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Clinical Field Experience E: Strategic Leadership and Management Functions in Practice

Grand Canyon University: EAD-536

Shanaye Packineau-Williams

Dr. Denis Geier

January 19, 2022

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In this week’s field experience, I was able to talk with my mentor and our school’s

business manager about strategies that they use to maintain a presence in the community to gain

a better understanding of the need, and how to engage community resources for the school. We

also discussed the ethical responsibilities of the school administrators in stewarding school

resources and aligning them with the vision and mission of the school. My mentor expressed to

me that managing and balancing budgets can be a challenge at times, but is an essential area of

being a leader in stewarding the school resources. Whether it is managing contracts, budgets, or

donations, there is a process that either goes through Human Resources (HR), the administration

team, schoolboard/district, or site business manager. She explained that everyone has a specific

role depending on the type of resources being managed. Funding that is from federal and state is

managed by the school board of the district, business administrator and administration team.

These funds must go toward things like: supplies, enrichment, salaries, and anything or programs

that are to support academic success. We talked about donations, and how donations to the

school are usually managed by HR, business administration and administration team. She

explained to me that HR is generally included because the donations may be designated to a

specific area or department. She is obligated to ensure that the funds donated are used for that

designated area. For example: if funds are donated to the teacher’s fund, HR ensure that the

funds are used for the teachers fund. Non-monetary donations like clothing etc., are monitored

by the head of the specific department that the donations are made to, business administrator of

the site, and HR. My mentor expressed to me that it is important to always tie everything that we

do in the school with the school’s vision and mission to correspond with academic success. Our

school specifically meets one time a month as a site council and meets about the school budget,

tax donations, and where funds are being used when the donations are made towards the area of
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“school may designate”. With the school council, there are parents, teachers, administration, the

business administrator, and members of the community present. In the site council meetings,

there is full transparency, along with accountability. This helps with building relationships with

stakeholders within our school. In this, we also discuss ways to get the community involved

more and how the school can be more involved in the community to build relationships. This is

one of the strategies that can be used to get the community involved along with opening up the

school for holiday carnivals, festivals, and activities! She stated that the district and

administration try to actively participated in event ran by the community. These are all strategies

that are used to maintain a presence in the community at our school and engage resources.

This field experience corresponds directly with PSEL standard 2a) “Act ethically and

professionally in personal conduct, relationships with others, decision-making, stewardship of

the school’s resources, and all aspects of school leadership.” (PSEL, 2015 p.16). Through

building relationships with the community, it helps the school understand the students and

families to gain a better understanding of how to best reach and delegate resources for the

students’ well-being and academic success. It also corresponds with PSEL standard 8, “Effective

educational leaders engage families and the community in meaningful, reciprocal, and mutually

beneficial ways to promote each student’s academic success and well-being.” (PSEL, 2015 p.22).

By being a leader who is present, approachable, and makes an effort to reach the families so that

they are able to benefit and have ownership for academic success is essential. In my future

professional practices, I plan to make an effort to be involved in the community and building

relationships to ensure that I am meeting the needs of my stakeholders to benefit the well-being

to promote academic success within my school.

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Resources

Standards, P. S. E. L. (2015). Professional standards for educational leaders. Professional

Standards for Educational Leaders. Retrieved January 20, 2022, from
http://www.npbea.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Professional-Standards-for-
Educational-Leaders_2015.pdf