MONROE - The Monroe school board voted unanimously Monday to bring back the assistant principal position at Monroe Middle School for 2014-15.
The district considered reinstating the position after having four different educators serve as a dean of students this year in addition to handling other duties. Terri Montgomery, the current dean of students at MMS, also serves as a reading specialist and instructional facilitator. However, the bulk of her time is devoted to handling student discipline.
After a four-year, $8 million non-recurring referendum failed in 2011, the district pledged to cut the middle school associate principal position before this school year. The position was officially cut in January of 2013.
"It's very clear going forward that this won't work," board member Brian Keith said. "If we are going to do what is right for kids, we need to bring this position back."
Monroe Middle School Principal Lynne Wheeler updated the board on the difference in her job duties this year as the only full-time administrator in a middle school that has about 550 students.
"As a single administrator, you spend all of your time doing management issues and discipline," Wheeler said. "It's challenging or near impossible to get into classrooms as the educational leader. From my perspective, it's critical for that position to return. I can't speak strongly enough about the need for another administrator position. It's important for the social and emotional issues of our students and the health of our staff. It's been a drain on staff."
Board members considered bringing in an outside company to evaluate teachers, debated the role of an associate principal that would include conducting teacher evaluations while juggling student discipline, and discussed how adding another administrator would affect the middle school principal search. Wheeler is retiring at the end of the school year. There will be two new administrators at the middle school next year. Wheeler wants to see her successor succeed.
"If we bring in a person, we want them poised for success," Wheeler said of the next principal. "We don't want them set up for failure."
Another area board members considered is handling teacher evaluations. Under the state Department of Public Instruction's Wisconsin Educator Effectiveness system, which is a new way for evaluating teachers in 2014-15, principals and associate principals will spend more time in classrooms and outside of school completing evaluations and observing teachers in an effort to increase student achievement. According to the Effectiveness Project, an evaluation for a continuing teacher will take 8.5 to 9.5 hours per educator and 9.5 to 10.5 hours to evaluate each new teacher. If the middle school had stayed with just one full-time administrator, Wheeler didn't know how all the duties would get done.
"I feel like it (Educator Effectiveness evaluations) could not happen with one administrator," she said. "You can't ignore a parent who walks in the door because of an incident."
Board member Dan Bartholf questioned if it would help hiring a full-time dean of students. However, only administrators certified in Educator Effectiveness can evaluate teachers.
"I think the dean of students is a stop gap," Wheeler said. "It won't address it. The principals are the educational leaders and need to be in the classrooms doing walk-throughs."
The district considered reinstating the position after having four different educators serve as a dean of students this year in addition to handling other duties. Terri Montgomery, the current dean of students at MMS, also serves as a reading specialist and instructional facilitator. However, the bulk of her time is devoted to handling student discipline.
After a four-year, $8 million non-recurring referendum failed in 2011, the district pledged to cut the middle school associate principal position before this school year. The position was officially cut in January of 2013.
"It's very clear going forward that this won't work," board member Brian Keith said. "If we are going to do what is right for kids, we need to bring this position back."
Monroe Middle School Principal Lynne Wheeler updated the board on the difference in her job duties this year as the only full-time administrator in a middle school that has about 550 students.
"As a single administrator, you spend all of your time doing management issues and discipline," Wheeler said. "It's challenging or near impossible to get into classrooms as the educational leader. From my perspective, it's critical for that position to return. I can't speak strongly enough about the need for another administrator position. It's important for the social and emotional issues of our students and the health of our staff. It's been a drain on staff."
Board members considered bringing in an outside company to evaluate teachers, debated the role of an associate principal that would include conducting teacher evaluations while juggling student discipline, and discussed how adding another administrator would affect the middle school principal search. Wheeler is retiring at the end of the school year. There will be two new administrators at the middle school next year. Wheeler wants to see her successor succeed.
"If we bring in a person, we want them poised for success," Wheeler said of the next principal. "We don't want them set up for failure."
Another area board members considered is handling teacher evaluations. Under the state Department of Public Instruction's Wisconsin Educator Effectiveness system, which is a new way for evaluating teachers in 2014-15, principals and associate principals will spend more time in classrooms and outside of school completing evaluations and observing teachers in an effort to increase student achievement. According to the Effectiveness Project, an evaluation for a continuing teacher will take 8.5 to 9.5 hours per educator and 9.5 to 10.5 hours to evaluate each new teacher. If the middle school had stayed with just one full-time administrator, Wheeler didn't know how all the duties would get done.
"I feel like it (Educator Effectiveness evaluations) could not happen with one administrator," she said. "You can't ignore a parent who walks in the door because of an incident."
Board member Dan Bartholf questioned if it would help hiring a full-time dean of students. However, only administrators certified in Educator Effectiveness can evaluate teachers.
"I think the dean of students is a stop gap," Wheeler said. "It won't address it. The principals are the educational leaders and need to be in the classrooms doing walk-throughs."