TCSD Purpose
The Teton County School District’s (TCSD) vision is “to be a premier district where every student is prepared to succeed in an ever-changing world” (About the district, n.d.). Through the use of the language “premier district”, we infer that TCSD is guided by a principle of competitive success in comparison to other school districts. The Federal and State Department of Education determines academic metrics used to measure success. “Every student is prepared to succeed” represents the neoliberal value that every student can succeed in “an ever-changing world” where a globalizing economy drives the competitive advantage necessary to be successful (Hursh, 2007).
Structure:
TCSD, located in Jackson, WY is structurally nested within the hierarchical US public education system. Four domains delineate the dominant forms of structural power (position, relationships, expertise, information) and the constraint that influences interconnectedness between the domains. The state superintendent as an elected representative of the state government, uses positional power to make high level policy and financial decisions in Cheyenne, WY. The TCSD school board plays dual roles. One, they guide their district based upon local context and two, they elected government officials beholden to government statutes that define its responsibilities. The second domain is the power of relationships at the district administrative level. The superintendent is the most interconnected individual within the network and hence needs to utilize relationships to manage complex government politics with both client and faculty facing impacts (e.g. Covid mitigation decisions). The third domain is the power of expertise at the faculty level. Faculty are the most significant link between the organization (public schools) and its clients (students & parents). Their expertise is a necessary form of power to positively influence client experience. The last domain is the power of information at the client level. In our democratic society, this group categorically is responsible for deciding the direction (through voting) of the government and the district based upon their personal voting preferences (see figure 1.0).
Figure 1.0: TCSD organizational structure. Darker colors represent agents under focus.
Organizational Strengths: Superintendent leadership
The constraints of any domain highlight the importance of leadership by downstream domains. The Wyoming state superintendent is an elected position and she is politically and geographically distant (400 miles) from faculty and clients. These constraints necessitate an effective use of relationship power by the district superintendent to bridge the two levels and build cohesion between the mandates of the state with the needs of client facing faculty. The district superintendent through transformational leadership (communication, empathy, buffering, and distributed leadership) is able to prioritize client experiences while simultaneously navigating the complex political dynamics of state and federal policy. Transformational leadership is key to hear and amplify the voice and expertise of disconnected faculty when navigating the positional power of the government, building cohesion.
Secondarily, the relationship between the superintendent and the school board is vital to organizational success. Due to the superintendent's leadership, the TCSD school board overcame unactualized skillsets of its elected members. Through superintendent led workshops and policy revisions, individual and collective identities were formed. The board institutionalized the belief that identification of differences would allow a more accurate assignment of roles. This transformed the board from the least to most functional in the state - a necessary change for the organization to better serve its clients. Due to the character of the elected position, the optics of board performance from an external perspective and an internal experience is critical to their success and trust of the superintendent. Through her use of relationship skills, she galvanized the board to prioritize accurate role designation, whereby they gained validation of their strengths coupled with externally visible success - thereby improving the cohesion and functional utility of the school board and organization.
Organizational Challenges: Politics
Politics negatively influences the actualization of the TCSD’s pursuit of its goals. The obligation of the state superintendent to her political party, can often lead to a prioritization of state actions that are misaligned with the needs of TCSD. TCSD is a liberal district in a largely conservative state. When district actions that reflect the contextual needs of Teton County are out of alignment with the political agenda of the state superintendent and the republican party, conflict can arise. The TCSD superintendent has a delicate position to negotiate on behalf of her clients when those clients represent the minority political party. The priorities of other districts, the larger national political narrative around education, and the state superintendent's personal political aspirations are various levels that complicate effective alignment between her leadership of state education policy and TCSD needs. The state superintendent has an interest in catering to the needs of larger districts, maintaining continuity and trust within the national political narrative around education, and deciphering what actions favor her political aspirations. These interests, at times, conflict with the contextual needs of TCSD.
Recommendation
I recommend that TCSD identify and categorize the state superintendent’s interests when they are divergent from TCSD interests to mitigate their impact. Secondarily, partnerships with superintendents from other districts through the power of relationships, expertise, and information can be leveraged given TCSD’s power through a competitive advantage as the highest performing district in Wyoming. And yet, the broad polarizing landscape that foments challenges to the alignment around expertise, information, and positional power elevates the criticality of relationships as key in developing these partnerships. It is with these partners that TCSD can influence voters and balance the institutional power held by the state superintendent to more accurately align their geographic division of the department of education to the needs of their clients.
Word Count: 920
References:
About the District, (n.d.) https://www.tcsd.org/Content2/146
Band, A. (2020, August 6). TCSD School Board Member. Personal interview with E. Lobdell
Chapman, G. (2020, August 8). TCSD Superintendent. Personal interview with E. Lobdell
Hursh, D. (2007). Assessing No Child Left Behind and the rise of neoliberal education policies. American educational research journal, 44(3), 493-518.