5 Ways Districts Can Support Schools

The teaching professions exists to support the learning process of children. School administrators exist to support teachers in providing the best educational experience for students. The district office exists to support schools, supporting children.
However, doesn’t it sometimes feel like district politics, bureaucracy, and top-down leadership gets in the way of educational process? Here are five ways a district office can support schools, school administrators, teachers, and students.
Stop the meaningless meetings
There are roughly 40 weeks of school per year. Typically, school administrators have to attend meetings at the district office twice per month. It is safe to say that these meetings last anywhere between 2-4 hours. This can take up around 60 hours per year of time that could, and should be spent at the school site. While I am not advocating for early morning or late afternoon meetings, I am saying that we could do a better job in getting our meetings times down to 1-2 hours. Better yet, let’s do a better job communicating through email. Or, try web-conferencing. This way, administrators can stay at their sites.
Never undermine a principal’s authority
Principals spend countless hours building rapport with teachers, students, parents and community members. When the district comes in an overturns or undermines a decision made by an administrator, their relationship with their community changes. They are not seen as the knowledgeable expert that they once were. Unless there are ethical considerations at stake, let school administrators lead their schools. Don’t try to lead them from afar.
Give schools some autonomy
Every school is different as they employ different administrators and teachers, and serve different students and parents. Not every district initiative will be implementable at every school. Allow schools to make them their own. Let’s apply the notion of differentiation to own schools as a whole, not just the students.
Be visible to teachers and parents
It is important for district level administrators to be out at school sites interfacing with staff, students, and parents. There is nothing more frustrating than receiving a directive from someone who you have never met or sometimes never even heard of. The size of some districts may prohibit some district level administrators from being visible in a comprehensive manner. In that case, I would suggest utilizing Twitter or other social media outlets to publicize your work and how you are interfacing with the community.
Be transparent
Decisions involving schools need to be made with stakeholders in the room. Decisions made behind closed doors create an atmosphere of distrust. The phrase, “I will take this back and discuss it with the district”, is code for, “We want to do something else, but want you to feel like you have a say in the manner”. Please do put site administrators in this position.
Dr. David Franklin is an experienced, award winning school administrator, education professor, curriculum designer, and presenter. Dr. Franklin has presented at national and international education conferences as is available for school and district professional development sessions.