We held a regular board meeting on May 9th. You can view the meeting on YouTube here. As always, I encourage you to watch the meeting if you can.
Administrative Hires and Transfers
The board approved seven administrative appointments/hires. As I have said previously, we are making these decisions with limited information and insufficient data. When considering the transfer of an assistant principal already within our district, I think it would make sense to seek input from the teachers and staff in their schools. We claim to value them, so let’s create a systematic approach to gather their feedback as we reposition folks around the district. You can find my previous thoughts about this issue here.
It is equally important to involve the teachers and staff at the schools that are seeking to fill administrative team vacancies. Just this week a teacher asked if the folks who work at her school every day will have any input in selecting their next principal. She was told that their input is “not normally part of the process.” This teacher’s reaction echoes what I hear from others.
“My 21 years of dedication to this school and this district, it feels like no one cares. They don’t care what their teachers think. I am disgusted and disheartened.”
Under the current administration, teachers leave Richland One schools because of concerns about school leadership and climate at a rate four times higher than the state average. Maybe if we genuinely involved our teachers in these decisions, we could improve this. But right now our repeated cliches about teamwork are ringing pretty hollow.