We received this letter to the editor from former Prince William teacher and community activist, Justin Wilk, who asked that we share his message with our readership.
The 2013-2014 school year has officially concluded in Prince William County. Graduations are over, teachers have packed up their rooms and our school leadership has started preparing for the upcoming school year. Recently, the controversies surrounding school boundaries, expensive building projects and the school budget itself have taken center stage. Although I believe these, amongst other issues, will continue to generate criticism in the upcoming school year, I want to take this opportunity to suggest how our superintendent and his leadership team can bridge the divisions within our community.
Going into our next school year, our school leaders must build mutually beneficial relationships between the school district and the community.
During the current leadership’s tenure, trust between the community and district has been eroded. This disintegration of trust can be traced to numerous decisions made away from the public eye. There are countless of examples in the past couple of years to illustrate this erosion of trust. These include the last minute contractual extension for county teachers, top-heavy administration budgeting and a sizeable pay raise for the superintendent while teachers only received a 2 percent, among others.
Moving forward, we as a county must demand accountability and transparency from the current leadership team. We must continue to speak out and encourage them to foster strong relationships based upon trust and collaboration among teachers, principals, parents and community residents. These relationships play a pivotal role in improving schools and student performance, so the fracture between our school district and the Prince William County residents must be repaired.
This can be accomplished in a few ways. Most importantly, school leadership should not view community activism negatively. Rather they should forge relationships with the most engaged constituents. Many of these activists, including myself, want to see positive changes such as reducing class sizes, adequately compensating our teachers and being fiscally responsible. Leadership could benefit from listening to the concerns of those who often have a better read on the pulse of the community.
The relationship between the school-community connections has been addressed by many researchers. In 2008, The Asset Based Community Development Institute at Northwestern University published their expansive study on building relationships between the district and the community. The study covered various assets that help build a strong bedrock upon which any community can build, which include individuals, associations, institutions, physical environment, economy, and a rich fabric of community stories. Ultimately, the study concluded that in order for a district to connect these existing assets it is critical that the school district have what the studied termed as a Connectors.
The Connector, much like a superintendent or district leader, is responsible for building a strong school-community relationship and is able to build relationships and robust school community connections, explore ways community resources could contribute to district schools and open up opportunities for teachers, students and parents to partner with community organizations in a mutually beneficial activity.
Another way to start building community trust is through a Listening Campaign. The summer provides no better opportunity for our superintendent and his team to fully engage the community as we approach the 2014-2015 school year. I strongly encourage the superintendent, to use the next couple of months to meet with the residents of Prince William County and carefully listen to their concerns. Although these suggestions will not completely eradicate the erosion of trust or change how constituents feel about decisions made by the school district, it will increase the transparency in the decision-making process.
Justin Wilk is a former Prince William County Teacher. He is currently working for a private firm that focuses on transforming school districts into organizations that grow trust capital.
This is an opinion piece and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Bristow Beat, its editorial staff, reporters, or sponsors.
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