Principal Observation Paper

BLT Meeting: ORCA K-8

Ken Turner, L4L5, March 2015

Background
My L4L micro-cohort observed the Orca K-8 Building Leadership Team
meeting on March 2nd, 2015 in the library of their school. Principal Toni Talbert led
her team of three teachers, two PTSA members, and the AP in a 75-minute meeting
focused mostly on the budget process. Ms. Talbert led some achievement gap data
about math and ELA scores: its about our school, our data she exclaimed. She
also made qualitative comments that Orca K-8 African American males are working
below grade level; this was based on some math and ELA scores. Quickly, she
passed out navy paper folders with spreadsheets of this years budget and last
years, and went through line after line through the budget. There was some
discussion of why the copier costs had increased $3000 from last year, and if the
librarian was retiring and if his position would be .5 or .75 FTE.
Ms. Talbert then facilitated a discussion on what the school could flex on
positions, either a full time counselor, another assistant principal, band teacher, or
PE teacher. Ms. Talbert passed out matrixes to each participant with these labels on
the side:
MUST HAVE

SHOULD HAVE

NICE TO HAVE

She then asked the seven members to rank certain job titles in a hierarchy of needs.
Participants brainstormed on their paper and then one by one, in counter clockwise
rotation, each member explained their Must, Should, and Nice to Haves and why.
There was some commonality of needs that staff was discussing, however it seemed

to get lost in transition as each person spoke. Only Tanisha (sixth speaker)
mentioned equity as a means to her rankings. After all seven folks spoke, with
some chiming in of random members, Ms. Talbert asked for the matrixes to be
passed to her and she would tally answers. There was also some random, short
discussions, and then the meeting ran out of time.
Analysis
Employing the AWSP framework, my micro-cohort team chose three sub criteria that
we felt were best demonstrated in the BLT meeting.
1.3 Facilitated collaborative processes leading toward continuous improvement
1.4 Creates opportunities for shared leadership
6.3 Managing fiscal resources
As the leader of the BLT, Ms. Talbert started the meeting with her math and
ELA data. However, the group process seems to lack any community contract or
norms/ protocols that members agreed to. Even though she discussed African
American males below grade level in her opening, she never reinforced that position
or asked about their needs through the discussion of the FTE positions; only our own
L4L5 cohortian Tanisha brought up equity in her selections of must have FTE
positions. Due to the teams lack of norms; our team rated her basic.
Demonstrates some understanding of the value of collaboration and what it
takes to support it; facilitates collaboration among staff for certain purposes;
emerging consensus-building and negotiation skills.
In the matrix process, Ms. Talbert asked for each participant to rank the FTE
positions and be able to present why. She could have lead a discussion on butcher

paper and created consensus building with her team on their choices.

Instead,

she asked for all the paper matrixes to given to her, where she would tally and
present to the entire faculty as an input process; we felt her practice would not be
as transparent as a shared decision made by the BLT team. Through her facilitator
style, we ranked her basic:
Offers opportunities for staff to be in leadership roles; engages processes for
shared decision-making; uses strategies to develop the capacity for shared
leadership.
The majority of this BLT meeting was about comparing two different budgets
and allocating a few resources to better serve the Orca students. Orcas K-8 nature
are like a Yin-Yang puzzle; there k-5 students are low Free and Reduced lunch
population while middle school has higher FARL and more diversity. So needs in the
5th grade do not align to that of the 6th grade, just a mere 180 days later.
Compacted are the factors that the budget is 95% out of their hands, controlled by
John Stanford district office, and there is very little wiggle room for the BLT team to
adjust. As mentioned earlier, Ms. Talbert started off the meeting discussing AfricanAmerican males and how their ELA and math scores were below standards. This
issue of equity did not come up again the entire meeting. Instead, she brought up
the importance of band, performing arts, and alternative Physical Education to
support the different needs of Orca students. Where was this data? Why not state
we had 62 students in band this year in middle school, and we project to have 58
next year.

Or even qualitative comments from parents on the importance of the

performing arts. Once again, we rated her basic on starting with data on math/ ELA
but then jumping tracks to performing arts.

Fiscal decisions occasionally support some aspects of improved teaching and

learning; projects are managed using milestones and deadlines but not frequently;
does not always meet project deadlines and impact not frequently documented.
Suggestions

Develop norms or full value contract (FVC) that the BLT will work by
Let equity be your driver aka: May Equity Be with You!
Lead with the right data whether qualitative or quantitative
Model transparent consensus building on the spot versus decisions made
days later

My practice
Within Seattle Parks, there appears to be a top-down, one-way yearly
evaluation tool that has been used by all supervisors on the employees they
supervise. In my 10+ years with the City, I have had roughly seven different
supervisors and to my knowledge, none of them have been trained on how to use
the yearly evaluation tool.

Seattle Parks has an Out-Of-Class (OOC) employment

program, where employees can backfill open positions for 3-9 months and try
something new, outside their field. My current supervisor is OOC, and may or may
not return to his current position in the summer. Due to the ever changing nature of
OOC, I could be assessed by someone who has just supervised me for less than a
month.
As a former high school science teacher, I appreciate the TPEP and AWSP
frameworks, and have adapted language from TPEP for our challenge course
facilitator assessment. We use the terms: Basic through Distinguished and have
borrowed the four-tier approach in CEL 5D+. I always stress to new facilitators that
this is a growth tool, not an evaluation. Looking over our facilitator growth tool, we

need to have examples of what Basic means, and how it defers from Distinguished.
Below is an example of CEL 5D+, adapted for challenge course facilitators.
P
4

Purpose
Learning Target: Communication of learning target(s)

Possible Facilitator

Possible Facilitator

Possible Facilitator

Possible Facilitator Observables:

Observables:

Observables:

Observables:

In addition to Proficient:

Facilitator explains safety

of an activity, but does
not debrief the activity or
connect it to the frame
after the activity is
complete.

Facilitator frames an
activity using straight,
metaphor, or isomorphic
analogy, as well as
safety but does not
debrief the activity or
connect it to the frame
after the activity is
complete

In addition to Basic:

Facilitator frames an activity using straight,

Facilitator frames an activity

metaphor, or isomorphic analogy, as well as

using straight, metaphor, or

safety and debriefs the activity of what

isomorphic analogy, as well as

happened, and how it relates to their lives

safety and debriefs the activity of

and connects it to the frame after the activity

what happened, but does not

Possible Student

connect it to the frame after the

activity is complete or metaphor
to their lives.
Possible Student Observable:

Observable :
Each student talks about what they did in
the activity and how is relates to everyday
life

Each student talks about what

they did in the activity.

As for TPEP and AWSP, I wish they were more interchangeable. For example,
TPEP could be used for teacher to principal and principal to teacher assessmentmore two-way growth. And if they were parallel frameworks, teachers would
understand how their supervisors were evaluated and could support their growth as
well; 360 degree assessment, concept waiting to happen. Imagine the dream
scenario where students, teachers, and administrators are all supporting each
others learning.