Board-superintendent strength...

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Designed for renewed teams, new members and veterans committed to mentoring, YearOne is a series of insights based on crucial needs.  

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End of the school year.
Prioritizing and budgeting nearing an end.
Months of new leadership experience.

There's no better time than NOW to advance the heart of great governing: A strong board/superintendent relationship.  The crucial need: Clear understanding, commitments, trust, and accountability among board members and the superintendent regarding unique functions and responsibilities.

The age-old statement that the board sets policy and the superintendent administers that policy indicates a very distinct and clear dividing line between the respective roles of each. That division, however, is not always so clear, nor is it one upon which everyone involved agrees.

Leadership clues & questions...

Pitched in at an April Miami-Yoder mentoring dinner and left inspired by the leadership impact of FCCLA* leaders. Recently earned national medals prompted a first question: If your governing team received awards/medals for great governing, what standards, practices and/or achievements would be recognized?



FCCLA posters prompted more questions: How would you describe your governing team's TRY? What's new or refreshed about your team's leadership? What are you investigating that's exciting/bold/out-of-the-box? How are you building true, interactive participation?

Seeking understanding with others...

Nothing like a fridge magnet at Sunday's learning community sponsored by the Wyoming Association of School Boards to prompt a few questions about ongoing communication and trust challenges:

• How is your board and leadership system heavily investing in building understanding and trust in this era of stress and judgement?
• What old/traditional habits and time consumers have been set aside to make time for deep pursuit of  constituent understanding and support?
• How is your effort mutually beneficial?

It's much more complicated than that!

“Schools are failing.”
“The system is broken.”
“Education needs to be fixed.” 

So the echoing goes.  We hear, feel and engage “it” all the time, generally from folks far from the complexity of the frontline of learning.  What if the echoes are wrong?

When you have 10 minutes, go here for an American Journalism Review article about this decades/centuries-old dysfunction.  Quick highlights from this look at mass media, big-bucks “reformers,” school leaders, and, get ready, complexity: 

– By many important measures – high school completion rates, college graduation, overall performance on standardized tests – America's educational attainment has never been higher. Moreover, when it comes to education, sweeping generalizations ("rigid and sclerotic") are more dangerous than usual. How could they not be? With nearly 100,000 public schools, 55 million elementary and secondary students and 2.5 million public school teachers currently at work in large, small, urban, suburban and rural districts, education may be the single most complex endeavor in America.

– The notion that education is in "crisis" – that is, in a moment of special danger – is another journalistic favorite. While few reporters ever mention it, anxiety over the nation's educational achievement is probably older than the nation.

– All told, America's long-term achievements in education are nothing short of stunning.

All good in Colorado?

Heading into a Ridgway community meeting, recently, I passed two of Colorado's ubiquitous bumper stickers on a roof-top carrier:  "I love Colorado" and "It's all good."

Normally, no big deal.  This time I stopped in my tracks.

I love Colorado, too, but is it really all good?

Just from a preschool-12th perspective, "good" for Colorado appears, well, interesting:  

• Unlike nearly every other state, Colorado funds vital special education below 20% of the cost. Most other states fund in the 60% range.  Our local taxes must make up the rest.  We are at the very bottom of the "barrel."
• 36th in pre-school funding
• 40th in student-teacher ratio in elementary schools
• 43rd in nation in per pupil funding adjusted for regional cost differences
• 45th in percent of state wealth dedicated to public education
• 49th in fourth grade reading-poverty gap
• $2,500 below national average in per pupil funding (adjusted for regional differences)

LearnING community...

Nothing like a learning community to, ah, develop learning and improvements. [Don't miss the list below.] Above, CDE's Chad Auer processes a conversation with board members Robin (Rocky Ford), Jaye Sudar (Huerfano) and Debbie Hansen (La Junta).

Becky Smith, change agent at CDE, leads a discussion about researcher Michael Fullen's characteristics of an effective school district:

• Focus: a clear direction and relentless focus on student achievement through instructional improvement in the classroom. 
• Data: access and use of data on student learning as a strategy for classroom and school improvement to monitor progress.
• Leadership: development of teacher, principal and district leadership to share effective practices from each other and from the larger research base. 

Core focus: All students achieving...

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Designed for both new members and veterans committed to mentoring, YearOne is a series of insights based on crucial needs.  

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Everywhere you go in Colorado, there are good people concerned about Colorado's sustainable investment in increasing student achievement.  

In an era of upward pressure on schools to improve student achievement, boards of education must be laser-focused on the systems, resources and human effort required to show real results in student academic progress. Schools must strive to close gaps, reach high and achieve mightily—even as funding shrinks and scrutiny becomes more intense.

The core mission of school boards is assuring that all students learn and meet achievement standards that will prepare them for success in our ever-changing world. In this era of constrained financing and increasing expectations, it’s clearly not a job for the feint of heart.

The other side of launch...

Boy oh boy.  CASB launched Gavel Guide.  Past tense.  Launched.  The app is here, waiting for you to load it onto your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch.  (Anticipated Android launch date is June 25.)

Gavel Guide's main menu (iPhone display)

Just one week after CASB released the app, thirteen percent of our member districts have already installed the program.  Someone from each of those governing teams is learning from protocol explanations and sample announcements, finding answers to questions carried since joining the board. 

Vision and skills at GreatFutures...

Aurora president Mary Lewis shares an insight during small group time at last week's Great Futures cutting-edge learning environment on engagement, leadership and advocacy.  Fellow board member Jeanett Camany listens at left. 

Grassroots St. Vrain's Laura McDonald shares the story of building an effective local effort.  For more information on GSV go here.  [A glimpse from GSV's website:  "State of the District Meeting...May 7th...Will there be more state cuts?  Are District business costs increasing?  Will there be increased class sizes?  Please join us and find out from District leaders what possible changes are in store for next year."] 

Ridgway communications and connections...

Ah, the never-ending challenge of communicatING, engagING, relatING, connectING, advocatING, bondING, trustING...!  Last week, I stopped by Ridgway to support the third in a series of community leader nights.  Conveniently, the above props were left behind after a student play.  In a era filled with the stress of less financing and increased expectations, constantly investing in grrrrreat interpersonal and mass communication is crucial.   How's the challenge going for your governing team? 

Board member Bart Scalla facilitates one of the small groups.

Synergizing strengths...

Caught this core value during a presentation at the recent quarterly meeting of the Colorado BOCES* Association. The focus: Innovative work in the San Juan BOCES around Colorado's new instructional and leadership development opportunities. Every good-to-great governing team lives this value, well.

[Board of COOPERATIVE Education Services...a partnership of school districts...multiple districts maximizing efforts..school boards collaborating for kids...]

Behind the scenes of Gavel Guide's launch...

Tracking Gavel Guide's content development: drafted, reviewed, edited, finalized, and tested on iPad & iPhone platforms

On May 1, CASB will release Gavel Guide, a meeting management app for school boards.  With less than one week until launch, CASB is pushing toward the end of our Gavel Guide to-do list:  we are performing final content reviews, creating new webpages, designing email templates, and frequently exchanging technical notes with VistaWorks, our app developer.  Right now I have fast-paced workout music turned up in my office while I prep the app's backend website for a smooth launch.  Focus, focus.