ELCC Standards for District Leadership: Standard 3

 

Standard: A district-level education leader applies knowledge that promotes the success of every student by ensuring the management of the district’s organization, operation, and resources through monitoring and evaluating district management and operational systems; efficiently using human, fiscal, and technological resources within the district; promoting district-level policies and procedures that protect the welfare and safety of students and staff across the district; developing district capacity for distributed leadership; and ensuring that district time focuses on high-quality instruction and student learning.

 

My Interpretation of the Standard: Standard 3 represents the district leader's ability to attend to the business details necessary to operate a public school district. Effective public school district leadership is built on universal confidence in the leader's ability to leverage and manage resources so as to keep the focus on improving student learning and opportunities, which are the skills and mindsets associated with Standard 3.

 

Functions:

  1. Candidates understand and can monitor and evaluate district management and operational systems.
  2. Candidates understand and can efficiently use human, fiscal, and technological resources within the district.
  3. Candidates understand and can promote district-level policies and procedures that protect the welfare and safety of students and staff across the district.
  4. Candidates understand and can develop district capacity for distributed leadership.
  5. Candidates understand and can ensure that district time focuses on supporting high-quality school instruction and student learning.

 

Evidence of Mastery:

  • Audit Response: One of our assignments was to review and respond to the financial audit for our school district. I am fortunate to lead in a district that has stellar financial procedures with clean audits.
  • Budget: Learning about how to lead a district in regards to the budget has turned out to be foundational to my success as a superintendent. Our class projects helped to prepare me for the level of transparency and leadership needed to successfully plan for and manage a public school district budget. Some of the most relevant artifacts are my Budget Projection and my Budget Blogs 1, 2, and 3.
  • Capitol Improvement Project: As superintendent I have worked with my Maintenance Director to submit a Capitol Improvement Project (CIP) request with the majority of the work being done by my Maintenance Director. As part of this class, I used the opportunity to learn more about the CIP process to create my own CIP request for a new project. I found it to be a very helpful class activity to help me better understand the language and world where my Maintenance Director lives, which allows for a more productive working relationship.
  • District Operations Final Paper: The Final Paper for our District Operations class provides an excellent summary of my learning in the areas identified in Standard 3.
  • Educator Evaluation Review: Manging resources includes the management of staff. Every school district in Alaska was required to develop a new Educator Evaluation Plan, and although federal and state laws have changed since we created this class artifact, it still serves to show the comprehensive nature with which I view educator evaluation.
  • Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) PowerPoint: Another class artifact that helps to demonstrate mastery of Standard 3 is the FMLA PowerPoint I shared with my colleagues. Knowing the intricacies of and honoring leave entitled to employees is an critical part of being an effective superintendent.
  • Finance Final Paper: My Finance Final Paper provides an effective summary of my learnings process associated with the foundational skills of financial management of a public school district.
  • High Performance Facility Analysis Paper: The management of buildings is an on-going and often unsung part of being a superintendent. Understanding what factors lead to effective learning environments is one important aspect that helps us to be proficient in this area. Luckily, our coursework included an opportunity to analyze one of our school facilities where the facility was helping the students attending the school to experience success.
  • Policy Committee: Beginning in the 2013-14 school year, the district started a process to systemically review our district policies. Prior to this time, we only updated policies when the Association of Alaska School Boards (AASB) provided us an updated policy due to changes in state statute resulting from legislative action. As you will see on our Policy webpage, we have since completed a review of all policies in the 5000's (students) with some policies needing updating and many policies not. We are currently in the middle of the 6000's (instruction). To conduct the reviews, we have a Policy Committee that includes members from the school board, administration both unions (teachers and support staff), and also interested individuals. The Policy Committee meets at least monthly if not more often, and we review as many policies as we can in an hour. Although not speedy, our process does facilitate good discourse on the various policies. Administrative Regulations are updated by the Administrative Team in concurrence with the Board Policies being updated by our process.
  • Transportation Review: Busing and transportation is another critical aspect of district operations and management. Our coursework asked us to provide an oral report on our transportation issues, and I have included a written summary of my oral report to help document my mastery of Standard 3.

 

Summary: In summary, given the evidence I have presented, I believe I have met or exceeded the expectations for Standard 3.