“We do a lot of stuff, but do not measure what we do,” one respondent said in the report. “District has a slogan, but not a vision.”
Regarding English language learners, Monday said they heard from advocates who felt this group needs more attention.
“You need more translators and you need more languages, but just translating things is not enough, because you have to have some outreach,” she said. “… But what we’ve heard several times was that this is a population whose needs we’re not yet meeting. And also, in terms of academics, sometimes some of these students are put in classes with teachers who are not well-trained to actually teach second-language students.”
Another common theme was that expertise at the school level was not being utilized as much as possible.
“And that sometimes, it felt very top down in this district,” Monday said. “You had many qualified and talented teachers who felt that their voices were not heard and sometimes ignored.”
Draeger added that principals and teachers want to be more involved in the decision-making process and would like to see transparency from the superintendent and central office administrators.
“So there’s definite work and challenge for the new superintendent to make sure that the principals are engaged and their voices are being heard and they know that their voices are being heard,” he said.
