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When my kids started Elementary school we had a Principal, a superintendent, and teachers, The superintendent both retired and we now have a Principal, a superi

When my kids started Elementary school we had a Principal, a superintendent, and teachers, The superintendent both retired and we now have a Principal, a superintendent, a vice-principal, and a few specialized directors. This happened over 10 years right before my eyes. The new Principal claimed the job was just too big. We are small town with fewer than 600 students. I feel like such a grumpy old man doubting these peoples work effort. I think people that do poor jobs hire more people to create more confusion. I'm not proud of my cynicism.

jimhefferon 4y ago
I hear you and I have experienced the same thing at the local schools. But I will say that my wife is a teacher and there are many more kids with serious needs today than I believe there were when she and I went to school. Not a statistic I can back up, but as a grumpy old man I think about that too.
- detourdog 4y ago
  No doubt that is why I'm embarrassed by my cynicism. I was a kid that would have had also sort of interventions that would have helped me academically. Our school tries to keep class size below 15 and there is a classroom helper. All those interventions take paperwork and that could be the problem with workload. I would like to think a good school administrator could develop a good strategy so that eventually the daily paperwork creates the end reports.
- nradov 4y ago
  Governments at multiple levels have also imposed additional compliance mandates on schools. It now takes extra work to gather the necessary data and submit official reports. But there is a lot of waste in most school districts and much of that work could be automated.
prepend 4y ago
I have a simile experience. I live in an affluent suburb and I moved here for the school. There’s 5 vice principals and all sorts of others. Of course there are 30 students per classroom. Also, sadly, the vice principals make more than teachers so there’s a perverse incentive for people who need more money to move from teaching to administration. I had a surreal meeting that the school scheduled for me when my child’s kindergarten teacher wanted to tell me my child had autism. It was the principal, the kindergarten vice principal, a backup vp, the special needs assessor (not the special needs teacher there was someone whose permanent job for the school was to identify kids with special needs), the teacher, and a county observer. So six school staff and me and my spouse. It seemed like a big deal when we got there. They said that my child had autism and should be moved into special classes. I asked what made them think that and the kindergarten teacher presented her “evidence” that my child got upset once because the room was too noisy and poor performance in class. I asked what else made them think that and they didn’t have anything else. There was no medical training out of the six people. It was so surreal. My kid had been screened many times and no one said anything so I said I would talk with the pediatrician. Pediatrician laughed and said they were crazy and wrote a letter saying bo autism. The school ignored the letter and tried to move them into the class despite my disagreement. Comically, they had forgotten to file some form weeks earlier and when I showed the county procedure the county observer forced them to “follow the documented procedure” and so the process stopped, my kid stayed in regular class. And, weirdly, they never filed the forms for stage 1 of the multi stage process and I never heard about it. (10 years later, still no autism). I never got closer as to what was going on and I fear their attention to pivoted to some other, less fortunate child.
- detourdog 4y ago
  All that labor, my cynical self says the more administrators the more things need to be found to administrate. So glad to be out of the public school system. I always supported public schools. If I was starting out today I would break my back to keep my kids out of the system.
chasd00 4y ago
heh elementary school principals get high in the parking lot before school (at least they do in Dallas public schools). You're not dealing with the best people in public education.
- detourdog 4y ago
  The Principal that needed the vice principal was found years early having sex in a school closet with another teacher.We can only imagine why they couldn't keep up with the paperwork.

jimhefferon 4y ago

I hear you and I have experienced the same thing at the local schools. But I will say that my wife is a teacher and there are many more kids with serious needs today than I believe there were when she and I went to school. Not a statistic I can back up, but as a grumpy old man I think about that too.

detourdog 4y ago
No doubt that is why I'm embarrassed by my cynicism. I was a kid that would have had also sort of interventions that would have helped me academically. Our school tries to keep class size below 15 and there is a classroom helper. All those interventions take paperwork and that could be the problem with workload. I would like to think a good school administrator could develop a good strategy so that eventually the daily paperwork creates the end reports.
nradov 4y ago
Governments at multiple levels have also imposed additional compliance mandates on schools. It now takes extra work to gather the necessary data and submit official reports. But there is a lot of waste in most school districts and much of that work could be automated.

prepend 4y ago

I have a simile experience. I live in an affluent suburb and I moved here for the school. There’s 5 vice principals and all sorts of others. Of course there are 30 students per classroom. Also, sadly, the vice principals make more than teachers so there’s a perverse incentive for people who need more money to move from teaching to administration. I had a surreal meeting that the school scheduled for me when my child’s kindergarten teacher wanted to tell me my child had autism. It was the principal, the kindergarten vice principal, a backup vp, the special needs assessor (not the special needs teacher there was someone whose permanent job for the school was to identify kids with special needs), the teacher, and a county observer. So six school staff and me and my spouse. It seemed like a big deal when we got there. They said that my child had autism and should be moved into special classes. I asked what made them think that and the kindergarten teacher presented her “evidence” that my child got upset once because the room was too noisy and poor performance in class. I asked what else made them think that and they didn’t have anything else. There was no medical training out of the six people. It was so surreal. My kid had been screened many times and no one said anything so I said I would talk with the pediatrician. Pediatrician laughed and said they were crazy and wrote a letter saying bo autism. The school ignored the letter and tried to move them into the class despite my disagreement. Comically, they had forgotten to file some form weeks earlier and when I showed the county procedure the county observer forced them to “follow the documented procedure” and so the process stopped, my kid stayed in regular class. And, weirdly, they never filed the forms for stage 1 of the multi stage process and I never heard about it. (10 years later, still no autism). I never got closer as to what was going on and I fear their attention to pivoted to some other, less fortunate child.

detourdog 4y ago
All that labor, my cynical self says the more administrators the more things need to be found to administrate. So glad to be out of the public school system. I always supported public schools. If I was starting out today I would break my back to keep my kids out of the system.

chasd00 4y ago

heh elementary school principals get high in the parking lot before school (at least they do in Dallas public schools). You're not dealing with the best people in public education.

detourdog 4y ago
The Principal that needed the vice principal was found years early having sex in a school closet with another teacher.We can only imagine why they couldn't keep up with the paperwork.