Conclusion Focus Question 3
What would you consider to be your school's greatest challenges?
- The greatest challenge faced by this school is reporting to two systems (the university as well as the parish). We are a public school that falls also under a private school since students ay tuition. The teacher’s salaries are paid by the parish; the Director, music, art, and PE teachers along with the school secretary and media aid are paid by the university via student tuition. The problem we have is whenever we need additional supplies or material there is confustion about who is responsible. As we speak, we are in need of a bookkeeper. Which sysem will pay the salary is now being considered.
- Another challenge is the need to increase personnel to better serve the students. One barrier faced by small schools is the allocated number of teachers. Since we are a small school, we have maxed out with the number of teachers allocated to the school. Unlike other schools who can combine classes, or who receive additional funds from Title 1 and are able to hire additional teachers, we are unable to do either. And even though we are small, we need the same types of teachers our larger colleagues have. We would like to offer Algebra 1 but we cannot hire an additional teacher. We would like to offer Spanish for grades 6-8, but we cannot hire an additional teacher in this area as well. Making allowances for smaller schools with regards to personnel is an area we are in need of assistance.