I (Lisa) was told yesterday that I might be seen as a disgruntled employee & thats why Im running. Not the case. Heres my full story: So, WHY AM I RUNNING FOR SCHOOL BOARD? I received my teaching degree in 1998 when my children were 12, 4, and 6 months old. My father- in-law had taught at GMS for 30 years and loved it, (although later, he would be glad he retired when he did) and at the time, those who worked at Griffith stayed for their whole career, admin & teachers alike, so I applied to Griffith and was hired. I had a nice house in Crown Point and as my children grew, they went to Crown Point schools, rated top in the country by US News & World Report. Beginning in the 2003/2004 school year I took on an additional role at GHS as drama director, and by the fall of ‘07, as I sat at a senior recognition night football game, I realized I was so proud of my students and the school where I taught that my husband and I put our Crown Point home up for sale and bought a house in Griffith. I loved the community-a home town feel, yet close to Chicago. Former graduates had a pride in their school, I had faith in my fellow teachers to do an awesome job educating my children, and I loved Franklin School—the old building and the proximity it would be to my new home & my child who once rode the school bus for half an hour could now walk to school. So, in 2008 we moved to Griffith. That year I began working on my master’s degree. After obtaining it in 2010, I thought I would like to have an even wider reach on influencing students education than just my own classroom and drama students, so I began educational administration courses. Thats when my frustration began. As I read books and listened to professors tell me how a good school was properly run, I realized more and more that GPS was not doing a lot of things right. Although, outside of my studies, this finding manifested itself through obvious ways: teacher morale dropped, school rankings dropped, and the decision makers for GPS were doing things that didnt make much sense. My frustration increased. I decided educational administration wasn’t for me and began to think I had made a horrible mistake moving my family to Griffith. I stopped directing drama (which I had loved) and started a real estate course (which had always been another interest of mine) As I began working with clients, I sold several properties in Highland and Crown Point, but imagine my embarrassment when I couldnt sell a house in my own community because people did not want to send their children to a Griffith school! For this reason alone every property owner in Griffith should be at every school board meeting asking questions. Questions such as: ~Why can we not retain good people? (Obviously, like me, they became frustrated.) ~Why was one of the key people who was responsible for the decline of the middle school hired back with more authority and receiving even more tax payer money? ~Why has our tax money gone to pay for not one but two PhDs? Thats fine if its warranted, but tell me, how does running a school system down to a grade of D merit the free degree that would otherwise cost the individual roughly $60,000? ~ Why were Griffith grads who had been excellent students who had gone on to graduate with teaching degrees and wanted to come back to Griffith to teach being turned away when nothing demonstrates a better sense of community pride? ~ Why were people who were not the best at what they did being promoted while other people who were excellent at their jobs went unrecognized? (a definite morale killer!) ~Why was an interim principal hired at the HS at a time we should have been seeking someone who would be with Griffith for the long haul? ~Why weren’t department heads at the HS treated like the professionals they were and allowed to have input on the decisions of who taught what & what teachers to retain &/or hire? ~Why bring in sometime out of retirement to serve as athletic director, when again, theres plenty of great talent out there who could build out program and stick around for it. ~Why does our curriculum coordinator deal mostly with personnel and HR issues, and we still don’t have a coordinated curriculum K-12? ~Why would a dean, hired to discipline students, be given the responsibility of evaluating teachers performance when the dean has no administrator’s license? ~Why put first year administrators, administrators with little experience, and unlicensed administrators (aka “deans” and “assistants”) into positions that, in order for a school to succeed, require someone with a state license AND experience? ~ Why give our superintendent a raise when the school’s rating has declined and that money could better be used for qualified LICENSED administrators? ~Why, why, why are all of these things happening that are not only NOT helping Griffith improve, but are guaranteeing failure? Every parent & property owner should demand answers until we get them! I was often very confused as to why administration did what they did and why the school board allowed seemingly crazy things to happen. Well, back when I was taking educational administration courses, I learned that oftentimes the school board members are the yes men for the administration simply because the admin has the degree and the experience so the board assumes the admin knows the best revisions to make. Not so. This is why there should be several members who are familiar with education on the board. After lengthy conversations with my husband, friends, coworkers, and my new manager, I made the decision to leave a career I had once loved. I had already made my decision to resign when I was sent an email that said I was going to be teaching all new classes the following year. I couldnt believe it when I learned most of the other teachers in my building were given the same email. That, to me, was simply ludicrous and a prime example of doing something that doesnt make sense. Study after study shows that switching up what a teacher teaches will be a detriment to students. So why do it? Again, why run for school board? Im a real estate agent, an instructor (Because I do love teaching, I continue to teach part time at a local community college), a mother, and now grandmother. I have a full plate, but heres why Im running: I still have one child left in the Griffith school system, and I own a home in Griffith. I want my son and my neighbors children to be proud of their school, and I want my property to be worth at least what I have put into it, and for those two things to happen, I need to step up and run for school board. Im only one person, but, if elected, I can have a voice of the people. I have a passion to see things done right, and together with fellow educator Leah Dumezich, and the remaining three board members, maybe we can work to get Griffith Public Schools off of the path weve been on, and onto the right path, the path to success.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 18:18:40 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015