[speedgibson] Speed Gibson: Starting my T.E.R.M. Paper

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Posted by Speed Gibson:
Starting my T.E.R.M. Paper
http://speedgibson.powerblogs.com/posts/1226022982.shtml


   [cooltext_TERM.jpg] The elections are over. The District 281
   Referendum passed, both questions. It's time to get back to what was
   my original intent in studying the District this past year. It's time
   to write my T.E.R.M. paper, where I will develop a Transparent
   Expenditure Reporting Model for making the District 281 financials
   more understandable by the general public.
   I will do this gradually, of course. The District's 2008-2009 budget
   is almost 200 pages. The T.E.R.M. paper should be more like a typical
   corporate annual report to shareholders, and no larger. That's a lot
   of cabbage to boil down.
   ***
   I begin with a story from my corporate youth, when I worked for the
   Northwest's Great Store: Dayton's. The management always had a clear
   dichotomy in its structure and operation: sales and sales supporting.
   That applied to people, expenses, capital, even square feet. This
   wasn't meant to snub the support aspects. It was to keep us all
   focused on the customer, who almost totally dealt with sales people on
   the floor. If a customer bought it, a salesperson sold it.
   If you weren't on the front lines making sales, you were there to
   support those who were. We bought the goods, mopped the floors, manned
   the receiving dock, dipped the strawberries, designed the store
   windows, ran the computers, kept the books, and developed - Santa
   Bear!
   Everything we did in sales support was to make the store a destination
   for our customers and give the salespeople what they needed to keep
   them coming to Dayton's.
   ***
   So it is with education, that most basic of human interactions that
   differentiates us from the animal kingdom: a teacher teaching a
   learning learner. Just as the salesperson was the focal point of
   Dayton's, so is the teacher the focal point of K-12 education. And if
   you're not a teacher, you're doing something to help that teacher.
   Let me go further, for some may think they are directly serving the
   children, driving the school bus or preparing lunch for example. Not
   really, not in my T.E.R.M. view. The bus driver brings the students to
   the teacher. The luncheon cook satisfies primal hunger so the students
   can function better in the afternoon. Without a teacher, there is no
   point in a school organization driving children around or preparing
   meals for them. L'insegnante è tutto!