VoteBYoung - Administration

Administration

The expectations for the management of schools has changed drastically since the early 1970s. The workload demands, expectations, discipline procedures, and the role of schools in shaping students lives have changed significantly—as has the world in which our students live, and where they will eventually work.

The system of administration, however, has remained static. Bureaucratically, resources for the administration of schools has not significantly changed. As a result, guidance counselors have become the de facto course schedulers and college planners for the entire school. This means that the counselors are assigned administrative duties instead of focusing on assisting students and teachers with the psychological demands of the school environment and youthful and teenage emotions. In recent years, this has meant that many counselors are not even trained to the job title, but instead they are often teachers looking for a position in school administration.

Principles have to see to the safety of our schools in our post-Columbine and post-9/11 world. The increased financial demands on schools stemming from expensive computer and technological demands make managing the budget of each individual school similar to that of any small to medium sized business. This creates difficulty in meeting the needs of the school and creates an increase in tension in the workplace.

I therefore propose an attempt to investigate a restructuring of the administrative and bureaucratic systems that run our schools. This includes a more responsible, directly involved blended school board. It includes greater cooperation between schools, so that principles can meet regularly to debate and plan how to best act in the interest of our students.

I further suggested a new system for the administration of schools. This proposal received the Act of the Year award for its innovative ideas from the MD Student Legislature. The proposal would reorganize the responsibilities of running the schools so that the guidance department once again is the counselors for the school system.

The demands that have been placed on the guidance office should be reassigned under the principles office. A yearly vote of teachers, faculty, and the PTSA would nominate a Headmaster to ensure the academic quality of our schools. This would make certain that we not only continue to perform well on all standardized tests, but that our teachers have the resources they need to give our students the best education in not just our state, but the nation.

This plan has been developed through careful consideration of the problems facing our school system and methods of bringing more efficient business-world solutions to government. The plan is far from complete, however, and will require considerable debate from the citizens of Harford County and our educators before being becoming a comprehensive plan that can be put into action for the benefit of our students.