LQS 1-Fostering Effective Relationships “A leader builds positive working relationships with members of the school community and local community.” (Alberta Education, Leadership Quality Standard, 2018, p.4). What are the characteristics of ethical leadership? Ethical leadership to me is based on a foundation of trust, authenticity, reliability, openness, and competence. If I was to put one characteristic above the rest, I would say that is would be trust. I feel if you have this from your staff, students and parents, you can accomplish big things. A trustworthy leader is honest and will accept responsibility for the good as well as the mistakes. I think all the other ones will fall inline if trust is put at the front of all leadership characteristics. What ethical leadership inspires me? In my career, I have worked under many administrators all with unique leadership styles. When I think of ethical leadership, each one of them had varying strengths in different aspects of ethical leadership that inspired me. At the school where I spent most of my career, I respected the leadership of that administrator for his unwavering ability to show his staff that he supported them, their decisions and visions for the school. He had the ability to clearly create a strong school vision and foster a collaborative team that felt they were valuable stakeholders in the school. My current administrator that I work alongside of each is day is the one that inspires me the most with regards to relationships, collaboration and trust. I watch her lead with her eyes and ears and less with her mouth. She models the behaviors she wishes to see in her staff, students and parental community. She has the trust of the staff, and the community even when she must communicate tough news. It is the trust of her staff that allows her to lead during rough and uncertain times with great success. How have you/do you/would you involve parents in a meaningful way? Parent meetings, interviews, parent council, volunteer opportunities, are all way to involve parents. Parents as partners during our home learning right now is creating new opportunities to work with our parents. It is imperative to understand that our parents have the greatest vested interest in our students next to the teacher, their voices matter the most. What challenges have you faced/do you anticipate regarding parent involvement? In my context, I deal with parents that are economically, culturally and mentally struggling. They truly love their children and want what is best. However, at times their abilities to support their child, and rationally see what is best for their child are barriers for myself as an administrator. It is hard to be neutral, to support these parents when I can at times be judgmental and let my emotions impeded on my decisions. I have to learn to sit, listen and judge less. I need to remind myself that these parents are doing the best with the tools they have. At the same time, it is hard to find parents to get involved in parent council that feel confident, have the language skills or the wellness to be involved in their child’s education. What is your division’s policy/position on the principal speaking directly to the media? My division has a policy that we go through our media coordinator for the district. If there was concern, I would call my superintendent and my communication officer and together we would navigate the media. How does your school/division/workplace rate using this protocol? It is the directive that the division goals and the school goals align. Administrators present the school year plans to the school division and to our parents. These plans are our way of demonstrating our plan of action based on School Division direction and our Accountability Pillar Results. Collaborative Culture is built through our planned generative dialogue with teachers, EAs and with Administrators. We create growth plans based on the TQS or the LQS and identify areas for growth. Teachers join together in collaborative communities to work on similar growth areas. There is time dedicated in our yearly calendar across the district for all staff to work on their growth plans, for generative dialogue with colleagues and administrators. Dedicated time for these communities is a culture that has been built on the value that "teachers will commit to continuous learning in enhancing their practice when they are given time to engage in generative dialogue in which they can reflect more deeply and make more purposeful decision" (Adams, Mombourquette &Townsend 2019, p.45). Deep learning occurs when teachers are leaders within their school. Commitment to engage in committee across the district and to then share learning with their peers fosters deep learning. We have common assessments in math and literacy across the district that we use to measure performance and set goals for growth. To honour these assessments and their value, time is provided for teachers to use assessment results to collaborate, create continuums of learning and set goals for growth. I believe our teachers are looking for ways to increase student engagement and the varied assessment tools and data does help in this process. Our Accountability survey from students, teachers and parents is one way we get feedback on our schools’ area for growth and celebrations for success. The students’ portion is bit unreliable as they need the survey to be read to them or students need to be encouraged to take the considerate amount of time to complete it. Unfortunately, practices to ensure survey completion, takes away from the reliability of the survey. However, I believe the results from teachers and parents is reliable and the information does help guide our actions and decisions for our school. Looking at our results this year, I clearly can see the area for growth and have a good understanding the why and how to our areas that require attention. The survey holds the administrators accountable and this year our results and the areas for growth are directly related to decisions made within our administration team. Without the opportunity for feedback we would not have an fully understood the impact our decisions had on the school community.