Erin Bigler Administrative Internship
Do what you feel in your heart to be right–for you’ll be criticized anyway. —Eleanor Roosevelt
Political Influence & Governance Artifacts
Levy For Learning Team
I had the opportunity to be a part of our district's Levy For Learning team, leading up to the fall election. Through this experience, I learned more about school financing and have a better understanding of how levees work, specifically the operating levy and capital projects levy our district will be adding to the November ballot. I was shocked to learn about special education funding. Required special education services cost the district $20.8 million more than it receives each year, and English learner services cost $3.4 million, putting additional pressure on the operating budget.
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When schools share election information, it is important to communicate accurate information and encourage people to vote, but we cannot attempt to influence the yes/no decisions within the duty day - teachers and staff members must remain neutral in their political stances.
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Listed below are a few of the specific projects I took on, as a member of the Levy Team at my school.
School Communication Plan
I enjoyed the process of working with my building principal to develop and implement a communication plan for our staff members and families. *Click here to see our school's comprehensive communication plan.
Weekly Email Update
My first task was creating an Informational Overview (Levy Questions 1-pager) for staff and family. This information was included in our principal's weekly email communication (click here)
Marketing The Election
​Two additional ways we attempted to increase awareness around the levy included:
Ordering printed materials (bookmarks, posters, flyers, etc.) to hand out to staff and families
Showing staff how to add election information to their email signature (click here to view directions)
School Board Meeting
I had the opportunity to attend one of our school board meetings on Thursday, October 7th, as a part of the school showcase. My principal and I presented information about Cottage Grove Elementary to the public, specifically regarding the unique things happening within our school that make us stand out. We worked collaboratively with our school leadership team to identify things the staff felt proud of, and then put those items into a presentation to share with the school board.
Staff Feedback To Support Democratic Decision Making
During my leadership course, we spent time discussing various decision-making models leaders use. There are times when a decision must be made quickly by one leader. However, I see great power in getting input from staff members whenever possible. It helps leaders get a clear picture of reality and creates more shared leadership among the team. One tool we use often is Google Forms, in order to gain insights for planning PD and receiving feedback after learning sessions. This has been helpful, because time for learning is limited, and we want to ensure we are planning meaningful content for our staff, during the small windows of time we have available.
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Below, you will see an example of a Google form we used to begin planning PD and support around distance learning, near the start of the pandemic.