School Board burdens staff with frivolous requests

Our constituents want schools to maximize student achievement. However, Miami-Dade School Board members continue to proffer an extraordinary number of initiatives, recognitions, observances and celebrations that often are political and unnecessary.

Board members have presented about 144 proposals since the beginning of this year — and counting — untenable for an effective organization.

These are often actions the administration already is taking or required to do. They overburden school staff and sometimes divide our community. If our employees complied with all these impositions there would be no time for academic teaching and learning.

Staffers are held hostage to implementing these distractions. Our meetings are inefficient because of repetitive discussion of board members’ initiatives. Most districts and professional boards of directors do not allow these wasteful practices. Meanwhile, charter, parochial, virtual and private schools can be nimbler, seeing increases in enrollment while public schools hemorrhage students.

This district, excluding charters — the Board has no say in their policies and the Superintendent has no involvement in their day-to-day operations — has seen a significant drop in enrollment, only in part because of the pandemic. We are down 100,000 students from 10 years ago. Lately, the intrusion of politics frightens and polarizes parents.

Our primary goal is to provide academic instruction as financially responsibly as possible. Why make district schools less appealing to parents?

This story was originally published October 28, 2021 at 7:23 PM with the headline "School Board burdens staff with frivolous requests."