Leadership Structure at the Prairie Lands Writing Project Site, MO

Summary: This site leadership map shows how the Prarie Lands Writing Project describes their infrastructure—the work of the site and the people who lead the work. Read how they describe the thinking behind their organizational structure—including the design for site governance (advisory board, teacher-consultant council, etc.) and the site's relationship with its host institution.

The boxes and lines on our accompanying Prairie Lands site map (see below) may suggest that our site operates more hierarchically than its collaborative/collegial reality. Twenty-nine active, insightful, and collegial educators serve on our 2006–2007 Advisory Board, representing all teaching levels and all of the geographic regions of our service area. Our Advisory Board meets for dinner and planning at Missouri Western State University three times each year.

Jane Frick, Missouri Western English professor, became Prairie Lands' third site director in May 1999; she coordinates Prairie Lands' offerings and publications as a part of the one-fourth reallocation the college grants her, teaching three instead of four courses per semester and volunteering her time during the summer months. The St. Joseph School District provides a one-tenth load reallocation for our Program Director, Terri McAvoy (St. Joseph Skaith Accelerated Elementary School grade two lead teacher). The Platte County R-III School District allows Heidi Mick (high school language arts teacher and forensics coach) at least five professional development days to participate in writing project meetings and conferences and to leave school during her scheduled end-of-the-day planning period as needed for Prairie Lands site work. We pay stipends to our other site leaders for their Writing Project work.

Download "Prarie Lands Writing Project Site Map"