LEADERSHIP
Committee chair: John Loor
Members: John Gatchet, Keith Hallam, Fylvia Kline, Ken Knutsen, Sharon Searson
The challenge: It’s increasingly difficult to obtain and retain high-quality leadership within Adventist educational institutions.
We are recommending an implementation strategy that includes five specific action plans as outlined below:
- Mentoring/Training Program for Administrators with North American Division and North Pacific Union Conference program development that provides focused recruitment, training and mentoring for individuals who have been identified as potential leaders.
- Incentive Package for Administrators, which includes appropriate sabbatical leaves, recognition and other incentive encouragement.
- Leadership Exposure in Education Curriculum involving a cooperative program with Walla Walla University in Educational Leadership.
- Board Structuring and Training, which establishes a cooperative climate, code of ethics and team protocol and mentality.
- Criteria to Identify Potential Leaders, which would be a list of desirable qualities and gifts that may predispose a person toward successful leadership.
We understand that all of these steps will take time and a financial commitment, but we feel they will more than pay off over the long run as we invest in the leadership and vision necessary to carry our education mission forward.
July 16th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
Finding and keeping high quality teachers is a big factor. Our education system that puts out our teachers for lower grades is one place to start. Our teachers need more training in computers, and technology. Also perhaps in special needs children and different learning styles.
I also think another big factor in maintaing a good teacher is being able to pay them what they are worth. Our teachers are one of the lowest paid teachers in any school system.
Also, in some places the politics of the church and school can become too hard for some teachers to bare. My brother and 2 friends left teaching in our school system becouse of this. The church members tried to tell them how they should live their lives, even outside of school life, like what church they needed to attend, what functions and places they needed to be at, even if it had nothing to do with the school.
July 17th, 2007 at 4:51 pm
I think having high standards is a key. I think it is sad there are politics in SDA schools. There are though, we know that. However, I think if all teachers kept Christ as their example, and Christ was oozing from them in every part of their day with their students, our schools would not be in the position they are today. There has been some big time give and take on beliefs and standards…..our schools need to be a step above all the other schools in the area….that would be a huge draw to our schools.
Pay is a big thing too. Our teachers need good pay. If we don’t pay them well they ultimately suffer down the road. Cost of living keeps rising….so they should have a higher pay check and get raises based on their evaluations.
I also think schools should not keep teachers forever. It is good to have new blood in a school. The exception would be a teacher who is really above and beyond. Some teachers are kept in their positions because the staff or principal happen to like them, when clearly there is a need to have them move on…eg: children leaving the school because of them.
July 20th, 2007 at 4:41 am
The following is an excerpt of an email I sent to the Mid-America Union President following an educational push in this region of the country where I reside.
…..As a friend, constituent, a parent and as a teacher, I feel that what I have to say is important, and may help you and the MAUC as the union and the North American Division try to recapture the excellence that Adventist education used to have.
I know this first example is not in the MAUC, but it shows how broad the Adventist education problem is. The school where I attended as a child recently has been in a crisis mode. They have enrolled about 40 kids, and the numbers are slowly going down. (When I attended in the 70’s and 80’s we had enrollment of nearly ninety students.) After years of stability in the staff, suddenly in the last two years there has been a high teacher turn over. The K-2 teacher is resigning at the end of this school year because of all the politics she has endured for 25 plus years. Her husband left the teaching field years ago because of all the inside nastiness that goes on.
OK, so that is the NPUC, not the MAUC….. Unfortunately the same story exists here. Just last week I was talking to a former English teacher at a local Adventist school who quit in the middle last year because of politics and a principal who wasn’t a team leader. This school has suffered continual teacher and principal turn over for many years; this year they have to replace nearly all the high school teachers.
To address your statement, “We need more students in schools,” I think the first thing that needs to be done is to stabilize the teacher turnover. When I was talking to our superintendent a week ago, I mentioned that I had never seen so many teaching positions open on the NAD education website. I know that not every job is listed there so there are even more openings. “Yes, and never have there been so few teachers out there willing to take jobs,” she told me. She had just returned from a week at Union College trying to recruit teachers for our conference positions.
Our son, is completing the second grade. If you read my family website, you know that I home school him. We are one of FIVE families in our congregation who home school. When my husband and I were considering son’s educational career the summer before his kindergarten year, it was my husband… who firmly stated that our son would not go to the local Adventist school. My husband was deeply disturbed at the unsettled staff he saw at there……
August 7th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
Leadership certainly is of great importance. A Christ-centered life needs to be a KEY criteria. A man or woman cannot carry all the burdens necessary to lead a school to excellence. God can carry it and give wisdom to deal with the ever present trials. Each of us, but especially the leaders, must cultivate a deep personal relationship with God, founded on a strong daily committment to study the Bible, pray and seek for divine guidance. To often we rely on our “knowledge” of how things should work. Only God has the appropriate knowledge, only He really knows the proper priority of each day’s work and all of the possible outcomes.
A leader must be willing to enforce Christ’s values in the context of everyday planning, rules, and enforcement. These decisions cannot be based on a vote like democratic rule (though it is a blessing for governing a nation). A leader must be promoting a theocracy. It is hopeful that there will be many supporting people who also serve Christ, and that the team can work together. The bottom line however, is am I serving my Master? What does He say now? What will He say in the end?
Jere Patzer’s editorial in the August 2007 Gleaner (Vol. 102 #8) entitled, “Top 10 Ways to Kill Your Church” should be considered as it applies to schools. Many (perhaps all) of these statements apply to our schools as well, and these need to be considered by all leaders - local and conference. Here are a few briefly mentioned - please do look up his explanations for each, they are very good.
1) Be apologetic about our Seventh-day Adventist name
2) Don’t emplhasize mission, or mission offerings [or community service]
3)Lower the standards
4) Make music the war department
5) Never discipline
6) Ignore the inspired writings [Especially the book Education, and even more so the chapter “the Schools of the Prophets” that would easily apply directly to our time.]
7) De-emphasize the distinctive.
In other words we need to be proud of our SDA name, emphasize our distinctiveness, serve others, keep our standards high, aim for Christ centered honoring music, discipline as necessary and with loving grace, and seek counsel from EGW’s writings.