Changes In Miami School District - Research Paper Example

 Changes In Miami School District Who are the stakeholders? The stakeholders are the school children, parents, the school faculty, and the school board. The stakeholders form a wide spectrum of the social community. The school impacts almost the whole society in a region. When a school comes into being in a neighborhood there is understandable relief. However, when the time comes for the school to organize for better management and accommodation of their increasing number of students, they begin to face problems due to reservations expressed by parents. What negotiation strategy will you use to support the school board’s need to redraw the boundaries while addressing the concerns of the stakeholders? The negotiation strategy will be balanced. It is important to support the school board’s need to redraw the boundaries. But at the same time, it is also necessary to consider the reservations expressed by the parents. The director of facilities for Miami school had a message for the community related to the proposed boundary changes. “Please do not look. We are changing.” This message set in motion the strategy by the district to inform parents about the construction of a new school and changes to boundaries. Had it been for changes only to the physical structure of the school, nobody would have minded. But talk of redrawing the school boundaries normally entail not only construction of additional school, but the sea change brought about by shifting and rearranging the entire school’s outlook including the seating arrangement and classmates the children are growing with. Miami school district has been a wonderful place for children to learn and grow. Parents continue to choose Miami school because of the consistently good curricular system. This is what the parents want. For four times in a row Miami school has been cited as one of the 100 Best Communities for young people. Top notch school divisions attract students and the Miami school system has grown by about 1,000 students each year since 2005. Additional students require additional schools and attendance boundaries must be redrawn every time a new school opens. However, parents hold different views. They are doubts that the redrawing of boundaries will impact the quality of education, increase travel time, adversely impact economic and cultural boundaries, impact property values, and have social impact on the children. The new school will have its own bus fleet. Hence, it will not adversely impact time taken to travel to school. Also, to make the transition as easy as possible for the students, children will start classes on the first day of school with the same classmates and teacher as they will have at Miami school (Changing school boundaries). However, parents continue to view the redrawing with skepticism. They feel the school board is trying to carry out their plans in spite of parents’ misgivings by painting rosy pictures. Redrawing school boundaries is not as easy and carefree as is being made out to be. There are emotions involved. There will also be class distinctions because of the inflow of foreign students as a result of the new boundary hitting the zone where foreign communities reside. Also, parents see this as problem because it is not the secondary school students who are going to feel the impact of the changes. The changes are going to be felt more deeply by students in the primary classes. Nonetheless, the director of facilities is upbeat that the school will manage the changes very capably. He cited the example of a neighboring school district who redrew their school boundaries some years before. They went through the changes and are now into their third or fourth year after the change. The director of facilities previews the proposed changes for middle and high schools to the school board on Thursday night. The board is expected to vote on the new boundaries on April 5. The district has formed a boundary committee that will hold meetings until the construction of the new school ends. The director of facilities, who will serve with other board members, principals, and community members on the boundary committee, said the committee will have to consider development issues, geographical barriers to natural boundaries and mobility in the district. The district plans to hold community meetings on the proposed changes the following month. Parents feel holding community meetings only serve as a distraction from real issues. They feel the school management is determined to go ahead with the construction of a new school. What is the point in holding meeting when you have already decided for a new school? What purpose will holding meetings serve? According to the parents, there must be a proper referendum to study different alternatives. The school management is determined to go ahead with the construction because they feel the city has grown manifold in the last decade. They feel if they do not redraw the boundaries now, it will not be possible for them to run the school with the same efficacy as they have been doing for the past so many years. The shifting of the boundary comes as the district faces school crowding. The district wants to balance the student population at the middle school. The concept plan calls for some shifts in the number of students at Miami school district. The parents feel the changes are being done too fast. They fear the speed of the redrawing will effect their children’s concentration and capabilities. But the school management is insistent on their commitment to redraw the boundaries. In the fall of 2009, a new middle school is scheduled to open to help relieve crowding. This school is part of the bond referendum approved by voters in 2006. Construction contracts have been signed and work has begun. This school, named the Miami Middle School, will cost about $20 million to construct. Members of the redistricting committee appreciate the interest in the committee’s work. Observers are always welcome at committee meetings but are asked not to participate in discussions and deliberations during the meetings. However, you may email your comments to the committee at: principal@miamischool.net. The redistricting committee met 6.30-8.30 p.m. at Miami school on March 03, March 08, and March 25. The committee presented its recommendations to the school board the next day. Notices will be sent to families in schools affected by the recommended boundary changes. Additional steps in the redistricting process include a public hearing on the proposed boundary changes, adoption of new middle school boundaries by the school board, notices to families who are affected by the boundary changes and the new school boundaries taking effect when the new school opens. The school board aims at making the final decisions on redrawing the boundaries very soon and has established a process for receiving community inputs (Changing school boundaries). How will ethics and culture impact your decision? The issue needs to be view dispassionately. The school has its reasons for redrawing the school boundaries. The parents have their viewpoints and these cannot be explained away haphazardly. Obviously, the committee has to keep its fingers crossed and carry views of both sides without fear or favor. The best course of action would be to take parents in the forefront of the protests within the committee panel. This will provide the school with much needed shot in the arm amongst the parents because it will tell the latter unequivocally that the school management means business when it says it cares about the parents’ viewpoints. A rigid stand by both parties cannot satisfactorily solve problems of either side. A better alternative is to sit together and find feasible solutions acceptable to both sides. It is a give and take affair where both parties concede certain grounds to realize the greater good for the students. Ethics and culture are two sides of the same coin when it comes to a project where sincerity of purpose is as valuable as the monies that go into the making of the new school. By inducting antagonistic parents into the school board, the school management is embracing the bona fide concerns of these parents and providing the guarantee that they will do their best to address their concern with transparence and steadfastness. This is not so easy to do and may require the school board to follow the guidelines given by the parents even if they have to postpone their plans to redraw the school boundaries. In case the parents come with plans to divide the timing for the primary and secondary sections so that the school is in better position to address the overcrowding issue, then the school may have to go along with the new plan. The plan to construction additional school can follow in case the division of the primary and secondary sections does not provide the desired results (Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture). Sources: Changing school boundaries, Chesterfield Country Public Schools, http://chesterfield.k12.va.us/CCPS/About_CCPS/changing_boundaries.htm Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture, http://ethicscenter.nd.edu/ Read More