- Two administrators: The principal and an assistant principal selected by
the other assistant principals. By regulation, the principal had to be on
the committee. - Two teachers: the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) chapter leader
and another teacher selected by the chapter leader or by vote of the
union membership. - Four parents selected by the Parent Association. In most schools, these
are officers of the Parent Association. - For a high school SLT, two students, selected by the Student Organiza-
tion.
In some schools, a leadership committee meets biweekly or even
weekly for lengthy meetings. This is a time imposition on all and almost
ensures that only the most fanatical would regularly attend, skewing the
discussions and decisions. Mr. Chen became principal at his Brooklyn
high school when the SLT was in its formative stages. It was agreed at that
time that the team would meet once a month, unless there was an emer-
gency issue. (A note on the SLT’s “formative” stages: The principal, UFT
chapter leader, Parent Association president, and president of the Student
Organization met to create the bylaws for the SLT.)
Meetings were scheduled after school hours and immediately before
the regular monthly Parent Association meeting. This limited the number
of times the parent members of the SLT had to come to the school, which
they very much appreciated, and also set a time limit on meeting. They
began at 4:30 and ended by 6:00. Mr. Chen made sure sandwiches and
other refreshments were available.
In schools with large SLTs, it takes forever for any decisions to be
made as different people attend each meeting and significant meeting time
must be devoted to informing those not present at the previous meeting
what had transpired. Mr. Chen’s SLT’s bylaws stated that a quorum for
the meeting was the presence of at least one representative from each of
the four constituencies. If any member was absent, it was the responsibil-
ity of that member’s representative to inform him of what had transpired
before the next meeting. This ensured that the committee could move
forward at each meeting instead of in circles.
Much of the “groundwork” had been laid during the creation of the ini-
tial SLT team: membership was minimized, number of meetings limited,
Lay the Groundwork 101