Meet and Confer, Student Performance, and District Vision and Purpose

In a district committed to a continuous school improvement model, the district mission and vision provide the basis for all activities that comprise 4K-12 public education in a particular community.  Time must be spent at the beginning of the continuous improvement process to ensure that the development of a district mission and vision is collaborative and involves all stakeholders. Given that schools are in the business of educating students, student performance must be at the heart of a school district's purpose as expressed in its vision.

Once a district vision has been created, the real work of translating student performance into measurable goals at the building level begins. Far too often, the strategic planning (visioning) process takes place at an administrative level as does the goal setting.  These goals are then presented to building staff members who are expected to embrace them.  More recently, there has been an renewed focus on building leadership teams and involving teachers in the goal setting process as part of a collaborative effort.  Such efforts are certainly worthwhile, but care must be taken that goals developed by the building leadership team are informed by what is taking place every day with teachers and students in the classroom.

One mechanism to ensure that goals are informed by what is taking palce at the classroom level is the meet and confer process. Having the opportunity for staff members in all positions to provide feedback regarding their day-to-day work not only helps to make employees feel valued but also contributes to the relevance of building goals. Such meetings can only be successful when there is a level of trust and when all parties commit to norms that allow feedback to be shared in a solution-focused way. Although striking the right balance can be tricky, only when employees feel free to provide honest feedback in a constructive way will the meet and confer process effectively inform the continous school improvement model.

Reflecting on my learning in this class in relation to the district vision and purpose, student performance, and the meet and confer process, human resources administration in the public school setting seems to largely have to do with providing the appropriate support to employees to allow the district to achieve its vision and increase all students' performance.  When done right, human resources provide the tools for administrators to act ethically in the larger political, social, economic, legal, and cultural context and facilitats effective instructional leadership and management of learning.

Wisconsin Statutes Chapter 118 Summary

General School Operations

• Chapter 118 begins with a summary of the educational goals of public schools divided into the areas of academic skills and knowledge, vocational skills, citizenship, and personal development.
• Specific provisions are included for reading instruction, foreign language instruction, and human growth and development instruction.
• Special observance days, textbooks, school uniforms, summer classes, school conservation camps, and patriotic observances are addressed next.
• Public schools in the state of Wisconsin cannot start regular classes prior to September 1 without explicit permison from the Department of Public Instruction.
• Health and safety requirements for schools are detailed in 118.07 followed by several sections pertaining to student safety and traffic around the school property.
• Sales of good and services, including the maintenance of student records are detailed.
• School employees involved in an alcohol and drug prevention program are required to maintain students' confidentiality regarding their use of alcohol or drugs.
• Pupil discrimination is explicity prohibited in 118.13.
• A section on race-based nicknames, logos, mascots, and team names is included that allows a school district resident to submit an objection to the school board.
• Age of admission to four-year-old kindergarten as well as compulsory attendance and attendance enforcement statutes are discussed.
• With parent permission, students may be released 60-180 minutes per week for religious instruction.
• Teacher licensure and contract specifications are provided.
• 118.223 explicit prohibits school boards from collectively bargaining with its employees.
• 118.235 states that all teachers must be granted a 30-minute duty-free lunch period unless the school district contracts separately for a teacher's services during that time.
• 118.258 states that school districts may prohibt students from using electronic communication devices as long as students are provided with an annual notice of the rules governing electronic communication devices.
• 118.29 governs the administration of medications to students and emergency care procedures.
• 118.29 (2) states that schools must have a plan to manage students with life-threatening allergies.
• 118.30 details the requirements for statewide student assessments in fourth, eighth, ninth, tenth, and elventh grades.
• High school graduation requirements are outlined in 118.33.
• Students must now earn at least three credits in math and science to be eligible to receive a high school diploma.
• Schools must provide technical education and gifted and talented programs as indicated in 118.34 and 118.35.
• 118.40 addresses charter school formation and evaluation.
• 118.43 and 118.44 outline ways in which school districts can receive additional state aid.
• All criteria, procedures, and proceses for full-time open enrollment are explained in 118.51.
• 118.55 (Youth options program) provides the opportunity for students to take courses at a university as long as they are not offered by the local school district.  The school district will pay for all costs associated with the courses.
• 118.60 deals with parental choice program for qualifying parents to choose to enroll their child in an eligible private school.
• Once an application is approved, the state will pay a specified amount to the private school for each "school choice" student.

Principal's Job Description

Here is the School District of Jefferson's high school principal position description, and here is their high school associate principal position description.

The inclusion of hiring and supervision responsibilities at the beginning of the principal position description caught me attention and speaks to the overall importance of the hiring and supervision process to the overall effectiveness of the building. I was also suprised that the development and maintenance of excellence in the educational program was included so highly in the list of responsibilties for the high school principal. This speaks to the importance of the high school principal as the instructional leader of the building.  The remainder of the high school principal position description concerned more managerial responsibilities, which I anticipated to see in the job description and did not surprise me.

Given that the high school principal position description was three pages, I was somewhat surprised that the associated principal job description was only one-and-a-half pages, and mainly consisted with assisting the principal with his/her responsibiltiies. The only responsibilities that were unique to the associate principal position description were those that addressed supervision of student behavior and lockers.

Classroom Teacher Job Description

Here is the School District of Jefferson's classroom teacher (regular education) position description.

In reviewing the position description, the most noticeable detail is that it has not been updated since 1988. As such, although the six-page job description is quite detailed, it does not include more current educational terminology (e.g., differentiation, standards-based curriculum, formative/summative assessment) nor is incorporating technology ever mentioned.  Also, the position description assumes that the majority of instruction will be teacher-centered and that maintaing students' attention and monitoring their behavior for the entire class is of high importance. In short, although there is with which ti disagree in the description, it is clearly in need of updating.