[Winona Online Democracy]
Thanks for the opportunity Steve. I have been a member of the Rollingstone
Site Based Team for many years. I have served as a parent and now a
community member. We have had many good meetings and have tried to stick to
our purpose. To have an impact on decision making, it is important to have
as diverse a group as possible as members of the team. We have gone from
mostly staff, to a mix of parents, staff, and community members.
Some of the issues we have discussed have ranged from marketing our
school, examining the building budget(no easy chore), looking for revenue
sources, repeatedly asking for re-districting to fully utilize our building,
to matters concerning cooperation between the City and School district. St.
Mary's University has been an excellent resource tool in helping us to
explore ideas about the future of our school. Bob McClure has been a very
valuable asset to our team.
The challenges we face as a team, include having a decent meeting
time. We now meet at 7AM the 3rd Wednesday of the month. The earlier start
time caused us to move to this time. We have explored other times and days,
but it seems they don't work as well especially for staff. With a change of
administrators, it is also a challenge for her to find times she is
available with her staff and team.
The site team idea, I believe, was started during the Lee Brittenham
days. I was on the board then, and I remember the beginnings of site based
then. I feel it can be an excellent tool to help the board and
administration listen to and also be a resource for the teams. Follow up is
very important. As a board member, you know we have forwarded proposals to
the board and administration from the team. Some were accepted and others
not. It would be nice to have feed back on the reasons for or against our
proposals.
Finally, it would be very helpful if the representative board member
or an at large board member could attend a site based meeting on occasion.
Fred Peterson came to our meetings on occasion and I think heard a lot of
good discussion and questions. I think all teams would like that. We also
have had Dr. Bartleson and other central administrators attend when we felt
we needed more resources. Dick Gaffron
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Kranz" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2003 12:43 PM
Subject: [Winona] Discussion on Site Teams
> [Winona Online Democracy]
>
> Greetings,
>
> The topic of "Site Teams" and shared-decision-making in schools has come
up
> on Winona Online Democracy on a few occasions and, since site teams are a
> place where the public and the schools come together, I thought it would
be
> a good opportunity to have a discussion about these topics that could
> include both staff and the public.
>
> It is also a timely topic because, starting with their October meeting,
the
> "Meet and Confer" committee will be discussing potential improvements in
how
> our site teams function. It is my hope that a discussion on Winona Online
> Democracy can help inform, and generate ideas for, the work done by the
Meet
> and Confer committee.
>
> In order to facilitate the discussion, I'm asking a variety of individuals
> (teachers, board, admin, community members) specific questions about how
our
> site teams function and the "potential" impact that site teams could have
in
> our school system and community. Their answers will be posted to Winona
> Online Democracy in the coming days (either by the individual or forwarded
> to the list by me).
>
> I hope this will be an informative discussion that will yield some good
> ideas for how site teams can function best for the schools and the
> community. Please feel free to add your thoughts to the discussion at any
> time. You don't have to be an "education expert", you just need an
opinion,
> a question, or an idea.
>
> Thanks and please let me know if you have any questions.
>
> -Steve Kranz, Board Member
> -Winona Area Public Schools
>
>
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