If your plan needed revisions, we would like to know how parents participated in that process as well. JHS Principal Reginald Moss brought a crisis to one of our city's finest schools and most accomplished principals. Fortunately parents acted to protect the quality of their school. The M.M. Washington community was jolted last year by allegations of improper spending as well, but without a public outcry and chance for parents to evaluate whether the funds were used for students and school programs, that principal was fired. We hope the crisis has helped the school community look more closely at our concept of what is school-based management and the rules under which flexibility is possible.
Rules can be ambiguous.
The food service rules governing pizza sales are an example. USDA allows schools to seek waivers and contract with vendors to serve other than cafeteria food, such as pizza. Principals were not told they could subsidize their alternative food source to make it comply with the rules. Some rules have changed. For years, some PTAs and HSAs have used their own funds to hire staff for the school, such as teacher aides.