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Rock Hill Schools September Work Session Notes

These are my notes from the September Rock Hill School Board Work Session held at Belleview Elementary School on Monday, September 12, 2011.

1. The board heard a presentation by Belleview's; Principal; teachers; parents and; students about the benefits of single gender schooling. Belleview has had two classes (one boys and one girls) in the 5th grade for two years (currently on the third year) and this year they've added classes for the 3rd grade. They presented graphs showing improved academic performance but admitted there were many possible factors for the improvement. However, the biggest indicator has been the increase in applications to join the classes. South Carolina leads the nation on the implementation of single gender education.
2. The board heard a request from the Sullivan Middle School Administration, Athletic Director, and parents on starting a middle school soccer program (for boys and girls). They would raise all the necessary funds (no district expense) and participate in a 7 school region (Fort Mill and Clover). The administration recommends the board approve this request at the business meeting.
3. The administration led a discussion on facilities planning to gauge the boards willingness to increase taxes. The administration will present more tax information to the board this week, but generally, the board felt any major projects should be timed when bonds are being retired so there would be little to no increase in taxes.
4. The administration reported there was an increase in funds at the end of the most recent school year because of the following; $1,500,000 because of additional tax revenue form tax penalties;  $600,000 due to operations cost reductions; $600,000 due to less unemployment costs; $500,000 due to energy reductions; $400,000 due to additional textbook money from the state and; $300,000 due to a reduction in salaries. After a discussion that the board would not consider furloughs and academic fees for next year, the board agreed to the following; $1,000,000 to cover a deficit in this years budget; $325,000 to hire 5 more teachers; $220,000 to refund academic fees already paid for this year and; $1,8000,000 to give employees either a step increase or a cost of living increase amounting to about 2%. There is some risk to creating a budget problem for next year since the economy is not recovering, however, the district's conservative practice of zero deficit budgeting usually results in a one to 4 million surplus at the end of the year.
5. The board reviewed the following policies; GBEA;GBED/GBED-R;GCO/GCO-R;JBCC;JBCC-R;JCA-R;BG;BG-R;BGC/BGD;BIA/BIB and;BD. Modifications to policy BG-R, if approved, would have the district send proposed policies out to employees and the community through email blasts or email newsletters as well as posting online (something the district was already looking into since attending a public relations workshop recently)
6. The board discussed the Fort Mill School District's resolution to support a referendum concerning partisan  elections and declined to change the previous position against partisan elections.
7. The meeting ended with a discussion on proper board member communication with the Superintendent, and for this board, became somewhat heated. If there was a resolution, I missed it, but it is important enough that I will have a follow-up post on this subject later in the week.

Mildred Douglas was unable to attend because of a family commitment.

What One Board Member Thinks

From the Thomas Fordham Institute comes an interesting article on what one school board member thinks:

Zen and the art of school board maintenance

 Posted by Peter Meyer - Bernard Lee Schwartz Policy Fellow on September 13, 2011 at 11:14 am

We were about half-way through our four-hour school board “Governance Team Retreat” when I saw an opening.   The facilitator, sent to us by the New York State School Boards Association (for a nice fee), had handed out a 27-page document that covered the standard “roles and responsibilities” of…

• school board members (four major roles: representative, leader, steward, advocate),
• school boards (“four macro responsibilities:  set the district’s direction…, ensure alignment of strategies, resources, policies, programs, and processes with district goals, assess and account for progress…, continuously improve the district,“),
• board president (“leader of leaders,” “presider,” “communicator”)
• superintendent (advisor, executive, leader, manager, advocate, communicator)

…. but in the nitty gritty world where we lived, as the governance discussion proceeded, the big issues were “chain of command,” “being part of the team,” “being negative,” and one of the major themes of that first hour and a half was, as our facilitator reminded us, the board’s role as “overseer, not micromanager.” The board “should not second-guess” the administration’s recommendations “except in extreme circumstances,” we were told. It should “trust the professionals.”

That was my opening. “That’s exactly what we’ve been doing for ten years,” I blurted, “trusting the professionals. We were 83^rd out of 86 districts in the region ten years ago and we are 83 out of 86 today – by letting the professionals do their work.”

There was a slight silence, but not a heavy one. In fact, our facilitator rather quickly replied, “That’s the board’s fault.”

It was a revelatory, if head-spinning, moment.  And very briefly a light shone on the heart of one of the major challenges of school governance: getting a school board to do its job, which, as the hand-out rightly said, was to improve the district.  Easier said than done. To do its job it has to be able to sift through acres of dust stirred up by federal and state mandates and piles of policies, politics, herds of wildebeest unions, experts, professionals, rivers of “model” policies from our school board associations, and a chain-link fence of interlocking economic interests defined by major corporations, rich lobbyists, and willing legislators.  Anyone who has ever tried skiing — even walking — in a whiteout can appreciate what it’s like walking into a school board meeting.  Take charge?   Continuously improve the district?  You gotta be kidding.  Improving requires changing, which disrupts.  The system is set up to encourage the opposite: to not rock the boat, to continue on whatever road you’re on — or, the safe path, to do nothing.  Every once in a while we glimpse the truth: After suffering through endless lectures about leaving it to the professionals, we are told it’s all our fault.  Ouch.  But it is.

I have argued before (here) that school boards’ irrelevance – defined as their failure to improve education outcomes, whether they try or not — is a symptom of a disease, not the disease itself.  Our nation’s 14,000 semi-impotent school boards are an indicator species, their malignancies caused by environmental toxicities not of their making.  New York State alone had 10,000 school districts in 1900 – we need ask ourselves if the disappearance of 9,250 districts over the ensuing 50 years (there are about 750 school districts in the Empire State today) has been good or bad for education.

The problem is that we — local school boards — can’t wait around for the folks who have caused our cancers to cure them.

Last year in Education Week I argued that “School boards still have enormous power…, especially on the local level”; and that “my own battle is to get my board to acknowledge that power, and to re-engage itself in the task of educating children, to revive a sense of the relevancy of democracy itself. It’s a win-win. Not only do we get a better education for our children, but we also get a community that begins to feel that it can deliver that education.”

This rosy view, of course, must be tempered by the fact that school systems (per the blizzard described above) don’t do right by the kids, as far education opportunity goes.  And on this question it is fortuitous that Mark Osgood has a new post at Education Next calling out those who believe that the education gap is “the civil rights issue of our time” to demand that the courts step up to the plate on these education issues as they did in the last civil rights era. I would go a step further and send in the National Guard – which is why I remain a steadfast defender of NCLB (minus the warts), the educational equivalent thereof.)  As long as we have a public school system, school boards, in my experience, remain the last – if  increasingly tenuous – link to the democratic ideal: the peoples’ schools. But it remains a federal responsibility to ensure that local majorities don’t block the school house door to racial, demographic or socio-economic minorities.

At the heart of my school board’s recent governance retreat – Webster’s definition number 1 is appropriate here:  “an act or process of withdrawing esp. from what is difficult, dangerous, or disagreeable” — was this mixed message: you’re responsible, but don’t get too involved.  In school districts that have all the gears running smoothly, that is the kind of creative tension that can work to keep the train on the tracks moving forward; in districts where the train has been off the tracks for years, it is a recipe for continued disaster.  I have seen the enemy and it is us.  Bring in the AYP!

Is that the answer?  What’s the question?  I recall walking with Tom Carroll,  founder of the successful charter school network in Albany (see my Education Next profile), after a couple of weeks of reporting on his Brighter Choice schools, which were knocking the socks off the traditional school competitors on test scores, and asking, “So, why are you able to do it and they aren’t?”

“Will,” said Carroll without hesitation. “Political will.”

If only, I thought. If only….  Whispering in my ear was the voice of the school board overlord, “Yeah, but….”

–Peter Meyer, Bernard Lee Schwartz Policy Fellow

Time Measurements

From the Results only work environment blog comes an interesting post about the benefits of not tracking time. Are there any messages for those who run schools?

TRACKING TIME = INSANITY

SEP 12, 2011 » BY Jody

Here’s why tracking time = INSANITY

1. If you get your work done in less time (less time = less than 40 hours/week), you’ll get more work (which is no incentive for working efficiently).
2. If you get your work done in less time, your job may be perceived as unnecessary.
3. If you get your work done in less time, you’ll get paid less or put on part-time status.
4. If you take longer than the amount of time you should take to get the work done (more time = more than 40 hours/week), you may be perceived as inefficient.
5. If you take longer than the amount of time you should take to get the work done you may get a promotion, because you work so hard (which is why we all like to brag about the 50 – 60+ hours we put in each week!).
6. If you take longer than the amount of time you should take to get the work done, you may be considered dedicated, hard-working and a valuable asset.
7. If you take exactly the right amount of time to get the work done (40 hours/week), you may be perceived as only doing the bare minimum (Hey, everyone else is working 50-60 hours! Why aren’t you?).
8. If you take exactly the right amount of time to get the work done, you may never get promoted (only the hard-working, dedicated people get promoted).

The problem with tracking time is that it takes the focus away from one thing: measuring results. When you take away time-tracking, everyone becomes as efficient as possible. Nobody talks about how many hours they work, because it’s irrelevant. And, time no longer has power as the currency that measures work.

For managers, the benefits of a results-only workplace where time is not a measure of work are many:

1. Results become clear as employees seek clarity
2. Work gets done faster
3. Communication gets sharper
4. Managing to results becomes easier than managing people’s time
5. Productivity goes up
6. Morale goes up
7. Voluntary turnover goes down
8. There is much less wasted time
9. Teamwork happens without team-building exercises
10. Creativity happens

The ‘Conroys’ of the world don’t stand a chance in workplace where time-tracking has relevance.

Will Rock Hill School Employees Get Pay Raises?

The  Rock Hill School Board will hold it's September Work Session at Belleview Elementary School on Monday, September 12, 2011 beginning at 5:30 pm. In a meeting  full of policy discussions and future growth issues, the administration will lead a discussion (item 5) about giving district employees pay raises this year with unexpected money left over from the 2010-11 school year. The expected agenda is below:

	Belleview Elementary School
	5:30 p.m.
	September 12, 2011
ITEM#	AGENDA TOPIC	DISCUSSION LEADER	TIME
1	Presentation by Belleview Elementary School	John Kirell	30 minutes
2	Executive Session - Property Matters	Tony Cox	30 minutes
3	Sullivan Middle School Request	Michael Waiksnis	15 minutes
4	Facilities Master Plan Guidance	B. Vaughan / T. Cox	30 minutes
5	Budget Revision Alternatives	Elaine Bilton	30 minutes
6	Policies GBEA, GBED/GBED-R, GCO/GCO-R	Beckye Partlow	15 minutes
7	Policies JBCC, JBCC-R, JCA-R	Luanne Kokolis	15 minutes
8	Policies BG, BG-R, BGC/BGD, BIA/BIB	Elaine Baker	15 minutes
9	Policy BD - Organization of the School Board	Ginny Moe	10 minutes

What Parents Should Hear

A saying I've heard many teachers tell parents, "we don't believe everything your child tells us about what goes on in your home, so don't believe everything your child tells you about what goes on in school". In other words, with children, what is spoken is not always completely truthful.

CNN has a post from Ron Clark which describes  some of the issues keeping good teachers away from the classroom. I wish it wasn't true, but I've heard stories of every one of his examples. If you are a parent, I hope you don't find yourself in the article below:

What teachers really want to tell parents

By Ron Clark, Special to CNN

updated 9:12 AM EST, Tue September 6, 2011

Teacher Ron Clark is pictured with his students.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Ron Clark is an award-winning teacher who started his own academy in Atlanta
• He wants parents to trust teachers and their advice about their students
• Clark says some teachers hand out A grades so parents won't bother them
• It's OK for kids to get in trouble sometimes; it teaches life lessons, Clark says

Editor's note: Ron Clark, author of "The End of Molasses Classes: Getting Our Kids Unstuck -- 101 Extraordinary Solutions for Parents and Teachers," has been named "American Teacher of the Year" by Disney and was Oprah Winfrey's pick as her "Phenomenal Man." He founded The Ron Clark Academy, which educators from around the world have visited to learn.

(CNN) -- This summer, I met a principal who was recently named as the administrator of the year in her state. She was loved and adored by all, but she told me she was leaving the profession.

I screamed, "You can't leave us," and she quite bluntly replied, "Look, if I get an offer to lead a school system of orphans, I will be all over it, but I just can't deal with parents anymore; they are killing us."

Unfortunately, this sentiment seems to be becoming more and more prevalent. Today, new teachers remain in our profession an average of just 4.5 years, and many of them list "issues with parents" as one of their reasons for throwing in the towel. Word is spreading, and the more negativity teachers receive from parents, the harder it becomes to recruit the best and the brightest out of colleges.

So, what can we do to stem the tide? What do teachers really need parents to understand?

For starters, we are educators, not nannies. We are educated professionals who work with kids every day and often see your child in a different light than you do. If we give you advice, don't fight it. Take it, and digest it in the same way you would consider advice from a doctor or lawyer. I have become used to some parents who just don't want to hear anything negative about their child, but sometimes if you're willing to take early warning advice to heart, it can help you head off an issue that could become much greater in the future.

Trust us. At times when I tell parents that their child has been a behavior problem, I can almost see the hairs rise on their backs. They are ready to fight and defend their child, and it is exhausting. One of my biggest pet peeves is when I tell a mom something her son did and she turns, looks at him and asks, "Is that true?" Well, of course it's true. I just told you. And please don't ask whether a classmate can confirm what happened or whether another teacher might have been present. It only demeans teachers and weakens the partnership between teacher and parent.

Please quit with all the excuses

The truth is, a lot of times it's the bad teachers who give the easiest grades, because they know by giving good grades everyone will leave them alone.
Ron Clark

And if you really want to help your children be successful, stop making excuses for them. I was talking with a parent and her son about his summer reading assignments. He told me he hadn't started, and I let him know I was extremely disappointed because school starts in two weeks.

His mother chimed in and told me that it had been a horrible summer for them because of family issues they'd been through in July. I said I was so sorry, but I couldn't help but point out that the assignments were given in May. She quickly added that she was allowing her child some "fun time" during the summer before getting back to work in July and that it wasn't his fault the work wasn't complete.

Can you feel my pain?

Some parents will make excuses regardless of the situation, and they are raising children who will grow into adults who turn toward excuses and do not create a strong work ethic. If you don't want your child to end up 25 and jobless, sitting on your couch eating potato chips, then stop making excuses for why they aren't succeeding. Instead, focus on finding solutions.

Parents, be a partner instead of a prosecutor

And parents, you know, it's OK for your child to get in trouble sometimes. It builds character and teaches life lessons. As teachers, we are vexed by those parents who stand in the way of those lessons; we call them helicopter parents because they want to swoop in and save their child every time something goes wrong. If we give a child a 79 on a project, then that is what the child deserves. Don't set up a time to meet with me to negotiate extra credit for an 80. It's a 79, regardless of whether you think it should be a B+.

This one may be hard to accept, but you shouldn't assume that because your child makes straight A's that he/she is getting a good education. The truth is, a lot of times it's the bad teachers who give the easiest grades, because they know by giving good grades everyone will leave them alone. Parents will say, "My child has a great teacher! He made all A's this year!"

Wow. Come on now. In all honesty, it's usually the best teachers who are giving the lowest grades, because they are raising expectations. Yet, when your children receive low scores you want to complain and head to the principal's office.

Please, take a step back and get a good look at the landscape. Before you challenge those low grades you feel the teacher has "given" your child, you might need to realize your child "earned" those grades and that the teacher you are complaining about is actually the one that is providing the best education.

And please, be a partner instead of a prosecutor. I had a child cheat on a test, and his parents threatened to call a lawyer because I was labeling him a criminal. I know that sounds crazy, but principals all across the country are telling me that more and more lawyers are accompanying parents for school meetings dealing with their children.

Teachers walking on eggshells

I feel so sorry for administrators and teachers these days whose hands are completely tied. In many ways, we live in fear of what will happen next. We walk on eggshells in a watered-down education system where teachers lack the courage to be honest and speak their minds. If they make a slight mistake, it can become a major disaster.

My mom just told me a child at a local school wrote on his face with a permanent marker. The teacher tried to get it off with a wash cloth, and it left a red mark on the side of his face. The parent called the media, and the teacher lost her job. My mom, my very own mother, said, "Can you believe that woman did that?"

I felt hit in the gut. I honestly would have probably tried to get the mark off as well. To think that we might lose our jobs over something so minor is scary. Why would anyone want to enter our profession? If our teachers continue to feel threatened and scared, you will rob our schools of our best and handcuff our efforts to recruit tomorrow's outstanding educators.

Finally, deal with negative situations in a professional manner.

If your child said something happened in the classroom that concerns you, ask to meet with the teacher and approach the situation by saying, "I wanted to let you know something my child said took place in your class, because I know that children can exaggerate and that there are always two sides to every story. I was hoping you could shed some light for me." If you aren't happy with the result, then take your concerns to the principal, but above all else, never talk negatively about a teacher in front of your child. If he knows you don't respect her, he won't either, and that will lead to a whole host of new problems.

We know you love your children. We love them, too. We just ask -- and beg of you -- to trust us, support us and work with the system, not against it. We need you to have our backs, and we need you to give us the respect we deserve. Lift us up and make us feel appreciated, and we will work even harder to give your child the best education possible.

That's a teacher's promise, from me to you.

Are Computers The Center of This School?

From the Atlanta Journal's blog site, Get Schooled:

Ron Clark’s magic. I saw it for myself today. It’s not money. It’s passion.

12:53 pm September 6, 2011, by Maureen Downey

Ron Clark founded his school with Kim Bearden, a former Cobb middle school teacher and a Milken top teacher award winner. (Ron Clark Academy)

When I wrote about the Ron Clark Academy, some of you argued that the private Atlanta school and its gifted founder are recipients of many donations and grants so there aren’t many lessons in their success for public education. (I interviewed Clark this summer.)

A school that counts Oprah Winfrey among its supporters, the Ron Clark Academy goes from fifth to eighth grade. While the annual tuition is $18,000, only 10 percent of students pay the full bill. Most attend on scholarship, paying on average $45 month.

This morning I attended the first day of classes at Ron Clark, which opened five years ago in a bleak corner of Atlanta behind the federal pen. I saw many lessons for public schools.  Elements of the festive morning could easily be replicated. Much of the excitement was provided by volunteers, including a public high school band.

It was not money that distinguished the morning. It was creativity, energy and passion.

The school’s inspiration and namesake is Ron Clark, a former Disney Teacher of the Year who is part showman, drill sergeant and motivational speaker. (And he is a heck of a math teacher.)

Despite the rain, Clark and his staff — dressed like a team of IBM execs in natty black suits — gathered in front of the school at 7:15 a.m. to greet every arriving child. Behind them were 55 high-stepping and high-energy members of the Southwest DeKalb High School band and the school’s dance team.  It was impossible not to sway to the band, but the Ron Clark staff did more than that.  They strutted. They swirled. They jumped. They got down — lower than most of us can manage at 7 in the morning, but they are a young and remarkably fit group.  They sprang into full blown jubilation as each child stepped out of the car.  They engulfed students in bear hugs, high-fived them, lifted them off the ground and twirled them.  Parents drove off beaming. Some parents set up across the street with video cameras to record the celebration.

And that’s what the opening two hours were — a celebration. There was no sense these kids were marching off to the mines.  The students walked or danced through the flanks of the SW DeKalb High School band and were given a school sweater before they entered the school.  Inside the whimsical lobby with the famous two-story blue slide, students were met by  fraternity and sorority members from Clark Atlanta and Georgia State, Falcon cheerleaders and the Morris Brown College drum line. The college students and cheerleaders taught the kids step and dance moves. The drum line provided the beat. Several photographers  snapped their photos and videotaped them.

Once all 105 students were assembled, Ron Clark took the floor. He delivered a short inspirational speech before calling up the “House” leaders. Clark created four Houses within his school, ala Hogwarts and Harry Potter. The Houses serve as support systems and create an instant family for the nervous fifth graders. Each House leader welcomed the newly minted fifth graders with speeches, all of which were warm and well delivered.  With great fanfare and hoopla, Clark then introduced the teachers and staff, who arrived in the lobby via the slide, tumbling onto the floor amid cheers from the delighted students.

Then came a surprise. The entire school staff spent several weeks learning their own step routines and launched into them.  They traded their jackets and button-down Oxford shirts for cool T-shirts with fun nicknames on the back. (My favorite was the “N Forcer,” worn by the woman who maintains the front desk. ) Their clever and original raps and songs stressed academic excellence, team work and discipline.

The eighth graders were held up as role models and school leaders and applauded as they raced down the hall through a paper banner. But the real excitement came next.  On the landing of the coin staircase —coins from every nation are embedded in the steps to remind the students of the wider world — stood a big sorting spinning wheel with the four Houses. When their names were called by Clark, fifth graders ran to the wheel, spun it once and then rushed to the top of the stairs before the wheel slowed to a stop to reveal the name of their House.

The students  took their first slide down the slide to be met at the bottom by their new House. As the children burst out of the slide, their House mates swept them up, cheering and shouting the new member’s name. The House leaders placed aHouse tie on the new member to replace the generic school tie.  By 9:15, the students were sorted into their Houses and were likely convinced they were about to begin the best year of their lives.

I understand that public schools can’t do all these things, but they can borrow pieces of this strategy. A friend lamented to me last week that her daughter told her that she felt lost in her new middle school, that “no one in the school really sees me or even knows that I’m there.”

I doubt any child at Ron Clark feels that way, and that’s what we can learn from Clark and his school — you have to tell kids early on that they matter, that their education matters and that the staff will do whatever it takes to help them achieve.

–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog