Schools

Board of Education Adopts New School Administration Plan

Lead teacher positions to be added at some schools

Almost two years after deep budget cuts affected the Howell Public Schools, the effects of having to eliminate some positions is still being felt. After the most recent budget was passed just a few months ago, steps are now being taken to return to a sense of pre-cut normalcy.

At this week's board of education meeting, superintendent Enid Golden introduced a plan that would help bring some administration back to the school buildings in an effort to help the building principals with their day to day work. "We certainly heard from the administrators and even several board members have come to me to say that they noticed a difference in the buildings," Golden said about life after the cuts. "Everyone cooperated, everyone made it work but there's no doubt in my mind that it did impact in our programs and we were frequently in crisis mode."

With fewer administrators in the building, Golden said there was a rise in problems at the building level. "We saw more disciplinary issues arise. We had more bomb scares and we had less instructional support because what was happening was as the sole administrator in the building the building principals would be tending to things the vice principals used to tend to."

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The bulk of Golden's plan focused on the three middle schools where this past year there was one vice principal going between middle schools north and south in addition to the full timers at each building. 

The cuts also meant no Student Assistance Coordinators to help at the middle school level as well. There were also cuts in the school resource officer program. "All those things together, the supports that had been there in the past were no longer there," she said. 

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At the elementary school level, each school had a part time vice principal including Newbury School where Special Education Supervisor Dodie Fernandez was also serving as a part time building administrator. Golden said Fernandez was in that building because that is where many of the district's autistic children are taught. That also included Lynn Coco who was splitting her time between the neighboring Ramtown and Greenville schools. She was recently named as the at Greenville school.

Golden said for the elementary schools she wanted to make sure that buildings with more than 500 students have the supervisors they need. "It's a rule of thumb that buildings with more than 500 students, it's recommended that you have a vice principal," she said. "It's just too much for one person."

With that being the case Golden presented two plans. The plan that was adopted included putting vice principals at Aldrich, Griebling, Land O'Pines and Newbury schools. There would also be two full time vice principals at each middle school at middle schools north and south. There would also be a SAC to be used between all three middle school buildings.

The other buildings would have a newly created position of lead teacher. Without replacing Coco at the two elementary schools she was serving at, Golden said that would reduce the administrative costs by one position. Golden said the goal would be to bring the vice principals in from existing staff members who have their supervisory certificates. They would also take on the role of coordinating different areas of the curriculum including world languages, the gifted and talented program and fine arts.

While the job description for lead teacher is not completely laid out, Golden said the administration and school principals have been working together to see how they can best help the district. And while they would be taken out of the classrooms, their replacements will likely be hired at a lower pay scale helping to further save the district money, according to Golden.

According to Golden, the ideal candidate for the new position will be "someone with a strong understanding of content standards, curriculum, writers workshop, elementary school teaching methodology, someone who has highly developed instruction skills with demonstrated high levels of student achievement, someone who keeps current with research and best practices, someone who communicates effectively and someone who loves children.

She added that these new lead teachers, while certified to be administrators would technically work under their teaching certificates and be paid as teachers for further savings to the district. "Although they wouldn't be working under that certification, what that would allow us to do is if the principal is not in the buildings, that person could be in charge because we need someone with an administrative certification to be in charge." 

Golden called this new plan a "win/win," for the district and the teachers who get the promotion because it is a good step toward becoming a full administrator while still staying active in the classrooms. "It's not an administrative position but it's certainly a step closer," she said. "It looks great on a resume and as other buildings reach the 500 mark that would probably be a good pool of people we could look at to walk into a vice principal position."

Most of the money for the new position will be coming from the retirements the district accepted after this school year by people at the top spots on the pay scale. 

Overall the plan was well received by the board members including finance committee chairman John VanNoy. "I consider this to really be a creative organizational solution to a real problem that you had to address two years ago in laying off people," he said. "This seems to be a very modest amount [of cost] with tremendous impact on the budget."

Golden said she hoped to have candidates for the new positions in place for approval at the Aug. 24 meeting. That way they can be in place for the first day of school on Sept. 7.

The board will also be looking for a replacement for Middle School North principal Joseph Isola who was promoted to the position of Superintendent of Curriculum and Personnel. He replaces Karen Jones who left the district to become of the Plumsted School District


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