Sitting here on a dreary Friday, I needed a break from looking at numbers, so I decided it was a good time to share some of my thoughts and information.

First of all, I am proud that we are not slightly further north.  I have talked to a couple of Superintendent colleagues from north Georgia systems and they are having to battle with the decision to close or stay open.  Fortunately for us, all we have is a little drizzle now.  We seem to have made it through the worst of what we will get today.

Secondly, I just stuck my head into a GAA meeting and it makes me feel good to see teachers concerned for students.  These teachers really take ownership and they want to see the students succeed and be pushed into greater things.

Thirdly, a big thank you goes out to Scarlet Sanders, Kristen O’neal, Melissa Valtierra, Rhonda Harris, and everyone else who helped orchestrate the two Muffins with Mom events.  It is a requirement for Title I to include parents in all aspects of the program and events like these open communication between the schools and parents.  

Lastly, I feel as though I need to clarify a little bit of the Governor’s proposal to give every teacher a 3% raise.  That was a little misleading.  The $300 million being added to QBE of the FY17 budget is to offset the austerity reduction in order to provide local education authorities the flexibility to reduce furlough days, add instructional days, and increase teacher salaries. (lifted language directly from the budget document).  Crawford County Schools has 6 furlough days in the FY16 budget.  The first priority will be used to help reduce this number.  $300 million is near the equivalent of a 3% teacher raise if it was applied to the state salary schedule (which will not be done).

The legislators have been fairly quiet during the first 7 days of the 2016 session.  The Governor has deferred the implementation of the Education Reform Commision to the 2017 session to give the legislators ample time to read (and hopefully) understand the full report.  The Governor also asked the local districts and DOE to evaluate test stating “If a test is not necessary to advance and tailor instruction, it should be eliminated.”  He also noted that there are factors that affect test scores that are out of a teacher’s control; however, he did comment on the “failing schools” which are defined by test scores.

I hope everyone has a good rest of the rainy day Friday and a great weekend.  The Crawford County Eagle Basketball Teams play in Cochran tonight.  Good Luck!

I welcome you to my blog.  This is an effort to get information concerning Crawford County School to parents, staff, and other community stakeholders.

Please Enjoy!

Last night, January 12, 2016, the Crawford County Board Members took some time for whole board training.  The agenda was centered around two main areas: 1) Characteristics of effective boards, self assessment, and visionary thinking  2) Strategic waiver district planning.  It is important that every stakeholder realize the board is adamant about the success and progress of Crawford County Schools and are truly looking at student achievement as a measure of success.

I want to give you some background and future planning opportunities regarding our Strategic Waiver School System (SWSS).  State law required every school system in the state of Georgia to declare one of three options by July 1, 2015.  These options were: Charter System, IE2 (now known as SWSS) and Status Quo (now known as traditional or traditionally funded school system).  Charter and SWSS provided the school some flexibility from state regulation with an increase in accountability; whereas,  Status Quo meant the system would have to follow the strict state set guidelines, with NO flexibility or waivers. Crawford County chose to be a SWSS.

Choosing to become a SWSS means that by July 1, 2016 Crawford County Schools will contract with Georgia Department of Education (GADOE) and also give the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement (GOSA) oversight power.  The contract will give Crawford County Schools the ability to waive certain state laws and regulations to better fit the needs of our students. Over the next few months some very important work will be done to insure this agreement is exactly what the children of Crawford County need.

Here is a very rough timeline of the process:

February

• Administration will meet with District Staff to come up with a unified Vision, Mission, and Belief
• Administration will meet with stakeholder groups to get input on the District Strategic Plan
• Each school will form committees to create a school level plan that is in line with the overall district plan
• Waivers will be decided with stakeholder feedback
• Possible work session with the board to go over the V, M, & B

    March

• The Board will hold a meeting to get input from the community
• All plans will then be finalized and board approved
• The District will draft a contract with the help of GADOE
• Contract will be submitted for State board approval. (This could take a couple of months)

We are at a Defining Moment in the history of Crawford County Schools, and I look forward to going through this process with the staff, board, and community.