As a lifelong advocate for public education and a local board of education member in Georgia for ten years, I hold strong convictions when it comes to charter schools. I totally support charter schools when approved by a local board of education. But, what about state charter schools? We already have more than 200 charter ...
Serving on a local board of education involves commitment, focus, and accountability. From hiring the superintendent to being advocates for public education to setting policy to being stewards of the budget, local boards have tremendous responsibility. Our stakeholders expect the absolute best for our customers, our children. So, along with these roles and responsibilities of ...
Last February, Dr. Claire Miller, shared the story of how her district, Barrow County School System, prepared for District Accreditation. This blog is an attempt to document the steps she outlined in her presentation which I think will be very useful for other school districts who have accreditation work looming! Her school district used eBOARD*’s ...
As a former school board member of ten years in Georgia, I was required to complete 12 hours of training during my first year of service and six hours each year thereafter. The training requirements have now changed; however, school board members must still complete training courses so that they are in compliance with this ...
As local school systems near the end of another school year and are planning and budgeting for the 2012-2013 school year, it is imperative that an emphasis continue to be placed on early learning. While federal funds provide for Head Start for children at age three, state programs such as Georgia’s lottery provide resources for ...
The eBOARDsolutions 2012 User Conference was held in late February in Atlanta, Georgia. Almost 200 eBOARD users gathered for a day of learning with and from their colleagues about how to take full advantage of the web-based suite of software tools that they have implemented for managing and aligning the work of their school districts. ...
Have any of the teachers in your school systems tried flipping their classrooms yet? Have you heard about it and what the advantages might be? As you know, new content is “typically” delivered to all students at the same time by their teacher. Some call this “sage on the stage”, presentations (with or without PowerPoint), ...
As we try to raise the awareness level of special education and mental and emotional needs in the world of public education, we must draw attention to what it means to be on the autism spectrum—especially on the highly functioning end of the spectrum. You see, looks can be deceiving. A highly functioning autistic person ...
In May 2011, tornadoes ripped through Joplin, Missouri. A community was destroyed. The hub of that community is the local public school system. The administrative building and many of their schools were leveled. Seven lives were lost within the Joplin school family. But, nothing stops the people of Joplin. Superintendent C.J. Huff announced within days ...
Missouri School Boards Association’s 2011 Pre-Conference was themed “Technology Trends in Education.” As a part of the day’s agenda one of Apple’s Distinguished Educators (ADE) Jennifer Magiera shared the innovate practices she is implementing in the Chicago Public School System. Jennifer is the iPad Project Leader/Trainer for CPS, the third largest school system in our ...
Is your school board’s work in the weeds or are you looking from a global perspective? It’s so easy to get off track. For boards of education, it is imperative that the board simply follow the system-wide strategic plan with that plan driving the monthly meetings of the board. So why do boards end up ...
Local school boards meet all around this country in governing our nation’s public schools. Who makes the agenda? In my home state of Georgia, the superintendent and board chair have the responsibility of creating the monthly agenda; each member of the board can additionally request that an item be placed on the agenda. What’s put ...
Art, music, P.E., drama…do we need performing arts and physical education in our schools? Absolutely. There are some students who only come to school because they look forward to their art class. The same is true within the other disciplines. So, then why are these the first things to go when budgets are cut? What ...
Is your head in the clouds? It should be. If you are a school administrator or a board member, you may have never heard or thought about “cloud” technology. I mentioned the word the other day in an e-mail and was surprised to hear back that it meant nothing to the recipients. I would respond ...
The Center for Digital Education held nine conferences this spring with a theme “Connecting the Dots” where participants not only heard from experts in the field of demographics but also engaged in roundtable discussion on relevant topics for public education. The conversations at the event in Georgia included professional development strategies for educators, technology planning ...
Planning for accreditation can be an incredibly busy time for any district. Our plates are all full, as the tired saying reminds us, but we needed to collaborate on this extremely important sign and seal of our district work. And as with all things in a school district, working with adults is an excellent opportunity ...
At the eBOARDsolutions User Conference in March 2011, I co-presented with Dr. Valery Hall of the Forsyth County Public Schools in Georgia. In her role of assisting both the superintendent and the board of education, Valery is integrally involved in preparing the agendas for their board’s meetings. Thus, our session involved agenda preparation and effective ...
NSBA’s FRN Leadership Conference recently closed with a general session featuring speaker Jamie Vollmer. His remarks “Welcome to the Great Conversation: The Role of Associations in Public Support for America’s Public Schools” were right on THE MARK! Jamie shared a story about blueberries…his career included being the president of an ice cream company. At the ...
Now that doing more with less is the new norm, how do you market and promote your school district and successful programs? Maybe it’s time for a brainstorming session with your school public relations professional. Don’t know where to start? I’ll kick the conversation off with these five freebies: Create desktop wallpaper and screensavers for ...
Over the last two decades I’ve worked with school systems (both administrators and teachers) helping them to more effectively use technology. In most of these cases, this has been in the service of a technology company such as Apple, Promethean or eBOARDsolutions. According to this Edupotia article “Shaping Tech for the Classroom” by Mark Prensky ...