Activity: I have served on the School Leadership Team for three years.

Description: As a team we met twice a month to brainstorm ways to make the school run
better, make decisions about the budet !both Title and Discretionary "unds#, brainstorm
solutions to any problems that would arise, and discuss academics, etc.
$hat went well%
There were many thins that went well durin our meetins. The climate and culture
within our school is rather stron and the members of the leadership team feel very
comfortable with one another. The members of the team are willin to share their
concerns and they work toether to come up with solutions to the problems that were
discussed. The relationships within the team were built early on since the first meetin of
each year always consisted of a team buildin activity. $hether it was takin a boat tour
of the Tennessee &iver or oin to bowl toether the team always did somethin fun so
that all members could et to know one another. The meetins were always very well
orani'ed. Aendas were always created and the meetins ran smoothly. They were not
lon and drawn out and time was always respected. It was nice to have members of the
faculty represented on the team, but it was also open to the (TA president, the family
partner specialist, and the school secretary. This brouht in many different perspectives.
The various perspectives proved to be very beneficial when brainstormin events,
solutions, resources, etc. It was also nice that the team met twice a month. This allowed
all issues to be discussed promptly and it allowed rade levels to ive feedback about
what was occurrin within their rade level to the team in a timely fashion. This kept the
lines of communication open throuhout the year.
$hat did not o well%
Althouh the members of the team understand that we are all at )ast *rainerd to make
sure that children are bein tauht and that we will always make sure that the students
come first we rarely revisited the mission and vision of our school. Althouh all faculty
and staff members were involved in creatin the mission and the vision of the school,
these two documents are rarely, if ever, revisited. I doubt that any member of the faculty
or staff can recite them and they are never pulled out when makin decisions. Another
aspect of the meetins that did not o well was that minutes from the meetin were never
distributed to the entire school so that everyone was receivin the same messae. It was
always the responsibility of the rade level representatives to take notes and then share
with their team. $hile this was okay for most rade levels, it did cause some problems
for rade levels whose representative was not very ood at note takin. Another problem
that came up was that faculty members often felt rushed to make it to the meetins
because they were travelin from one campus to the ne+t. $hile this problem was out of
our control, it did cause additional stress to some members of the team. It also caused
problems since it was never defined as to what buildin we would be meetin in and
some members of the team would not find out until minutes before the meetin was to
start. "inally, there were many times that the (TA president was not able to attend the
meetin due to outside obliations. $hile we were very understandin, it did cause a
problem since we did not have a parent,s voice on the team while decisions were bein
made.
-iven the chance to do it aain, how would you do it better%
There are definitely some thins that I think need to chane in reards to our leadership
team. "irst, I would make sure that durin every meetin the mission and vision of the
school was visible so that all decisions could be made accordin to those documents.
These are two ideas that need to be known by the faculty and staff and they should be
revisited on a reular basis. Second, I would include additional parents on the committee
and I would also include local business partners. This would allow us to have a well.
rounded roup and it would assure us that all voices are bein represented. /e+t, I would
make sure to have a defined date, time, and location set for all meetins so that everyone
who is on the team is aware of where they need to be and when they need to be there in
advance. "inally, I would make sure that minutes and aendas are emailed out prior to
and followin the meetin. I would email the aendas out to the team members several
days before the meetin is to be held because this would allow the team to share it with
their rade level team to see if any specific concerns need to be addressed durin the
meetin. This would allow everyone to have a voice. "inally, I would make sure that all
members of the faculty and staff received the minutes followin the meetin so that
everyone would remain on the same pae.