Multi Missions

As I review the issues that always hit my desk at the beginning of each year I revisit the early work of Dr. Larry Lezotte in the Effective Schools Network for patience, perseverance and insight.  Larry does really great thinking.  Though best known for his articulation of the Correlates of Effective Schools, I find solace in his thoughts regarding the competing missions of public schools.  This solace is needed even more now than when I first read it as decision making for public schools has pretty well been taken out of local hands and has matriculated to the state and federal governments.  Further, schools are asked more and more to solve societal problems in ways that in fact are counter-intuitive to our mission, or missions.  (And, because some of my dear friends at the new high school are going home and sticking pins in their Bob Wells dolls, I figured I had better at least ground my most recent decisions in sound theory.)

Schools are highly complex social institutions.  Simple monitoring of the children of our community on a daily basis, feeding them, transporting them, and ensuring their safety is a major logistical accomplishment.  Add to that all the state and federal standards and mandates, the need for ensuring an education across a variety of curricula and co-curricular courses, and winning football games moves our role so far beyond mere child supervision and fully into the role of child change agents.  We have a wide array of college educated, certified professional employees with expertise within the confines of their room and assignment.  And we have a wide variety of parental expectations for individual students.  This interaction among adults on behalf of kids under the rubric of compliance makes our system highly complex.  Lezotte did an insightful job of outlining these competing missions of public schools, herein shared a la Bob.

The custodial mission outlines our responsibility for the safety, well-being, and monitoring of all students in EISD.  We have a bunch of policies to ensure this safety including requiring adults to be on duty at buses and doorways, requiring parents to check their kids out so we know who leaves with whom, etc., etc.  Also included in this mission are our discipline policies and procedures, including dress code and closed campus, all designed to increase our ability to know where our students are and what they are doing.  The federal and state governments have added tremendously to this mission in terms of student fitness, vaccinations, obesity, anti-bullying, date violence, teen pregnancy, etc.  All these requirements and responsibilities accrue to the custodial mission.

The sort and select mission regards all our programs where kids are determined to be in the program or out of the program.  In other words, the programs that sort then select kids.  These programs include GT, Special Education, Athletics, Cheerleading, Honor Society, AP, etc., etc.  For each of these programs the rules are extensive because sometimes parents challenge the selection process and we must be able to clearly define why a student was selected “in” or “out.”  Many parents value the sort and select programs more than the core programs because they are by their very nature sorted and either a source of pride or stigma.

The adult control, safety and convenience mission involves our employees.  We must keep our employees safe and provide an environment where they are most likely to be successful.  We need to pay a fair wage and provide appropriate benefits.  We need good facilities and good resources.  We have come a long way in this area, but the convenience mission and control mission always erupt.  Sadly, each teacher does not have his or her own office and secretary and kitchenette and phone.  We just cannot afford it.  We do bend over backwards to provide opportunities for teachers and others to have input in decision making.  Our district and campus teams meet regularly, and if there is a specific issue we will meet with those involved.  Bottom line, we cannot ignore this mission either.

The teaching for learning for all mission is what most folks outside our profession think we are all about.  This is the mission that consumes most of our time, resources and focus.  We want every kid to be academically successful.  We work hard at that.  We have tutorials and tiers and progress reports and parent portals and report cards and teacher conferences and textbooks and computers and CSCOPE and hours and hours of teacher preparation and staff development to make this happen.  We will never be content if a student fails.  This is our main mission as far as I’m concerned.  It’s why I am in this business; it is the motivation to ensure a quality education for all.

But these missions compete.  They compete for resources including time.  We could provide higher salaries and more perks for adults if we had fewer of them.  But that would not help us accomplish our main mission.  We could have the best athletic equipment, more coaches than anybody and fancy Greyhound buses for our athletes, but that would take resources from our instructional mission.  We could hire police officers, and hire security guards to keep our kids safer, but that would take resources from our instructional mission.  It is a balancing act.  How can we ensure a quality core curriculum and offer GT, athletics, vocational education, etc., and still ensure that we are competitive when it comes to staffing and focused when it comes to instruction?  That is a leadership decision.

Most of the issues that hit my desk at the beginning of the year are not around the teaching for learning for all mission.  They are around the sort and select mission or the adult convenience mission.  That’s the way it is and likely will be.  I think it is very important for our parents, staff and kids to know that we attend to all our missions, but I for one will consistently land on the instructional mission as our main mission.

The New Commish

Here we go again.  Once more our governor has failed to appoint an educator to the top spot in the Texas public education system.  His last appointment was an attorney.  Now, Governor Perry has named Michael Williams to serve as our new Commissioner of Education.  I am not sad.  I am mad.

“High standards and accountable public schools are essential to our state’s future success, and no two people understand that better than Michael and Lizzette. Together, they will build on the improvements achieved during the tenure of Robert Scott and Todd Webster, and will ensure our children are prepared for the challenges of college and the workplace,” Gov. Perry said.  Williams is a past chairman of the Governor’s Competitiveness Council and Governor’s Clean Coal Technology Council, and past member of the Southern State Energy Board, National Coal Council and Interstate Mining Compact Commission. He is also past chairman of the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission, former honorary chairman of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Texas, and a past board member of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce, Texas Public Policy Foundation and Our Mother of Mercy Catholic School.  Williams received a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree in Public Administration, and a law degree from the University of Southern California.

So, here is what we know:  He has never worked in a public school and he has been on the board of a private school.  He clearly believes competition is the “cure” for public education and that we should be held more accountable.  One wonders if his stints relative to coal mining make everything else over his head.

I remember a conversation I had with previous Commissioner Robert Scott.  He was an attorney and a former bureaucrat in Washington and TEA.  We informally sat together at a food court, and I asked him if he would support my appointment to the State Bar Association.  Mr. Scott sat up and looked at me and said, “Bob, I didn’t know you were an attorney.”  I said, “I’m not.”  Mr. Scott said, “Then you are not qualified to be on the State Bar.”  “My point exactly,” I said.

To Scott’s undying credit, he spent enough time interacting with us in public education to see the light at the end.  He took a stand against high-stakes testing and had to resign shortly thereafter.

When will elected officials understand that this is a profession that deserves self-governance?  Lawyers govern themselves.  Engineers govern themselves.  Doctors govern themselves.  We are governed by people who could not survive one day in our PreK program, much less teaching English IV AP.  We know public schools, we know what works, and we know kids.  Asking us to do more with fewer resources does not work in the public sector any better than the private sector.  Holding us accountable based on a spurious state-wide high stakes test is professionally unethical.  Those who support moving funds from public schools to charter schools, or even worse, vouchers only undermine public schools more.

Please Governor Perry.  Find an educator!  We desperately need leadership at the state level who is a professional educator we can respect.  We do not need another Perry-Winkle or Wonk.

Welcome Back!

August 10, 2012

Dear Edna ISD Employees,

We have had a great summer, though it felt really short!  School year 2012-2013 is right around the corner!  For all of you who had the opportunity to leave Edna and chose to stay I want to say a personal thank you and I can’t wait to see you back.  For those of you who are new to our system we are very glad you are here and look forward to getting to know you and to support you while you begin to feel at home.  For all the rest of you I am equally glad you are here and look forward to seeing you.

We enter the second year of severe budget cuts, but we are doing OK.  The Board, as you know, approved major raises for everyone and I hope you are as pleased as I am.  The Academic Building of the new high school is not quite ready as we hoped, but will be in early September.  All other construction is right on schedule.  The football team, band, volleyball team, spurs, and cheerleaders are already hard at work for an exciting fall.

We will have a welcome reception for our new administrators and returning administrators in new positions on Thursday, August 16^th from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. in the EES cafeteria.  Please drop by and meet these great folks.  New teachers will report to EES library on Friday, August 17^th, 8:00 a.m. for a day of new teacher induction.  Teachers and paraprofessionals report to Edna Elementary at 8:00 a.m. on Monday, August 20^th for our Welcome Back breakfast!  Further, our wonderful friends at First Baptist have invited us all to lunch at noon on Wednesday, August 22^th.  Students return August 27^th! 

I hope your summer was all that you wanted it to be.  We are really glad you are here.  Our mission is to ensure a quality education for all.  Each year we must do a better and better job of that!  We can do it thanks to you, and I look forward to seeing all of you on August 20^th.

Sincerely,

Bob Wells

Mental Models for Public Schools: Competition or Collaboration

I am the father of two wonderful human beings (a clearly objective statement):  Son Bill and daughter Lacey.  They are all grown up and living their own lives now, Bill a high school science teacher in the Fort Worth area and Lacey a high school math teacher in the Austin area.  (Lord knows why with a father who is employed as a superintendent and a mother who is employed as an elementary teacher they chose teaching as a profession, but each of them did.)  When they were young, they competed.  They got jealous.  They talked about things being unfair because one of them got something the other didn’t.  Sibling rivalry.  We (wife and I as a team) recognized it and constantly worked to communicate that each of them were loved equally and totally, each of them had value and gifts, and as parents we would never favor one over the other but attempt to do the best we could for both.  We were a family, that bond transcending petty rivalries. 

A family works to help, promote, love and support all members.  If a family member was sick or injured our resources and attention went to that member.  If a family member had success in anything, our celebration was family-wide, we were all proud.  I have loved watching my kids grow up.  By high school and beyond the sibling rivalry disappeared and with their growing maturity they really got it, each of them supporting the other.  When Bill got married, Lacey really celebrated.  When Lacey got engaged, Bill really celebrated.  Families (in the best and healthiest ways) are wonderful mental models to use when thinking of mutually supportive, collaborative groups.  A group of friends works well too.  A church family works well too.  A high performing military unit, a civic organization, a group of neighbors, a team on an assembly line, and on and on, there are multiple examples of groups of humans who work for each other to promote and support each other in ways that exemplify mutually supportive, highly collaborative human groups.  I love being a member of such groups.  The feelings I experience in such groups is so much more positive, more caring, more productive than any other groups of which I am a member.  When I am in need, I turn to such groups.  If another member of the group has needs, I am there to help and support.  In my mind, these groups are the highest evolved human organizations we have.

So, what about public schools?  Should teachers compete or collaborate?  Should we reward some teachers for higher performance or should we promote teams of teachers working together for the best results?  What about schools?  Should we reward campuses for higher performance or should we promote a school-wide team that not only works together for higher performance, but also works with other schools in the system to help them?  What about school districts?  Should we promote competition and reward for one district performing better than another, or should we promote a mental model of public schools that empowers collaboration among and between school systems for every increasing success with kids?  Should we think of public schools using the model of Ford vs. Toyota, or think of schools using the model of the family and the church?

As I look at the current reform models for public education it appears to me that we have two distinctive philosophical camps.  One promotes competition, one promotes collaboration.  One would increase the number of charter schools so that public schools must compete with other tax supported schools.  One promotes rewarding some schools and punishing others.  One promotes allowing parents to move kids from one school to another and take their tax dollars with them (vouchers) to promote competition.  One promotes ever increasing reliance on standardized testing to measure the merits of the classroom, school and district so that schools may be ranked, so that it can be determined who wins the school super bowl.  In short, one promotes classroom, school and school district competition.  This model of reform was not developed by school folks.  It was developed by and superimposed by private sector thinking.  It is, in my opinion, seriously intellectually flawed.  It is moving us in directions that do not help kids.  It is the application of the wrong mental model to the wrong organization.  It is immoral.

Why?  Because the taxes collected to teach kids are universally collected and should be spent to support a universal support for student success, however we measure such success.  Amazing to me is that anyone would ever promote competition between schools and systems, especially using universally collected tax dollars.  That model sets schools to compete for money from a common pot.  This is not Ford vs. Toyota competing for consumer dollars from individuals.  This is schools competing with each other for money from the common pot.  Every dollar that goes to charter schools takes universally collected tax dollars away from public schools.  The public still pays the same amount, but some school district somewhere is losing money and kids so that a so called “competitor” for public schools gets money.  That philosophy neither helps the public nor the schools.   It helps promote the wrong mental model.

If I am a teacher and I find a way to help kids learn I should be motivated as part of the family of teachers to share that strategy.  If I am a principal and I find a way to promote student success on my campus I should be motivated as part of the family of public schools to share that strategy with other schools.  If I am a superintendent (well, OK, I am today) and I find a way to help promote student success that works in my district I should be motivated to share that strategy with other districts so that their students do well too.  That includes personnel.  If I have a truly gifted teacher, a truly gifted principal, a truly gifted central office administrator who has found ways to help promote student success and highly performing collaborative teams, I should be willing to share that person with others.  Public education is for all kids.  Any effort to encourage teachers, principals or superintendents to withhold information from other classrooms, schools or districts should be abolished.  That hurts kids.  All the “reforms” push us toward competition, not collaboration.  In my value structure, that’s immoral, akin to a doctor discovering a cure for something and refusing to share it with others in the medical profession for the sake of self gain.  Such thinking is worse, because the gain is from the common pot, not from individual consumer choice.

We spent a lot of time last year working on the components of what we called “Active Engagement” or “Ride for the Brand.”  It is what we believe are the key elements of being a professional in EISD.  We narrowed the vast array of attributes down to six.  One of them is “We are team oriented.”  That is crucial; it implies collaboration, not competition.

At the state level and in each district, superintendents have spent a lot of time over the last few years working on a common vision for public schools as an alternative to the “reform” movement.  This document, entitled “Creating a New Vision for Public Education in Texas” can be found at http://www.tasanet.org/sites/tasa/files/visioning/workinprogress.pdf.  It is a response to the reform movement, a statement of what professional educators would envision for public schools in Texas.  It is mostly very good, but in my mind misses the crucial point, fails to identify the mental model we should use for public schools.  It does say in the very last article, “Article V: Organizational Transformation, Supporting Premises, letter Vm: We hold that: Operating and social systems exist in all organizations including schools.  Transforming these systems is the only way to transform schools into the type of organization needed.”  This is as close as the new vision comes to addressing mental models for schools, and stops woefully short of simply saying schools should collaborate, not compete.  Until we in the profession agree and act in a collaborative way rather than a competitive way, we are failing our kids and everyone else’s kids too. 

Do not get me wrong, there are times and a places for schools and kids to compete.  Learning how to handle the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat in a mature way is an essential skill.  All UIL competition is set up for competition.  (Interesting, though, that in this most competitive subset of public education that the rules for competition are developed collaboratively for the sake of leveling the playing field and ensuring that no school has an advantage.)  But competition is a lower level skill, not a highly evolved human skill.  Learning to collaborate is upper level stuff.  We do not have to learn to compete, animals in the jungle do that, young children do that, even many adults have adopted the competitive model for their way of viewing the world.  Some of these adults see the world as a racial competition.  Some as gender competition.  Some as religious competition.  Some as income and status competition.  So be it.  I suspect for each of these adults when they are stressed, or pressed, or hurt, or in need of support, they do not turn to a competitive group, they turn to a collaborative group to get through the pain and thereby reveal that the groups they value most are not competitive.  And I wonder why they promote the notion that we in public education should all compete.

If I can help a fellow superintendent or a fellow school system I will do so, and have.  If principals can help each other, they should.  If teachers can help each other they should.  And if I can work to promote the entire public education in this state I will do so.  Any effort by the legislature or by fellow educators to promote the notion that one should win and the others lose I will oppose and perceive it to be immoral.  Not so that I can win.  So that kids can win.  That is our mission and I am convinced that is the appropriate and moral mental model for public education.

College Ready?

What does it mean to be college ready?  Just a few superficial thoughts on a highly complex problem:

1.      Being college ready should not mean the memorization of a million facts.  21^st Century gizmos deliver all the facts you ever need to know right to your hip pocket or purse.  Nor should it mean mastery of a million formulas.  Ditto previous rationale.

2.      Being college ready should mean the ability to process all the information that is delivered to your hip pocket or purse, form conclusions, inferences, identify trends, apply the correct facts and correct formulas.  It should mean knowing how to ask the right questions.  It should mean being creative and working collaboratively.  It should mean knowing how to teach oneself new information.  Should mean metacognition and critical thinking.  It should mean having a rich sense of our cultural and political heritage, appreciation for the fine arts, and a sense of our place in the vast universe from various philosophical perspectives.

Interesting to me is that none of the stuff I listed in paragraph #2 tends to be measured well on a standardized test.  (I know, I know, Pearson will argue that requiring multi-step problems and determining inferences from reading passages measures the stuff in paragraph #2.  They are wrong.  You only measure the stuff in paragraph #2 by interaction, creative writing, research and dialog.  The fruit of creative thinking and problem solving can never be pre-determined as having one right answer on a bubble sheet.)

Interesting to me is that the more we focus on kids doing better on standardized tests driven by state defined curriculum standards the less attention we spend on the stuff in paragraph #2.

Interesting to me is that before public schools started doing such a great job of graduating so many kids, colleges were not complaining that kids were not college ready.  In 1970 there were 8,581,000 students in institutions of higher learning in this country.  In 2009 there were 20,428,000!  (NCES)  Our total population in 1970 was 205,052,174.  Our total population in 2010 was 308,745,538.  (US Census)  Our total population increased by 103,693,364, or 50%.  Our college population increased by 11,847,000 or 130%!  Suddenly we hear complaints from colleges that students are not “college ready.”  The solution to this problem, of course, has been to assume that we in public schools were not teaching them.  How can we find out if we are teaching them in public schools?  More standardized tests.  What happens if we focus more and more on standardized tests?  Less college ready.  Go figure.

Or, perhaps interesting to you is another way to look at all the above data.  That is to say that public schools did such a great job of preparing vast numbers of kids for colleges that it is now clear that the colleges were not prepared for the kids.  In other words, kids were college ready, but colleges were not kid ready.  Especially kids who had learned to demonstrate mastery on a standardized test.  Now that’s a whole 'nuther topic.

The Magical Tassel

Happy Independence Day!  July 4^th and great American celebrations commence with BBQ, fireworks and patriotic music.  Though not astronomically correct, it feels like mid-summer, especially to educators.  We have another year under our belts and our minds in weaker moments turn to the year to come.  Perhaps not today as we distract ourselves with our nation’s birthday, but soon. 

I reflect on the group of high school seniors who are no more for as of early June they became high school graduates.  Today is truly Independence Day for that group across our land because with one turn of a magical tassel affixed to the world’s most awkward hat all the ways we think about the individuals in this group changed.  They were transformed and the institutions that serve this group transformed with them.  They were set free by the magical tassel turn.  In my career I have turned thousands of tassels in this great American Magical Show we call the High School Graduation Ceremony, and it occurs to me I have not articulated how important this event is to educational institutions and the students we exit and the lives they commence. 

In three short months in the summer after high school, children become adults.  An 18 year old in May is treated very differently than an 18 year old in September.  During those three months, the turn of the magical tassel has symbolically transferred the responsibility for each of these young adults from the public schools to the individual student.  What a rite of passage!  Let me be clear about the change that happens with that turn of the tassel.

Prior to the turn of the tassel, the student’s behavior, the student’s dress, the student’s manners, even the food the student eats were the responsibility of the public school.  After the turn of the tassel, presto! the student becomes responsible for all these attributes.  No one will monitor caloric intake, facial hair, ear rings, tats, skirt length or cleavage revealed.  No one will monitor whether they bully or get bullied, no one will be held accountable for the annual dental cleaning, vision testing, vaccinations, hearing tests, or physical fitness of the student.  How these 18 year olds function in June is totally different than how they functioned in May, and the schools have released another crop of young adults into society.

Prior to the turn of the tassel, what the student learned and how well he or she learned it was the school’s responsibility.  Tests were given to be sure schools were doing it well, teachers passed tests to be sure  they were doing it well, data were collected and run in the local paper to show how the schools that serve 18 year olds in May were performing.  It was the school’s job to teach and the school was held accountable.  After the turn of the tassel, presto! It is the students’ responsibility.  If a high school student fails a course, it is the teacher’s fault.  If a college freshman fails a course, it is the student’s fault.  If a high school student quits, he or she is a “drop out” and it is the school’s fault.  If a college freshman quits, they have “flunked out” and it is the student’s fault.  If a high school student fails to make a certain grade on a standardized test, it is the teacher’s fault and the school’s fault and the school system’s fault.  If a college student fails to pass a professor made test that has not been reviewed by any psychometrician for validity or alignment, then it is the student’s fault.  Yes, in three short months after the turn of the tassel the 18 year old is now responsible for his or her learning and behavior, not the institution that serves him or her.  What a magical tassel this is!  There are no other three month spans in the life of an American that yield such change.

As early rumblings of holding colleges accountable for student learning began, we in public education began to hear the term “college readiness.”  Oh my, so if we hold universities accountable for student learning it is still the public school’s responsibility because students who fail in college must have been ill-prepared in high school.  It is our fault again for not making students college ready.  The tassel may turn and free the student, but it has yet to free the high school.

Prior to the turn of the tassel high school teachers hold themselves responsible for student learning and student success.  High schools hold themselves responsible for student learning and success.  High school parents hold the high schools responsible for student learning and success (and much more, including popularity, extracurricular success and the assurance that the senior year not be too strenuous.)  Teachers teach for learning and assume teaching has not occurred unless there is measurable evidence of the learning.

After the turn of the tassel, professors hold the students responsible for their own learning and success.  Colleges hold themselves responsible for placing an expert in each class who is charged with delivering the content, not the reception or retention of the content, hence the word “professor” he who professes, as opposed to teacher, he who teaches.  The burden for learning falls on the student.  Parents of college students cannot go on line and check their kids’ grades, nor do professors schedule parent conferences to confer on areas of weakness.  Nope, the kid is on his or her own.  Their magical tassels have been turned.  There will likely not be tutorials, staged interventions, make up work or extra credit.  This is college.  There is no 22 to 1 ratio requirement, there is no required staff development on pedagogical techniques for professors, and there are no required continuing education hours on the professional and practice of teaching.  Nope, this is license to transmit content with the fully accepted assumption that it is the student’s job to learn.  The institution is independent of the student and is not accountable for the student’s learning.

I have observed an interesting phenomenon over the years of increasing public school accountability.  The more we hold public schools accountable for student outcomes on standardize tests the more rigid the instruction, the more directed the instructors and the more responsibility the school has assumed for student learning.  And though scores go up on these tests, the more the colleges lament the lack of preparation of the entering students to assume responsibility for their own learning.  Could it be that there is an inverse relationship between public school accountability and collegiate success?  I think so.  The more we hold public schools accountable, the less likely students will be successful in college.  The assumptions are bipolar regarding who is responsible for student success and public schools must assume more and more responsibility for such success diminishing our ability to promote student responsibility for such success, thereby decreasing the likelihood of collegiate success. 

The assumed responsibility shifts from public school to individual student with the turn of the magical tassel.  At that point, students are declared free and schools are finally free of their responsibility for virtually every aspect of the young adult’s life.  Mortarboards are thrown in the air, tassels hung on rear view mirrors and families and friends celebrate.  But the turn of that magical tassel has caused a huge cultural shift in the expectation for success for each of those kids.  No longer is it the school’s job to teach and make kids successful.  It is the student’s job. 

Happy Independence Day, high school grads.  The magical tassel has set you free.

Hello July!

I just went through the worst June of my career.  It was terrible!  In fact, March, April and May were not great.  I have never been so glad to see July.

I suspect for most of you the spring, the end of school, and the early summer were typical.  Not for me.  I awoke after Graduation knowing that I was acting high school principal, acting curriculum director and everyone else was off on vacation or conference.  We had vacancies out the kazoo and no one around to even form a committee to help select new folks. 

June was painful too.  I was losing close friends and colleagues who for years had been a source of stability and feedback for me personally and professionally.  The Board perceived I was not on the same page as they, and vice versa.  When the work load dramatically escalated I became emotionally less equipped to deal with it.  I hurt.  There were times I was ready to quit, times I was encouraged to quit, and times I thought I’d be fired.  But, here it is July and I am still here.  For some, that is good news, for others you may not think so, but I am still here.  The pain is not all gone, but thank goodness June is.

We accomplished much in June.  On July 2^nd I will recommend a new curriculum director, and brand new human resource/federal programs director, a new principal of the junior high, a new assistant principal of the junior high and a score of new teachers.  June was interview month and we are blessed by the quality of folks who are willing to come here and work with us.  I deeply believe you will like our new folks and look forward to all of us getting to know each other. 

I learned in June that we are blessed by the quality of folks who committed to stay with us.  We have some great teachers and as I have grown to know some of you better I am kicking myself for not having done this sooner.  To each of you who are staying I say thank you.  To those of you who risked engaging in real conversation with me regarding what is right and what is wrong in our system I am forever in your debt.  I held my first “BwB” and I think it went great.  I will have others and be more inclusive, but I really wanted to thank those who were tempted to leave us and decided to stay.  The work of public education is not about title and salary, though I know that helps.  It is about mission and purpose and I am so glad you remain here to help in that cause. 

On the other hand, because June was interview month, it was not planning month as it typically is.  I am way behind on budget development, I am way behind on handbooks, code of conduct, district goals and objectives, compliance reports, federal grant submissions, analysis of STAAR test results, etc., etc.  I will have to cover a lot of ground in July to make up for June, but I will have some great new folks to help me do that.  And, we still have a major construction project underway that requires constant monitoring and plan adjustment.

Summers are my busiest time, and the decisions made between now and your return are critical to our success.  Thanks to each of you who, though off contract, have helped with making so many of those decisions and have given of your own time to go to conferences and workshops to refine the quality of your professional practice.  And for all of you I say drop by and say hi.  I’m here working.

Hello July!  Can’t wait for August! 

(OK, I may be in the minority on that one, but once you are back, busses roll and bells ring it means the major planning is done and we are up and going serving kids.  So rest up!)