Specific Ideas for Improvements

By Mark Olbert

This is a selection of ideas that I believe could significantly improve the San Carlos elementary school program. For more information, please go to my website at http://www.arcabama.com/election2001

• Foster better working relationships between teachers and the District office.

In the private sector, this is a well-recognized organizational malady. The solution is also well known: participatory management, employee empowerment, management by walking around, etc. The Board needs to encourage and incentivize all District office and school staff to move to this style of interaction.

The Board itself can also play a role in this management approach by having Board members meet, informally, with teachers and other staff throughout the District on a regular basis.

A motivated employee is a better-performing employee. And that will directly translate into a better education for our children.

• Challenge unnecessary student assessments.

But how do you measure performance? And how often do you measure it? Our schools have seen a rapid increase in recent years in state-mandated testing; yet to my knowledge there has been no systematic review of what this means for the assessment programs that the District has used historically. The net result is that our children undergo more and more testing, resulting in less and less instruction each year.

I want to establish a "needs test" for any assessment done in the District that is not state-mandated. If an assessment can't definitively tell us something critical # or which we can learn some other way, from an existing assessment # then it shouldn't be adopted.

I also want the District to utilize more effectively the most important assessment vehicle it has: its teachers. It sounds odd to those who don't spend a lot of time in the classroom, but today there is little room in "the system" for teacher input. To me, that's like going to the doctor but refusing to rely on anything but the information provided by diagnostic tests. If you want to identify children who need help, why not just ask their teachers?

• Engage the community on building a world-class educational program.

It's not enough for the Board to wait for citizens to bring issues forward. Most San Carlos residents view the Board as an organization of experts they have "hired" to oversee the education of their children in the public schools.

When I hire a contractor to build an extension on my house, I don't want someone who sits around waiting for me to ask questions. I want someone who gets me to define my goals, tells me what needs to be done to realize them, works with me to modify my plans to fit my budget, and then goes off and does the work. Why should the Board of Trustees be any different?

I believe the Board has an obligation to reach out to the community, educate it on important educational issues, solicit its goals, and then create a District that realizes those objectives. If elected, I intend to work with the Board to put important educational issues # like the level of assessment and the trade-off between higher funding and better programs -- before the public in a manner that encourages consensus-building and decision-making.

• Coordinate curricula with local high schools.

This discontinuity is a reflection, I believe, of our District not factoring where the bulk of our children go to high school into the District curriculum. This does not mean we should simply accept whatever curriculum standards the local high schools have; opinions on "what's best" can differ among experts. But our children should be taught what to expect when they attend high school.

There is no reason why our children should pay the price for this lack of coordination. If elected, I will work to get the District to coordinate its curriculum with the high schools our graduates attend.

• Reduce high turnover rate among talented and experienced teachers

I'm sure you've seen this situation in your particular San Carlos school: given the choice between a new, well-qualified teacher and a returning, well-qualified teacher, parents will almost always try to get their children into the class of the returning teacher. Why? Because parents know that there is significant value to experience, and want their children to benefit from it. High teacher turnover sharply reduces that pool of experience.

Why does San Carlos have such a high level of turnover? The high cost of housing and the growing competition for teachers may be part of the answer, although there may be other important factors at work. What is clear is that the Board does not appear to be making this issue a priority (at least one Board member has commented, indirectly, on this turnover being a positive because it lets the District higher less expensive teachers).

If elected, I intend to work to get the Board to focus on this issue, identify the cause(s) # be it policy, attitude, compensation, or something else # and solve the problem.