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Editorial Opinion: Should We Just Give Up?
My Platform
I am running for the school board to achieve excellence in our public schools by expanding community involvement in our public schools, creating schools in which parents, teachers, students, and staff can take pride, and establishing a guarantee of an excellent public education for every child in Nashville. A board’s responsibility is to hire, manage, and focus the director, and our first priority is to hire a director who understands school culture and team building. Our next priority is to address the concerns that are leading toward greater state control of our local system. Above all, though, we need to reverse the conditions that led the school audit to report a culture of “fear and intimidation” in our schools. The director must take responsibility to see to it that positive school cultures are created.
The Greatest Challenge Facing Metro Nashville Public Schools
The timeline for state takeover is the greatest challenge that we face. Increasing student achievement can be accomplished if we create school cultures that are supportive and dedicated to excellence. Those cultures depend on leaders in the buildings with the control and vision to foster them as well as support and guidance from the Director and oversight and management by the Board. We can achieve a system that generates those positive school cultures, but getting there quickly will be a challenge that everyone will have to bear if we are to succeed.
The School Board Priorities
Our top focus right now has to be hiring a director who understands the challenges and fosters a culture of community and excellence. The board’s top priority must be ensuring that the district meets benchmarks in order to work with the state rather than slipping under state control. I believe that my three priorities, expanding community involvement, creating schools that students and teachers can take pride in, and guaranteeing an excellent education for every child in Nashville help to sharpen the focus that we must have if we are to succeed in the Director search and relationship with the state.
On Involving Teachers and Staff
Active involvement of all the people working in the schools is needed and important to ensure the schools work well. Teachers have to be active participants in the educational decisions of the District. In my position as a school administrator, I would not feel comfortable making a decision without hearing and considering the view of the teachers. Communication and understanding between administrators and teachers is a fundamental determinant of the success of a school. Top-down implementation of good programs and ideas cannot succeed unless the programs are understood by teachers and respond to the actual experiences of teachers in the classroom on a daily basis. Teachers may not have a veto on school policies, but they make all the difference in whether or not those policies ultimately succeed. Therefore, I would encourage and applaud efforts to include teacher experience and feedback more fully in the policy decisions that the district makes. I would expect the Director of schools to communicate with and listen to teachers in order to be successful in promoting student achievement.
The Role of the Board in NCLB (No Child Left Behind)
The role of the board is not to manage the day to day operations of our schools. The role is to inspect and hold accountable the leadership of the schools who, in turn, must create school cultures of collaboration, mutual support, and team building. My role on the board will be to manage and guide the director to focus on the requirements of the law, think creatively and reward innovation in pursuit of those benchmarks, and administer resources wisely to retain local control of education in Nashville. As a board member, I will make no secret of my concerns about the deficiencies in the law, and I will be a strong advocate of greater funding for public education. However, I will not allow these feelings to shift my attention or the district’s attention from meeting and exceeding the requirements of the law under which we must operate.
What to Look for in our New Director of Schools
The District needs a leader who understands the importance and power of a positive school culture. I understand that teachers, students, and families will do anything for a school leader when that leader clearly keeps the best interests of the school’s stakeholders at heart. I know what to look for in the character and characteristics of a school leader that may or may not show up on a resume. The resume should show knowledge, experience, organization, attention to detail, and a record of success, but the character should show compassionate leadership. As a teacher I know the kind of leader who can lead us to excel, and that is exactly the kind of leader this District needs in the new Director of Schools.
Committee to Elect Alan Coverstone
info@coverstoneforschools.com
332 White Bridge Rd
Nashville, TN 37209
615-356-0358
Paid for by committee to elect Alan Coverstone, Renard Francois, Treasurer
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