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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
If you’re like me, you’ve attended your fair share of meetings (staff meetings, board meetings, cabinet meetings…you name it.) Most of these meetings have had an agenda but many agendas were just SKELETONS, or basic outlines of the topics that will be presented, discussed or acted upon. So as we’ve had access to technology tools, ...
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 ...
Let’s face it. Not all board members are tech savvy. But more and more, it is so important that leadership can use technology to access important information (such as online meeting agendas, policies as well as news, registering for conferences…the list is endless). But what about the board members who’ve been led to the water ...
Education leaders want their districts and schools to be high performing. To do that, leaders recognize that they must create Performance Cultures. But what exactly is does this mean and what do leaders do to create a Performance Culture? Culture, simply defined, means “the way we do things around here.” At Georgia Leadership Institute for ...
A solution to transform public education Last week I had the privilege of being one of three speakers in the TEDx session at the NSBA Technology and Learning Conference in Phoenix, Arizona. The first speaker, Julie Evans, CEO of Project Tomorrow addressed the importance of listening to students about how they want to learn in ...
Over the last few years, I asked many people from school districts this question, “Are your board meetings and policies online?” And I’ve been pretty content to hear the answer has most often been “Yes, they are.” “Great!” I think (until I go look on their website). In most cases, I’m finding a few PDF files ...
During the 2010 Council of School Board Association Communicators Conference in Atlanta, I finally put into words what I’ve been musing for awhile. We’re at a communication crossroads where ink-stained fingers meet digital dudes and divas meet those who like a little broadcast with their print news and social media. Media consumption is no longer ...
Video of Keith Ellenburg- Technology Director, Putnam County Schools Once upon a time, a board member looked around after a board meeting at all of the packets of paper in the board room and exclaimed aloud, “I wonder how many trees we’ve killed this year. We should be using technology to go paperless! They did ...