What role did site-based management play in Shorecrests restructuring efforts?
Few of the changes to Shorecrest’s instructional program would have been possible without a decision-making body at the school site. Such a body has existed at Shorecrest, in one form or another, since it won the “Schools for the 21st Century” grant in 1988. The “Shorecrest 21st Century Leadership Team” met weekly during the six years of the grant (1988-1994) to plan for the implementation of the major goals of the grant. The team was originally comprised of nine teachers, one administrator, and four students. District funds provided release time for teachers to meet. In 1994, as the grant was expiring, the Shoreline School District implemented site-based management throughout the district. As it currently functions, Shorecrest’s Site Council is largely a successor to the early Leadership Committee, although membership and the group meeting times have changed. Principal Susan Dersé thinks of Shorecrest’s fifteen-member Site Council as the “conscience of the school.” Comprised of three
