FACULTY FORECASTER==011209

FOR THE WEEK OF JANUARY 12, 2009

Hi all,

I hope you all have had a nice weekend—hopefully you enjoy snow. The snow/ice day this past week was a tough day to lose since I know class sessions are valuable as we approach the end of the semester. The emergency all-school meeting on Friday also affected 3rd period classes, but at least we got some of that session in as the meeting’s issue was discussed fairly quickly. Let’s hope for a full week of teaching and learning this week…

JOINT SECONDARY STAFF MEETING—THIS WEDNESDAY

As mentioned in an earlier message, we will be meeting this Wednesday after-school with our department colleagues from Boynton, DeWitt and I.H.S. We are expected to arrive at I.H.S. by 4:00p and sessions will be held in the following rooms. This is expected to be the first of several subsequent joint-staff meetings and the purpose of this first gathering is to establish some targeted plans for some shared work around teaching practice, supporting struggling students, curriculum/skill development planning, etc.

Academic Intervention Services — F41
Career Ed/Technology — E11
English — Library
Fine Arts and Music — D4
Health and PE — Cafeteria
Library — F16
Math — H217
Science — H207
Social Studies — GK01
Special Education — K1
Student Services (school counselors and mental health personnel)– H112
World Languages — K17

As for finding a common time for us to have a staff meeting just with our own staff this week seems impossible given that most of us don’t leave days other the Wednesdays open. If needed, it may be that Curriculum Coordinators might hold an additional after-school meeting one day to ensure our work on the master schedule is completed, as well as some other timely agenda items we need to address.

ENGLISH TEACHER INTERVIEWS
Diane, Therese, Ira and Barry Derfel conducted screenings for the English vacancy we need to fill for next semester. We reserved the option to fill the position full-time if we found a stellar candidate, but as it turns out the pool was not as deep as hoped. In addition, we received word that the district is not permitting any new teaching appointments to extend beyond the school year given the uncertainties of the budget facing the district going into next year.

BUDGET REALITIES
Some of you likely read the letter sent out by the school board regarding the concerns about the impact that the State’s economic woes are anticipated to have on the district’s budget. The Superintendent shared some thoughts with principals and other administrators about some of the conversations school board members are having about potential cuts, as well as the state of the facility projects that are planned to commence this summer—including LACS. The Superintendent also met with me separately early in the week to talk about some ideas that could impact LACS and at the end of the week she arranged to have lunch with Dave Lehman and me to further discuss LACS in relation to the budget. She is crunching some numbers and playing out various scenarios, but is anticipating exploring some creative/radical shifts within the district that will warrant a response from the LACS community. It was helpful to have Dave present for the lunch meeting so between the two of us we could ask some questions, share some insights and other possibilities. On a positive note, what she was discussing with us did not include any anticipated staffing cuts to our staff—and the hope is that we can keep that commitment in tact. In the coming weeks, I will share more about the proposed plans as they become more fleshed out. It is likely that the Superintendent will come to meet with staff in early February, and possibly with our Site-Based Council as well.

STEALING ISSUE AT LACS
We have had some personal and school property come up missing recently. A few days ago it came to light that at least one, maybe two, students are responsible for some of the stealing. We are continuing to investigate and meeting with students and their families to get a fuller sense of what and how stolen items have been taken and perhaps sold. This will likely end up as a case for the school court, but could also involve police should the family of one student choose to pursue that course of action.

DR. DAVE DAY–TOMORROW
I wish I had thought to invite Dave to school for our 3rd period emergency ASM on Friday. He would have enjoyed the student initiative to want to address concerns with our school governance and shared-decision making document. It would have been a wonderful way to honor Dr. Dave Day. Anyway, we will have a brief celebration of Dr. Dave during morning meeting tomorrow. I plan to share that LACS is not an institutional member of the Earth Charter Institute, and I have asked if Mike might be able to have some videographers capture some sentiments from staff and students with birthday greetings to our founder and friend who is turning 70.

INAUGURATION
Given the various thoughts and ideas regarding viewing the Obama inauguration next week, I think we should go with the recommendations of the Agenda Committee and set-up some viewing stations for students and staff to have the opportunity to see this event. Any thoughts?

COURAGEOUS CONVERSATIONS
Our Equity Mentors, Therese and Shannon, will be leading the second in a series of discussion groups focusing on the book Courageous Conversations Tuesday right after-school. I had heard good things about the book and since I have been reading it have appreciated the way it is making me think about my understanding and relationships related to race not just as a teacher, but as a member of a community. I missed the first session last month and am excited to be part of this one this week.

LACS CONCERT
Please consider supporting our student musicians and their teachers this Tuesday evening at 6:30p for their winter concert. It’s always impressive to see what interesting arrangements Shannon and Anne Marie select for our orchestra and concert band. I am not sure if Dara is showcasing his ensembles this time around, but either way it will be a fun night of music. Our students love it when they see their favorite teachers in the crowd!

REGENTS WEEK SCHEDULE
Laura has sent out a preliminary schedule for the state testing portion of the Regents Week. We need to know what staff are planning for student assessments during the week. Monday the 26th is the last formal day of classes for the semester. Ideally, we can fit all the assessments into Tuesday and Wednesday, thus leaving Thursday and Friday for conferences. The conferences are intended to focus on reviewing evaluations together with your students and their parent-caregivers with specific examples of students sharing some reflections on their work—a paper, a project, etc. and what they learned as a result. While scheduling is an important component of the conference it should not dominate or serve as the sole purpose. As a general rule, it is recommended that at least 45 minutes be slated for each conference. We’ll talk more about this as we get closer to the time. It’s not too early to get the word out to families about when might work for them to come in for their conference.

CURRICULUM COORDINATORS MTG. SUMMARY
The CC’s meeting this past week focused mostly on analyzing the draft of the master schedule for the spring semester and trying to anticipate where there were potential conflicts and discussed different options for arranging when certain courses could or should be offered. We hope to have a final draft to share with staff following our next meeting later this coming week.

Also discussed were how to use our upcoming Supt. Conf. Day (Feb. 6th). Some of the ideas for our focus for this building level day are:

1. How to ensure success for all of our students,
2. Fostering a culture of literacy (using a deeper meaning of what it is) throughout the disciplines;
3. Exploring ways to build our on our mission by developing essential questions for each essential area and courses within to better demonstrate the inter-connectedness of our curriculum,
4. Allowing task groups from our Oct. Supt. Conf. Day to meet and continue work.

Each of these areas of focus relates in some way to one or more of our school development plan goals and/or dotocracy goals. It would be helpful to hear from staff to see which of the above ideas resonates, or if there are some other ideas that you would like considered.

WHO IS OUT THIS WEEK (as of 1/11 at 8:00p)
Tue. = Louis (Susan P. sub)
Wed. = Barbara

See you tomorrow. Let’s enjoy the week.

–Joe