Girls Basketball

The GL Comets girls basketball team is playing tonight against Jackson. Before the game we honored the late Ken Clark and his love for Grand Ledge High School.

2nd Grade Literacy

Mr. Sewick leads a reading group during his literacy block at Beagle this morning. Reading and writing every day helps ensure that students skills will improve.

Empty Bowls

The art department is sponsoring Empty Bowls tonight at the high school. Proceeds benefit the Greater Lansing Food Bank. You get a ceramic bowl for your donation.

Grand Ledge Wrestling

Grand Ledge competes tonight against St. John and East Lansing. The wrestling team is sponsoring Takedown Cancer complete with pink t-shirts.

Calculating Maximum Velocity

Here Grand Ledge High School AP Calculus students work to figure out maximum velocity after their thrilling ride down the hill. Mr. McCartney tried to explain how calculus was used and not just algebra in calculating maximum not average velocity.

Sled Day for AP Calculus

Today at Fitzgerald Park our Grand Ledge High School AP Calculus students rode sleds down the hill. Then they had to use calculus to calculate maximum velocity.

Winter, Weather, and Robocalls

As I look out my window, it is snowing.  Not hard enough to cause big problems but it is just a matter of time before we get dumped on.  It may not happen today or tomorrow, but one day - perhaps on several days this winter - we will get enough snow to delay or cancel school.

I saw an interesting article in the Washington Post about how alerting families to delays can cause frustrations and anger.

A father in Maryland received a call at 4:30 AM to let the family know that school was going to be delayed two hours because of snow.  The father thought that was too early so he created his own robocall message and sent it out the next day at 4:30 AM to school board members and school administrators letting them know that receiving a call at 4:30 AM was too early.

As with most things in life, there is more to the story than just an early morning phone call.

The story goes on to tell that the school had announced that there would be a two hour delay the night before.  Most people probably had already heard about the delay.  This father indicated that he knew about the delay the night before.  That was why he was so mad about receiving the robocall at 4:30 AM.

As I read this story I thought about our experience here this winter.  We have had one day cancelled because of snow and ice and a second day delayed because of snow and ice.  We were lucky both times.  The snow and ice came early so we were able to send out the message the night before.  We didn't have to wake up early, look at the conditions, and activate our Instant Alert system.

But there will come a time when we have to do that.  We send out our message twice.  First, it goes to employees.  We send that out about 5:30 AM.  Why so early?  Because many of our employees - especially bus drivers but others as well - get up early to come in and get the day started.

We then send our message to parents about 5:45 AM.  Why so early?  Many students are starting to get up around 6:00 AM so that they can catch a bus that comes at 6:30 AM.  We need to get the word out so that we can prevent them from going out to a bus stop and waiting for a bus that will never come.

I can sympathize with the father who thought getting a 4:30 AM robocall to alert him that school was delayed was too early.  I would agree that 4:30 AM is too early.

We attempt to get the word out as quickly as we can so that parents can make alternative plans and so that students don't get stuck waiting for buses that never will come.  Our goal is to communicate quickly - but I promise that we won't call at 4:30 AM.

US History @ Hayes

Today, Mr. Wright led his students through an assignment comparing Hamilton and Jefferson while I was visiting his class.

JV Basketball

Our own Grand Ledge Comets JV basketball team is battling Okemos tonight.

Success and the Seahawks

What does it mean to be successful?  I pondered that question last week as my wife and I visited her family in Seattle, Washington. 

While there, much of the sports commentary focused on whether the Seattle Seahawks, the local professional football team, deserved their chance to go to the playoffs.  At the time the Seahawks had six wins and nine losses.  In their division of the National Football League if they won one more game they had a chance to win the division and make the playoffs.

Many sports fans and sports writers felt that a team that would finish losing more games than they won did not deserve to make the playoffs.  The playoffs should be reserved for successful teams and a team with a losing record could not be classified as being successful.  The Seahawk players, on the other hand, said that they deserved their shot because the rules said that division winners qualified regardless of their record.

What made the argument interesting is that there would be some teams in the National Football League who would finish with more wins and fewer losses who would not qualify for the playoffs.  If the teams that qualified for the playoffs were supposed to represent the best teams in league, clearly a team that finished under .500 would not be one of them.

As it turned out, the Seahawks won their last game, won their division, and qualified for the playoffs.  Their final record was seven wins and nine losses.  Based on their record the Seahawks could not be classified as a success.  Yet, they made the playoffs and have a chance, theoretically, to win the Super Bowl and be declared the best team in the league.

This story resonated with me.  As I thought about the Seahawks and their goal of winning the Super Bowl, I thought about our district.  How do we judge success? 

Clearly, we do many things well.  Grand Ledge High School had a graduation rate of over 94% for 2009.  Our elementary and middle schools received an “A” on the Michigan School Report Card and our high school received a “B.”  On state standardized tests, the majority of our students pass and do well.

But are we successful?

Our stated goal is to be among the best school districts in the state and nation.  I believe each one of us wants to have a district that challenges our students and prepares them for any future that they may envision.

Even with the success that we enjoy, I would have to argue that right now we have not among the best schools in the state and nation.  Even with all that we do well, there are ways for us to improve. 

We need to make sure that every student makes at least a year’s growth in a year’s time.  We need to make sure that our instructional practices engage and inspire students.  We need to be responsive to our community and work to become a high performing organization every day.

The Seattle Seahawks snuck into the playoffs.  They were lucky to make it.  While they experienced some success this year, they clearly have a long way to travel to be considered among the best.

Our school district, on the other hand, does many things well.  We are successful.  But we are not where we need to be.  Our administrative team, teachers, and staff are committed to moving forward, working hard to take the next steps so that we can be considered among the best in the state and nation.  

Transparency - What's Good for the Goose . . .

Public schools must now post on their website information about salaries and benefits.  Check out the Grand Ledge Public Schools page.  The Budget and Salary Transparency Reporting page provides information about the insurance plans employees have, how much employees contribute toward their insurance, employee contracts, and the salaries of any employee who earns over $100,000.  While this transparency is legislatively mandated, I believe that it serves a broader purpose.  It shows that we have nothing to hide.

However, it seems that there are public schools in Michigan that are trying to hide things.  Look at these websites:  School One, School Two, and School Three.  What is the common thread on these Budget and Salary Transparency pages - all of these schools do not report salary information like our school district and other school districts do because they claim that they either have no personnel costs or that they use a third party to hire so they do not have to report.

All of these schools are that I listed are charter schools.  There seems to be a double-standard at work when regular public schools must report information but these supposedly public charter schools can obfuscate and hide information.  It is probably technically true that they use a third party to hire but it is still tax money that they are using.

These three charter schools examples have some of the highest administrative costs in the state according to the State of Michigan's Michigan Department of Education's BULLETIN 1014 - Michigan Public School Districts Ranked By Selected Financial Data Published Revised May 2010.  Vista Meadows had the 3rd highest administrative cost, Reach Charter had the 6th highest administrative costs, and University Prep had the 26th highest administrative costs.

Yet, a person would not be able to see evidence of that on their Budget and Salary Transparency Reporting page.

It appears like there is a double standard at work.

In running a school there are administrative costs.  However, there seems to be a bias that says charter schools are more efficient than regular public schools.  In ranking schools, the evidence suggests that there are public schools with above average administrative costs and there are charter schools with above average administrative costs.  There are also public schools with below average administrative costs and charter schools with below administrative costs.

I believe that the Budget and Salary Transparency Reporting page is to demonstrate that schools are using money wisely.  That is a good goal.  I just wish that every public school - regular and charter public schools - were required to present the data in the same way.