By Horatio Glover ’26
A school administration plays a crucial role in ensuring that the school operates smoothly by having a safe learning environment and always having constant support for students, staff, and parents. Through collaboration with staff, administrators can create policies and practices that help shape the school’s climate and culture. This is no different at Derby High School.
With decision-making playing a huge role in a school and how the school operates, one wrong decision could set the school back and put it in a difficult situation. It takes a lot to make the right decision. However, Derby helps get past this challenge by having a collaborative process. “Mrs. Olson is the building leader, as the principal, she is responsible for making decisions. She has a very collaborative approach, so she definitely touches base with me as the assistant principal pretty much in every decision that she makes.’’ The school also has a ‘’Climate and Culture Committee, which consists of volunteer staff members that work kind of as a focus group or a subcommittee to assist with things of that nature,’’ Coplin said.
Decision making isn’t the only thing an administration does; they also help support their staff. DHS admin does this by splitting up the administration into three pieces.
One piece is the special education teachers and paraprofessionals that are under Brigitta Abakumova, Special Education Supervisor. The last two are supporting general education teachers. That’s handled by Coplin and Olson however, Mr. Coplin handles mainly support-related issues: ‘’Me having a background as a former school counselor, I take a lot of the support stuff,’’ Coplin said.
One big problem that is destined to occur and the school administration must handle is students and parents who have problems and or concerns in school. However, communication is key: students ‘’should go to the teacher first, depending on what the problem is. It should go to the teacher first, then to administration, then to Dr. Conway as a superintendent, and then to the Board of Education,’’said Coplin. It all really depends on what the problem is, but it should be addressed by the teachers first. If the problem is with a ‘’decision that administration has made or discipline, then typically people reach out to central office and speak to Dr. Conway,’’ said Coplin.
The primary goal for an administration always is to ensure that teaching is effective and that school is a safe and welcoming place to help have a positive school environment. Derby personally ‘’wants to ensure that staff morale and student morale is as high as possible so that people want to be in the building which then allows for the teaching and learning to happen’’ said Coplin.
Safety is a top priority in any administration, and Derby ensure safety by implementing new policies that help maintain a safe learning environment. However, some policies the school wants, the administration can’t just put in place. They’ll need approval from the Board of Education. Like cellphone cubbies, so they were ‘’piloted by five teachers and, are now going to be in an additional 15 classrooms. So removing the distraction piece, whether that be disruptive behavior, cell phones, anything that obviously detracts from the teacher’s instruction,’’ said Coplin.
Throughout the year, the DHS administration works hard to help maintain a safe and welcoming learning environment for all.
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