” The tools for quality control are there, but they are not used by the responsible administrators.”
And what tools might these be?
If you don’t get rid of incompetents prior to tenure - or refuse to grant tenure to certain teachers - they pretty much have to assault a student or commit a crime to get fired.
” but in the trades and maintenance departments”
Oh - so you never had to fire a teacher. Ever see that manual?
“The solution in my opinion is simple; no District Administrator, up to and including the Superintendent of Schools should come from the educational system”
That’s easier said than done. While it would make good sense , perhaps, from a business/management aspect - you are asking people with no educational background to deal with state ed? deal with endless issues concerning the teachers & students, and parents?
Maybe the problem is with the higher educational institutions that are “training” the teachers and administrators in the first place.
“The system can be fixed; but the problems can not all be put off on the teachers, the biggest problems start at the administrative level.”
Even if you get your wish fulfilled - your “dream” administrators will still have deal with the unions, the budgets, and state ed.
Those tools are the districts own rules and regulations, get their Personnel Commission Rules and Regulations, get their Board Policies and the Union Contracts for both Classified and Certificated Personnel and read them, every word, every page, every article. Yes; I have read Classified and Teachers contracts for at least 4 different school districts and they are all basically the same, the wording may be slightly different but the intent seems to remain the same.
Your concept of tenure probably comes more from the university system than from the K-12 public school system; in most states K-12 teachers don’t have what you are calling tenure, they have something that is called a Reasonable Assurance of Contract Renewal at the end of each school year, this can be broken if the responsible administrator is willing to do their homework. As to having the necessary educational background to deal with the State Ed. Code; I have read the California State Ed. Code from cover to cover, and believe me if any state has a more complicated one written by more lawyers and over educated idiots I pity that state.
Any competent, reasonably educated person can read these documents, understand and apply them with only occasional help from the districts lawyer and every district retains a legal counselor. As to the problems concerning students, teachers and parents. I had to deal with them every single day; maintenance is more than re-wiring or re-plumbing a room. We had to deal with all State Ed. Code, Title 24 Rules and Regulations, Title 8 Health and Safety, State Handicapped and Architectural Barrier requirements, every thing from the correct amount of square footage per student per room to the correct cubic feet per minute of air exchange per person per room. I have had to argue with parents, teachers and my own administrators about what was required for students of various different placements, from severely handicapped to general ed. and ultimately beat them over their heads with their own state rules and regulations. I have been deposed and testified in court more times than I can even remember; against bad contractors, teachers and administrators, when they are wrong they are wrong and I won’t be intimidated. Most of the bad players in any school district have forgotten why they are there; to provide the tools necessary to present every student with an opportunity to learn. A parent who doesn’t care defeats the system, an administrator who is more concerned with a cushy hi-tech office defeats the system and a teacher who is just putting in time to retirement is a waste of space.
Yes, a good part of the problem is the way teachers and educational administrators are trained, a bigger part of the problem is the way they are selected and promoted. They are their own little world, and unfortunately have convinced the rest of the world that only they are competent to organize and rule their world.
Any reasonably good administrator can deal successfully with a union. Rule #1 Don’t violate the contract. Rule #2 Enforce it word for word in the contract, including the sections on disciplinary actions. Rule #3 When renegotiating, take a tough but reasonable line and read every word of every proposal. Rule #4 No soft or ambiguous language; every word of every sentence of every article must be clearly stated and not subject to every bodies interpretation of what the intent was. May means I can do it if I feel like it, shall means I don’t have a choice in the matter. Budgets are just a matter of history and costs. It doesn’t matter whether it’s 11 dollars or a 111 million dollars. You have historical costs, current costs and future anticipated cost increases. In any school district the costs are material and personnel payroll and benefits. The material costs can reasonably estimated by past, present and future requirements; every thing from fuel to wire to books to lunches. That’s why we do demographic projections, and the smart ones also pay attention to the commodities market and world demand. I saved my district about 2 million dollars on copper about 6 or 7 years ago by paying attention to the Chinese and world demand, buy the wire cheap and stockpile it for the projects we were planning.
Labor costs are determined by market demand and being sharp at the bargaining table. One last thing always set aside a certain percentage for unanticipated expenses. That percentage can also be based on past and current performance.
School districts don’t get to make a profit, their dollars come from the state so you always have a solid number to start from; unless you are in California, then you always low ball your initial numbers like I had to.
Every problem you brought up can be taken care of by a competent, dedicated employee who is reasonably well educated. They don’t have to have degree in education; if they do good, but they still need real world experience outside the protected cloister of education only. They need to know how to hire, how to evaluate, how to fire, how to budget, and how to deal with people from all walks of life. 90% of it is just common sense.