As we kick-off 2016-2017 school year, I just want to say thanks to each and every employee for making the start of school extremely smooth. I am well aware I am asking not only my administrators to step out of their comfort zone, but I am putting some work on teachers that they are not accustomed to. I am proud to have a such a hard working staff work through this transition. There is good work going on all over the school system and it makes me excited for the students that are coming though our system.
The future holds a number of new opportunities for staff members and students. First of all, the Youth Leadership Program, a joint initiative between the Chamber of Commerce, Flint Energies, and Crawford County Schools will be selecting Juniors to participate in monthly programs to grow young leaders in our community. The process changed slightly this year, because we asked the teachers to nominate candidates for the program. After the candidates are nominated, they will be given the opportunity to apply and be interviewed. This will give them an opportunity to hone their interview skills. We hope to have the class in place by August 24th and the kick-off event will be on August 30th.
The Administrators will reignite the educational fire in September when the monthly A-TEAM meetings continue. We will be moving through the school improvement process as well as analyzing the correct DATA for improvement.
There will also be a new opportunity for staff members to participate in the inaugural Empowering Eagles Leadership Institute. The Institute will be made up of 7-10 candidates that will be selected by an interview process. This will be a two year training with 5 scheduled meetings throughout each year. There will be two book studies and a number of special guests to assist the candidates in Data Analyzation, Strategic Planning, Leadership Roles, and other topics of the day. The classes will meet during the school day and a substitute will be provided. More to come on this later this month.
I will not use this blog to promote any political agenda; however, I think it is imperative that you familiarize yourself with Senate Resolution 287 (SR 287) and the implementing legislation (SR 133). This is more commonly known as the opportunity school district amendment and the ballot language is as follows:
Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended to allow the state to intervene in chronically failing public schools in order to improve student performance? ( ) YES ( ) NO
Make sure you have read as much about this as possible and can talk educationally about the amendment when people out and about ask you about it. There is a lot of information on the Georgia Association of Educational Leaders (GAEL) website, the Professional Association of Georgia Educators (PAGE) website, the Georgia Association of Educators (GAE) website, The Georgia School Superintendents Association (GSSA) website, or you can google, “opportunity school district.”
Staff, as you begin to form your rituals and routines for this school year, please remember the difference between you and the Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream company. You cannot throw out the raw products just because they are not perfect. It is up to you to take that product and grow and mold it into something EXCELLENT.
Excellent Teachers - Excellent Leaders - Excellent Schools
