Communication, the Missing Ingredient

This writer feels that communication is a very significant aspect of the educational process. Upon assuming the principalship at Winchester High School, action was undertaken to aid the development of good lines of communication between the administration, faculty, student body and community. Basically, four distinct steps were pursued in an attempt to develop and improve upon the communication system at Winchester High School. The first step concerned itself with the development of a comprehensive new Student Handbook. It was immediately obvious to this writer that the rules and regulations for the daily operation of Winchester High School needed to be spelled out for the student body and thus communicate to them how the administration expected them to get along while in attendance at school. This was done with the development of the Student Handbook which has received yearly revisions as needed. A second step that was undertaken in an attempt to develop the above-mentioned lines of communication centered itself around administration-faculty communication. Again, upon assuming the duties of principal at Winchester High School, it became obvious to this writer that there had not been good conmunication between the administration and faculty in the past. Thus, a systematic series of informative and directional faculty meetings were instituted. The result of this action has taken the form of a communication link that allows the administration and faculty to come together once a week to set the pace for the week\u27s activities. A third step that was pursued by this writer in an attempt to improve communication within Winchester High School involved the open door policy. From the start of this writer\u27s tenure at Winchester High School, faculty, staff and students have been encouraged to stop by the office when questions or concerns needed to be aired to the administration. In this way, accessibility to the principal is available for allwho care to take advantage of it. In this writer\u27s estimation, the open door policy has been a significant step in the development of communication at Winchester High School that has become more useful to all that are involved as time has passed. A final communication type developed by this writer concerned itself with teacher evaluation. No better way exists, in this writer\u27s mind, to communicate between the administration and faculty members than to evaluate in a constructive manner the work of the individuals that are employed to teach in a particular school. Upon assuming the duties of principal at Winchester High School, a system of teacher evaluation was instituted. This system has been revised as needed and now takes the form of goal setting activities that are developed through the cooperation of both the administration and the faculty members. All of the activities mentioned above have been undertaken with the explicit goal of helping to improve communication at all levels of involvement and interest within the Winchester High School. The following sections of this paper will endeavor to describe how communication lines were fully developed. An additional attempt will be made to evaluate the results of the communication that were developed. Recommendations will also be made as how best to continue and possibly improve upon the communication system in place at Winchester High School