Question 1
Ethics are the moral behavior in humans and how one should act. Ethics
may be divided into four major areas of study.
Ethical behavior is expected of leaders, especially superintendents,
because we are constantly in the spotlight and we represent what working with
children and enhancing a child's future.
For this assignment, we will look
at situation where leaders may have made an unethical decision and describe
what could have been differently or what decisions lead to the poor
decision. This will allow for us to
understand areas of weakness for leaders and how we could behave differently if
ever faced with similar situations.
For the standard of
professional ethics standards 1.1 to 1.13 the three standards I will focus on
are 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4. First, standard
1.2 says the educator should not misappropriate funds for personal gain or
advantage. Unfortunately, I have seen
this one live within my own district.
Prior to my current superintendent, we had a superintendent who was
receiving money from an outside company.
Therefore, the funds coming into the district that should have been for
student and faculty benefit in the way of supplies or needs were going directly
to the superintendent themselves. This
damaging decision ruined reputations, crushed trust in the system and
ultimately led to the decision to remove the superintendent from their current
position. This is a problem that I have heard about frequently and seems to be
one that many people have fallen apart over.
The second example I would
like to discuss involves standard 1.3 which deals with an employee submit
fraudulent requests for reimbursement of expenses for travel. I have never experienced
this particular situation in my career, however; I do know that this happens
frequently and districts and superintendents must make it clear as to the
policies, procedures and framework in which district employees can travel. Strict guidelines, reimbursement forms and
proper documentation must be provided.
IN addition, there must be some sort of accountability system put into
place to ensure that the employee is traveling to enhance their craft and not
just for personal gain.
The third standard I want to
discuss is Standard 1.13. The educator shall not consume
alcoholic beverages on school property or during school activities when
students are present. Unfortunately,
this is one that is often brought to people's attention through the media. As leaders, our personal lives are often
broadcast and everyone is constantly watching the actions that we do and try to
find us making mistakes. I call this the
"Big Brother Effect," meaning that there is always someone watching,
hoping that in a moment of weakness. Too
often, this happens when a person meets their family for dinner, consumes
alcohol and then shows up at a school function.
This behavior is unacceptable and we have to remember that we are always
being watched and that we must act in a way that is appropriate and models good
leadership to others.
For the final two examples of
unethical behavior I will look at 2.1 thru 2.7.
Of these I have seen examples of standards 2.1 and 2.2 that deal with
the sharing of information about a colleague.
I will focus on standard 2.1 which tells us than an educator should not
reveal confidential information about colleagues. As a superintendent, you are
given privileged information daily, that is confidential and that can tear
apart the culture of a school or a system.
Unless this information is required to be distributed due to legal consequences,
it is important that you maintain the highest level of confidentiality in the
system. It is your job to know
everything that is going on to the best of your ability, however; in order to
create the culture of sharing information, you must be able to keep it at a
high level of confidentiality at all times.
Secondly, I will examine
standard to 2.2 involving making false statements about a school system. The people within a school system create the
reputation and "brand" of a school district. Every district has a unique flavor and twist,
the things that make it work and the message that is communicated to the public
must be one that you are proud of and that you want to continue to support and
communicate. I have witnessed people
with personal problems with the system or the students within the system and
that have attended dinners or events and openly discussed their issues with the
school system. In time, people who were
new to the district began to have the opinion of the instigator instead of
forming their own opinion about the work that is being done. In addition, one of these was an
administrator, and I watched them be demoted into a position allowing them
limited access to the public to keep them from further damaging the districts
reputation. The superintendent owned the
responsibility to protect the districts reputation and worked to eliminate
people who couldn’t' support his vision and message.
After giving examples of
unethical behavior, I am now going to discuss short term and long-term
consequences for the violator in each of these situations as well as identify
Quality indicators that could be used as preventative measures in these cases.
The first one that I will
address is 1.13, an educator shall not consume alcoholic beverages on
school property or during school activities when students are present. For short-term goals, I would look to the
Competency 1 indicator that model and promote the highest standard of conduct, ethical principles,
and integrity in decision-making, actions, and behaviors. This would mean doing training and ensure
that all leaders understand the expected behaviors and implications a decision
like this could have on them. If they
were to be caught under the influence in the presence of students, then I would
immediately enroll them in an alcohol program and ensure that I did my absolute
best to control the media around the issue.
Long term, I would require administrators to take random tests at events
if I felt it was a district issue, other wise, I would continue to do trainings
to ensure that ethics is a message that is sent to leaders over and over again.
Secondly, I will discuss plans for
standard to 2.2 involving making false statements about a school system. For this, the short-term plan would be to
give administrators and leaders training on how to control the message that is
coming out of a school. If I were to
catch someone slandering the school, I would immediately meet with them to
diffuse whatever has them upset, and then give them a directive that says that
they are not to continue to behave this way.
If the behavior continued, I would go to PDAS Domain 5 if it were an
employee and put them on a growth plan that has implication on further
employment. Long term, I would create
systems for teachers to provide feedback both positive and negative in a safe
way and continue to train them on their words and how damaging they can be. This would model quality indicator monitor and address ethical issues impacting
education. Finally, my short-term plan
for standard 2.1 that tells us than an educator should not reveal
confidential information about colleagues.
If I found out that an administrator revealed confidential information
such as PDAS information regarding an employee, I would call them in and
discuss with them the meaning of confidentiality and what that means as a
leader. I would write an administrative
directive that states that they will keep walkthrough's and observations
confidential and if they cannot do that, then we will have to take further
action. Long-Term, I will do an ethics
training and make sure that administrators understand that there is an
expectation that they will keep information regarding individual employees
confidential, and if they violate this again, then we will take the issue to Human
Resources. This would be the quality
indicator regarding apply laws,
policies, and procedures in a fair and reasonable manner.
When
reading competency 1, there is nothing regarding ethical behavior that
surprises me, I find difficult, or makes me think that this job is too much for
any one person. People want a leader who
treats them like a human and works with them to create the best working
environment possible. Superintendents
should model this behavior in their office and demonstrate this behavior to the
leaders that they work with.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This has been a very
interesting course for me in that this is my first time to run a school budget
as I am entering my first year as a building principal, so I am already seeing
the world through a very differently lens.
It has been amazing how much I have consumed in 5 weeks and I know that
although I learned a lot, there is still so much that I have left to learn in
this course.
First, I needed to reflect to
how I rated myself in Competency 8, when I first began this course, there were
a lot of things that I was just learning, and a lot of things that I thought I
understood. The reality is, when I went back and did the second reflection, the
questions all had new meaning and I was excited about my level of understanding
of what they were specifically asking. I
think where I learned the most was in the sections regarding auditing and
allocating funds in that those were two areas that I had not stretched my
thinking. In addition thinking more
globally about a budget and how we decide where to spend our money is extremely
challenging on a campus, but when you push that to a more global level, it is
amazing how much more you have to consume and think about in order to run and
operate a successful organization.
Interviewing my superintendent
from the perspective of finance was incredibly interesting and
overwhelming. My superintendent was the
superintendent of finance before becoming the district superintendent, and also
has a business background, so it was very different to see things from his
perspective. When you do not come from
the business world, some areas in finance can be a little intimidating and
overwhelming, yet, manageable with the right knowledge and skill set. I learned a lot from the interview, I
reaffirmed things I believed about finance in the system, and also learned A
LOT about what I need to learn more about.
It was very overwhelming and awesome at the same time. The recorded lessons were extremely helpful
and guided me to find the relevant information to help me to be successful in
the weekly assignments. I thought that
they were chunked appropriately and didn't give too much information but just
enough to help us to feel comfortable in our answers and confidence about the
subject. The resources were very helpful
and I have saved all of them for future use.
The
group wiki and blog were very helpful as I got to work through this very
difficult content in a cohort that allowed me to ask questions and collaborate
throughout the material. It was very
interesting to see where everyone focused his or her answers and in return, I
feel that I have a more well-rounded and grounded understanding of the material
that was presented. The blog allowed me
to see my own personal growth over time; which was nice and really helped me to
feel accomplished in this course. I
found that the groups were placed in also were comprised of varying district
sizes and needs which allowed for richer conversation and dialogue around the
various topics. It has been refreshing
to connect with so many professionals who have big dreams to be superintendents
and such great insight into the work that is being done all over the state and country.
