Breakfast fills belly and heart with joy

I love pancakes but this weekend my favorite breakfast fare tasted sweeter than usual when I stopped by Duggan Middle School for the school’s pancake breakfast. The special treat of the day was the maple syrup that I slathered on my short stack. It was syrup that Duggan students had made themselves – starting from the sap collection process – as part of a hands’ on science learning project. It was wonderful to see the sense of pride and accomplishment on the faces of students as hungry patrons slathered their maple syrup onto steaming hot pancakes. The budget season is in full swing here at Springfield Public Schools and every day I confront the harsh realities of the costs of education materials, salaries, keeping up with technology, and so many other critical components of education. But at Duggan School on Saturday, I was reminded that sometimes the best teaching and learning doesn’t cost big bucks but takes little more than creativity, commitment and getting your hands dirty.

Students show SKILLS

Every day, in every school there are many students who make Springfield Public Schools proud. They are hard working students who come to school every day and give it all they’ve got.

Recently, some 50 such students from Putnam Vocational-Technical High School attended the SkillsUSA district conference in North Adams, Massachusetts. But our students did much more than simply attend the event; they shined and represented our school district very well. Our students brought back home six gold medals, two silver medals and four bronze medals. SkillsUSA is a national nonprofit organization serving teachers and high school and college students who are preparing for careers in trade, technical and skilled services. Putnam students earned the medals for their knowledge and skill in the areas of sheet metal, internet working, computer applications, preschool teaching, health care, culinary arts, technology and carpentry. The gold and silver winners will go on to represent our school district at the state level in April.

Congratulations to our Putnam winners. They are but an example of our many committed, talented and driven students.

Grants provide promise for schools while payroll error impacts teachers

This week has brought good news and bad news. The good news is worth celebrating. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) this week awarded Springfield Public Schools more than $11 million to implement redesign plans the district has made for rapid student improvement at Zanetti, Brightwood, Chestnut, Brookings, Gerena, Homer, Kennedy and White Street schools. This follows DESE’s awarding Kiley Middle School a $2 million grant earlier in the summer.

The grants will allow the schools to move on several initiatives designed to improve the instructional core, including extended instructional time every school day for students. DESE awarded the competitive grants based on each school’s individual plans for school improvement, which were submitted in December (earlier in the case of Kiley) and I am extremely proud of the great work these school teams have accomplished in putting together a strategic, realistic and aggressive approach to redesigning their schools.

The bad news came with the announcement of a payroll mistake that caused more than 1,400 teachers to be overpaid by a total of about $1 million. This news is unfortunate on many fronts. First and foremost, it places an unfair burden on teachers who come to work every day ready to put their best foot forward to teach our students. Good teachers who trusted the district to do the right thing in issuing their pay check. As a district, it has re-directed our efforts, resources and concentration away from what matters most – making sure we provide students with the tools they need to achieve academic excellence.

Our teachers have been amazing during this difficult time and we appreciate their patience. And I would like to assure them that we have been working very hard to fix this problem and put measures in place so that it never happens again.

Sharpening the Saw

Education of the conscious is vital to be a proactive and highly effective leader. This requires regular feasting on powerful literature and inspirational speakers, staying current on executive leadership practices and embracing critical friends as thought partners. This past week I had the opportunity to do just that at two events held in Denver, Colorado.

The first event was in response to an invitation from the U.S. Department of Education to participate in a labor-management conference with our Springfield Education Association (SEA) president, Tim Collins and vice-chair of the School Committee, Denise Hurst. There were 150 district teams in attendance represented by superintendents, union presidents and school board members. The focus of the convening was Advancing Student Achievement through Labor-Management Collaboration. We had the opportunity to learn more about promising practices from high performing districts across the country on the “what and the how” of governance in working together to improve teaching and learning for all of our students.

Secondly, I attended the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) National Conference on Education with an opportunity to strengthen my resolve from the likes of Michael Fullan (an international leader on educational change), Doug Reeves (founder of The Leadership and Learning Center), and Diane Ravitch (research professor and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institute). I also interacted with and heard from three of my mentors: Dr. Arlene Ackerman (Superintendent of Philadelphia Public Schools), Dr. Jerry Weast (outgoing Superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools) and Dr. Lillian Lowery (Delaware’s Secretary of Education).

Finally, I had the chance to co-present at the AASA Conference with Dr. Marvin Fairman, another friend and mentor as we shared information on Organizational Health in our presentation for Using Data to Transform the Culture of Schools and Central Office Units.

Investing in time for renewal keeps us fresh and serves to help increase our capacity to perform at a high level.

Snow Days

As Mother Nature deals us what has been described as the snowiest winter New England has seen in more than 40 years, school districts throughout the region are left to figure out ways for students to make up the days missed because of snow. In Springfield, we build 5 snow days into our school calendar and as of today, we are two days beyond that safety net. In the past, we have simply tacked on the extra days to be made up at the end of the school year. This year, school districts – including ours – are looking at other alternatives, including using school vacation time or Saturdays to make up the days. As we consider all of our options, our top priority is coming up with a plan that allows students and teachers more time in the classroom for overall instruction as well as MCAS preparation. Speaking of MCAS, we have already asked state education officials to consider pushing back the MCAS dates this year so that our students can recoup classroom time lost by snow days in advance of the state test. So, as you see, Mother Nature has given us much to consider. We will keep students, parents and staff posted as soon as our course of action is determined.