Category Archives: School management

Where Do I Sign Up to be a Charter School?

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As Governor Spitzer announces his interest in more than doubling the number of charter schools in our state, I’m beginning to do some research so that I can better understand the initiative. The very first article I find is out of Georgia and the author details a state plan as follows,

 A plan that would give entire school systems the same freedoms as existing charter schools moved one step closer to passage on Tuesday, clearing a Senate committee on a party-line vote. The classification would allow systems to run schools free from many state and federal regulations – including rules on class size, school hours and the hiring and firing of teachers. 

Maybe I’m naive but that sure sounds like a push for more local control. Why do school systems need to be named charter school systems to provide local leaders with decision making ability?

I have to return for a moment to my NYSUT days as a Committee of 100 member, lobbying in Albany, and point readers to NYSUT’s view on charter schools. An obvious question comes to mind:

If we think it’s good practice to form charter schools who can operate free from the regulations governing public schools, then why do we support the regulations governing public schools?

As a 17 year veteran of public schools, working hard to make a difference every day, I can’t be trusted to make good decisions without regulations, but I could be as a charter school applicant?

Simple Solutions

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Sometimes the fix is so darned simple.

We give the January Regents to a large percentage of our students. We test all the English 11 students on the Comprehensive English exam, all Math A and Math B students, and all of the students who either need to pass a past Regents exam (and have been in a Regents review class) or who want to improve their score. Yes, Virginia, there are students who voluntarily retest to improve the grade.

In my first two years here, counselors spent a large portion of time after the start of every exam phoning those students who didn’t show up. This year, my genius guidance director, Beth, and her fantastic secretary, Janene, sent home a letter to every student’s home telling the family which exams the kid needed to be here for AND they hand delivered a copy of the letter to every kid.

Extra effort in planning=great results on test day.

Because of their extra effort to take on the task of informing kids, without the “well, it’s the student’s responsibility to check the test schedule” garbage, we only had two students who weren’t here yesterday. Two. Awesome attendance on test day.

Which brings me to another point on this topic. One of my son’s teachers. A couple of weeks ago, Tallon missed two of her classes, one for the orthodontist and one for a bass guitar lesson. The teacher called me, as she does with any other parent (and I know this because of the numerous parents who have stopped me to say how much they appreciate her), and she simply said “let Tallon know he needs to stay after with me today to get ready for Friday’s test.” He stayed on Thursday and on Friday thought he did a great job on the test. No attitude from the teacher of “it’s not my problem he wasn’t here, it’s his responsibility”. No big deal for the teacher. Very much appreciated by parent and child. That’s how we show our community we care about their kids, by making that extra effort.

Simple solutions. I like it.

Who’s to blame at McKinney North?

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As a high school principal, I read with interest the reports coming out of McKinney North High School in Texas about five teenage girls on the cheerleading squad and their bad behavior in and out of school.

If interested, please read the full report. This poll on AOL was what amazed me, not the story. Readers could answer the question “Who do you blame most for the cheerleaders’ behavior?” As I write this post, 375,524 people have voted. Of those 48% blame the parents, 36% blame the cheerleaders, 15% blame the school, and 1% blame other.

Who do we blame? According to the reports, this was ongoing and flagrant bad behavior. We could blame the parents, which also means blaming the school because the principal is also the mother of one of the girls. We could just blame the school, all of the adults working there who came into contact with them and didn’t stand up to stop it either personally, by going to the Superintendent and the School Board, or by calling every parent involved. We could blame the girls, who are obviously old enough to be held responsible for their choices.

Who do we blame? Kids make mistakes every single day. We work hard to have a consistent reaction, with consequences that follow our code of conduct. Every case has different circumstances, but we do follow through. Every time. We investigate and we listen and we hold students accountable. Often times in dealing with discipline issues, it seems no one is satisfied with our results. But at the end of the day, I know we’ve done our due diligence and made the best decision possible for all involved. When we notify parents, 90% of the time we work with families who support us and I know the student is receiving consequences at home too. There are those students who have little to no support at home and those parental reactions, if we even get them, are different.

But at McKinney North, who’s to blame? Everything that happens in G-Town is ultimately my responsibility. Every action taken by every employee and every student. It’s my responsibility to pay attention, to listen, to correct behavior, and to hold people accountable. It’s my responsibility to make G-Town the best place it can be for every person who walks through our doors.

Who to blame? Everyone holds a piece of this, first the girls for their actions, then the parents if they knew of the behavior and failed to correct it.  But the principal who resigned? She holds the ultimate responsibility. The fact that she’s a mom too just makes it that much more disappointing. She needed to stand up and say “not in my school, not on my watch.”

The Moral Imperative

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Melvina Phillips also said that it’s our moral imperative to teach every student the literacy skills needed to succeed in school and beyond. The moral imperative. That makes sense to me.

Not just, “I teach, the kid either gets it or not–it’s his problem, not mine. They should have the skills they need before they get to me.”

When Melvina said that we have a moral imperative to teach every child, it made perfect sense to me, but not to everyone in that auditorium. I wanted to stand up, face our faculty and say kindly, “Every teacher who doesn’t believe he has a moral imperative to teach all students these literacy strategies, kindly exit the building and find a new career.”  

I wonder who should have walked out the door?

Who keeps students safe at school?

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Our superintendent’s conference days were yesterday and today. Yesterday, Superintendent Rinaldi put together a panel of law enforcement experts, along with school personnel and counselors. Our entire district staff was in attendance for discussion about keeping our students safe, what law enforcement has learned about school shootings and how to respond, and what can we do better as a district.

The conversations were meaningful, the expert advice prudent and right on the money, and the staff feedback helpful. The message that I kept getting was that prevention will be much more effective than anything we can do should someone enter our school.

I’m not talking about metal detectors, armed guards, and security cameras. I’m talking about the one-to-one knowledge of every student. The concerted efforts to connect every kid with some adult in the building. A teacher, staff member, SRO, counselor, coach, bus driver, cafeteria worker, or principal. Helping our students to feel so comfortable and valued in our building that they share the responsibility of safety.

Parents, students and teachers talk to us every day about concerns. The follow through is just as important. And if the problem isn’t remedied when we’ve addressed it, that’s when we really need to hear back from parents, students, and teachers again. No one should ever think, “I told the principal and nothing happened.” Most likely something did happen and we assume the problem’s been taken care of unless we hear back from school community members again.

I hope the message is clear that communication and caring overwhelmingly trump metal detectors and armed guards. Anyone who thinks an SRO (school resource officer) alone can take care of school safety is wrong. It’s every member of the school community’s responsibility. We have to work together so that every child is noticed, supported, and safe.

The Run-On Day

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As the high school principal, I have the luxury of working with Dan Cassidy, our Dean of Students who handles 99% of the disciplinary issues in our building. I’ve worked as an assistant principal responsible for all discipline for 900 students in a middle school and I’ve been the principal responsible solely for a 7-12 building. In G-Town, I can be effective in all of the aspects of the job that I’ve written about here because I have a Dean of Students who takes care of discipline.

Dan wasn’t in school today, he left before lunch yesterday. I’m not at all reluctant to do discipline, but today I remembered why I need someone else doing the job. On a day like today, a day that makes it impossible to plan, to evaluate, to think, to read and reflect, to complete a coherent thought, to problem solve or to analyze, I realize how ineffective a leader I would be if I tried to lead G-Town at the same time that I had to do the triage, crowd control, reactionary, “holy cats, what next?”, kinds of things that discipline can become. It’s exhausting and draining and leaves no time for forward thinking and planning.

The following exerpt of my day is written the same way it happened, in run-on and fragmented sentences– where I can’t even complete a thought before the next thing comes along.

Let’s start at 7:25 with the parents who were in to see me before homeroom because of a complaint about a grade. At 7:45, three girls squaring off in the hallway over a long standing disagreement, ending in a screaming match, an hour conflict resolution and another hour with parents and each girl separately. (Thank goodness for excellent guidance counselors.) Try to catch up with discipline referrals, phone calls to parents of the alternative ed kids who were swearing at the transportation supervisor, see the kids for throwing slushie in the hallway, going late to class, skipping class, coming late to school without a note, going late to class, calling someone a pig, hitting someone with a baseball hat, and going late to class. Meeting with a teacher. Debrief from the conflict resolution. Two bus referrals with alternative education kids that result in suspension and a bus video to watch. (Thank goodness for the middle school principal for going to watch the tape.) A cell phone is stolen, a locker to search, a kid to search, NO, I won’t search the kid again–you don’t know she stole it, I’m not harassing her and you shouldn’t have left it in the locker room, THAT’S WHY WE GIVE YOU A LOCK FOR YOUR LOCKER. It’s 1:50 and time for A send off with the local newspapers for our Sensational Senior who’s off to States for Cross Country where we form a human tunnel with all 494 students through the hallways as the coach and team members walk first, followed by our Super Fast Runner in a wagon while music blares through the PA system and the Press takes pictures as he throws candy to the crowd. BEST part of the day, by far. Must have planned this when I wasn’t inundated with discipline.

Readers are given a look into G-Town as often as I write. This is a part of G-Town and every school in the country. What’s the key to managing it? Dedicate staff to take care of it, support them, and get about the business of leading the school. (Thank goodness for Dan Cassidy, Dean of Students.)

What’s love got to do with it?

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I’ve been thinking about disagreements this week. Arguments, fights, misunderstandings. I realize something that I’m not sure I’ve ever fully understood before now. Whenever my husband and I have had disagreements over our twenty years of marriage, I’ve always known that I was more important to him than the argument.

Think about that idea. Because I’m not sure I could always say the same thing. Sometimes I think the fight became more important to me than he was. Not ultimately, obviously, but in the moment. Yet somehow I always knew with Derek, I was more important than the fight. That shouldn’t be interpreted that he didn’t hold his ground in an argument or articulate his point of view. But through any disagreement, I knew I was more important to him than anything we were discussing.

I consider the mediation that occurs in our offices. Guidance, the county’s social worker, our Dean of Students, me–we’re often trying to help two parties work something out. Dan, our Dean of Students, and I spent about five hours on one ridiculous disagreement between students this week and I know he spends countless hours more with other disagreements. It’s almost always a stupid fight between kids who “used to be” friends. What would happen if everyone could approach arguments valuing each other more than the fight?

This seems particularly important with people who are close, especially in the same family. That’s where the passion in a fight often explodes. And that’s where we should most value each other, more than whatever argument is at hand. I don’t know about you, but when I reflect on the arguments and disagreements I’ve had with the people I love most, they almost always seem absurd in hindsight.

So I’m going to give it a try. The next time I feel angry with someone, or frustrated, or hurt, I’m going to look at the person, see why I care about her, and realize that she is more important than the issue about which we’re angry. I hope my children can learn their father’s approach: that the person standing on the other side is much more important than the fight in between.

Ineligibility Procedures

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Do you work in or attend a school with an ineligibility procedure? This means that if students don’t meet a teacher’s criteria, they will be ineligible for after school activities. This is an issue that I’ve been thinking about for a very long time. It’s somewhat of a “hot button” issue for our school and something on which I have not been able to come to agreement with some of our faculty. I write about it now to clarify my own thinking and to solicit ideas from others.

The criteria for participating in non-credit bearing activities are based on five academic criteria. The student must be prepared for class. He must be working at a successful level, or, if not, at the student’s level of potential. She must have assignments up to date and not on the obligation list. Students must be present and on time for class. They must also exhibit positive class participation and cooperation.

Those students a teacher feels are not meeting the criteria above may not participate in extra-curricular activities during ineligible status until removed by the teacher. The teacher can place the student on probation for a week, remove the student, and extend the probation to ineligibility. Students who play school sports are removed from the sport if they land on ineligibility three times in a given season.

Teachers place the students on the list at their discretion. This year, the procedure has been changed in two ways. One, the student must be ineligible in two or more subjects to be ineligible for extra-curricular activities. Two, students may still attend practices/activities if they are participating in an after school “learning center” where there is a teacher available to help with school-work.

My thinking in making these changes is simple. Previously, the procedure seemed based on a reward and punishment model. “You do this for me or I take that away.” While I understand that philosophy and agree that our students should be taking care of business during the school day, I do not find the strictly punitive model to be motivating to students and effective. The addition of the two changes cited above offers the student support to get off of the ineligibility list through the learning center and allows him or her to continue with the activity, which can be extremely motivating to a student.

The addition of the two subjects or more section is to recognize that a good student may struggle from time to time in one subject. Last year, we had about half of our junior class facing the loss of Prom because of incompletion of a major research project. Do I think they should have taken care of the project? Of course. Do I think there are consequences built into the classroom procedures, within the power of the teacher, that are in place for that failure? Certainly, students receive lower grades, phone calls to parents, and serious implications for some in regard to passing the course. Do I think otherwise good students should lose a major high school event for lack of completion of one project? No, I don’t. And this is where I differ from some of my teachers.

I understand that this change, which makes perfect sense to me, also caused some teachers to feel that they weren’t supported. But how do I support something that I don’t believe in? I do believe in reasonable consequences for our students when they fall down, but I will never be able to support an extremely punitive environment. That’s not how I manage anyone in G-town, teachers and support staff included. So why would I manage students in that way? Readers, am I way off base on this one?