Work Processes

Work Processes
Bret Jacobsen
Western Governors University

Work Processes
I interviewed Christine Fitzgerald, Principal at Tsebii’nidzigai Elementary School (TES). TES is K-6, with enrollment of 300 students, two thirds are English language Learners, 98% free and reduced lunch, 60% McKinney-Vento Homeless, and 99.5% Navajo. The other .5% is African American and Caucasian.
A1. Implementation: In thinking about the day-to-day implementation of work processes, Fitzgerald discussed implementation of teaching and learning in the school. The school is unique because they have a high number of beginning teachers without backgrounds in education. Looking at the day-to-day implementation, Fitzgerald said: “You must look at the administrative
Stakeholder Requirements: The fact that students are supervised all the time meets stakeholder requirements in that the school is required by law to make sure students are safe, follow health codes, and ensure supervision. The principal mentioned that supervision can be tricky at times due to some of the high need students, including students with autism, and students with emotional disturbances who will sometimes wander off. You’ve got to have a system in place so that when a student wanders off you know what to do-call the office, do an all call to support staff. Recently, they had a student crisis where they had to evacuate the classroom because a student was chucking stuff across the room and hurting kids. TES has a process in place which includes evacuating the classroom, calling on the crisis team, they all go down together and support the student until they get the necessary help. All teachers on the crisis team receive special training like Mandt hold training so that students aren’t injured if the team has to physically intervene or restrain a student. Fitzgerald believes they are doing a great job implementing work processes like positive behavior and safety to meet stakeholder
Improvement of Process: The elementary knows the students are behind academically, and are having to make up lost time so to keep current with educational needs. Fitzgerald knows the gap will only increase because how schools are ranked by grade level is in comparison to other schools. As other schools get better and better, not only does TES have to make up for lost time, but continue above and beyond to keep up with schools that are not behind and improving every year. Therefore, specific things the school can do to improve processes is: Trauma informed practices and strategies school wide, so that every staff member that deals with kids understand trauma informed practices. Seventy Five percent of the student body has some form of trauma in their lives due to the lack of support services, education, alcoholism, drug use, and domestic violence. This summer the principal plans to put together a team, which will include a school counselor, social worker, school psychologist, and a number of teachers, who will put stuff together to implement the coming school year. The principal has a specialty in trauma training for adolescents due to her background in mental health