K-12 Administrative Licensure Portfolio

Stories Competencies Met

Reorganizing Special Education Programming A. Leadership

Traditionally students who receive Federal Setting III special education programming B. Organizational Management
for EBD in MPS are placed in a city-wide program and have been considered a
separate part of the school community. In fact, a different administrator than the C. Diversity Leadership
building principal supervised some Setting III programs. Students in these programs
were not included as part of a mainstream class roster, and their Setting III program D. Policy and Law
was considered their homeroom. These students accessed mainstream programming
usually during specialist times, and received all of their other academics solely from E. Political Influence and Governance
their special education teacher.
SPEN Special Programming for Elementary Needs F. Communication
In the Spring of 2016, we began to revision special education programming for
students in K-5 at Elizabeth Hall International. We wanted to increase the inclusive G. Community Relations
programming options for students with special education services, especially those
receiving Setting III services, while also utilizing the adult resources we had, to their H. Curriculum Planning and Development
maximum potential. for the Success of ALL Learners
With a brand-new team starting in the Fall of 2016, we decided that special education
teachers would provide as much of the special education services within the I. Instructional Management for the Success
mainstream setting as possible. We envisioned a co-teaching model between classroom of ALL Learners
teachers and special education teachers.
Students with Setting III services would begin their school year in a mainstream class J. Human Resource Management
room with special education support, and would be pulled to a resource room as their
academic and behavioral needs dictated. K. Values and Ethics of Leadership
4 Special Education Resource teachers (SERTs), 2 Special Education Assistant
L. Judgment and Problem Analysis
Resource Interventionists (SEARIs), 2 Setting III teachers, 4 Setting III Special
Education Assistants (SEAs) = 6 licensed teachers and 6 SEAs
M. Safety and Security
Utilize all resources as 1 department working together to program for students instead
of separate resources for Setting III.
Plan
o 1 traditional Setting III classroom with 2 SEAs, providing services for grades
3-5
o 1 SERT at K
o 1 SERT gr.
o 1 SERT gr 3
 o 1 SERT gr. 4
o 1 SERT gr. 5
o SEA support at K, , , 5
o All students on a mainstream roster, starting the school year in their mainstream
classroom
I met with our Director of special education in the Spring of 2017 to discuss this idea
with her. She was excited and we received her verbal blessing to move forward with
the plan.
In August of 2016, I sent a parent letter home describing new programming options for
Setting III. Setting III teacher called parents offering meetings and tours to get students
ready for the first day of school. We received no responses to our calls and letter home.

Challenges and results:

o By October of 2016, our Setting III teacher resigned and left MPS.
o 1 SERT moved into setting III classroom
o unable to find candidates to fill SERT position
o 2 SEAs resigned
o Another SERT resigned mid-year, her position was replaced late winter
o Had to combine grades 3 4 caseload to 1 SERT, meaning she had to provide
more service in a pull-out model
o We began to receive students in grade 2 who needed setting III services, no
program for them
o Reorganized current Setting III to provide 1:1 SEA support to 2nd grader
o Reorganized K SERT schedule to provide 1:1 service to day 2nd grader who
began in Spring 2017. She now has to pull small groups out of 3 mainstream
classes for instruction

Next Steps:
o 2017-2018 school year, 2 Setting III teachers and classrooms, step back to more
traditional looking classrooms, continue with as much inclusion in
homerooms as possible
o 3 SERTs programming to be decided, will most likely be more pull out
programming vs. inclusive due to resources
o Refocus Inclusive programming to focus on 1 academic area building wide

What I Learned:
o We had to start, or we may never have started
 o More buy in, in writing, from district level so expectations were clearer
o Needed a lot more co-teaching training for all staff
o Start smaller 1 focus area of inclusion vs. all programming
o To do it well, with a brand-new staff, most new to teaching, it needed more of
my focus not just overseeing department, but being more available for
instructional support as well

Staffing/Budget A. Leadership

2017-2018 Budget received in March 2017 B. Organizational Management

Loss of about $1million, equivalent to almost 10 licensed staff
Enrollment projections losing about 100 students C. Diversity Leadership

Budget steps and determinations: D. Policy and Law

Shared 2016-2017 budget as compared to 2017-2018 with budget team
Shared # of classroom teachers recommended from district level E. Political Influence and Governance
Shared givens from district ex: Special education allocations, class size
F. Communication
referendum, materials for media center, principal and AP, etc
Discussed what to share with teammates and how to prepare for questions and
G. Community Relations
realizations of positions being cut
I. Instructional Management for the Success
Admin worked to make some determinations using given allocations: of ALL Learners
Classrooms all bought up to 1.0 positions
o 2 Kindergarten J. Human Resource Management
o 3, 1st grade
o 2, Grades 2- 5. K. Values and Ethics of Leadership
Cut co-teachers at grades 3 and 4
Cut full-time AEs in kindergarten L. Judgment and Problem Analysis
Cut 1 SERT

1 AE per grade level for 2017-18

2 Behavior support AEs
Continue with full-time secretary
Cut .5 SSW
Cut 1.0 School Psych
 Combine Parent Liaison position and office aide
Reduce Health Aide hours to just slightly overlap with Nurse hours
Fund 2 teacher generals literacy and math supports
Fund 1 Admin TOSA PBIS, testing, special education, behavior support
Admin presented budget team with 2 options for remaining funding
o Use IB World Language allocation as Specialist in order to have 4 specialists
o Use IB allocation for push in of World Language, 3 specialists

Challenges:
o To maintain a vision of co-teaching and inclusion when the budget is drastically
cut
o Along with budget decisions comes staffing decisions
o Determining just how much information to provide staff Ex: is a discussion
needed on funding a full-time secretary vs a part-time secretary? Is this the best
use of decision-making time?
o To be transparent with staff, but avoid bogging down discussion with options
What I learned:
o Cutting $1million is a lot of money
o A $3 million budget is NOT a lot of money
o It may seem like there is a lot of choice in use of funding, but not as much as
staff may think. Admin has to make decisions they feel will be best for the
building; staff doesnt always have all the information when decisions are
made.
o Need to identify the difference between my administrator lens and teacher lens
o Administrators sometimes have to release good people due to budget restraints
o Just the presence of admin can sometimes be a blocker to discussion as no
new options were suggested at budget meeting by staff. As an administrator,
how do I open that block to discussion? Do I want to?
o

Behavior Support A. Leadership
Started the year off with no behavior deans. Behavior support, outside of classroom
teachers, was admin team B. Organizational Management
After the start of the school year, brought on 2 Behavior AEs
Determined we needed a space for students to go to if they needed to be removed from C. Diversity Leadership
the classroom for the day, or if they were being suspended and couldnt go home
Found that we were unprepared for students to return from suspension. We had no plan E. Political Influence and Governance
 for reentry of students to classroom
On the rare occasion that students returned with their parent, we had no protocol and F. Communication
plan for a reentry meeting
We often scrambled to find an administrator to meet with the parent J. Human Resource Management
I approached one of the Behavior Deans and asked if shed like to help me create a
behavior support and suspension reentry process K. Values and Ethics of Leadership
We reviewed some reentry process documents from other schools and began to create a
plan for Hall L. Judgment and Problem Analysis
We started with providing our front office support with a blank calendar to keep track
of students who were suspended, and on what day they would return from suspension M. Safety and Security
We then drafted a plan that could be used by anyone dealing with a major behavior
referral
o Investigating the incident
o Determining consequences
o Planning for a reentry meeting
Intention was to then present the plan to the Student Support Team for feedback and
implementation
Challenges:
o Providing all this information to key stakeholders in the building
o Attempted to present and ask for feedback several times, but obstacles got in
the way
Student support meetings changed and included an outside mental health
provider, which changed the focus of the meetings
Meetings ran out of time, and agenda item to present this information
was pushed back
Not all stakeholders were consistent with attendance at the meetings
Student needs interrupted meeting time and attendance
o Incident could have been handled by 1 of five or six different people
o Training for staff on handling a behavior investigation
o Changes in staff
What I learned:
o Process may have been improved if there was 1 point person to touch base with
all referrals
o Implementing a process while also trying to define it, and hire staff is
challenging
o We needed to be more strategic or purposeful in follow through and monitoring
of this plan