Layers of Accountability: Are We Accountable to Parents?

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Layers of Accountability: Are We Accountable to Parents?

"Schools serve the families in their communities. School Principals serve the parents of those families."

Most of us, whether from a parent or a principal perspective, would agree with those statements. Nevertheless, it remains a topic of heated debate, frustration and misunderstanding. In my experience as a school principal, much of the frustration arises out of a lack of comprehension of what I would call 'layers of accountability'. 

To whom are we accountable? School principals, in their leadership are accountable on a number of different levels ...

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But Didn’t His Acne Clear Up Beautifully!

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But Didn’t His Acne Clear Up Beautifully!

The Trouble with Avoiding the Issue That’s Killing Us

It might have been in an old issue of The New Yorker or maybe I just imagined it – a single frame cartoon in the darkly amusing style of Charles Adams. It shows two octogenarian ladies standing in front of an open casket at a funeral parlor, ‘viewing the remains’. One dear old soul says to the other:

                                      “But didn’t his acne clear up beautifully!”

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Same Sex Marriage and the Christian School

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Same Sex Marriage and the Christian School

Our relatively comfortable Christian world in the US has changed.

One of the most disturbing images I've seen in a long time was one of the White House lit up in rainbow lights to celebrate the Supreme Court's decision legalizing same sex marriage. 

This picture saddened and angered me. How did we arrive at this place?

The day after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt addressed a joint session of Congress. His speech summoned a nation to war and became among the most iconic in American history.

“Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. ”

June 26, 2015 is also a date which will live in infamy. On that date the Supreme Court of the United States legalized same sex marriage.

I am saddened but I am not surprised by the Supreme Court's decision. I am saddened because our country continues it relentless march to Sodom and Gomorrah. I suspect that everyone reading this article feels like Lot, whom Peter describes this way in his second epistle:

“… Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard) .2 Peter 2:4ff”

I am not surprised because we long ago sowed the seeds that eventually bore the fruit we see in the Supreme Court's decision. Actually, it is not so much the seed that was sown as the seed that has not been sown.

Let me explain. 

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Five Benefits of Paperless Board Meetings

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Five Benefits of Paperless Board Meetings

My readers will recall my three-part series (some of the most popular on my blog) titled: Why I Went Paperless and You Can Too. I am still paperless and even more proficient than before. I’ve elevated working without paper to the next level. 

My school board meetings are now paperless. No more emailing documents, making copies, creating binders, etc. Everything related to school board business is at our fingertips—all of the time.

Our board members are delighted. For  a year now we have been using DirectorPoint for our school board paperless workflow. It has revolutionized the way we prepare for board meetings and communicate before and after the meetings. We are saving time and money. 

I asked John Peinhardt, President of DirectorPoint, and a new sponsor of the Christian School Journal (thank you!), to share the benefits of paperless board meetings. Here is his guest post. 

Binders and emails simply do not address the communication requirements of modern, progressive, boards. 

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World-class: Dangerous or Desirable? Part 2

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In part one I defined kingdom-class as follows:

A kingdom-class Christian school is one that is among the best in the world because of the quality and impact of its educational program. It sets a standard of educational quality and innovation worthy of emulation by both non-Christian and Christian educators throughout the world. 

Its students are prepared for college and career in a globalized, connected, and competitive world. They are also prepared to use their God-given gifts in fulfilling both the Creation Mandate1 and the Great Commission. Its students’ lives are transformed, others are served, and God is glorified. 

A kingdom-class education includes the quality measures that constitute a world-class program but expands and deepens them to include a biblical worldview. A kingdom-class education educates both the mind and the soul and seeks to glorify God, not man so that we obey Jesus’s command to "Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” Matt. 5:16

Defining an objective does not mean that it should be done. The fundamental question is: “Should we strive to be world-class, or more accurately, kingdom-class?” While for some the answer may appear to be a self-evident “Yes!,” for others the answer is less obvious. How we answer this question strikes at the core of our mission as Christian educational institutions. It is right, it is imperative, that we question the assertion that we should strive to create kingdom-class schools. There is much at stake.

I believe we should strive to be kingdom-class. I share my reasons below to strengthen the resolve of those already convinced, to convince others who harbor doubts, concerns, and honest questions, and to invite thoughtful dialog among all.

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World-Class: Desirable or Dangerous?

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World-Class: Desirable or Dangerous?

I have never seen a Christian school with such a sign and I don’t ever expect to see one. For too many Christian schools such a sign might reflect “truth in advertising” but would it be extraordinary bad marketing! It would also be suicidal for both the administrator and the school. Besides, while average may be more common than we would like to admit, every school administrator I know is genuinely committed to excellence in his or her school. 

But the fact of the matter is, and the research supports it, far too many Christian schools are average–generally no better than their public school counterparts as measured by student achievement. There are many reasons why this is so but I believe one of them–perhaps the primary one–is that we are afraid of excellence of the kind that could be classified as world-class. 

This is part one of a series of short articles exploring the questions; “Should our schools strive to be world-class, or as I will explain later–Kingdom-class–and if so, how do we get closer to that goal? How excellent should we strive to be? What is excellence, anyway? Does the pursuit of world-class standards of quality run the risk of compromising our integrity as Christian schools? Do we run the risk of becoming worldly institutions?” 

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“It’s Just a little cold!” Mourning Ernest Hemingway

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“It’s Just a little cold!” Mourning Ernest Hemingway

That’s what my dear wife Ginny thought about my sniffles, scratchy throat and mild fever.

‘How could she possibly know that for sure?’ I thought in a spirit of congested misery. ‘What if it’s something much more  lethal, like beriberi or bubonic plague or the human version of Dutch elm disease!?!’

And furthermore, she said it on my birthday: that unwelcome annual reminder that 365 more days have been stuffed in the chronological backpack I’d be lugging across life’s portage, that an additional growth ring encircled my substantial trunk and that one more burning candle had been added to the conflagration that’s been gradually incinerating my faculties. 

Clearly Ginny didn’t feel nearly as sorry for me as I did when she bid a cheery farewell and flitted away for jolly revels with her sisters and other family members.

And there I was, alone with my thoughts, the ‘build-it-yourself’ plastic model kit of a Spitfire airplane she gave me and 3 unsympathetic and unruly dogs.

A bit gloomy and melodramatic, you say? Well maybe. ‘Cheer up,’ I told myself, ‘things could be worse’, I said, and thought about Ernest Hemingway ...

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Give A Cup of Cold Water

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Give A Cup of Cold Water

Have you ever been extremely hot, sweaty, and thirsty? Of course you have, and you would give almost anything for a cup of cold water. 

May of our students are hot, sweaty and thirsty. They labor under the burden of doing well academically, which for many is hard. They labor under the assault of the flesh, the world, and the devil. They labor under the guilt of sin. They labor under the lie that their value is tied to performance, looks, or both. They labor under the bully. They labor under divorce and/or abusive or neglectful parents. They labor under physical illness. They labor under racism. They are pursued and harassed by their own sinful natures, a world set on bending them to its agenda, and the devil seeking to devour them. They are hot, sweaty, and thirsty.

They need ...

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