Welcome To The School Governance Council!

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situs bandarqI don’t know if this will be a good thing or not, but I am now on the School Governance Council of my son’s school. Back in March, the new principal sent out a form letter urging parents to nominate or self-nominate parents for an advisory board that would “elicit family and community feedback on various school decisions.” I self-nominated and sent the form in with my son in his Monday Morning Packet that his classroom teacher uses to communicate with parents. (She is in her 38th year of teaching and refuses to use email. That’s a whole other story). I hemmed and hawed a little before sucking it up and self-nominating. I don’t feel like I have any more time in my day to give to such a commitment, and I don’t seem to know how to do anything half-heartedly, but I also felt that I don’t really have the right to complain if I don’t get involved. And voting on the budgets is really not a sufficient level of involvement, particularly considering my position within the profession and the expertise I can offer such a council—if I say so myself.

The deadline for the nominations was April 15. I sent mine in well ahead of that date. Then my son’s Monday Morning Folder came home with him this past Monday, and there was my signed form right where I left it weeks ago. I know I could be frustrated with my seven-year old for not handing in the form, but I was more frustrated with the teacher for not removing it from this special folder. So I marched it down to the office and handed it to the principal personally. I apologized for its lateness and explained why it was late as best I could without seeming to blame the teacher. Turns out that there were so few nominations that the principal was delighted to get mine. Right then and there he said, “Welcome aboard!” So I’m happy to be on the council, but my excitement was mitigated by knowing that I made it as easily as I did because no one else wanted to do it. I also fear that I might be the School Governance Council, or that it’s me and some guy far right of center who hates teachers and wants to cut, cut, cut. We shall see, I suppose. We will have one meeting in June and then not again till the fall, so I will have all summer to think about what I have gotten myself into.

The list of responsibilities on which I am to advise looks impressive—the school improvement plan, the fiscal objectives of the budget, a parent survey, and non-collective bargaining policy. In reality, reading between the lines, it seems that the school has to develop a School Governance Council in order to be in compliance with federal Title I funding guidelines, which mandate that Title I schools must “develop and approve a school compact for parents, legal guardians, and students that outlines the school’s goals and academic focus, identifying ways that parents and school personnel can build a partnership to improve student learning.” So the council might simply exist to meet the letter of the law, and I might not be asked to do a whole lot of anything. Regardless, here I am.

In the meantime, the state department of education is moving closer to hiring a Special Master for the Windham School District to oversee its partial takeover of the Windham School system (that isn’t really a takeover). Of course the position of Special Master has never existed before, and so as the SDE moves forward to hire a Special Master it is also working with the legislature to draft a bill that would permit the appointment of said Special Master. (I think that is called putting the cart before the horse, but …). The SDE also announced that it would be providing $1 million for each of the next two years, mostly for professional development in teaching English Language Learners. This is because the population of ELL students in Windham has doubled in just the past few years, and the number of students receiving reduced or free lunch has climbed to above 70% of the school population. (When the 2009 census data was released, it revealed that between 1999 and 2009, Windham had dropped from seventh poorest town to third poorest. It now has a slightly higher rate of poverty than Bridgeport). One thing many teachers in and outside of Windham have noted, however, is that if Windham continues to pay its teachers as poorly as it does, the district is going to continue to struggle to attract and retain the best teachers. So there is concern that the $1 million spent each year on PD will merely train teachers who are going to leave and take their pembinaan elsewhere. We need to pay teachers better.

That said, it is easy to blame the voters who keep defeating the education budgets, but as long as funding is tied so directly to property taxes and housing prices in Windham County continue to plummet, I can’t entirely blame voters for defeating the education budgets. I can blame them for not voting (no referendum last year was voted on by even 15% of eligible voters) or for scapegoating the teachers as being the cause of problems that are too large to be solved by quality classroom instruction alone. But I can’t blame them for feeling that they have no more money to spend. I often feel that way, and I am much better off than most people in Windham.

But if I suggest that teacher salaries need to improve in order to attract and retain better teachers, I don’t think I will be asked to remain on the Governance Council next year. Unless of course no one nominates anyone again. Then the principal may have no choice but to listen to my advice, even if he never heeds it.