Leadership magazine May/June 2015 V 44 No 5 | Page 14

ementary schools, one middle school and
one high school) in the southern end of the
district.
The first jointly sponsored professional
development was with these six schools
that we called the Southside Schools Reading Collaborative. This collaborative allowed teachers and administrators to meet
in vertical teams across grade levels to better

pals and their site union representatives. The
retreat also includes members of the Cabinet, district leaders, the Board of Education
and our classified labor leaders. A PAL committee made up of district and ABCFT leaders creates the agenda for the PAL retreat.
Each year, the superintendent’s Cabinet
also meets with the ABCFT Executive Board
for a retreat. The joint retreat is designed to

to build support for the partnership among
all employees. Confronting the budget challenges together in the past five years has allowed us all to be problem solvers and has
resulted in no layoffs.

n Element 6: Building partnerships at the
school level
In 2009 we were awarded an AFT Innovation Fund that expanded the partnership
at the school level. Over the years, the joint
district-union Innovation Fund of more
than $400,000 supported creative ideas to
improve student learning and the teaching
environment through collaboration between school leaders and teachers.
The Innovation Funds were successful at
fostering collaboration and opening new
lines of communication in the schools, and
provided seed money to create a special project together. Some of the programs created
by the Innovation Funds became signature
practices that led schools to be designated as
California Distinguished Schools.

n Element 7: Handling conflicts and
challenges

connect the reading curriculum and assessments in the different grade spans.
Since the effort began, all the schools experienced growth in student achievement.
The high school (Artesia HS) was named a
California Distinguished School in 2013 and
the middle school (Fedde MS) was recently
selected as a 2015 Schools to Watch and National Model Middle School.

n Element 4: Creating an infrastructure
Communication and collaboration meetings with labor and management teams
occur at every level in the district organization. Each Cabinet member representing academic services, human resources, business
services, information and technology, and
school services meets regularly with a union
leader from ABCFT. At the school level,
principals meet regularly with the union site
representatives.
Since 2001, the district holds an annual
PAL (Partnership with Administration and
Labor) retreat in October with all the princi14

Leadership

review upcoming changes in the district that
may affect teachers, and to look for other opportunities to collaborate.

n Element 5: Confronting issues together
In addition to the regular meetings held
throughout the year, other structures are in
place to help with solving problems together.
The PROPS (Proactive Problem Solving)
Committee was developed with the special
education department and special education
teachers to discuss emerging issues that can
be solved together.
District leaders and many school teams
have participated in the training provided
by AFT’s Center for School Improvement to
learn about best practices in team building.
The district and labor leaders meet regularly
each year regarding the state’s budget. We attend budget meetings together and share the
latest budget information with all the executive board members representing labor and
management.
This transparency and honesty has helped

When challenges arise with a teacher or
school employee struggling on the job, the
Peer Assistance and Support System is available to provide support. Members of my
Cabinet are alerted by key union leaders to
emerging issues that may affect the classroom. Shifts in the Common Core State
Standards have provided opportunities for
our Academic Services Department to disseminate joint newsletters with ABCFT regarding the changes in curriculum and instruction.
A joint “advance partnership” meeting was held with principals and the union
site representatives before school started to
go over all the changes coming during the
school year. M ܙH[