So the school year starts today. Not sure if my family is quite ready mentally
but a variety of items were purchased and packed in the back packs with great
anticipation. What will the year be like?
Do we have good teacher(s)? Will the school have a well-organized administration
team? How many changes have happened
over the summer?
That last question needs a bit of a look. The good news is that within the Brandywine
School District, it looks like all of our principals are back from last
year. And that is good news because the
principal has the task of setting the tone within the building. And some of our schools within the last few
years have had more than their share of changing principals. And the lack of consistent leadership becomes
apparent not only in test scores but also in the atmosphere of the building and
with families. Will communication be
stronger this year than last year? With
strong leadership, comes a school environment in which both students and
teachers are respected and respect each other.
That’s important to establish in this first week as it sets the tone on
academics as being the priority. And not
school being only “social hour” or a “place to get a paycheck”. It has to work both ways. And a third-way
with families being part of the team as well.
Some of our Assistant Principals have changed within school
buildings as well as teachers. These
changes may not be as noticeable, but a good “second in command” can complement
the workings of any good leader. A team with
a variety of strong leaders, who are not just “yes-men or women”, can challenge
and change a school building to reach new heights within the atmosphere of 21st
Century educational reform.
And then there are the changes at the District level and
state level – in BSD, our Assistant Superintendent, who has been in the
education profession for some 30 years, retired at the end of last year. That alone can have unique changes on the
dynamics, direction and personnel of the leadership of the district and what
guidance is offered in the “trickle down” philosophy. Check out the latest Org Chart on the
district website page.
And over the summer at the state level, we’ve had the
biggest change in leadership, a new Secretary of State, with not a lot of time
in an administrative capacity at a district level nor previous state
experiences before this new school year has started. I’m not sure yet if this is good news or bad
news as it has happened in the middle of Race-to-the-Top and right before we,
hopefully as families, will begin to see some measurable impacts in our school
buildings and classrooms based on the previous 2 years of RttT. (There are only 2 more years before this
additional funding runs out.) Plus there
have been some important changes over the summer with a Waiver process around
No Child Left Behind implementation that again is a change that can impact our
students learning environment and the attitude of the adults in the building.
So those are just some of the new changes to consider as we
start the new school year today that'll impact our students even before they step into that new classroom.
