Describe: The committee, which is comprised of about 18 people, Swanson and feeder elementary school parents, some teachers, the principal and one of the assistant principals. The focus of the committee is to troubleshoot issues related to having to operate over capacity, and these issues are related primarily to the physical space.
Reflect: The meeting was very focused, not at all contentious, and finished early. All the speakers were respectful of time and stayed on topic. This was their last meeting, and they were tasked with submitting their ideas to APS planning.
Connect: Amazing how so much time and effort is driven by the configuration of the physical space. I mean, this school’s entire parking lot will be filled with trailers next school year! I had expected that the meeting would be a) open to anyone, and b) driven by volatile interactions around difficult topics, and I was wrong on both counts. The principal mentioned to me afterwards that when she initially set up the committee she was worried about how it would go with input from so many community members, but that it actually turned out to be very productive. I see a connection to the Professional Leadership Skills of ELCC Standard 4.1; clearly the principal knows how to recruit and manage people to help the committee as a whole stay focused and on topic. She facilitated the meeting but did not appear to have to manage personalities during the meeting (cutting off unproductive discussions, soothing hurt feelings, etc.) For myself, I need more experience in situations where there is a variety of stakeholders with potentially conflicting interests, which can be driven by dominant personalities. It would be helpful to attend a PTA meeting at Campbell to get a better feel for how that works at my school.
Attached are the notes from the Committee’s previous meeting.