The leadership team meeting had the following goals: 1. Review and finalize a leadership team charter and establish team norms. 2. Identify areas for goal setting and distribute homework around goal setting. 3. Discuss the cycle of improvement model and how it guides the team's work. 4. Review the agenda for the next meeting, which will focus on reviewing goal setting homework and defining roles and responsibilities.

1. Leadership Team Meeting for Live Oak
March 2, 2010
4:30-5:30 PM
Agenda
By the conclusion of today’s activities members of the Live Oak Leadership Team will
• Review and come to consensus on a Leadership Team Charter
• Brainstorm and come to a consensus on Team and Meeting Norms
• Identify areas for goal setting and acquire goal setting homework
• Review next Leadership Teams Agenda items.
Time Topic Materials
4:30-4:40 Introductions, Agenda and Objective Review Agenda
4:40-4:50 TAP
4:50-5:00 Leadership Team Charter Charter Proposal
5:00-5:15 Leadership Team Norms Chart Paper
5:15-5:25 Goal Setting Cycle of Improvement Chart
Chart Paper
5:25-5:30 Review Agenda Items for Next Meeting
© 2008 New Leaders for New Schools and Educators for Social Responsibility 1
Culture And Climate Resource Materials
Compiled by New Leaders for New Schools
Working Draft As Of September 15, 2008

2. Building a High Performing Leadership Team
LEADERSHIP TEAM STANDARDS
I. CORE BELIEFS, VISION, AND MISSION
A. Each leadership team member believes that every child can reach high levels of academic excellence.
B. The team embraces that its primary focus is student learning.
C. The team has ambitious and measurable student achievement goals and a comprehensive plan for achieving those goals.
D. Each team member supports and upholds the school vision and mission for the school relentlessly throughout the year.
E. The team members ensure that standards, instruction, curriculum, assessment, and programs are aligned with the school
vision and student achievement goals.
II. CULTURE OF COLLABORATION
A. The leadership team values the role of staff members as partners in the effective functioning of the school; the role of
families as partners in the education of their children; and the role of the governing board as partners.
B. A system of communication to involve and inform all stakeholders is in place and used.
C. The processes and decisions of the team are transparent to all stakeholders.
D. The diversity of the school staff is reflected within the team.
E. The team aligns the work of the team to its relationship with other teams and structures in the school.
F. A climate of trust, respect and mutual accountability exists among the members of the school leadership team.
III. CYCLE OF IMPROVEMENT
A. A 4-step Cycle of Improvement is used to inform leadership team decisions: (1) Analyze Data, Diagnose and Plan; (2)
Implement; (3) Reflect; and (4) Adapt and Improve.
B. Team members facilitate the 4-step process for other teams in the school so that all staff use the Cycle of Improvement to
make decisions and inform their practice.
C. Time is made available for the learning of the 4-step process to occur – both within the leadership team meetings and in
other staff / team meetings throughout the school.
D. The team ensures that professional development is aligned with the needs identified by the Cycle of Improvement process.
IV. EFFECTIVE TEAM PROCCESSES
A. A set of ground rules / norms has been discussed and accepted, and each leadership team member abides by those rules.
B. Roles within the team are identified and rotated in order to share responsibilities and build leadership skills.
C. Team members understand the levels of decision-making; team consensus is the preferred method for decision-making.
D. Meeting agendas are developed with clear outcomes, specific timeframes and processes for achieving those outcomes.
E. Problem-solving and conflict resolution tools are used when appropriate; debriefing of difficult discussions and decisions is
held routinely.
F. At the end of each leadership team meeting, action steps and deadlines are identified, and the person responsible for each
step is noted; these action minutes are communicated to appropriate stakeholders in the wider school community.
G. An evaluation of each meeting is conducted for continuous improvement.
V. STRATEGIC PLANNING
A. The leadership team translates the vision and mission of the school into a step-by-step school improvement (action) plan.
B. The team sets priorities and allocates resources based upon these priorities.
C. In the school improvement plan, the team determines what success will look like by identifying the measures of progress.
D. A variety of data sources are used to monitor the school’s progress and the team uses technology to expedite the reporting
of data.
E. The team analyzes its data continuously to modify or refine its intervention strategies quickly.
F. The leadership team sets clear expectations for the performance of staff.
G. The team monitors student learning to evaluate the effectiveness of staff members and provides support (professional
development) to improve teaching.
H. The leadership team supports the administration in improving or removing underperforming staff.
© 2008 New Leaders for New Schools and Educators for Social Responsibility 2
Culture And Climate Resource Materials
Compiled by New Leaders for New Schools
Working Draft As Of September 15, 2008

3. Team Charter Proposal
The purpose of the leadership team is to ensure that all students at our school reach high levels
of academic achievement. The team will attempt to reach consensus for all major decisions.
When consensus can not be reached, the principal will make the final decision, with the ongoing
support of the entire team. Facilitator, recorder and time-keeper will be chosen at the beginning
of every meeting. Conflict that arises will be dealt with professionally and respectfully. One-on-
one conflict should be dealt with individually and then brought to the principal if unresolved.
Group conflict should be an agenda item for discussion, with the principal having been made
aware of the concern before the meeting.
Team Norms
What norms do we want to hold ourselves to in these meetings and in the way we act as a
team?
Agenda Items for Next Meeting
• Review Goal Setting Homework
• Meeting outcomes and agenda with Action minutes Ongoing
• Clear Roles and Responsibilities
© 2008 New Leaders for New Schools and Educators for Social Responsibility 3
Culture And Climate Resource Materials
Compiled by New Leaders for New Schools
Working Draft As Of September 15, 2008

4. Cycle Of Improvement
Adapt and Improve
What practices will we change?
The role of the leadership team
is to continuously make the case with all stakeholders
involved why this is the right work for the school,
to celebrate success along the way, to build the
capacity of others to lead and sustain the work and to
analyze the data and make changes in real time.
Analyze, Diagnose and Plan
What is the right work for our school at this
time?
The right work for a school touches the whole school-
every professional, every classroom, every day.
Diagnosis: Depending upon the focus—Data Driven
Reflect Instruction, Culture or Leadership Teams—utilize the
What have we learned so far? specific standards, assessments and diagnostic tools.
What new knowledge have we learned during Plan: A quality plan identifies clear and measurable
implementation? Do we have a new understanding goals, has a specific timetable, holds individuals
of our prior assumptions and practices? What accountable for implementation, identifies needed
changes do we need to make to our resources, and tracks progress along the way.
implementation plan?
Implement
How do we implement our plan with quality?
Quality implementation utilizes an efficient process to
build the expertise of staff as you go, direct resources to
your focus area, and changes practices.
© 2008 New Leaders for New Schools and Educators for Social Responsibility 4
Culture And Climate Resource Materials
Compiled by New Leaders for New Schools
Working Draft As Of September 15, 2008

5. © 2008 New Leaders for New Schools and Educators for Social Responsibility 5
Culture And Climate Resource Materials
Compiled by New Leaders for New Schools
Working Draft As Of September 15, 2008