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A local school district has convened a positive youth development task force. The task force is a partnership between the district and the university and is supported by funding from both. The task force contains five full-members and five adjunct members. The five full-members attend meetings every month. The goal of the task force is to provide recommendations to the district regarding integration of positive youth development principles into school environments, including academics and extracurricular activities. The district serves predominately low-income youth and families. Both graduation and college entrance rates for this community are lower than the state averages.

The five full-time members of the team are listed below:

Professor Towne: Professor Towne is from the university and is an expert in youth development. Professor Towne has worked in this field for over 30 years.

Mrs. Nidal: Mrs. Nidal is a teacher with over 20 years of experience at the largest public high school in the district. She has been recognized by the district for excellent service.

Mr. Hernandez: Mr. Hernandez is the vice-principal of an elementary school in the district. He also coordinates the district’s extra-curricular activities. He is new to the district, a recent graduate with a Master’s in Education.

Mr. Bradley: Mr. Bradley is the coordinator of a mentoring program. He works both at the university and at the same school as Mrs. Nidal. The program brings in college students to mentor high school students. Mr. Bradley has coordinated this program for five years.

Maya Soto: Maya Soto is the youth member of the taskforce. She is in the 10th grade and is the 10th grade class president and a member of the volleyball team. She is also a participant in Mr. Bradley’s mentoring program. The task force has met four times this year. They have six more meetings until their work needs to be submitted to the district for review. So far they have completed a review of research and have an outline for providing recommendations to the district. The first few times the task force met, the discussion was dominated by Mrs. Nidal and Mr. Hernandez. Their conversation tended to drift into school and district reform efforts, school budget cuts, etc. Maya often remains quiet through most of the discussion. Professor Towne feels like they are losing time and need to focus more on the task at hand and making final recommendations for the district.

Discussion Questions:

1. What ledership styleas could be developed in this situation?
2. What are the primary leadership challenges facing the task force?
3. How could the taskforce make mid-course corrections to be more effective?
4. Which kind of style do you think a leader would need to be effective in this situation?