TOPS Building Leadership Team

Each Seattle public school has a Building Leadership Team (BLT), whose primary function is to promote and facilitate the collaborative decision making process which affects academic achievement. Its more specific responsibilities are to oversee the facilitation and development of the Transformation Plan, professional development, and the school budget.

An Introduction (and Invitation!) to the TOPS Building Leadership Team

By Kathy Cox-Czosnyka, Lori Eickelberg, Lianne Sheppard, Sheri Toussaint & Chris Drape

As you all know, TOPS is a busy place, with many different groups at work. As a part of our ongoing effort to keep effective communication happening, we want to explain the role of the school's Building Leadership Team. Every Seattle school has a Building Leadership Team, or BLT. The teacher's contract explains the role of the BLT directly:

The primary function of a Building Leadership Team is to promote and facilitate the collaborative decision making process which affects academic achievement. The more specific responsibilities of the Building Leadership Team are to oversee the facilitation and development of:
  1. An Academic Achievement Plan [now referred to as 'Transformation Plan'], including the configuration and structure of the school's classes and/or program offerings.
  2. The development of a school-wide professional development plan to support the Academic Achievement [Transformation] Plan.
  3. The school's budget

The BLT is the steward of the academic program of the school - the critical support and advisory team for the principal, who is responsible for the final decisions. The transformation plan lays out the academic focus the school has refined in order to boost student achievement. For TOPS the three areas of focus are

  1. The impact of race on learning
  2. A quality writing program
  3. A quality math program.

The BLT plans professional development activities to meet the needs of teachers as they work to implement the transformation plan.

In terms of the budget, each school in the district has control over how they allocate the money they receive from the district. The BLT must determine the staffing needs for the program that meets the goals of the transformation plan, and budget accordingly. The money that Friends of TOPS raises (from such things as the "No-Bake" and Auction) is not a part of the budget BLT works with, and is allocated through the Site Council RFP process.

TOPS' Building Leadership team is composed of the two administrators, five staff members elected by the school staff, and 3 parents/guardians - one from the Site Council Executive Committee and two elected at-large from the TOPS community.

While the contract does not require parent representation on each school's leadership team, the TOPS staff believes such representation is critical component for our school community.

Now, here's the invitation. While one of the three parent/guardian positions is designated (Site Council executive committee member - key communication link between BLT and Site Council, providing important consistency), we need to fill the 2 at-large parent/guardian positions for the BLT.

Responsibilities:

The BLT meets on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of each month, from 4:00pm to 5:00pm (sometimes a little longer). You will represent a grade band (K-4 or 5-8), and it will be your responsibility to facilitate communication - from the community in to the BLT, and from the BLT out to the community.

Qualifications:

Communication is key! BLT members must be excellent communicators, concerned and committed to supporting the academic focus of the school. As a BLT member you must be comfortable representing the ideas and opinions of a wide variety of people. You must also be able to honor the staff Code of Conduct, which includes confidentiality as appropriate. You can consistently make the meetings - we need people who will take ownership of this and see it through!

Nomination Process:

So. if you are interested, or know of someone who would be great as part of the BLT, please nominate that person (can be yourself). Call or email Kathy Cox-Czosnyka, Sheri Toussaint, or Keith Cohon with your nominations by November 7. We will distribute ballots/explain the voting process in the Wednesday go-home a week later, and then you will get started!