DoDEA Proposal for School Resource Managers is Unnecessary, Unsound
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DoDEA Proposal to Hire 159 Unnecessary "Resource Managers"
In a memo to DoDEA staff that became public in late April, DoDEA Director Dr. Shirley Miles introduced her proposal to place 159 "Resource Manager" positions at DoDEA schools with enrollments of at least 250 students.
You can read that memo, along with Dr. Miles' memos on cutting kindergarten aides and drastically increasing middle school class sizes, at the Stars & Stripes Web site.
In the memo, Dr. Miles states that the Resource Managers will assist principals with various logistical and financial school requirements. Among the duties the Resource Managers would handle are Facilities Management (asbestos coordinator, project planning and construction, student meal program, student transportation, property accountability, etc.) and Supervision of the School Support Assistants for supplies (handling things such as the Government Purchase Card program, supplies and supply room, and coordinating copier maintenance).
The Resource Manager (RM) positions proposed by Dr. Miles are redundant and completely unnecessary. All of the duties in the RM job description are currently handled by other DoDEA employees or school committees. The RM will be nothing more than an unneeded administrative position.
In comments to the media, Dr. Miles said she is creating these positions to free up principals and assistant principals from doing paperwork and other jobs better left to others. She said she wants principals to spend more time in the classroom "evaluating teachers and helping the teachers instruct the students. I believe that the principal should be the lead instructor." (quote from Stars & Stripes article, available here.)
Principals are not "lead instructors." One person cannot serve as the "lead instructor" for every subject in a school. The job of principals and assistant principals is to handle the administrative tasks in the RM job description. Teachers have numerous paperwork burdens and additional tasks assigned to them that prevent them from focusing more of their time on educating students. Why is Dr. Miles so concerned with easing the paperwork burden on administrators but not on the educators at the classroom level?
Instead of providing real relief and assistance at the classroom level -- the only level at which learning takes place -- Dr. Miles simultaneously proposed a drastic increase in class sizes for DoDEA middle schools and a new formula for Full Day Kindergarten staffing that would see teachers losing their classroom aides, leaving them to handle more children by themselves. The result for both middle school and kindergarten students will be less individual attention from teachers.