STANDARD SIX: External Development Leadership
A principal will design structures and processes that result in community engagement, support, and ownership. Acknowledging that schools no longer reflect but, in fact, build community, the leader proactively creates with staff, opportunities for parents/guardians, community and business representatives to participate as “stockholders” in the school such that continued investment of resources and good will are not left to chance.
Element 6a. Parent and Community Involvement and Outreach
A principal should create processes that lead to parent and community engagement, support, and ownership of the school. As a parent of a freshman at another high school in Granville County, I constantly was frustrated by the lack of information about my son's school. With the help of JF Webb High School yearbook students, we started Warrior News - a monthly digital newsletter to improve parent communication with Webb. Since, two additional students have joined the team. Each month, Warrior News includes information about academics, athletics, testing, events, student/parent opportunities. We also use Warrior News to introduce the Webb community to new staff. The April issue of Warrior News will be interactive with a staff baby picture challenge, and surveys for staff, students, and families on what they would like to see in future issues.
IMPACT:
IMPACT:
- Staff, student, and parents enjoyed the first two Warrior News edition and appreciated the summary of upcoming events.
- Students have told me that they like learning about the backgrounds of teachers, especially ones that they have not had yet.
- After reading Warrior News, two students contacted me to join the Warrior News staff. Both brought a lot of new ideas for upcoming issues.
- Publishing Warrior News using Smore inspired teachers to create their own classroom newsletter.
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Element 6b. Federal, State, and District Mandates
Principals must create processes and procedures to comply with federal, state, and district mandates. One of my first tasks during my principal residency at JF Webb High School was to design and lead two professional development workshops to meet Granville County Public Schools district and school mandates. When I started, I found that much of Webb's website was out-of-date and/or incomplete. The above professional development session helped all Webb staff meet the district mandate to have updated staff contact information and teacher webpages on Webb's website to facilitate communication between families and Webb staff. The process helped me realize that staff have different levels of self-expectations, expertise, and comfort using technology. I found that I needed to provide additional group and individual professional development and continued reminders about the importance of updating webpages.
The professional development (PD) session below helped teachers meet GCPS district mandate to be using performance-based objectives to develop and guide lessons and to use Method Test Prep to help students prepare for the ACT. The PD also helped our school's administration communicate expectations for Webb staff and students based on the Warrior Way. These two PDs at the beginning of the year helped Webb set expectations, guidance, and support to meet district and school mandates.
IMPACT:
- Teachers shared that the professional development session and the presentation for including hyperlinked information, modeling, collaborative work time, and follow up support.
- Teachers had a convenient Google Presentation resource to reference as they created performance-based objectives.
- Using the embedded hyperlinks helped teachers see how to improve their own class presentations for students, allowing students to quickly find learning resources referenced in their presentations.