Christin Williams

Education 650

Standard Activity 10.45C

School Improvement Planning

At East Bank Middle School, we call our School Improvement Plan (SIP) committee the

“Leadership Team.” This team is composed of one teacher from every grade level and related

arts, plus the administration, and our school technologist. The team is a collective group of

representatives from within the school building. They are the ones who bring communicate ideas

that other members of the faculty have, work on scheduling, fundraising, and many other things

required to keep the school functioning. I was able to spend some time with the Leadership team

and sit in on a couple of meetings.

In the meetings I observed that all of the teachers were extremely vocal on their thoughts

and opinions of what is in the best interest of the school. There were times that the group did not

agree on things, in which it appeared that tensions rose in the room. The term “too many cooks in

the kitchen” came to mind on a few instances. This could be partially due to the fact that all of

the teachers on the team, with the exception of one, are seasoned educators that feel their way is

best when it comes to certain aspects of the school. However, after a few moments, a

compromise was met, in most circumstances.

The administrator(s) that are in the meetings seem to be more or less there to listen and

approve or disapprove suggestions and ideas. After the meetings I candidly spoke with a few of

the teachers on the team to ask more about this. Essentially, they feel as if many times the

administration does not fully listen to their suggestions and concerns, nor take them seriously.

While this is an unfortunate circumstance, perhaps there is more to it on the administration side?
 The school technologist participates in the Leadership team meetings because she is in

charge of our social media pages and school calendar. She takes notes in the meetings and posts

important information on the pages and calendar to keep stakeholders informed. She did not talk

much during the meetings, due to focusing on listening and taking notes for the group and

herself.

My recommendations would be to encourage a change in the team participants, or seek

input from others in the building. Having newer teachers on the team or at least their input could

provide information and insight that could be beneficial to the team and school. I would also

suggest having some sort of agenda for the Leadership Team meetings. In the meetings I

attended, there was no agenda, so it became a free-for-all at times when having discussions. A

third suggestion I have would be toward the administrators. Showing more enthusiasm and

listening intently to what the team has to say would be not only advantageous to the team and

school as a whole, but would also boost morale of the staff members.