“We are rocking and rolling trying to push forward to Thanksgiving Break.”
For Jack Parker, his team and their charges at White Oak ISD, it’s been a busy Fall semester – his first in the district’s central seat.
Granted, Parker was embedded in school leadership long before he was tapped as ‘Lone Finalist’ Aug. 8 and officially signed on Sept. 5. He’d had the reins in hand since late May.
“The Fall has been super busy with the band state championship,” Parker said last week, just one recent accolade: “Our FFA teams won the sweepstakes for the (Leadership Development Events) – we were district champions in that area,” in addition to a successful volleyball season and much-improved football.
“We’re really getting to the part of the year where we’re starting to assess our students, gain some data on where we are and make a plan to push forward to STAAR in the Spring.”
Another hallmark of the Fall 2024 semester has been a focus on leaders, with a handful first- and second-year principals and assistants in various posts.
“We have worked a lot this Fall on leadership development and the relationships we build with each other to try to support each other,” he said. “I think when you grow as a team and you build trust in one another, that is a tremendous asset to a leadership team.
“It leads to consistency and trying to handle not only the academic side but situations that may arise consistently.”
Parker’s focus is on servant leadership.
“I want our people to know we’re doing everything we can to remove obstacles despite a lack of funding from the state,” he said. “Most schools are in that boat: inflation’s up 20 percent yet the school allotment has not gone up for several years. We’re all dealing with budget shortfalls and less money to do things with,” hoping state legislators make good decisions in the Spring.
White Oak’s had its share of budgetary challenges, and the school’s administrators have been chipping away at their problems. They’re seeing light at the end of the tunnel – last week’s visit from the ISD’s auditors went well.
“We did get some positive feedback. We feel like we’re in a much better place this year than last year with our audit. We’ll know when that report is done and back to us.”
Finances are top priority – hoping for relief from the state, working to manage the budget and ensuring controls are solid while taking care of students and their needs.
Academics are a close second right now.
“We have room to grow as every district does, and we put a lot of focus on what we can do to bring our kids up to the next level. Hence the leadership meetings. We’ve done a lot of diving into the areas we’d like to improve.”
The next component is to create an atmosphere at the school in which students, teachers and school employees thrive.
“Over the next year, (the goal) is of course to maintain and try to increase our fund balance, to give students the best education we can,” he added. “Over five years, we would like for our financial side in our fund balance to grow significantly while maintaining the same level of funding or more funding to our students in our programs,” looking to make gains in extra- and co-curriculars.
“Another challenge we’ll face is our facilities. Our buildings are, of course, getting older every year, and we’re trying to maintain those as best we can.”
Full or partial renovations are ahead as district leaders consider what the school will look like 10, 15 and 20 years down the road.
“Our strength here is our students. We’ve got great kids. Right behind that is our staff. We have fantastic teachers, great support people in place,” Parker said. Great parents, too, and the school gets a lot of support, he added, a huge plus: “This is a great community. There’s a lot of opportunity here.”
- By James Draper