Nov. 2013 to May 2014
The situation: An After School program fraught with problems sought leadership in delivering their service in an effective and harmonious way.
The details: A program comprised of 400 students and forty staff members, run by the attached Community center, from the close of the school day (2 PM to 4 PM) four days a week throughout the school year was suffering serious problems. Included in the problematic mix were issues of discipline, compounded by several untrained teachers dealing with large class sizes of challenged inner city elementary students. This was coupled with a negative attitude from many of the day staff who disliked their rooms being used by programs they saw as destructive and poorly run. Also a school that was already rife with issues between Union teachers and administration over discipline issues that included teacher safety and legal concerns made for a highly charged atmosphere. Family support was also nearly non-existent with attempts by the Principal to hold parent nights frustrated by lack of attendance.
The After School program had gotten off to a bad start right from the start when the individual hired to run the program was fired the Friday before the first week of operation. With all the problems facing the program disciplinary concerns were enormous, the ISS room was frequently filled with up to 10 to 12, and sometimes more, students being placed there, there was a continual problem of kids wandering unattended in the hallway, staff morale was low and absenteeism soared, custodians complained of trash and thrown food, bus drivers complained of students who entering their buses “out of control.”.The woman hired to run the program, though highly competent herself, was faced with getting herself acquainted with the program, doing all the voluminous daily paperwork and dealing with all the problems. She needed help.
The Answer: After being approached by the Community Center to assist the new program leader my first reaction was that the program was facing too many difficulties for me to make any difference. I asked whether before making a decision I could meet with the leader and staff. That made the difference. I saw enough in the folks there that I believed we could turn the program around.
For the first month I worked to help anyone needed it. Seeing myself as the Leader’s assistant I tried hard to take any of the burdens off her shoulders that I could. At the same time I set about getting to know the staff and students as well as the Day staff and administration. Laboring to be a pleasant presence who was there to help not to judge I was able to build numerous positive connections. Among other things I engaged day staff to act as subs for absent after school teachers
As we got closer to the beginning of the next term I worked with the program leader to determine which of the untrained staff needed to be replaced. I then sought out day staff who might be interested in teaching for us and three did. I also asked the Community center to fund a, “Empowerment Conference” day where the assembled after school staff could discuss the situation and we could come up with workable solutions. The Conference went smoothly and we finished with unanimously high evaluations from the participants and a set of issues that needed to be addressed and a list of possible answers.
Following the “Empowerment Conference” I set about devising new policies, communication methods and support systems to bring about the desired change. Included were:
-a policy that any student removed from a classroom would be part of an immediate phone call home to his family. If that wasn’t possible extended efforts would be made in the evening to reach the family and if that didn’t work I would work with day School staff to find the best means of communication home.
-Freed up from constant disciplinary needs non teaching staff were able to wander around and give help where needed
- A series of contracts with students in which proper behavior and effort would be rewarded with leters and calls home or opportunities to help staff with younger children or learning face painting, balloon sculpture and performing that with younger children or helping me with tasks such as bus dismissal or organizing office and art supplies.
-Meeting with and engaging day staff with requests for information on best ways to work with certain students , developing meetings between day and After School staff on some of those students in which best practices were discussed and devised.
-An open door policy for Day staff for their concerns with the After School program and follow up on specific issues
-An outreach to the custodians on possible problems with the use of School rooms by After School staff. This led to the pinpointing of specific problem areas, the communication of those problems to our staff and the successful resolution of the problems.
-A series of guest speakers was begun. These were adults from the immediate community who had been successful in their adult lives, were good communicators and volunteered their time to visit and talk with the students about how to build their own success.
-Daily communication with the bus drivers in which specific problem behaviors were immediately dealt with and follow up with students families accomplished.
-A newsletter was distributed, physically and electronically every couple of weeks reporting important news, staff input , concerns and successful progress of the program and highlighting accomplishments of the different staff members and their classes.
-Regular communication called “problem solving” calls was begun in which parents and family members were encouraged to be, and treated as, partners in helping their children build the social skills to excel. These lead to many of the contracts referenced above and to special relationships in which family members would pledge to come and pick up their kids on bad days. This special attention paid to the kids actually served as a motivating tool to the kids who largely responded with better behavior.
-The engaging of fifteen or more day Staff as teachers, substitutes or advisors to the program.
-A “Showcase” held at the end of the session which gave many staff and their classes a goal to shoot for.
The result: Several factors pointed to our success. Included were:
-The ISS population dropped from 10 or more a day to 0 to 2 at the end of program.
-The number of kids wandering unattended became virtually nil.
-Staff absenteeism sharply dropped.
-At the end of the term Day staff who had been involved with or were aware of the changes were extremely positive about the new developments.
-Many positive relationships between adults and problem students developed from the successful contracts in which targeted students were able to become partners to staff members
-The Custodial staff reached out to complement us on the positive improvements in room cleanliness.
-Staff morale soared as we worked together towards common goals, the newsletter was ablye to point up the specific progress in all of the areas pinpointed in the “Empowerment Conference” and on two occasions we had had social events together.
-The Showcase held, for the first time, at night for the benefit of family and community members contained scientific experiments, art, writing and stage performances and was attended by over four hundred community and family members. The Day School Principal was invited to welcome everyone and was able to deliver his Principal’s message to the assemblage. The success of the showcase was insured by the student work on display, the food offered, and by calling every family the week before to personally invite them to the show. The Community Center and Day school staff who questioned the wisdom of an evening event were there and visibly impressed and one long time staff member said she had “never seen anything like this in all the years she’s worked at the school and she just had to say “hat’s off’ to you.”
