Christin Williams

Education 650

Standard Activity 7.32C

Distributive Leadership

At East Bank Middle, each grade level team (6th-8th) as well as the Related Arts team has

a “team leader” or department chair that serves on the school’s Leadership Team. I met with the

Leadership Team, minus the administration, to discuss what their responsibilities are as a team

leader and any changes or suggestions they felt should be made.

Each of the team leaders have the same set of responsibilities, however they each handle

them in various ways. Some of them distribute their responsibilities to other members of their

respective teams, while others would rather take on all the responsibilities themselves – mainly

to make sure things are done properly. The leaders said that their responsibilities are fairly

simple, on paper.

The team leaders are in charge of creating the team schedules, while working around the

school’s master schedule. This must also be approved by the administration and meet guidelines,

such as instructional minute requirements. These schedules must be adapted on days when there

are special events such as early outs, delays, or things such as pep assemblies. In working on

schedules, the team leader sometimes becomes responsible for working out coverage for classes,

should a teacher need to leave or a substitute not show. This is a task the becomes stressful for

not only the team leader, but also the remaining team members.

Team leaders are also in charge of planning team or grade specific events such as dances,

field trips, and activities that require use of the gym, cafeteria, or auditorium. They must also

work together to oversee school-wide events such as fundraisers and homecoming. The

leadership team also works together to organize things such as sending food home with students
over weekends and school breaks and providing holiday gifts for students, which also works with

our student community service.

Another responsibility of the team leaders is making sure that the team is functioning

properly. This includes having daily team meetings, alternating detention monitoring, and

reporting to the administration should any issues arise.

After speaking with the team leaders, they all take great pride in the role and

responsibilities that are included. I must say that they all do a fabulous job at keeping things

running smoothly for each team/department. However, there are a few things the leadership team

as a whole have concerns about. Collectively, they feel as if many times when they have their

leadership meetings with the administration, that they should be taken more seriously. They feel

as if sometimes their concerns and ideas are not taken into consideration, or seriously at all,

which leads to the teachers not feeling as appreciated as they should. This can result in issues

that can affect the entire school climate due to staff not feeling appreciated. I would make the

recommendation that the administration communicate to the leadership team how appreciated the

team leaders are and give them feedback on their concerns and ideas for their respective teams or

school as a whole, depending on the idea.