[Winona] site teams

[Laurie Rogers / Jeff Bernardy]

I have had two separate experiences on the site team at Dakota school as a parent.  Five years ago as a newer parent to the system, and most recently as site team facilitator.  What was missing for me was a thorough orientation about what site team was, it’s history, philosophy, etc., so we sort of had to catch on and/or make it up as we went. Training sessions were offered (state-wide 2-day workshops I believe), but I was not able to attend those. I was involved in the hiring process, event planning, calendar decisions, policy issues, planning for grounds changes/maintenance, coordinating PTA and community goals, integrating teacher and community/parent focuses.  The team seemed to serve as a good communication and coordination link between admin, staff, parents, and community.  I have always seen it as valuable, although also agree with Scott that we may have come short of meeting the full potential of the site team concept due to the lack of a more complete orientation or understanding of the philosophy presented to all members.             I do remember learning early-on that the intent was to have 51% of site team members be from community and/or parent pool.  (Is this true?)  We had an ongoing joke at Dakota at each meeting, where we counted up and determined the percentage (to check if we were legitimate that day).  Most of the time we had more parents (meaning 3 or 4 of them) than admin/staff, but we also had a very small site team and school.  It did make for a strong parent voice, especially given those parents were usually also active PTA participants who had a sense of what parents and community members were thinking about.  The 51% rule (if it is one) also helped make site team different than just another staff meeting.  Both administrators I worked with desired having a parent or community member serve as site team facilitator, although during my early experience, members rotated the responsibility each month, so sometimes it was a teacher, sometimes a parent, sometimes the administrator.             Personally, I am for beefing up the 51% “rule” in a real effort to improve parent/community involvement in a meaningful way.                                      Laurie Rogers