Voice of MN Education

MASA... "On the Road" w/Charlie: Off to Egypt

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

 

Click on the video or audio podcast above for a 8 minute message.  Give the video about 15 seconds to load.

REFLECTIONS ON THE MASA FALL CONFERENCE:

The banquet on Sunday evening was very moving.  The words of president Gary Amoroso were lifting and the recognition of Greg Vandal as the Polaris Award winner and Jay Haugen as the 2009 MASA Scholar were outstanding.

On tuesday we heard from Karen Seashore Louis who talked about building positive school cultures and the role of leaders in that endeavor.  She was excellent.

PRE-RETIREE WORKSHOP ON DECEMBER 9:

If you are thinking retirement in 2010 or 2011, plan to come to the pre-retiree workshop on December 9.  Letters of invitation will come out soon to every active member over 55 years of age.

We will have presentations on re-careering, financial planning, family relationships and you will hear from several successful retirees.

P-CARD PROGRAM REBATES WILL EXCEED $250,000 THIS YEAR:

The annual year for the MN P-Card Program ended on August 31.  The P-Card Program creates efficiencies in your business offices, brings a better level of security and also produces a financial rebate for many of the users.  This year about 100 Districts participated and 60 are receiving rebates.

The rebates this year total just over $250,000 and range in size from several hundred dollars to $40,000.  If you want to participate in the P-Card Program, send us an e-mail and we will help you to set it up.

NEGOTIATIONS:

Negotiations are proceeding even though there is little money to squeeze out of the Districts.  In many cases employees are being reasonable in their requests.  But in a few cases, some groups apparently haven't heard that there is a recession.

Remember that at some point the negotiations will conclude and you all have to live together afterwards.  Thus while tough on the issue, be gentle in your words and minimize damage to the relationships.  Charlie's quote which he partially copied from others "The sour taste of poor relationships lasts much longer than the sweetness of financial victory".  This goes for both parties.

FLU AND CONTAINING THE MEDIA:

The incidence of flu is up al across the state.  The good news is that most children are recovering fairly quickly and are coming back to school.  We have been working with MDE, MSBA and the Mn Dep't of Health al along.  The latest challenge is that the media want all of the schools reports on absences.  We, on the other hand, want to minimize disruptions.  The MDH will post the data by county after the fact.  Superintendents received an e-mail from MDE in this regard on Monday.

The MDE and MDH are working very positively with school leaders.  Please keep sending in absence reports if your flu numbers hit the designated thresholds.

CHARLIE AND DIANNE WILL BE IN EGYPT FOR 12 DAYS:

All during my career as a school administrator and as a teacher it was impossible to be gone on an extended vacation during the school year.  For the last several years, Dianne and I have been taking a vacation right after the MASA Fall Conference.  This year Dianne decided that we would go to Egypt.  My goal is to see Dianne ride a camel.  She said she would right after I swam in the Nile River.  I thought it was a good bet until I realized the Nile is full of crocodiles.  There may be a message in here somewhere!  I think we'll cancel the deal.

If you have an issue or concern call the MASA office at 651-645-6272.  The staff is equipped to deal with whatever comes up and can get you to the correct people for help.

MASA... "On the Road" w/ Charlie: Good School Opening

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

The audio podcast above is 10 minutes long.  Click once or twice on the audio bar above.  There is no video this week.

OPENING OF THE SCHOOL YEAR:

Reports from across the state indicate a pretty successful beginning to the school year.  We heard of few major transportation or school start-up problems.  Several Districts had the excitement of moving students into brand new buildings.

MASA FALL CONFERENCE:

If you are not yet registered, just call us at 651-645-6272 and we will expedite the registration process.  We have an excellent conference with opportunities for professional growth as well as networking.

H1N1 'FLU SUMMIT' REPORT:

Charlie attended the H1N1 Flu Summit on Monday.  It was well presented.... here is some of what we heard:

Peek in 6-8 weeks:  Cases are already multiplying in the SE part of the country since school began about 2 weeks earlier than here.  The prediction for Minnesota is that the peek will be in 6-8 weeks. Thus the end of October through November could be our toughest period.

Get your flu shots:  Seasonal flu shots are now available.  Get them now!  The H1N1 shots should become available early in October and we are going to want to get the most vulnerable folks inoculated first.  Different from the past these populations are young people up to age 24, pregnant women and those suffering from asthma.

Drop doctors notes for sports:  Clinics are going to have a hard time keeping up.  They will not have time to deal with producing notes to allow athletes to return to teams.  Watch for a MSHSL briefing on this and be prepared to just waive the requirement to have notes from doctors.

Possible event re-scheduling:  Don't be surprised to see games postponed in late October because too many of the athletes are sick.  Athletic Directors will have their work cut out for them.

Minnesota response.... stay calm and prepare well.  Especially attend to 

communities of color:  Minnesotans have a reputation for staying calm in a storm and yet being well prepared.  Since the H1N1 flu originated in Mexico and Central America, our latino populations are more concerned than many others.  It is very important that Districts make an extra effort to assure and communicate with these populations.

Listen to the MN Dep't of Health.... best messages:  Districts are being swamped with advice from the federal to the local government levels.  Much is fairly consistent, but there are differences.  Our advice is to listen primarily to the Mn Department of Health.  They are the best in the country and will have the most consistent messages.

Winston Churchill Quote:  "Plans are useless.  But planning is invaluable."

MASA'S STAND ON THE PRESIDENTS OPENING DAY SPEECH TO STUDENTS:

The President had a great message for our students.  But his staff put every Superintendent in America in a 'no win' position.  MASA, as well as many of our members, got roundly criticized from the left and the right as we tried to navigate through this tempest which hit us with little warning on the 1st day of school.  Thank goodness the news cycle is only about 72 hours long!

NCLB RE-AUTHORIZATION:  We have a new Senate Education Committee Chair.... Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa.  Te word we are hearing from congressional officials is that it will be hard to get the re-authorization of ESEA-NCLB done this coming spring.  If it drags out we get into election season and then we roll into 2011.  One of the problems is there is no middle ground consensus about what to do to modify the present law.

MASA..."On the Road" w/Charlie: The electronic media

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

There is both a video and an audio podcast above.  Each is about 6 minutes long.  Click on the video (give it 15 seconds to load) or on the audio bar.  These can also be viewed on the MASA website (www.mnasa.org) by clicking on MASA BLOG in the right hand panel.

THE WAY PEOPLE GET NEWS IS CHANGING AND YOU NEED TO CHANGE YOUR COMMUNICATIONS AS WELL:

The traditional media outlets are dying and new forms are replacing them.  To stay current schools need to analyze and begin using these emerging technologies.  As people read newspapers lee and listen less to the 10:00 News on TV, they are turning to the internet to get their information.  Is your schools communications where they are looking?

A good example is the attempt by President Obama to communicate via e-mail, YouTube, Twitter and by traditional means to all educators and students in america on September 8th.  I will be sending out a separate advisory on options to handle this broadcast, scheduled for your first day of school, on Thursday. 

H1N1 FLU:  MINIMIZE PANIC AND MAXIMIZE PREVENTATIVE ACTIONS:

The biggest challenge may well be a panicking population.  Be sure to keep abreast of the latest guidance coming from the MN Dep't of Health and the MDE.  Be prepared to also face the possibililty of some families wanting to simply keep their children home and some staff refusing to come to work.

CHECK YOUR SCHOOLS SPAM FILTERS SO CRITICAL MESSAGES CAN GET THROUGH:

We are getting some bounce backs of messages both from the SchoolReach Alert system used by us and the MDE and also of some of our MASA messages.  Please check with your tech people to be sure the MASA e-mails can get through.  They all end in @mnasa.org.  The names at the beginning of the address are 'jamie, members, ckyte, mrlaw, and quinn'.

Q-COMP FOR RURAL DISTRICTS:

In the past it has been easier for mid-size to larger Districts to put together a Q-Comp plan.  In the last legislative session the law was changed to permit a group of rural districts to put together a single plan. The law charged the MDE with developing a template to do this.

In discussions with MDE staff, they indicated that if we knew of groups of districts interested, they would work with MASA to facilitate a meeting with MDE.  Thus if you are a rural district and have an interest in putting a partnership together, let Charlie know (ckyte@mnasa.org) and he will help to facilitate a meeting of the interested rural superintendents with MDE officials.  The interested Districts could be contiguous to each other, but that is not a requirement.

TWO NEW SETS OF MASA WORKSHOPS:

Check these out!

Guthrie Presentation Skill Workshop on October 15:

The Gutherie Theater offers workshops to corporate CEO's on refining their presentation and communication skills.  MASA, in cooperation with the Guthrie, is offering a similar workshop to school leaders.  It will be held on October 15, the 1st day of the Ed MN fall conference/ holiday.  If you are interested go to the MASA website (www.mnasa.org) for more information and to register.  Registration is limited.

Pre-Retiree Workshops:

Watch for an announcement soon.  MASA will offer a one day workshop to members 6 months to 18 months from retirement later this fall.  We will also offer a second workshop in the spring for members considering retiring in 2-4 years.

MN COACHES ASSOCIATION ENDORSES STUDENT ACCIDENT INSURANCE PLAN:

The MSHSL provides catastrophic accident insurance for all students participating in MSHSL activities.  Some school districts also make some type of accident policy available to individual families as well.  We just learned that the MN Coaches Association has endorsed an AFLAC Student Accident Policy.  If your AD mentions this to you, you may want to allow distribution of this accident policy to families.