I agree with Deanna's response on working to understand the disconnect in the negativity among staff, especially in this school year that people didn't think was going to be as hard. But I think a lot of its due to their perspective on education. You know, there's been a lot of people come and go throughout the year, here at the end of April and third grade teacher left last Friday for a better opportunity, I guess. But the teacher could not spend the last five weeks finishing up the school year. And so, you know, people in the building are not too happy about that. Mostly the other teachers that are seeing the effects on the kids, so, that's what they have discovered so far. And I think a lot of it has to do with this year in particular and hopefully the school culture and climate in general were will improve next school year. I think if people are tired of being in education, they know over the summer to leave or find another opportunity in education.
But yeah, I think it's just this toxic negativity among a lot of educators depending on the role and depending on where they're at.

One of the current complex systems that I'm navigating is around staff members, teachers specifically, being able to give each other honest feedback and have honest and open dialogue in general. A lot of what happens during team meetings is a lot of congeniality where we're just talking about good things. No one wants to enter that next level of saying anything that may be remotely close to being critical. So we don't have space for open dialogue.

I find that communication amongst teachers who reside in different buildings is hard to cto ome by, especially withiin our special education department. When students move on to a different building, teachers should be reaching out to the previous teacher to find out in more detail how the student learns, what conerns there may be, and what goals were achieved or not achieved. 

The master schedule is a complex system that we want to improve, but understanding all the intricate details is proving to be very complicated. Ensuring that changes don't trickle down and impact other areas inadvertently has also been very tricky. 

One of the complex issues is I&RS and all of the parts and pieces that need to be in place for it to work properly. 

The complex system I am working to understand is the process that goes into creating as master schedule, I am not sure if I would be able to improve upon it, however I am sure that if I do not understand it I will never be able to improve it. 

I have been working to understand the disconnect among the staff. I'd like our staff to become more of a team and not just small groups of people that do their own thing. I've discovered that communication is a big issue. Leadership needs to be better at communicating with staff about minor and major topics. When I'm in classrooms, I get to support the communication process. Communication overall is a work in progress. 

Scheduling seems to be the most complex. As a district administrator of 5 school buildings, each serving different grade levels, it is difficult to understand how the schedule for each building works at times. It becomes more difficult when you add shared staff, increased enrollment, and additional course sections to the mix. 

I agree with Deanna's response. I always think there's always sometimes a disconnect between the staff and really understanding how they become more of a team and the clicks trying to avoid all that and the importance of just communication overall and you know, the communication really is me making sure that I am delivering the communication that's appropriate and clear. And that has been a struggle in the beginning. But now as they get to know me and I'll get to know them, it's been improved.

Scheduling is my complex system that I struggle with. You don't realize the impact it has school wide - custodian, kitchen, office, classroom (leveled literacy and math) and even busing. This is always a project that I assign to my VP and each have brought something new to the table. We have arrived at a point where we have few conflicts. The interesting time was dealing with Covid - many of the changes we HAD to make were challenging but turned out to be for the betterment of the whole school and solved many former issues we had with things like busing and transitions at recess and lunchtime. 

We have a high percent of students with disabilities. We are an inclusion district. I am trying to understand the disconnect between our SST process, intervention and Referral to Special Ed. How can we support all learners and ensure appropriate research based interventions are used before referring students to special Ed. Testing. 

I am working to improve the educational experience for our students of Hispanic/Latin decent. This population of students has been rapidly increasing over the past few years. As a district, we are working toward better trainings for our staff and hiring teachers who are bi-lingual. We are also looking into providing certification opportunities for our teachers who are already working for the district. I am discovering that this is a big need not only in our district, but in many others in the state. I am discovering that our teachers are dedicated to our students and want to provide the best experience possible. 

One of the current complex systems is developing a bell schedule that incorporates intervention periods to support our students post-pandemic. 

One of the complex systems we are striving to improve involves providing supports to students who are below grade level. There are a number of process that are in place such as our after school learning program. However, staffing, implementing curriculum or a specific program, and student attendance in the program affect outcomes. This process is always under review with the intention of improvement.