Catching a New Wave

Today is my official first day as assistant principal at Newport Elementary School.  We have much work to do.  But it is the right place, the right time, and the right team!

Balancing that Universe

Thank you, West Carteret Patriots, for allowing me to work as part of your administrative team in ‘07-’08. West is a “sequoia-sized” school with a vibrant and diverse set of stakeholders. It enjoys a rich legacy in Carteret County and North Carolina. It has a soul!

My year at West was an honor, a blessing and a treasure. The 07-08 admin team was as talented and cohesive as any of which I’ve been a part. Every one of us brought different expertise and energy to the team. This resulted in some dynamic innovations that we as a total school staff of 100+ helped to bring about for our school during ’07-’08. They included the following:

• Homework Time
• Modified Lesson Study
• Patriot Pride
• Fundamentals of Coaching

And we have set some initiatives in motion for 08-09, including the following:

• Freshmen English Redesign
• County-wide Discipline Plan

Helping to get that English redesign off the skids was paramount. Back during my first tour of duty at West (1992-1997), I remember giving a pivotal speech that helped put us on block schedule and that reduced all classes to semesters.

Balancing that universe, this English redesign puts reading and writing back into a year-long format for all freshmen. This will benefit students in all classes where literacy is critical. Essentially, this will benefit students in all classes.

I can see the energy and enthusiasm in the English department as the teachers work this summer planning for this once-in-a-blue-moon opportunity. Their finished product will rock, I’m sure. And the school, as a whole, will benefit greatly.

I’m at Newport Elementary School now. It will be my second tour there as well. On July 21, the new admin team at NES met with the staff for the first time. As long as we can hang on to the positive flow of that assembly, we will be unstoppable.

The same will be true at West. The energy of your leadership team (Carolyn, Mike, DeeDee and Allison) and the participatory governance (SBMT) which quality WCHS leadership engenders will sustain WCHS long into the future. Loyale devoir!

So this looks like another July in which I have a different job in a very good school system. My recent employment history has me shifting around a bit. The crazy thing is I don’t plan much of this shifting. It just happens.

I’ve learned to pack lightly and that most goodbye’s are only temporary.

Godspeed, mighty and good Patriots. Until we meet again!

Joe

NCVPS Celebrates First Year of Service

North Carolina¹s online virtual public school has just completed its first full year of operation with plenty to celebrate. After its launch in June 2007 by Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue, the State Board of Education and the NC Department of Public Instruction, the North Carolina Virtual Public School has grown from an initial student base of 4,100 to one that is serving more than 17,000 students enrolled in more than 72 courses. To read more, please go to http://www.ncvps.org/news/announcements/2007-08/20080625-01 .

NCSSM Broadens Reach

newsobserver.com | Web opens up science school

About 100 students who didn’t get into the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics are getting a pretty sweet consolation prize. Starting in August, the runners-up may take school courses — they’ll just have to do it from home instead of living on the Durham campus.

NC Will Assess Writing at Every Grade Level

heraldsun.com: Board of Education revamps student …

The State Board of Education Thursday approved a host of changes to the testing system used to measure students’ skills.

Members voted to retool several tests, while eliminating or replacing others, including the writing tests given to 4th, 7th and 10th graders.

That series will be replaced with a new grade-level based writing assessment program for each class between kindergarten and 12th grade. The new system, to be developed by the state, will measure students’ writing ability at every grade level, beginning in the 2008-09 school year.

“We’ll have better writers,” Houston said. “They’re going to be writing for 12 years instead of saying it’s important in the 4th grade, and forget about it in the 5th and 6th, and then come back to it in the 7th.”

NC Joint Sub-Committee Release Draft of Ed Budget

What does this draft signal for Public K-12 Eduction? Here are some highlights–

• Much concern about transportation fuel costs
• The elimination of funds to support writing tests in grades 4, 7, and 10
• Reduction of funds for Learn and Earn On-line (a response to low participation levels)
• Continued modest support of 1:1 pilots in 8 high schools
• Additional funding for the school connectivity project
• Increased funding for AIG services and drop-out prevention

Is it any wonder?

Excerpt: Zakaria’s ‘The Post-American World’ | Newsweek International | Newsweek.com

• The world’s tallest building is in Taipei, and will soon be in Dubai.
• Its largest publicly traded company is in Beijing.
• Its biggest refinery is being constructed in India.
• Its largest passenger airplane is built in Europe.
• The largest investment fund on the planet is in Abu Dhabi;
• the biggest movie industry is Bollywood, not Hollywood.
• The largest Ferris wheel is in Singapore.
• The largest casino is in Macao,
• The Mall of America in Minnesota once boasted that it was the largest shopping mall in the world. Today it wouldn’t make the top ten.
• In the most recent rankings, only two of the world’s ten richest people are American.

Farheed Zakaria does a masterful job of outlining the shifting position of America in the global context. None of his comments should come as a surprise to anyone who has kept up with the literature.

His outlook is not one of doom and gloom. There is a place for continued success of individuals in the global economy. It will be ushered in by creative associations, integrations, and capitalizations—not by entrenched isolation.

Will we rely on the current model of high school to get us there? If we are not evolving that time-honored institution, it too will stack up globally like many items on the bulleted list above . . .

If it doesn’t already.

Perspective

Sometimes—especially this time of year—a human interest story can help keep things in perspective. In this month’s School Administrator, I am honored to have published just such a story about three of West Carteret’s finest students.

To print a copy for reading later, scroll down to Guest Column at School Administrator.

Or use this direct link to Sign Man, Cone Man and Gate Man.

Corporate or Revisionist History?

This time last year, I was beginning side conversations with county government to correct the course of our school system’s technology funding. I supplied sufficient data to show how erratic local funding over nearly a decade had created an aging computer inventory in schools.

As a result of inconsistent funding, 42% (or 1,243) of our computers are 7 years or older. Besides being unreliable and high maintenance, these computers are inadequate for handling up to 85% of the objectives in the Computer Skills Curriculum.

Faced with the reality that we would be maintaining computers for over seven years, our operational philosophy necessarily shifted toward power and durability as key factors to consider in purchasing computers. Cheap, late model computers from the bargain racks simply wouldn’t endure our typical computer lifespan.

Hence, the expensive durable laptops.

This argument resonated with county manager John Langdon as quoted in the News-Times on 6/22/07:

The county and school board also agreed to pursue a $2 million financing plan to replace computers in the schools.

In an e-mail sent to commissioners Tuesday, Mr. Langdon stated it was clear technology needs at the schools had been under-funded during the last seven years and as a result, the schools’ computer fleet was obsolete.

The data allowed Mr. Langdon to arrive at an alternative solution—stabilize funding and buy less expensive computers. His thoughts were captured in the Jacksonville Daily News (6/21/08):

The request includes $1.2 million to replace 780 outdated computers and other technology, but County Manager John Langdon sent out an e-mail Tuesday to school officials suggesting that amount may not be the most affordable or realistic route to take.

“That number may be too much for annual funding and won’t significantly improve excessive obsolescence (of computers) soon enough,” he said in the e-mail.

Langdon has proposed a financing plan much like one it just adopted for Carteret Community College improvements. The county would finance a $2 million loan to go toward school system technology needs.

Langdon said tight budget years and no technology funding in 2002 caused the technology replacement cycle for the schools to go astray over recent years. But he doesn’t see the practice of buying more expensive, higher-end computers to extend their lives somewhat longer as a good answer.

By buying computers at a lesser cost and implementing a more realistic replacement cycle, the proposed plan would purchase 1,475 computers, he said.

Then in August the final deal was struck for technology. This opened the door to a creative and beneficial partnership between the Board of Education and County Government.

Through creative bidding and setting a five-year replacement cycle, the county and the school system have struck a plan that both replaces computers and upgrades technology in schools and saves big money for taxpayers.

“It was a real incredible partnership between the school system and county government,” said Joe Poletti, director of technology and media for the school system, on the arrangement.

Here’s the entire News-Times article as documentation of the deal.

Why, even the erudite editors of the News-Times weighed in in support of significant technology funding in Mea Culpa.

Having had our minds opened to what school officials propose, we thank the individuals mentioned above for pointing out our blunder. We also second the schools’ request for “technology” needs, voicing a preference to lease rather than to purchase.

. . . and this is another benefit of Haulin’ ‘Net blog. It helps to preserve some corporate history no matter the turns in the blogger’s professional roadmap.

* * * *

So, it was with great intrigue, but little surprise as a new budget year approaches, that I read the print editorial from Mr. D. L. Darden in today’s News-Times (4/18/08):

Remember the $1500 laptop computers that school officials assured the taxpayers were the best price possible? Somehow the county manager found them for under $1,000.

No, Mr. Darden, we never said it was the best price possible. The above citations clearly demonstrate that we proposed durable and expensive laptops as the best value solution given the protracted computer lifespan into which our school system had been forced.

Mr. Langdon and the county commissioners agreed with that and moved to stabilize funding so that computers would be on a five-year replacement cycle. This is what opened the door to the less expensive models.

Mr. Darden’s feeble attempt to revise history and discredit the current Board of Education in the area of technology funding simply does not jibe with the evidence preserved here in the corporate record.

Constellations Yet Undiscovered

The internet joke goes something like this:

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson went on a camping trip. As they lay down for the night, Holmes said: “Watson, look up into the sky and tell me what you see.”

Watson said: “I see millions and millions of stars.”

Holmes: “And what does that tell you?”

Watson: “Astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Theologically, it tells me that God is great and that we are small and insignificant. Meteorologically, it tells me that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow.

What does it tell you?”

Holmes: “Somebody stole our tent.”

It’s no joke—In education we have built up lots of tents over time. They are our familiar places that keep us secure. Retiring to our tents is what we have always done. Our tents are our traditions. . .our parameters.

When tradition and parameters are removed, we can see constellations yet undiscovered,
new arrays of stars wanting but a name,
boundless new horizons-opportunities-pathways-visions-dreams,
fresh starts.

Or, we can simply see that our tents are missing.