This is a question that educators are asked all of the time. "What do you do in the summer?" Well, the truth is that summer is busy, busy, busy. Today I visited Brewer Elementary and Clubview Elementary. At both schools the custodians were busy stripping and waxing floors, cleaning baseboards, and shampooing carpets. Believe it or not, a few teachers were around working in their rooms. Some teachers will be changing grade levels and they wanted to get a head start on moving to a different classroom; some just have to get their rooms set up! They have already been working on bulletin boards and arranging their rooms. Knowing that there will be only three pre-planning days, teachers will begin getting just a little antsy from about now until the the middle of July and they will begin showing up at their buildings, ready to get started. The classroom begins calling their names . . . !
I visited Academic Success Center today. Summer school was in full swing and students were coming and going between the two sessions. It was great to tour that old building - if only the walls could talk! I would love for us to be able to restore it to its original glory! Dr. Webb and I had a great conversation about the value of alternative programs and how important it is to save young people one at a time if you have to. They are worth the hard work and the expense!
But, back to getting ready for school to start . . .
Plant services and principals know that I expect everything to be in great shape on the first day of school. We should welcome our students back with freshly cut lawns, shiny waxed floors, clean carpets, great bulletin boards, supplies in place, and spotless restrooms. Every year we have to spend time reviewing the handbooks and reviewing the rules, but we should also begin teaching school on Day One! Schedules should be ready for implementation and we should hit the ground running! There may be a few changes during the first few days, but we do not have any time to waste. Our sense of urgency about the work that we do must be evident from the moment students walk in the door.
I can't wait for the students to return. A new school year is a new opportunity to make a difference and to help students reach their goals. August 6 will be here before we know it!
Monday, June 29, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Board of Education Retreat
This past Saturday the Board of Education met in a retreat/planning session from 9:00 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. at the Columbus Public Library. The purpose of a planning session such as this is to allow the board to discuss trends, opportunities, issues, and ideas without the time restraints of a formal meeting. The session is open to the public and no action is taken. This format allows for good discussion and allows for the board to give the administration some direction for moving forward. This was the second retreat since I have become Superintendent and the board is committed to having these sessions twice a year.
During this session the board heard several proposals. Dr. Cleo Griswould, Principal at Kendrick High School, led a presentation developed by a committee of principals on their ideas in trying to control cell phone usage by students. The committee did a great job of developing procedures for each school to use. The board asked that the committee consider alternatives to out-of-school suspension and asked that the first offense punishment be more severe (take the student's phone for more than a day!). The committee will meet again and refine the recommendations, bring them back to the board at a regular meeting. The procedures will then be communicated to students and parents. All middle and high schools will use a consistent process to deal with this issue. I will also post the final recommendation on this blog site and ask that parents in the Muscogee County School District provide their input.
The Board also heard our recommendations on some new personnel policy changes. We will be bringing those to the Board in July. Currently the board has a policy which doesn't allow spouses to work in the same school. We have recommended and the board has agreed by consensus that we shouldn't prohibit spouses from working in the same building. We must prohibit, of course, individuals from supervising close family members so we will bring back a policy with these changes.
You will be hearing more about a lab school at CSU. Dr. David Rock brought to the board an idea that he and I have been talking about for more than a year. We will begin working on the legal aspects and the institutional aspects of this idea to see if we can bring it to fruition. The school would be built on CSU campus but would be a Muscogee County School District School. The staff would consist of a partnership between the school district and the university. There are many, many, many legal and bureacratic issues to be worked out before embarking on fulfilling this dream, but we are going to see what we can do. Keep your eyes and ears open to hear more about it.
The Board also was able to see a slide show of the great events that occurred in Muscogee County Schools during the past school year. It was inspiring! The public school experience cannot be measured in a single test score and it was evident by the video that we are helping children become good citizens, patriots, servant-leaders, as well as good academic students. thank you to the Division of Academics for sharing this with us!
The retreat was a success! We will now move on to implementing some of the ideas, refining some policies, and getting ready for the new school year. I can't wait for the students to return. We'll be ready!!!!!
During this session the board heard several proposals. Dr. Cleo Griswould, Principal at Kendrick High School, led a presentation developed by a committee of principals on their ideas in trying to control cell phone usage by students. The committee did a great job of developing procedures for each school to use. The board asked that the committee consider alternatives to out-of-school suspension and asked that the first offense punishment be more severe (take the student's phone for more than a day!). The committee will meet again and refine the recommendations, bring them back to the board at a regular meeting. The procedures will then be communicated to students and parents. All middle and high schools will use a consistent process to deal with this issue. I will also post the final recommendation on this blog site and ask that parents in the Muscogee County School District provide their input.
The Board also heard our recommendations on some new personnel policy changes. We will be bringing those to the Board in July. Currently the board has a policy which doesn't allow spouses to work in the same school. We have recommended and the board has agreed by consensus that we shouldn't prohibit spouses from working in the same building. We must prohibit, of course, individuals from supervising close family members so we will bring back a policy with these changes.
You will be hearing more about a lab school at CSU. Dr. David Rock brought to the board an idea that he and I have been talking about for more than a year. We will begin working on the legal aspects and the institutional aspects of this idea to see if we can bring it to fruition. The school would be built on CSU campus but would be a Muscogee County School District School. The staff would consist of a partnership between the school district and the university. There are many, many, many legal and bureacratic issues to be worked out before embarking on fulfilling this dream, but we are going to see what we can do. Keep your eyes and ears open to hear more about it.
The Board also was able to see a slide show of the great events that occurred in Muscogee County Schools during the past school year. It was inspiring! The public school experience cannot be measured in a single test score and it was evident by the video that we are helping children become good citizens, patriots, servant-leaders, as well as good academic students. thank you to the Division of Academics for sharing this with us!
The retreat was a success! We will now move on to implementing some of the ideas, refining some policies, and getting ready for the new school year. I can't wait for the students to return. We'll be ready!!!!!
Sunday, June 14, 2009
School Board Summer Conference
I have just returned from the Georgia School Boards Association's Annual Summer Conference in Savannah. The sessions were very good about Board of Education policy development, about laws which were passed by the last session of the General Assemby that affect school system operations, and about raising the rigor and relevance of instruction. One of the speakers, George Thompson, from the Schlecty Group, was in Columbus just a week ago presenting to our teachers on how to ensure that the work assigned to students is relevant to their worlds. The sessions were motivating and inspirational. It is good to be back on this side of Georgia. Savannah should be spelled H-O-T! I am thankful for air conditioning!
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Do you work summers?
That is a question I hear alot. Do we work summers?!?! Summers are extremely busy times and this one is no exception! The agenda for the Board of Education's June meeting has fifty-one items! Summer school is in full swing. Muscogee County School District is also hosting a summer school called ExPreSS for the State Department of Education. That program is for students who are close to passing the Science and Social Studies portions of the Georgia High School Graduation Test. It will be two weeks of intense remediation and a retest and is being held at Hardaway High School. Thanks to Matt Bell for volunteering to serve as the Principal of the program.
Thank you, Reginald Williamson, for stepping up to the plate and making tough decisions when the rains poured down on the City of Columbus and the summer school site at Daniel began flooding, as well as many other parts of the city. Mr. Williamson moved the students to a dry location, made good decisions about what had to be done, kept students safe, and finally, was able to get in touch with his supervisor and me. By that time, he had taken care of business and just needed affirmation that he had done everything just right.
The Professional Learning Department of the School District hosted a fantastic Best Practices Institute. Using federal Title II money which must be used for professional learning, Muscogee County teachers had access, right here at home, to the best educational researchers and practitioners in the nation. Bill Dagget, great leaders from the Schlecty Institute, training for fine arts teachers on the Picture America project, and on and on! The sessions and speakers I heard were absolutely great. Thank you, Sheila Barefield, and your colleagues for a great program.
The budget is balanced and tentatively approved by the Board. The Cabinet members and I met and went through that huge document page by page, discussing what we could cut, what should not be cut, and struggling to keep the instructional program the main thing. We were cut over $13 million dollars in state funding from last year. That's a lot of money when the needs continue to grow. Each department did a fine job of prioritizing and sacrificing to get everything balanced. Principals worked with us and accepted recommendations for teacher cuts, assistant principal cuts, clerical cuts, and understood that we should all be proud to have a job and a great place to work!
It will seem just a moment or two and students will be returning. I am confident that we will be ready for them, excited to get another chance to engage them in learning activities, and creating memories for them. I am convinced that many of the great experiences that students have in public schools are those that cannot be measured in a single test score. Test are important but life is full of so many other learning experiences that shape and mold students. I am proud to be an educator in the public schools of America!
Thank you, Reginald Williamson, for stepping up to the plate and making tough decisions when the rains poured down on the City of Columbus and the summer school site at Daniel began flooding, as well as many other parts of the city. Mr. Williamson moved the students to a dry location, made good decisions about what had to be done, kept students safe, and finally, was able to get in touch with his supervisor and me. By that time, he had taken care of business and just needed affirmation that he had done everything just right.
The Professional Learning Department of the School District hosted a fantastic Best Practices Institute. Using federal Title II money which must be used for professional learning, Muscogee County teachers had access, right here at home, to the best educational researchers and practitioners in the nation. Bill Dagget, great leaders from the Schlecty Institute, training for fine arts teachers on the Picture America project, and on and on! The sessions and speakers I heard were absolutely great. Thank you, Sheila Barefield, and your colleagues for a great program.
The budget is balanced and tentatively approved by the Board. The Cabinet members and I met and went through that huge document page by page, discussing what we could cut, what should not be cut, and struggling to keep the instructional program the main thing. We were cut over $13 million dollars in state funding from last year. That's a lot of money when the needs continue to grow. Each department did a fine job of prioritizing and sacrificing to get everything balanced. Principals worked with us and accepted recommendations for teacher cuts, assistant principal cuts, clerical cuts, and understood that we should all be proud to have a job and a great place to work!
It will seem just a moment or two and students will be returning. I am confident that we will be ready for them, excited to get another chance to engage them in learning activities, and creating memories for them. I am convinced that many of the great experiences that students have in public schools are those that cannot be measured in a single test score. Test are important but life is full of so many other learning experiences that shape and mold students. I am proud to be an educator in the public schools of America!
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