On Monday,October 14, 2013 at 7:00 P.M., I attended the Bradford Area School District school board meeting at Floyd C. Fretz Middle School in the large group instruction room. This meeting was important for the teachers, students, and the schools in the district. It provided information that correlated to the material in class and a perspective on what situations as a future teacher I may experience.
The meeting began when the school board members entered the large group instruction room and took their seats at a panel table angled to the side of the audience. The school board consists of nine elected members from the community. The members are as follows: Paul Ridley (President), Pat Vigliotta (Vice President), Helen Cumminskey (Secretary), Carla Manion ( Asst. Secretary), Timothy Bean (Treasurer), David Feely (Board Member), Keith Hatch (Board Member), Shane Oschman (Board Member), and Joseph Troutman (Board Member). Three members of the board were missing; however because of where the seats were located I could not see who was missing. Also, the member did not introduce themselves and left before people could address them.
Also in attendance to the meeting where, Samuel Johnson (Director of Human Resource), Katy Pudy (Superintendent), all school Principals and Vice Principals in the district, and teachers of the local schools.
The first part of the meeting dealt with honoring the three members of the board with an award from from the PA School Board Association. This award is given for the first eight years on the board and every four years after. Mr.Troutman, Mr. Ridley, and Mr. Vigliotta were the recipients of the award. In class, we discussed that most members of the board are upper class, white males. Looking at this aw...
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...d that parent teacher conferences are in swing and a child abuse conference will be held. The child abuse conference could greatly affect me as an educator because in class we learned that you are a mandated reporter. This means that any suspected abuse must be reported; the teacher is also protected. The school board makes decisions to have these conferences in order to keep the staff and students protected.
As you can see the school board handles many issues from budgets, to tenure, to performance scores, to conferences. Although this paper did not cover everything in the meeting, it summarized what took place, and what affects it would have on teachers. The decisions made no matter how big or small can influence how and what task a teacher performs. The school board meeting was interesting because you are able to see how the changes could affect you personally.
Potter should ask the committee to meet for a work session. She should assure them she is comfortable developing the documents they requested, but would like input from them based on the community. Ms. Potter is relatively new to the area and she should assure them she values their experience on the culture and knowledge of the history of the community. She needs to develop alternate activities to garner information from them regarding values and principles. While they do not need to write personal educational philosophies, the members can assist her by listing items they believe are important in a school. Ms. Potter needs to initiate open dialog and solicit information which she can use to develop the school’s philosophy, values, and
Board of Regents (1967). The teacher’s interest as a citizen in making public comment must be balanced against the State’s interest in promoting the efficiency of its employees’ public services. The court found the statements of the appellant were substantially correct, regarded matters of public concern, and presented no questions of faculty discipline or harmony. The statements offered no proper basis for the school board’s action in dismissing the appellant (Oyez, n.d.).
One of these meetings included a conference call with administrators from the New York City Department of Education in which we collectively brainstormed methods to share the information and workshop with teachers to perform in the classroom. This conference call eventually led up to me and my preceptor, Jacqueline Quinones-Lugo, presenting our workshop during a meeting of the Office of School Health division of the Department of Eduaction.
The role of school boards “is to establish a vision for the community's schools that reflects a consensus of the board, community and district staff.” Although this is their main purpose, they also have to balance a district budget, create a district-yearly calendar, negotiate contract, construction, and approve district curriculum. (Stover 1) Although it might seem harsh to argue with school boards even though they do a lot, it is their job. They were appointed to lead and better the community, guide our children. If they are not mentally ready to be a leader, then why run for a school board member, the focus should be on the children, how to better education for them, and how to make sure they get the most out of every day coming to school.
By having school board meetings, it helps to see what the school’s needs. This is very important for the reason that this may be the only time that a concern parent or person voice might be heard. From this meeting, it was learned that the school board members are willing to help people that have concerns. An example, of this, was when the concern Pre-K parent was worried that she heard that Pre-K has been just a daycare. However, someone from the board mentioned to her that she would personally go with the parent the next day and show her how Pre-K is running during the day. This made the parent so happy because her concerns were being met. I have learned that school board members look out for the students and that they are the number one source that community members should go to if they have a concern or a suggestion to better their children’s
Harriet Alverez is experiencing a rough start in her new role as Assistant Superintendent of Management Services in the Wildwood Unified School District. What seemed like a great opportunity to work in both the education and business realms, has turned out to be considerably more challenging than she had expected. There are several causes of her unforeseen stress including Congress’ passage of No Child Left Behind, an inflexible and opinionated leadership cabinet, limited to no guidance, and her own inexperience. Each of these has led to a crucial juncture for Harriet in her first year in her new role.
I went to the school board meeting on March 21, 2016 in Kanawha. The following people were at the council: Wayne Kronneman, Leah Deutsch, Ryan Hiscocks, Ryan Johnson, Jay Burgardt, Mona Buns, Gary Chizek, Todd Hammer, and Jon Harle. The others were mainly community member which included teachers, principals, parents and supporters. Some of the West Hancock staff included Mr. Peterson, Mrs. DeHart, Mrs. Bruns, Mr. Francis, Mrs. Gast and others. The other people who were there were parents and other community members. The first part of the meeting was the revision of the budget and presentation of the budget. This was given by Wayne Kronneman. He explained the budget of this year and how it compared to last years. Also he also talked about the budget for next year. After that they had a discussion with the
...bal markets and the desire to maintain leadership in the world of science and technology.” The following recommendations would be made to the school board in order to improve the school’s performance. Schools do not meet annual yearly progress staff should be reorganized. .There should be a diversity of teacher considering the cultural diversity. Invest in more technology in schools and after school and Saturday school programs It is when school boards, administrators and teacher work together to make education attainable for all students regardless of culture race or disability,
David a Senior that goes to a not so wealthy school gets good grades and has friends. But because of where he lives and the amount of African Americans in his school, he has less technical hands on items to use such as a computer, ipad or Smartboards. David’s classes are also very small. Owen on the other hand goes to a good school with more a percentage of whites than African Americans. Owen’s school has more advanced technology and his class is very well organized with more hands on activities. David’s school barely has enough money to do fundraisers so they take gain money from taxes to do these activities. Many of the teachers are not as well educated as the school with a higher percentage than African American. In Owen’s school you can tell that the teachers are more into their jobs than the ones at David’s
Besharov, Douglas. "Teachers Performance: A Review ." Journal of Policy Analyis and Management (2006): 1-41.
Schlueter, K., & Walker, J. (2008, March). Selection of school leaders: A critical component for change. NASSP Bulletin, 92(1), 5-18. Retrieved from http://online.sagepub.com
There are many ways to compile data on a teacher and determine that person’s performance. Teacher performance can be based upon classroom observation, a teacher’s continuing development and education, and students’ standardized testing scores. The controversy centers around using student test scores to determine the performance of a teacher and thus her pay. Scott Andes, a research analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation voices the merits of performance based pay with his article “Getting Serious with Education: Why Can We Measure Students but Not Teachers?” High School English teachers, Jordan Kohanim and Ashley Ulrich vehemently state why there is no merit with performance based pay with their article, “No Merit to Merit Pay Arguments.” In each article both sides debate how performance based or merit pay will affect students, teachers, schools, and com...
The state’s new evaluation system was in response to administrators who produced, “superficial and capricious teacher evaluation systems that often don't even directly address the quality of instruction, much less measure students' learning” (Toch, 2008). Too often, the “good-ol-boy” attitude would insure mediocre educators would remain employed. Realizing this was often more the rule then the exception, the governor created educational mandates to focus, “on supporting and training effective teachers to drive student achievement” (Marzano Center, 2013). Initially, they expected the school districts and the teachers would have issues and experience growing pains, but in the end the goal was, “to improve teacher performance, year by year, with a corresponding rise in student achievement” (Marzano Center, 2013).
As an educator, there is always room for reflection and growth. Being in this class has provided an opportunity for both. From my knowledge gained in this class I believe that I have become smarter and have learned how to implement different tool into my teaching as well as general life as a teacher. Of the topics discussed in this class, commitment to students, avoiding burnout and reflective practices had the biggest impact on my professional growth.
Coming into this class, I figured we would learn about how to handle different kinds of situations from a teacher’s standpoint. As it turns out, the class is much more than just that. I figured there would be group discussions consisting of some controversial issues, but I had no idea how the course would make me feel as a person and as a future educator. So far, this class has brought to light the incredibly difficult decisions I will have to make as a teacher. Not only will those decisions affect the child and parents of that child at hand, but myself as well.