Superintendent's Blog

There is little doubt that these are challenging times to be in public education.  We have entered an era that is being described as the “lean years.” Strategies that have worked in the past are no longer effective.  With budgets being severely reduced and community expectations on the rise there is a need for creative [...]

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On snow days we have a standing 10:00am administrative team meeting.  Our agenda is to work on issues that we don’t generally have time to have in-depth discussion on during the a typical school day.  On Monday, we had a lengthy discussion about the ubiquitous access to technology.  The conversation included how we as parents [...]

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Last night we hosted a community forum to discuss building reconfiguration options related to the closing of Houghton School.  These are difficult and complex decisions that require feedback from a variety of sources.  The 35 member committee that has been tasked with developing a recommendation to deliver to the Board of Education in March has [...]

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Recently, I’ve had several conversations about creating a 21st Century School.  They have been interesting discussions with experienced and talented educators.  Our thoughts and opinions have had a consistent theme, but we each think a bit differently about what we envision when we say 21st Century School.  In his recent book, Harvard Professor Tony Wagner [...]

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There was an interesting article this week in USA Today called, “Tech-savvy ‘iGeneration’ kids multi-task, connect.” It left me with more questions than answers about “post-millennial” generation that is currently in middle school.  The article notes the constant access to technology. Here are a couple quotes: “It’s simply a part of their DNA,” says Dave [...]

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This year our high school English department altered one of our College Writing courses into an online course with a service learning focus.  All assignments will be online, and students can fulfill their service requirements during that fifth hour class. Students will volunteer in areas that interest them, and their writing will focus on issues [...]

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Last night, as part of our ongoing attempt to reduce our current budget deficit for the year, the Board of Education approved our recommendation to eliminate 6 positions.  This resulted in the laying off of 4 remarkable young teachers and eliminating 2 long-term substitutes – effective March 17th.  It was particularly difficult, as I had [...]

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I was recently at a meeting with several Saline Area School parents discussing communication.  We were discussing the ways in which we (SAS) communicate with families and the community.  The group entertained the idea of developing a team of “key communicators” to meet with, discuss issues, get feedback, etc.  with administrators.  As we talked about [...]

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I know it’s not likely to mean much very soon here in Saline, but there are some fundamental changes coming down the pipe from Washington D.C. We are moving from NCLB (No Child Left Behind) to RTTT (Race to the Top).  Or, as I like to call it….. from education policy Texas style to Chicago [...]

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