HOW CAN WE IMPROVE THE CURRENT THINKING CLASSROOM MODEL
I attended the Building Thinking Classroom session hosted at GL last night and wanted to share some thoughts and the questions I submitted online for the session. I will start with some of the positive aspects I took away from last night’s session. 1) The Thinking Classroom encourages students to think and behave outside of their comfort zone, pushes them...
OPMA & OPRA: WE SHOULD FEARLESSLY DEMAND TRANSPARENCY
After listening to the BOE meetings in the first quarter of 2022, I was curious to learn more about the discussions in the Board’s Executive Sessions. So I sent an OPRA request for the Executive Session minutes from Nov 2021 to March 2022. The documented minutes from January to March 2022 are virtually identical and without any detail of the...
BEYOND STANDARDIZED TESTS AND METRICS
GL hosted its curriculum night this past week to welcome and inform the current 8th-grade class. The presentation was impressive, and the leadership team highlighted the 27 AP courses, STEAM electives, and various clubs and activities with the slick video. It was a great event, and everyone who put it together deserves credit. What stayed with me after the presentation...
THE QUORUM QUIZ
The last BOE meeting on 9/22 was unusual in many ways including how it concluded. Or did it conclude? Ms. Pamela Stanley continued to read her prepared speech even though the Board president and the Board attorney reminded her that the content of her speech did not follow the allowed agenda items. Two members of the board walked out when the...
A PLAN IS NOT A GOAL
The dictionary lists the definition of the word “goal” as “the object of a person’s ambition or effort; an aim or desired result.” “Budget” is “the amount of money needed or available for a purpose.” Let us focus on the first word for a moment. A school district defines the goals to set its ambition for the students and then...
FAILING TO PLAN IS PLANNING TO FAIL
Let us talk about the busing challenges that our District faces this year. Busing children is among the essential services most school districts provide their students. Working parents rely on bus transportation by the school district to manage their schedules and have the peace of mind during pick-ups and drop-offs that their children are being transported safely. Children make new...
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