As a
part of a comprehensive leadership development system, FADSS provides training
and other developmental experiences for school district leadership teams that
include school principals and district-level leaders who are executive
personnel working in direct relationship with the superintendent, persons who
serve on the Superintendent’s Executive Leadership Team and/or who administer
systems within the school district. The events are carefully correlated with
the training for superintendents for continuity of purpose and for alignment of
vertical teams.
Training
Institute for Administrative Assistants and Secretaries to Superintendents
and/or School Boards
Leaders
need the support and assistance of key personnel in the district to be the most
effective. Secretaries and administrative assistants to superintendents and
school boards are integral to the success of a superintendent’s leadership. The
leadership development program provided by the Association recognizes this
important fact and provides training for these key personnel once a year.
Organization
and Management Reviews and Special Studies
An
Organization and Management (O&M) Review uses a systems approach to
studying a school district. The O&M Review is designed to assist a school
district in its efforts to enhance student achievement by ensuring that all
aspects of the system are focused on supporting and assisting schools in their
efforts to improve student achievement. Rather than viewing the district as a
sum of its parts, a systems approach looks at how the respective parts fit and
work together. The O&M Review assists districts in discovering the
interrelationships of what appear to be separate functions at the district
level so that they can capitalize on the synergistic effect of all areas
working together to assist schools. The Review process focuses not on the
improvement of a particular function for the good of that function, but on the
improvement of specific functions for the enhancement of the total school
district.
The
O&M Review is a collaborative process between the school district and a
selected team of educators representing expertise in all areas of education,
leadership and management. Research indicates that an outside team can be
helpful by providing a fresh, objective look at the system. The review team can
help the district compile and see data in a new light, then use the insights
gained from that data for organizational enhancement.
The
FADSS staff assembles a team of experts - each with significant and relevant
public school administrative experience – to visit the school district for a
week to:
- Review the status of the district
- Observe the district at work
- Interview school and district employees
- Determine the culture
- Measure the climate
- Design an alignment system
- Develop job descriptions
- Analyze management practices
- Recommend state-of-the-art management practices
Deliverables
of the O & M Review include:
- Site visit exit conference with
Superintendent
- Bound set of reports on the system’s status,
findings, and recommendations, with copies for the Superintendent, Board
members, and others
- Recommended organizational chart
- State-of-the-art job descriptions
- Recommendations of best management practices
- Implementation plan