Former RCSD school board member
Even those ultimately responsible for the district’s success, members of the elected school board, name a toxic culture as a critical challenge in the district. At its worst, that can mean schools and staff suffer because of board members’ personal biases. Here is one former board member’s story:
“I think one of the most horrendous things that happened when I was on the board was when a principal was not given tenure. There is a protocol for giving tenure to principals and teachers. Basically, it’s up to the chiefs. There’s a whole sort of structure and system around that. The chiefs are supposed to collect information and interview and double-check that people are doing their job. If not, they don’t recommend them for tenure. If they do, they recommend them for tenure and then send it up to the superintendent to make that decision. But it is presented to the board for final approval.
“In this case, there was a principal who had done outstanding work. If you look at the data and see what she had done to turn around a school with a lot of violence and a lot of issues. Very poor neighborhood and there have been many, many struggles. She did incredible work and if you look at the data, you could see that there was steady, steady improvement in student achievement.
“But some people on the board had some personal vendettas against her and they blocked her tenureship based on personal issues rather than the actual work that she was doing. That’s an example of micromanagement of the board. But that was purely political, purely personal vendetta against her.”
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