and across the globe. We do well to remember that in life nobody gets everything that he or she wants. Especially in American society, it is an historic and honorable practice that each of us gives up something of ourselves to be part of solutions that are better and farther-reaching than anything any of us could accomplish alone.
https://sites.google.com/view/bobsaadforschoolboard
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