Guess what - the US Conference of Mayors has a MASSIVE "Best Practices" database with articles on management and administrative best practices. This first article below is about the Kansas City School District and how they handle students who are behavior problems. The lesson here is that work practices can adopt best practices from other Districts, AND there are sources where these ideas for best practices are located. A second article posted below is on how Pembroke Pines, FL financed construction of needed schools. Searching on "School" in the best practices database found 326 articles.
One way to evaluate the effectiveness of government management and elected officials is to determine if they actually know about these sources, the best practices, and have adopted some of them by developing policies or implementing the practices. An even better situation is if the local government agency management is known for developing best practices adopted by others, and winning published kudos on their ideas.
So, where do Lake County government managers fit in this equation and best practices? We will look for more and over time compare them to existing practices of local government in Lake County. And, they should post any publications or awards on management best practices on the web site.
vj
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The Best Practices database is located at:
If you do a search on "School" you find all sorts of articles - I found 326 articles in that search.
Here is the 1998 Best Practices article on "Disruptive Behavior" from:
http://www.usmayors.org/USCM/best_practices/bp98/09_1998_Preventing_School_Violence101.htm
CITY OF KANSAS CITY, MO
Mayor Emanuel Cleaver II
KANSAS CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT K - 5 MANAGEMENT SCHOOL
1. Briefly describe the structure of your program.
The Kansas City, Missouri School District Management School is designed to serve students in grades K through 5 who exhibit violent, abusive, and/or chronically disruptive behavior. Placement in the Management School is an alternative to suspension. Students who have committed serious offenses such possession of drugs or alcohol, possession of weapons, causing physical harm to others, vandalism, and arson will be given priority. Students who are chronically disruptive are selected based on the severity and frequency of the behavior.
The District contracts with Niles Home for Children for the operation of the Management School. Niles Home for Children is a not-for-profit agency which specializes in therapeutic interventions for students who exhibit tendencies toward violence or abusive and chronic misbehavior. Referrals to the school are reviewed by a Transition Team consisting of teachers from the Management School and the principal, teacher, and counselor from the sending school. If the team determines the referral is appropriate, a meeting is scheduled with the parent to explain the program and its benefits. If the student has committed a serious offence that threatens the safety of students and staff, placement in the Management School will be mandatory.
Upon placement in the Management School students receive additional assessment to determine skill levels and special needs. Students receive special instruction and/or tutoring in academic areas where they are assessed as deficient. The Transition Team along with the parent and the student develop a student development plan which outlines specific academic and behavioral goals for the student. The teachers review progress toward meeting the goals with the student weekly. The Transition Team, including the parent, reviews the student’s progress at least monthly.
The goal of the program is to assist the student in learning the social and behavioral skills necessary to be successfully transitioned back into the sending school. During the time the student is in the Management School the sending school principal and teacher participate in the monthly review of the student’s progress as members of the Transition Team. They periodically visit the Management School to provide support and encouragement to the student, praise the student on goals achieved, and support the goal of returning to the sending school. When the student meets the goals of the student development plan, the Transition Team along with the parent and the student will develop a plan to transition the student back into the sending school. The plan may call for a gradual transition. Once the student returns to the sending school, a member of the Management School staff will visit the school at least once a week for four weeks to review progress being made and to provide support to the student and the teacher.
After the student has been back at the sending school for one month, the Transition Team determines if weekly visits will be continued or if the frequency of visits will be reduced. The Transition Team will review the student’s progress at least once a month through the end of the school year. If after returning to the sending school the student demonstrates difficulty in adjusting or exhibits some of the previous behavioral patterns, the Transition Team will arrange for the counselor to visit with the student and for support for the sending teacher.
2. When was the program created and why?
During the 1996 - 1997 school year the District enrollment for grades K through 5 was 18,765. A total of 1,494 of the K - 5 students received suspensions totaling 4,252 days out of school. Fifty-one of these students were suspended because of serious offenses including carrying weapons, attempting to harm a school employee, assault, and causing serious physical harm to students or staff. As a result of suspension, students were left without a structured course of study to continue their educational programs. By placing students in the Management School efforts would focus on modifying violent and disruptive behavior while allowing students to continue their academic studies. Following successful completion of the intervention services, students would be returned to the sending classroom. The program began in the fall of 1997.
3. How do you measure the program’s effectiveness?
The effectiveness is measured by improvement in the behavior of the students and their successful transition back to the sending classroom.
4. How is the program financed?
The program is financed through a Safe Schools Grant received from the state of Missouri and funds from the city of Kansas City, Missouri; the Kansas City, Missouri School District; and Niles Home for Children.
5. How is the community involved in the program, if at all? How has the community responded to the program?
Because the program has only been in existence for a year there is not a lot of awareness in the community. It has been very well received by teachers and principals in the District.
6. Contact person:
Ms. Sherron Bauer, Coordinator of Alternative Programs |
Kansas City, Missouri School District |
1211 McGee |
Kansas City, Missouri 64106 |
Phone: (816) 418-7943; Fax: (816) 418-7029 |
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Here is another Best practices article on financing construction of needed schools:
CITY OF PEMBROKE PINES, Florida
Mayor Alex G. Fekete
City Roles in School Construction
In Florida, school boards are separate from city government. School boards are responsible for building, staffing and operating schools. They have their own taxing power and issue bonds for school construction, totally independent of the city government. The Broward County School Board has county-wide jurisdiction and operates a system with nearly 300,000 students. The rapid growth of the area in the 80's and the continuing growth now has placed a severe strain on their ability to finance and construct needed schools. They are at the limit of their taxing ability and the voters have turned down their requests to issue additional bonds. Recently, the voters overwhelmingly rejected the school board's request for a one percent sales tax to support school construction. Consequently, as the housing boom continues in Pembroke Pines, the available schools will be severely overcrowded. City leaders recognized that action was needed to alleviate this condition and allow development to continue in our city. Two innovative programs were initiated to help relieve the problem.
Builders pay the School Board an impact fee to help fund school construction. However, these funds are paid over a period of time and do not accumulate fast enough, nor are the funds sufficient to meet the immediate needs. Consequently, the city initiated a private/public partnership that brought together the major developers, the school board and the county to institute a special assessment program to provide funds for construction of new schools. This cooperative effort utilized the commitment of future impact funds to back a bond issue. Upon sale of the bonds, the proceeds were turned over to the school board which received bids and began construction immediately. The special assessment is collected by the county on the annual tax bill. The monies received are turned over to the city to pay debt service.
This innovative process has allowed construction of two schools to start immediately. We expect that both will be in operation for the fall term in 1996.
Another unique approach was used by the city to provide additional classroom space. The city financed and constructed a combination middle school, community resource center, dinner theater and recreation facility. The city provides the facility to the school board at an annual rental rate of $1. The board and the city share maintenance responsibility based on the usage and the functions utilizing the various areas. The school board is provided a school for nearly 2,000 middle school students. The city gets the use of a gymnasium, dinner theater, day care center and park and recreation areas -- a "win-win" situation for both the city and the school board.
The city continues this joint use concept by providing park space adjacent to the new schools that are being constructed. This allows the schools to utilize the park facilities during the day and city park patrons have the use of school parking areas during the evening and on weekends.
In the ever more difficult financial climate that exists today, all public agencies must learn to cooperate and to combine facilities for use by their constituents. The Pembroke Pines experience proves that it is not only possible, but absolutely essential, to form partnerships with other public agencies and the private sector.
Contact: Office of the Mayor, (954) 431-4500
