March Herd Post

WOW! It is already mid-March! Spring break is just around the corner and the end of the school year is rapidly approaching. I don’t know why that struck me this morning as I sat down to write March’s Herd Message. Perhaps it is because of the snow outside and cool temperatures that are keeping me from believing that spring is just around the corner.

I wanted to take a moment to again thank all of the presenters that shared of their time and talents at this past month’s inservice. I received numerous emails sharing how much staff members enjoyed learning from each other, how much they enjoyed having the flexibility to choose sectionals relevant to their interests or needs, and how they would love to have similar inservices in the future. I enjoyed seeing people take risks and sharing their talents with staff, as well as seeing the high engagement levels of staff as we learned about new tools, methods, and approaches. I am looking forward to future inservices of this nature, and would like to encourage others to think about what you skills of the trade you would like to share with staff the next time we have a call for proposals. There is a lot of talent right here in our own backyard, I want to make sure we continue to share it.

On a different note, I wanted to let everyone know how pleased I was to review our mid-year growth rates, as measured by the MAP assessment.  We have made significant progress toward our goal of being in the top ten percent. Everyone should be proud of your cummulative efforts to maximize growth for each and every student.  Below is a chart of our K-8th grade district-wide average growth rates.

2012-2013, 2013-2014 National Percentile Rank: Students that Met or Exceeded Their Growth Targets Grades K-8

Subject	2012-2013 Fall-Spring Results	2013-2014 Fall-Winter Results	Net Improvement
Reading	38th	75th	38
Math	50th	80th	30
Language	26th	60th	35

January 2014

We are closing in upon the end of the first half of the school year. This is an excellent time for reflection and new beginnings. Many of the high school teachers have new courses beginning, and those at the K-8 level have mid year testing, whose data can be used to help guide and steer their efforts in the second half of the school year.  I am keeping the message short this month with the request that you take a moment when you get a chance to view this Sir Ken Robinson’s Ted Talk regarding a need for a revolution in education, and the need for us to have passion for what we do in life.  I always find his work to be very inspiring. Also take a moment to read this NWEA article regarding individual Goal Setting. Both topics are relevant to our district’s direction and increased focus on individualized learning.

Those of you at the K-8 level, please be sure to make time over the next few weeks to conference with your students, and re-evaluate the individual goals that you have set with them. The following is the link to the goal setting presentation: Goal Setting Presentation in case you would like to review what this conference might look like.

Thanks for all you do! It is an honor to work with such a fine group of educators!

Herd Article 12-18-2013

The holiday season is such an exciting time for so many people. Regardless of one’s faith it is a time of year that brings people together to share happy thoughts, gifts, cards, and in many cases to share of one’s substance to one another. It has been a pleasure to visit each of the building’s concerts and see the pride of the parents and students as our excellently prepared kids performed. I never imagined I would have the opportunity to see so many holiday programs in one year. I want to take a moment and thank each of you for your efforts in assisting or supporting those individuals who have worked to help our students be ready for their performances. To those that planned, prepared, and pulled some hair out getting ready for the performances, kudos to each of you…. Job well done!

The board recently approved the 2014-2015 school year calendar. You can review the summary page the details of the calendar are on the next page. Taking general input from the staff surveys and from administration there have been some adjustments to the calendar. Below is a summary of the changes along with the rationale:

1. Prior to the start of school there will now be just two required days for all instructional staff. One Inservice day Monday August 25th and one work day on August 26th.  You are always more than welcome to get into your classes sooner or later than those dates. This will allow us to have an additional inservice/workday during the school year, and avoid conflicts with the county fair.
2. Wednesday August 27th will be an inservice for staff on scheduled to be evaluated in 2014-2015 (approximately ⅓ of you). With the new evaluation system (Teacher Effectiveness Model) starting, we want to make sure that  everyone slated for the first group, gets an adequate orientation and training. I do not see this requiring a full day, but no promises at this time. We plan to hold this training each year for those in the evaluation cycle.
3. Note that on the calendar listing, days in italics indicate that the training may not require all staff. Such is the case with the new teacher orientation and teacher evaluation training. Compensation for days such as this is to be determined (TBD). I wish I could give you more details as it relates to compensation, but we’ll need to address that at a later date. Unfortunately, the calendar was due before those details have been solidified.
4. You’ll notice an inservice day on October 3rd. There are several additional days built into the year, non-italicized days are for all instructional staff. Italicized days, as detailed above are TBD.  We want time built in for ongoing training, collaboration and data analysis. We did not select ½ days or early release days for the training model because they reduce instructional time, are inefficient from a staffing/operation standpoint, and it is hard to focus on a training when you have just spent ½ the day with kids, or you are about to spend ½ the day with kids. I invision most of these days being ½ inservice ½ work/collaboration time.
5. October 24th we added a fall break. Feedback received was that it was too long of a stretch to go from the first of September until Thanksgiving without a break.
6. Wednesday before Thanksgiving is a scheduled ½ day staff inservice. We wanted the ongoing inservice time as well as provide parents and staff the opportunity to start their potential Thanksgiving travels sooner.
7. Winter break is a full two weeks.
8. Spring break starts march 30th and encompasses Good Friday. We did not want to take a week off, come back and then take another day off the following week. Most of our conference districts are following this same spring break schedule.
9. Last day with students is June 12th. This is a week later than in previous years. Due to the additional inservice days during the year, the October break, and two full weeks in December.
10. June 15th Last day for staff. We felt it was important to have a day to debrief the year, and finalize plans for the coming year.

There were many additional ideas and suggestions that were not incorporated. If yours was one of those. I am sorry. Know that your input was not ignored, and future calendars very well may reflect some of those ideas.

Happy Holidays to All!