Voice of MN Education

MASA..."On the Road" w/Charlie: Gen-X Parents

This is a message to the members of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators (MASA) from Charlie Kyte, Executive Director.

There are both an audio podcast and a video above.  Each is about 7 minutes long.  You can click directly on them or go to the MASA website (www.mnasa.org) and click on MASA BLOG in the right hand panel.  Please allow about 15 seconds for the video to load.

GEARING UP FOR THE NEW SCHOOL YEAR:

It’s already mid-summer and time to begin shifting into a higher gear!  Administrative Retreats and pre-school workshops are just around the corner.  In addition, connecting with parents in early August by various means will help insure that their children are not only ready for school, but that they know you are connecting with them.

H1N1 FLU……. BE PREPARED:

It wasn’t so deadly last spring, but caused plenty of disruption.  It will be back this fall and hopefully will not have mutated into a more serious strain.  But be prepared: 

1)   Have a good phone communication system in place to contact parents.  MASA uses the SchoolReach system.

2)   Put a policy in place.  MASA placed several Districts policies on the MASA website (www.mnasa.org) as samples to work from.

3)   Be prepared to cooperate with county health agencies in the event they need to use your school sites for vaccinations.

SALARY FREEZE SAMPLE LANGUAGE:

We posted samples of various freeze languages on the MASA website.  These were provided via the MSBA Management Newsletter.

CONNECT WITH GEN-X PARENTS:

The present generation of parents are quite protective of their children, grew up when the value of the public schools was being questioned and are much more ready to look at alternative choices for schooling.  To keep them a part of your system, reach them on issues of importance and connect via technology.

Many of this generation of parents are concerned with the environment…. You should be as well.  MASA just went “UPonGREEN”, a simple system to assess your attention to environmental issues by reaching at least 9 of 14 achievable ‘green’ goals.  Communicating your sensitivity to the needs of our environment and asking households to go “UPonGREEN” as well is a natural connection.

Also, use technology.  Our most sophisticated school districts are communicating regularly by video and audio podcasts to parents.  They are also asking every teacher to reinforce learning via the internet.  As an example teachers can do voice recordings of lessons they present on Smartboards and download to iTunes.  Students can hear the lessons reinforced right on their iPods by there own teachers.  This is a tremendous connection to parents as their children receive reinforcement on complex subject matter.

NEXT 2 WEEKS….. GREAT START AND THE LAKES COUNTRY & SW/WC RETREAT:

The Great Start workshop is for all new MASA members with an emphasis on survival skills for new Superintendents.  The workshop is in St. Paul this Thursday and Friday morning.  If you are new and would still like to attend, call Jeanna Quinn (651-645-6272) at MASA.  There is no registration fee.

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF EDUCATION OFFICE PROFESSIONALS:

I had the opportunity to provide the opening session welcome to the NAEOP Conference that is now underway in Bloomington>  About 400 superintendent's administrative assistants are in attendance.... you know.... the people who really run the schools!

FEDERAL STIMULUS MONEY ISSUES:

If you are having problems accessing your federal stimulus money please let us know.  We are monitoring for major problems.  Also if the system is working well, let me know is well.

CALL WITH QUESTIONS:

As you prepare for the new school year, don’t hesitate to call for advice and help as needed.  Charlie’s numbers are 651-645-6272(O), 651-247-6505© and 507-645-7838(H).

MASA..."On the Road" w/Charlie: Concentrate on Student Achievement

The video above is about 9 minutes long.  Just click on it to have it play.

CONCENTRATE ON STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT:

The school financial picture is bleak and there is little any of us can do about it.  Thus dwelling on it doesn’t help and only saps your energy.  Do what is necessary, but then refocus on what is really important------ the success of your students and student achievement. 

We all know there is still plenty of work to be done to have as many students proficient as possible.  We know the challenges of this work and recognize that it will take all of us working hard to continue to make advances.

For students to be successful, a school must have a rigorous and well-articulated CORE curriculum, delivered expertly.  But even then, only a portion of students will be successful.  Great faculties will be meeting regularly to assess which students aren’t being successful and then applying interventions to help as many as possible.

Districts combining a strong CORE with frequent INTERVENTION STRATEGIES and a continual OUTREACH TO PARENTS will be successful in raising achievement no matter where your students are to start with.

So don’t dwell on the money woes.  Instead get your faculties concentrating on student success.

MASA INITIATIVE ON FUTURE RESTRUCTURING:

I think most of us can see the handwriting on the wall that there needs to be some restructuring of our K-12 education delivery model.  MASA is assembling a group of members to look at ways in which the governance, leadership, education delivery and back-office operation models might be changed to meet the needs of students. 

The group will be chaired by Superintendent Tamara Uselman of Perham-Dent and will look at changes that encompass both rural and suburban Districts.  As the conversation progresses, we will look for the appropriate times to involve state elected leaders as necessary. 

MDE DECISION ON FLEXIBLE LEARNING YEAR STIFFLES INNOVATION:

The Superintendents in SW Minnesota developed a Flexible Learning year schedule that would coordinate the Districts calendars, professional development days and class times.  It would also coordinate with the MN Technical College Systems calendar to better deliver on line college courses and vocational-technical programs in a shared fashion.

Unfortunately, the MDE denied their application after stretching the process out as long as possible.  I think this was a huge mistake by MDE and sends a signal that they are not willing to support innovation when it comes from the Districts themselves.  The reasoning, it seemed to me, had more to do with not ruffling political feathers than about making an improvement in the delivery of education. 

One MDE official indicated that they still wanted to work with these districts to encourage innovation.  But I think the reality is that the spirit of innovation with approvals needed from the state level died with this decision.  So much for our Governor complaining that schools won’t innovate and them covering for political flak rather than encouraging the districts to keep pushing the envelope.

I call this “opportunity lost!”

GOVERNOR’S RACE:

MASA is assembling a small team of interested members to meet with each of the major Governor candidates for a conversation about K-12 education.  MASA will not endorse, but will provide members feedback on each of the candidate’s positions.  If you are interested in participating in this effort, e-mail Charlie at ckyte@mnasa.org.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Great Start Workshop for new Superintendents……..… July 23-24

MDE Summer Superintendents Workshop……………… August 12

MSBA Summer Seminar………………………….………. August 13-14

MASA Fall Conference (Duluth)…………………………. September 27-29