Articles

Education 101: Redesigning Schools
Site Based Management Relocates Decision Making

Take the Good with the Bad
Positive and Negative Feedback in Creativity Sessions

Site Council Learns About Growth, Power And Communication

Knowledge Management
Taking Control of the Information Age

Etymology of a Buzzward

Investment Tip: Stay In For The Long Haul
Van Kampen American Capital Perseveres to Win AQP Excellence Award

It's About Time
by Peter Block

You Have to Be a Little Different
by Cathy Kramer

Brief Cases
Business News Briefs

Views for a Change

Pageturners
Book Review

Letters to the Editor

Site Council Learns About Growth, Power and Communication

Education reform has entered the national spotlight. Hierarchy. Letting go. Transferring power and decision making closer to the customer. Money equals power. Those without financial control struggle to wrest power from those who have it.

Communicating with customers is always a challenge. And identifying who those customers are is often equally as hard. These issues - predominant in today's business community - are the same issues confronting the Sequoia Union High School District in their effort to more effectively educate children.

Karen Canty is the mother of two children from the Sequoia Union High School District - one a recent graduate of Menlo-Atherton High School, the other entering as a freshman. Canty serves on the local elementary school board and has been actively involved in the development of site-based management in the district. Regarding the council at Menlo-Atherton, she believes "They are in the throes of growth. The team is definitely headed in the right direction. They have made some mistakes, but that is part of the learning process." She also thinks it premature to evaluate just how effectively or to what extent the council can make a difference. She contends, "They really can't do much until they get their hands on a chunk of the budget." The 24 members on the Menlo-Atherton council are currently dealing with issues surrounding scheduling and attendance. So far, the response from the community has been positive. Canty believes the hardest part has been communicating with parents because there are so many of them and their knowledge of what goes on is so varied. Getting people involved in change can be very trying, but as their program develops, Sequoia Union is proving that it's worth the effort.