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DEVELOPING AN ACTION PLAN
Developing an Action Plan
Tracey Youell
Liberty University EDUC 745
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DEVELOPING AN ACTION PLAN
Structural Strategies
All businesses regardless if they are small, corporate, government, state or local
businesses, there is always an organizational hierarchy. Sometimes getting communication
through to everyone in the organization can sometimes get construed or even lack. The problem
at Achievable Gifted Center, is communication from leadership does not always flow to the level
of staff that needs to retrieve the information. To ensure you have a smooth-running school, the
administrators enforce rules, polices and procedures. On the school building level, the top of
leadership includes our administrators, the principal and the assistant principal, then we have the
school counseling director, grade level and department Instructional leads (IA) and teachers and
then support staff. Communication normally comes from the top leadership via monthly IL
meetings and even monthly faculty meetings.
The school district has an entire leadership team. It starts with the school board,
superintendent, district leadership team then school level principals and assistant principals.
Within Achievable Dream Gifted Center, the principal holds a monthly IL meeting where he
sends out the agenda as to what the meeting will entail and what will be discussed. During these
meetings, topics such as school learning plan, gifted professional development, CLT meetings
(collaborative learning team), Panorama Survey’s, Policies, Rules, etc. are discussed. The
invitations to these monthly meetings are sent out to administrators (principal and the assistant
principal), then we have the school counseling director, grade level and department Instructional
leads (IA), also the director of gifted services. During these meetings, school leadership goes
over the agenda, they talk about policy and procedures, concerns, issues or any other business
that needs to be addressed. Everyone gives their input or concerns and we all strategize to ensure
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we are creating a safe educational space for all students. These strategies are to be
communicated from the IA’s in each department, science, mathematics, social studies, language
arts, resource as well as foreign language, As well as the grade level leads to the rest of the
teachers in their grade level. Unfortunately, this does not always happen, therefore, when
information is communicated through leadership in these monthly meetings and it’s not
delivered, structure in the building can sometimes fail. This is because of lack of communication.
Address Systematically
To address this problem, systematically, the initial step would be for admin or the
leadership team to implement a strategy that will help with communication that will reach all
staff, not only teachers and faculty. The problem occurs because admin is going off of trust that
everyone is doing their job and following directions given by them but not everyone is following
directions. Many of the staff. Either forgets, have personal issues with some individuals on their
team and reluctantly communicates with them. Administration or the leadership team created a
spreadsheet that details the date that each monthly meeting was held or will be held. Columns
were also created on the spreadsheet where the IA’s (Instructional Leads) will initial when this
information was shared to their team. Once shared or communicated by the IA’s, the team in
each department will initial and date when the IA presented them with the information. Thus,
keeping a log of all the communication from IA’s to Leads in reference to the monthly meetings.
The next step that needs to occur would be to include someone from the office staff and head
security. With the office staff and head security in attendance in these meetings, they too can
communicate to their team members regarding policies, changes with hallway procedures,
dismissal or any other pertinent information that may be valuable to the safety or learning
environment of all students. All heads of these departments and staff must follow the same
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communication log as the others. This is a way that the administrators can keep a record of all
communication. Again, this will help keep everyone in the building on the same page as well as
in a safe environment.
Address Culturally
At Achievable Dream Gifted Center, the culture of the building has changed with
many changes in the district. The Superintendent that was in currently in position, resigned after
many years with the school system. Every year leadership changes, teachers leave and new
teachers join the team. Luckily at Achievable Dream Gifted Center, the same administrator
(principal) have been there for over 7 years. However, the assistant principal is new this school
year. With the new Superintendent in place, he has a new vision for the division which means it
brings a different culture to the building.
Achievable Dream Gifted Center should utilize their Climate and Culture team to review
the Panorama Survey that is given each year at the end of the first semester. This survey is given
to receive credible and trustworthy feedback from staff and students in reference to relationship
building, learning and classroom engagement as well as school safety. This survey will help with
the culture of the building. Communication amongst the staff lacks, therefore, this survey will
would allow the staff to communicate their feelings about the school building and the
environment there. The use of this data will help the administrators or leadership team to
strategize the best way to resolve the lack of communication problem at Achievable Dream
Gifted Center.
Political Lens
When there is political power over a school district, a lot of the decisions are made that
may not seem like the best decisions. Having political power can give leverage on many
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decisions made within the school system, school board, budget, contracts, employees and even
decisions with the instructional curriculum. The Superintendent of the school district holds a lot
of power. Reigning over an entire school district, the decision to communicate to everyone is
distributed through Parent Square platform or district email. However, the problem with this is
that parents do not always read emails and if parents are not signed up with Parent Square they
will not receive that communication. Not all staff are fans of the platform because a lot of
information or communication is not reaching the recipients that it’s intended for. Regardless of
the survey about the platform that was sent to staff, nothing has changed and this is still the
communication platform being used. Communication problems will continue unless effective
strategies are put into place in the building that all staff will follow and administrators will
immediately put into place.
