mittee descriptions.
As the budget plummeted, the governance team helped to realign expenditures
by using data to write specific needs and
then reviewing job descriptions to fund the
positions that best aligned with those needs.
Staff also noted that standard intervention practices were not successful. Assigning
20 students to a 30-hour math intervention
course didn’t meet student needs. Instead of
a predetermined intervention schedule, interventions were realigned to student need.
For example, for the fifth-grade math
standard “use equivalent fractions as a
strategy to add and subtract fractions,” the
teacher might start with four or five students
who need a foundation in equivalent fractions for three days. Then these students,
plus another five or six who need help with
using equivalent fractions in word problems,
would continue for another week to master
the standard.
By targeting specific components of the
standard, in three to eight days the students
got the intervention needed. In addition to
student achievement, intervention funds
went further, student attendance in interventions increased, and teachers were more
willing to teach intervention classes.
Stakeholder engagement
Entrepreneurs of education know school
teams must invest in collaborative planning
to build strong instructional leadership and
ownership across all stakeholders. A strategic leader promotes a culture of inquiry and
seeks to learn from successes and failures.
For example, during registration the
Plummer office became loud and chaotic
as parents and children scrambled for space
and impatiently waited in line. Staff discussed the situation and decided to create a
more welcoming environment. Picnic tables
were added out front with crayons and coloring pages. A television monitor played a continuous loop of photos from past activities.
Recognized as a great promotional tool,
the electronic frame became standard for the
office and was regularly updated throughout
the year. The environment changed because
the office staff assumed ownership of the
process and felt empowered to be creative
and change their work environment.
Another time saver is to invest in training and updating office staff. Publishing an
organizational chart will also help direct a
question or concern to the right person. Because they are on the front lines, the office
staff is the first impression that visitors have
of the school and the first recipients of any
anger or confusion from visitors.
Regular meetings with front office personnel facilitate smoother operations and
empower the office staff.
Additionally, focus telephone time by ensuring that all phone messages have a brief
summary of the nature of the call, and decide on a policy for handling frequent calls
such as vendors. Building a strong office
staff reduces the amount of time that strategic leaders expend on routine calls and with
angry stakeholders.
Branding and marketing
Universities and colleges know how to
brand and market themselves. From highlighting accomplishments to campus life,
their websites are designed to encourage ap-
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