Courtney R. Johnson

Special Assistant |High School Leadership Team |Assignments

 

Leadership

Assists in planning and implementing staff development and transferring skills to principals and teachers.

I lead and plan sessions for the High School Leadership Team (HSLT) meetings for the Principals, Vice Principals, and Department Chairs. Based on guidance from Dr. Ortiz, I meet with the other SAs and Clerk to frame the agenda. Once completed, the agenda is reviewed and revised by Dr. Ortiz. After that process, I meet with each presenter individual or with colleagues to ensure alignment with the Next Decade and the departmental goals.

Possess knowledge of educational principles, theories, and practices.

As the Senior Special Assistant, the technical assistance and recommendations provided to date aligns with educational theories and practices. To ensure influence, it is critical that shifts progress in the area of transformation leadership from the HSLT. In the beginning much of the approach and style consisted of The Instructional Leader must focus on student improvement through fostering relationships, personal commitment, and strategic planning. I have led by modeling appropriate interaction with the principals, even during challenging situations. As a result, the team remains focus on priorities to promote positive outcomes.

I am striving to improve in managing the pulling priorities by designing systems between the Special Assistants to ensure systems are in place to track student growth and development. For example, we are creating a coaching tracker to monitor the supports extended to the school leaders. Additionally, making the Next Decade Touchpoint tracker will also help monitor alignment between departmental and district goals. 

 

Establish and maintain effective working relationships with administrative and school site personnel.

While I engage with central office and school based personnel throughout the district, my assigned schools consist of West Side High School, American History High School, University High School, Newark School of Global Studies, Arts High School, Newark Vocational High School, and Technology High School. Ranging from the school clerks, head custodians, technology coordinators, DC, and Principal, I support the school based staff accordingly. My relationships with central office personnel ranges from Office of Safety, Teaching and Learning, Human Resources, Student Support, and Information Technology. Collectively, we plan sessions involving assessments and PLCs, secure data/reports, or assist with requests needed for the state and/or local agencies—CTEs and Dual Enrollment. 

I lead the Math Success Initiative (MSI) with NJIT. MSI is a duel enrollment program that offers pre-calculus and calculus courses to students attending Central HS, Technology HS, Science Park HS, West Side HS, and Malcolm X Shabazz HS. I meet weekly with Dr. Alexander and communicate concerns/updates. Currently we are drafting the MOU for SY 2020-21 and working on recruitment strategies based on observations from the current academic year. Another component to this program is the staff development that the math teachers attend from each of these five sites. I attend as the district liaison and communicate outcomes with the Principals.

 

Provides technical assistance to principals and teachers.

I provide technical assistance to Principals, VPs, DCs, support staff, and teachers. Most recently, technical assistance included demonstrating how to run the Demand Report via SchoolMint and Transitional Grade Report via Tableau. These details are needed to support each school with their respective enrollment recruitment strategies. It is imperative that schools fill the seats allocated for their site. Some schools have exceeded their capacity while others have not. In this case, I provided them with the list of the 8th grade students (approximately 20%) who have not applied to any of the high schools. From there the school can invite the student and their family to attend a virtual session to learn more about the high school and register for the upcoming school year. Additionally, I shared the report with each principal consist of the first choice commitments as it is critical that the school maintains contact to ensure that the student remains with the school. Students have until the end of January to switch school rankings. This can become problematic for high schools that are challenged in this area. Prior to this, outreach I worked along with the Office of Student Life (Supervisor of School Counselors and Supervisor Social Workers) to plan and track the number of presentations the Principals completed to promote their sites to the 8th grade students.

Service Oriented

Communicates information between schools and school leadership teams.

Through use of the HSLT Google Classroom, information is pushed out to the Principals and appointed staff in the following areas: management and coaching of instructional staff, organizational leadership, transformational leadership, curriculum, assessment, and instruction, and student and family support. I share communications between external and internal agencies in this shared platform. In addition, posts and assignments are monitored to minimize duplication of requests, increase productivity and streamlining. This was a huge undertaking in August to create this method of communication which the HSLT launched in September.

 

Facilitates obtaining resources from Central Office.

This encompasses completion of work orders, securing a project manager to oversee large projects at a high school, delivery of Chromebooks or hotspots, and materials needed for opening day. For example, I lead eight walkthroughs between September and October to assess whether or not the high school sites were ready to receive students in-person. There were materials lacking as well as operational systems that were not put into place. This required a great deal of follow-up to yield results. In September 1 out of 4 schools were ready for openings. In October 4 out of 4 schools were recommended for reopening.

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Assists in assessing the educational, financial and managerial needs of the schools.

I review and provide guidance regarding budget transfer requests and requisitions. Previous projects concerning this area of focus have included drafting MOUs with external partners to ensure alignment with district pricing. Finally, preparing and drafting a modeled budget presentation for the Principals to access in preparation of the upcoming budget presentation. In regards to the managerial aspects, I have assist with the recruitment and selection of the two principals of the new high schools opening in the fall.

 

Quality of Work

Perform other duties as assigned.

Prepare clear, concise correspondence and reports containing findings, conclusions, and recommendations to the Superintendent and Deputy’s Office.

Computer and technical skills result in managing the virtual sessions held with an audience consisting of 20-98 participants via Webex.

Oversee the submission of request to internal stakeholders. Once published on the Principal Point’s Newsletter, I will reach of the requester to secure the submissions and work closely with the Principal so that the high school network is in compliance. This approach was established following routine challenges with some leaders submitting paperwork on time