G-Town Talks

There’s been a lot of conversation centering on Governor Spitzer’s “Contract for Excellence” wherein superintendents, boards, and principals will be held accountable for taking action and raising student achievement. But only if you’re a school that’s deemed needy financially, as compared to “successful” schools, to warrant an increase in foundation aid of at least 10%. We are and we do.

Does the governor’s office, or the public in general really think I’m not accountable now? I’m a public school administrator. Here’s who I’m currently held accountable by:

1. 467 students
2. 467+ parents and guardians
3. 60 teachers
4. 2 union presidents
5. 20 support staff personnel
6. 1 superintendent
7. 1 business official
8. 7 Board of Education members
9. 2500 community members and taxpayers
10. 3 administrative colleagues
11. 3 members of my own family
12. 1 me.

And the governor and his accountability through the contract for excellence are supposed to worry me? Two thoughts: if someone, including an official at State Ed has a good idea that will help my school improve, bring it on and I’ll give it a try,  no “contract for excellence” necessary AND if anyone wants to remove me because I neither get every student to attend school every day, pass every Regents exam with a 65% nor graduate, they darn sure better have someone better to replace me.

Why? Because this is my school district, where I live, shop, pay taxes, and educate my children. I don’t need the threat of removal to do my job nor do I find it motivational. This contract assumes the worst of me and I resent it.

Our Building Improvement Team hosts it’s second annual “Taste of Gowanda” contest this evening. Our inaugural event was held last year and was a huge success, bringing together students, faculty, and community members in this cooking contest. We have appetizers, main dishes, and desserts with 37 entries. There’s even a cookbook containing all of tonight’s recipes as designed by our business students for sale for $3.00.

The best part of the evening is seeing everyone interacting, enjoying each other’s cooking, and visiting. We have the prestige of winning and extremely cool trophies (handmade) for first place. After the judging, everyone in our community is welcome to come to taste for the small price of $1.00. Any profit we make on the sale of the cookbooks and the entry fees goes to the local Food Pantry.

It’s really just about inviting the public into our school in a positive way. Many thanks to Sue Rebmann for taking care of every detail, big and small, to her co-chair Beth Westerheide who did anything Sue didn’t think of (which wasn’t much), and to our judges and BIT members for helping.  Oh and thanks to Tom Janicki in our Art department for making the banner I said I would take care of as my part of the set-up. It’s great to be part of this team!

I don’t even have time to write and tell you why I haven’t had time to post. All is well, busy with student issues, strategic planning, emergency preparedness, evaluations, budget planning, bell schedules, and can’t even think of what else. Instead of trying to come up with a post, think I’ll go read a bit and invest in a little much needed input. Too much output lately. It’s either read everything I can find or go on a mad on-line shopping binge. Healthier to read.

HR Manager Lisa emailed me to ask why I hadn’t written. When I replied that I barely had my head above water she said I was lucky because she’s sprouting gills. Truth be told, we’re all in the same boat.

Have you ever had a moment where someone tells you something and your internal response is “how could they possibly think that?!” It’s one of those times here in G-Town where my perceived attitude is different from what I intend.

I’ve written previously about cell phones, et al. I’ve spoken to the students and to the faculty about our school rules on the issue. Students may carry them, but they are not permitted to use them in school between 7:15-2:15. We also provide locks for their lockers so that they have a secure place to keep valuables. However, I’ve never thought for an instant nor supported allowing students to use cell phones during instructional periods. That’s just absurd.

I know our kids text constantly. I also know that as a classroom teacher, no student would have text messaged or used a cell phone during my class. I wouldn’t have allowed it, would have given consequences if it happened, and would have counted on our mutual respect to prevent it.

Imagine my surprise yesterday when my department leaders indicated that my perceived “laid back” attitude toward  our students having cell phones on them and that I allow them to listen to MP3 players in the hallway, study hall, cafeteria—translates to a similar laid back attitude in the classroom.

We absolutely have to guard our instructional time. We have enough interruptions between snow days, vacations, student absences, and activities. Teacher control or principal’s control? It’s a no-brainer to me that this shouldn’t happen and yet, I haven’t appropriately set this tone.

Thus, my appearance on the announcements this morning reminding students of the “no cell phone use in school” rule. Couple that with the consequence for students that they’ll lose the phone until the next day. Since many think it’s a vital appendage, I’m sure there will be some teeth gnashing and crying as students use the phones during class, breaking the rule, and lose the phone for the night. I’m sure I’ll hear that I have no right. Luckily, we’ve made it clear in the past that students can’t have them AND I’m happy to make it clear to parents that we need their children learning in our school, not texting friends.

Can’t wait until the first student tells me, “I was just checking the time.” Fun times.

We started our positive school wide behavior management program last Monday. It’s called the “Panther Power Program” and it culminates in a huge school assembly on the last day of school before Spring Break, April 5, 2007.

I started this program while working as an assistant principal at Frontier Middle, continued it as the high school principal at Randolph (where it continues for it’s fifth year), and look forward to it here in G-Town. While completing my admin program, Dr. Larry Maheady at SUNY Fredonia introduced me to it and I’ve been pleased with the results every year since.

Every adult who works in our building receives ten “Panther Power” tickets which they can award to students between now and the G-Town Show Down. The tickets are awarded to students for marked improvement in effort or achievement, continued strong effort and achievement, and excellent attendance. Students who receive a ticket bring the ticket stub down to the main office to turn in to me or to our Dean of Students. It gives us the opportunity for positive interactions with students. The ticket stubs all go into a box until the day of the G-Town Show Down. In total, we probably award about 700 tickets during the seven week period. And the ticket that the student can take home (I always say to put it on the fridge to gain some points with mom and dad) is the main reward.

But let’s be really direct, I choose this time of year for a reason. This is the hardest time for everyone to stay positive. The push through the third quarter until Spring Break. And why do I have the assembly the day before vacation? Precisely to keep kids in school and increase my attendance on a day that typically results in a high absentee rate. And I’m telling you after six years of success, it really works.

Many students would tell you that the day of the G-Town Show Down is the single best day of their school careers. I know, because they’ve told me that very thing. And what is the G-Town Show Down? It’s a 90 minute assembly where our students and staff perform on stage. It’s totally student run, with help from our Building Improvement Team. Students run the try-outs, organize the program, run the sound and lights, and emcee the event. We have acts that range dramatically on the talent scale. Our teachers have a band “The Ratler and the Shakers”, at Randolph they were Staff Infection, One Sick Band , and the kids love it. Heck, I love it! Some acts are so bad that they’re good. We had a tech teacher, along with six students, dance the YMCA in a way you’ve not imagined. This year they’re up again, along with an awesome Native American duo on authentic drums and song, a kid comedian who completely came alive on stage last year, and some garage bands. This is a way for kids who can’t otherwise show their stuff to say “look at me, this is who I am.” And everyone is respectful and excited and totally jazzed about the event. It’s the best of who we are.

And the Panther Power ticket stubs? I give prizes between the acts to lucky students with tickets drawn–mostly t-shirts that say G-Town Show Down, and some prizes donated by our extracurricular clubs and classes. But the prizes aren’t what it’s all about. Our celebration of each other–that’s what it’s all about.

So my palms are sweating a bit because I just submitted my first post, Student Apathy=Teacher Apathy,  to LeaderTalk, a blog by school leaders for school leaders. As a contributor, I’ll be writing on the third of each month. I’m in some very good company as a blogger and so felt the anxiety of producing a good post, one that would be up to everyone’s expectations. Dr. Scott McLeod over at Dangerously Irrelevant put it all together.  

It was a different experience from writing here on G-Town Talks. This is my own blog and if readers don’t like what they see, they don’t have to return. This was harder because I realize reader expectations may be different from what I have to offer. And I care about the opinions of the other contributors, they are most of the people I read every day.

So please go check it out and especially look at the posts by the other writers–mine is just one of many voices out there and my colleagues offer thoughts that keep me learning every day.