Amid a review of Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School’s improvement planning process, which began in 2005, stakeholders on Saturday agreed that administrators at District 97 schools?#34;and not the School Leadership Teams (SLT)?#34;should take the lead.
Brooks’ SLT, made up of parents and faculty, has led the review process. Committee groups chartered by the SLTs have looked at leadership, communication, instructional practices and discipline at Brooks. Stakeholders Saturday said they’re now ready to hand over the reigns of Brooks’ planning process to school administrators.
“We want to transition from a SLT-led planning process with school involvement to a school-led planning process with SLT involvement,” said Joe Frateroli, Brooks’ planning facilitator.
Figuring out just how to do that without stifling the process is the next challenge, Frateroli and others acknowledged.
Brooks is the only school in the district with an outside consultant helping with school improvement. Brooks Principal Tom Sindelar agreed with stakeholders, saying that everyone was “united in improving our children’s education.”
Frateroli said any transition would take time. Dist. 97 Supt. Constance Collins at Saturday’s meeting said Brooks’ school improvement planning process is in line with the district’s broader goals for all schools.
“The district is going through a period of change?#34;not only is change occurring but accountability,” she said. “I am a strong believer in the school improvement process. This is a nationwide concept. To talk about school improvement, we should have done this years ago, but we’re doing it now and Brooks is to be commended on all your hard work.”
Committee groups Saturday touted last year’s goals and their recommendations for 2006. Several recommendations came from parents surveyed by committees.
On communication: A school safety committee was formed in ’05 to develop policies on building security and accessibility of students during, before and after school hours.
Parents, the surveys showed, wanted better communication from the school concerning suspended students. Brooks now has a transition plan where parents, students and teachers meet to discuss how and when the student will return to school.
“Parents indicated that they want a formalized plan as to how a student is reintegrated back into school,” said Brooks teacher Gale Liebman, chair of the Communication Committee.
Parents also wanted progress reports sent home prior to scheduled teacher/parents conferences.
On discipline: Parents expressed concerns about who has access to student discipline records. The only school officials with direct access to individual student records now are principals, assistant principals, and social workers. Discipline committee members will have aggregated data.
On instruction: A 13-week “Power Hour” after-school program was added for struggling students. The program runs up to the ISAT testing date in March.
On leadership: The role and functions of the principal, assistant principal and SLT leaders were unclear to some surveyed parents. The leadership committee instructed administrators to clearly define each and the functions each serves for all Brooks stakeholders.
Teachers surveyed especially noted decision-making at Brooks. Brooks needs to ensure that staff understands when decisions on students are made collectively, those needing input from staff, and those to be made by the principal only.
Each committee made more than a dozen recommendations for Brooks.
“This is an expression of our collective wisdom,” said Steve Thompson, co-chair of Brooks’ SLT. “We hope that we can share ideas that can take us forward in 2006.”
“This process is about looking at what works, what needs to be changed and what needs to improve.”
The district under Supt. Collins has gauged the climate at all Dist. 97 schools through parent, student and teacher surveys distributed last fall and in early spring 2006.
Frateroli said Brooks will help the other schools with their improvement plans and SLT transition.
“We have a better idea to visualize what this is going to look like,” he said.
CONTACT: tdean@wjinc.com