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 KASA members, Kelly Middleton and Elizabeth Petitt are the authors of the newly published book, Who Cares? Improving Public Schools Through Relationships and Customer Service.
Who Cares? is a call to arms for all proponents of public schools: administrators, teachers, support staff and unions. School choice advocates are growing at an alarming rate with more and more students fleeing public education. As public schools continue to lose students, including some of the best and brightest, one must ask the question, Why? If public schools don’t change to look at the needs of our students and their parents – our “customers,” then the fallout for those of us in public schools, including those in the retirement ranks could mirror some of the changes occurring in the business world.
Who Cares? provides a rationale, encouraging schools to focus on the most important “R” in the schoolhouse – relationships. For those concerned about reducing achievement gaps, one of the common threads identified in educational literature is the importance of relationships, especially when those relationships are coupled with high expectations. Many espouse the importance of relationships in a school, but few articulate how to systematically address it. Who Cares? offers hope with real world, customer service examples and practices that have been implemented in one public school district in the battle to win back students.
Who Cares? will be available for purchase at the KASA conference bookstore, July 16-18, 2008. Kelly Middleton and Elizabeth Petitt will also be onsite to sign books Thursday, July 17.
Kelly is the associate superintendent of Mason County Schools and Elizabeth is the assistant superintendent of Mason County Schools. Both are longtime members of KASA.
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