Well, so much for trying to have a quiet, smooth, unemotional, well-organized opening of the school year! This past Tuesday, superintendents received an email from the Governor's office that he would meet with us via conference call at 3:00 p.m. that afternoon. At that point, we knew it was bad news - he wasn't just calling to chat- but we didn't know how bad! The Governor began the conversation thanking superintendents for our work and led right into the purpose of the call. With continued decline in State revenues, it is necessary for school districts to be cut another 3% in state funding. For Muscogee County that is $5,321,769. That news was bad enough, but he wasn't finished with the conversation. He then began to talk about furloughs. The Governor doesn't have the authority to furlough teachers, but the legislative leadership has given him the authority to withhold funds; therefore, he will be withholding the funds for three days of salaries and requested that school districts furlough personnel for three days prior to December 31, 2009. The money will be withheld during the next five months. Three days of QBE salaries for our district is another $2,182,76l! The total to be withheld from us will be $7,504,530! Given this amount of budget reduction, we are really having to make some tough decisions.
A teacher posted this question? If we furlough, does that mean we work and don't get paid? No, if we furlough, we wouldn't work and we wouldn't get paid. We would not be asking employees to work without pay. We would shut all schools and all school offices down; no work, no pay for three days. We are still looking at all of our options. Stay tuned!
Friday, July 24, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
School Transfers
There is alot of concern about school transfers right now - specifically the transfers to Northside and Hardaway. I understand that concern. The bottom line is that No Child Left Behind requires the district to allow parents the choice to transfer their child to a school within the district making Adequate Yearly Progress when the school in which their child is enrolled doesn't make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). Lack of capacity at a school is not a reason for not allowing transfers. We are told the district "must create capacity;" therefore, modular units will be placed on those campuses.
What is the solution? The solution is for every high school to make AYP. Then the district doesn't have to offer choice under No Child Left Behind, but only under the new State law which requires us to offer choice. The difference between the Federal law and the State Law is that the State Law allows us to define capacity and we do not have to transfer students to schools which we have determined are full.
The guidance for NCLB states that districts can come up with creative and ingenious ways to create capacity. Believe me, I am searching for those creative ways, but I am not sure that parents will like the creative ways any better than they like the increased usage of portable classrooms! Time to brainstorm with some of my Superintendent buddies who are also dealing with this problem. I will keep you posted!
What is the solution? The solution is for every high school to make AYP. Then the district doesn't have to offer choice under No Child Left Behind, but only under the new State law which requires us to offer choice. The difference between the Federal law and the State Law is that the State Law allows us to define capacity and we do not have to transfer students to schools which we have determined are full.
The guidance for NCLB states that districts can come up with creative and ingenious ways to create capacity. Believe me, I am searching for those creative ways, but I am not sure that parents will like the creative ways any better than they like the increased usage of portable classrooms! Time to brainstorm with some of my Superintendent buddies who are also dealing with this problem. I will keep you posted!
Friday, July 3, 2009
Great Summer Reading
I am excited that I have discovered some great leadership books this summer. I am constantly on the lookout for books that will help the leadership team and me to reach the next level in leadership. It is necessary to be reminded how great leaders act, talk, react, and operate so that we don't get stale and that we remember it is not about the individual, but about taking the organization to higher levels!
John Kotter's book Sense of Urgency communicates so vividly what I have been discussing with Principals and with the Cabinet. We must do our work with a greater sense of urgency. Jim Collins in Good to Great reminds us that we are to lead with "rigor not ruthlessness" but there must be a sense of urgency promoted in the organization. I have been calling it intensity. I told principals, "We need to work with more intensity! Teach with more intensity! Lead with more intensity! Think with more intensity! Prepare with more intensity! We must understand how important our work is in the lives of our students!" I am now going to change my discourse on intensity to a discourse on urgency! Similar meaning, but I think urgency is really the term I need to use. We must truly develop a greater sense of urgency in all that we do. Our work is too important not to be "on the edge of our seats" as try to improve the lives of children.
Another great read is Real Leaders Don't Use PowerPoint! This book issues advice on when to use a powerpoint presentation and when not to! Great! I love it!
Why Some Things Stick and Others Don't is another book on how to make your message real to others and get the message out in a way that makes people remember it and buy into it. Teachers, principals, and, yes, superintendents must tell the great stories of public education! When someone asks how are things going we must be able to relate the successes and communicate the stories of the good work being done in today's public schools. Bus drivers, food service employees, custodians, clerical employees, and all support personnel must join the effort in communicating our good stories!
Leaders as Communicators and Diplomats is another good book on how important communication is and how to be an effective communicator.
All of these books have something in common. They remind us of the importance of communication, of how great leaders get out front and carry the message of the organization, and how to motivate others. It is so important to relate to people's heart, not just to their minds.
Our jobs in education must be linked to the brutal facts of accountability, but we must never forget the value of the public school experience. The joy of teaching and the difference that we can make in the future of our students must be communicated over and over again. When we look at individual children, we can't imagine how great their potential is, but we must treat them all as if they were going to grow up and have great value for society. We must do this, because, in reality, they all do have value and they all have the potential to contribute.
Well, I am ready to read some more! I have ordered Primal Leadership because Mr. Johnson, Principal at Richards Middle School recommended that. Can't wait to get it.
By the way, I am creating a Professional Library in the Superintendent's Office. It will be a library focused on leadership. The books I have mentioned in this blog will become a part of it and as it grows, the leadership team may borrow the books. If you don't return them, though, there will be a great penalty (to be discussed privately!). By the way, I know that the titles of books should be underlined but I haven't figured out how to underline in my posting. I am still learning!
Happy Fourth of July! Celebrate America!
John Kotter's book Sense of Urgency communicates so vividly what I have been discussing with Principals and with the Cabinet. We must do our work with a greater sense of urgency. Jim Collins in Good to Great reminds us that we are to lead with "rigor not ruthlessness" but there must be a sense of urgency promoted in the organization. I have been calling it intensity. I told principals, "We need to work with more intensity! Teach with more intensity! Lead with more intensity! Think with more intensity! Prepare with more intensity! We must understand how important our work is in the lives of our students!" I am now going to change my discourse on intensity to a discourse on urgency! Similar meaning, but I think urgency is really the term I need to use. We must truly develop a greater sense of urgency in all that we do. Our work is too important not to be "on the edge of our seats" as try to improve the lives of children.
Another great read is Real Leaders Don't Use PowerPoint! This book issues advice on when to use a powerpoint presentation and when not to! Great! I love it!
Why Some Things Stick and Others Don't is another book on how to make your message real to others and get the message out in a way that makes people remember it and buy into it. Teachers, principals, and, yes, superintendents must tell the great stories of public education! When someone asks how are things going we must be able to relate the successes and communicate the stories of the good work being done in today's public schools. Bus drivers, food service employees, custodians, clerical employees, and all support personnel must join the effort in communicating our good stories!
Leaders as Communicators and Diplomats is another good book on how important communication is and how to be an effective communicator.
All of these books have something in common. They remind us of the importance of communication, of how great leaders get out front and carry the message of the organization, and how to motivate others. It is so important to relate to people's heart, not just to their minds.
Our jobs in education must be linked to the brutal facts of accountability, but we must never forget the value of the public school experience. The joy of teaching and the difference that we can make in the future of our students must be communicated over and over again. When we look at individual children, we can't imagine how great their potential is, but we must treat them all as if they were going to grow up and have great value for society. We must do this, because, in reality, they all do have value and they all have the potential to contribute.
Well, I am ready to read some more! I have ordered Primal Leadership because Mr. Johnson, Principal at Richards Middle School recommended that. Can't wait to get it.
By the way, I am creating a Professional Library in the Superintendent's Office. It will be a library focused on leadership. The books I have mentioned in this blog will become a part of it and as it grows, the leadership team may borrow the books. If you don't return them, though, there will be a great penalty (to be discussed privately!). By the way, I know that the titles of books should be underlined but I haven't figured out how to underline in my posting. I am still learning!
Happy Fourth of July! Celebrate America!
Monday, June 29, 2009
What do you do in the summer?
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!
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 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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