Scot Graden's Blog

On Thursday a group of administrators, faculty, parents and board members had the opportunity to examine and develop a vision for our students should possess as they leave us after their 12th grade year.  The conversation centered around both the skills and learning environment necessary to enable our students to be successful in the 21st Century.  We focused on a learning environment that is student-centered, project based and is focused on creating lifelong learners.

All students will acquire the essential skills to be lifelong learners in an ever changing 21st century global society.

So, what are those “essential skills”?  We discussed four key areas:

• Research & Information Fluency
• Problem Solving & Critical Thinking
• Collaboration & Communication
• Creativity & Innovation

In many ways, we already emphasize and provide opportunities to develop skills in these areas.  Our mission is to look at the organization and articulate an appropriate progression for skill development.  From there, the administration needs to align resources to support this vision.  These are important steps as we navigate in these turbulent times.

In a recent Kappan article, literacy professors Catherine Snow and Elizabeth Moje discuss and dispel  the “inoculation fallacy” – the idea that getting students to proficiency early in their school careers will prevent failure later on. Conventional wisdom has been that reading instruction is finished at 3rd grade.  In later elementary and secondary grades emphasis is on  content-area reading comprehension   It was assumed that students who read well in early elementary would be successful without additional reading instruction. “The need for literacy instruction does not end with the 3rd grade,” they say, “or even in high school.”

For the last several years, Saline Area Schools has used the Reading Apprenticeship program to support the ongoing literacy instruction in regular academic classes.  This effort has been led and facilitated by Ms. Laurie Erby and Ms. Jennifer Nelson.  We now have staff trained in the Reading Apprenticeship model from 5th grade through 12th grade and it has been growing each year.  The article reinforced that we are addressing a critical need for our students here in Saline.

The authors of the article stated, “Intervening to help struggling readers gets harder with each passing grade, but it is not impossible, even for young adults.” I found it interesting that they also urge teachers to understand and tap into the “impressive literacy skills” that many low-achieving students display outside of school – for example, when exploring websites and reading “fan fiction.”

Last Friday thanks to an invitation from a community member, I had the opportunity to hear Mr. Robert Bobb, the Emergency Financial Manager for Detroit Public Schools.  He was speaking at EMU as part of their “Ethos Week” program.  The tenets of his speech centered around the core elements of ethics–they were integrity, honesty, respect, learning, work ethic and trustworthiness. He noted that the need for these core elements is stronger now than ever.  With difficult times come difficult decisions.  We are all feeling that right now.  How can we raise revenue?  What procedures can be utilized to reduce spending? How can innovation help us save money while improving student outcomes?

These are all key decisions in need need of being made in the next few months that will set the course for Saline Area Schools over the next several years.
As I have stated below a few times, now is an important time to stay informed and engaged.

What is an effective strategy when you know you will have less money to work with next year? First, we need information – what does the community want Saline Area Schools to look like in the future?

The opportunity to share your thoughts is coming:

6:30-8:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 30th in the Harvest Cafeteria
or
6:30-8:30 p.m. Monday, April 12th in the Middle School Media Center

These Community Budget Forums will provide an opportunity to share thoughts and opinions on the budget priorities for Saline Area Schools.

I have started to review the draft of the National Education Technology Plan.  It’s an interesting look at how the current administration views the effective use of technology in education.

The plan pushes the role of technology in creating more personalized learning opportunities for students.  It recommends the expanded use of multimedia curricula and altering traditional assessments.  Ms. Karen Cator, the Director of the U.S. Office or Educational Technology, stated that learning is at the center of the whole plan.  “Personalized learning is very participatory.  It’s not an isolated practice.”

The challenge right now is to provide the tools in the current economic climate.  Thankfully we have partners like the Foundation for Saline Area Schools to help with hardware needs and we have also been able to work with companies like Google to access free tools like Google Apps.

SAS Community,

These are challenging times that require an engaged and informed community. To help, I invite you to one of the two upcoming “Community Forums” concerning our 2010-2011 budget:

6:30-8:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 30th in the Harvest Cafeteria
or
6:30-8:30 p.m. Monday, April 12th in the Middle School Media Center

We will share information about the current budget status, along with discussing issues and options.

I look forward to seeing you at one of the forums.

Thank you,
Scot Graden

For those of you that have been around a while, you will remember “Saline 2000.” For those who are newer, or can’t seem to recall that far back…. I’ll explain.

In the early 1990’s Saline was experiencing significant growth which provided the impetuous to look at the basic tenets of our instructional process.  This review led to the development of the “Saline 2000” vision.  Frankly, this vision is the foundation that our instructional process has been built upon.  The vision centered on 12 Key Elements of Instruction…

Basic Skills
Authentic Assessment
Outcomes Based Education
Integrated Interdisciplinary Curriculum
Multiple Intelligence
Heterogeneous Grouping
Higher Order Thinking
Student Centered Instruction
Reality Based Education
Cooperative Learning
Service Learning
Collaborative Teaching

I have linked some of the elements above to blog posts about those areas.  In many ways, we are still focused on these instructional practices.  Reading this blog or our website in general you will notice that 21st Century Skills look quite like what the leaders in Saline were talking about 20 years ago.

The question is how do we build on this strong foundation while faced with the need for deep reductions and restructuring?  This challenge must be met with the collective resolve to look beyond the immediate conflicts and at long term decisions.

There is little doubt that these are challenging times to be in public education.  We have entered an era that is being described as the “lean years.” Strategies that have worked in the past are no longer effective.  With budgets being severely reduced and community expectations on the rise there is a need for creative thinking.

Recently, a community member gave me a report on public sector leadership. One of the focuses of the report was challenging leaders to reshape organizations rather than making uniform cuts to the existing structure.  The premise is that with reduced revenue a new reality, cutting a straight percentage across the system doesn’t make sense.

How does this impact Saline Area Schools?  We have started down this path.  We are reconfiguring our buildings which allows us to close a school.  We are recommending options that generate revenue to cover costs associated with extracurricular activities.

Sadly, much more is required to bring our projected 2010-2011 budget into balance.

We will be hosting two Community Budget forums this spring to gather feedback from the community regarding possible options.  The first will be Tuesday, March 30th at 6:30pm in the Harvest Elementary cafeteria.  The second one will be Monday, April 12th at 6:30pm in the Middle School media center.

One of the strengths of Saline Area Schools is the engaged community.  These meetings will be an excellent opportunity to learn more about the issues and share your thoughts.

On snow days we have a standing 10:00am administrative team meeting.  Our agenda is to work on issues that we don’t generally have time to have in-depth discussion on during the a typical school day.  On Monday, we had a lengthy discussion about the ubiquitous access to technology.  The conversation included how we as parents manage our own children’s use of technology at home and implications those decisions have on the school environment.

We viewed this video clip from Digital Nation

While we laughed at her interview, several noted that it reminded them of students they knew.  We want an environment where students take ownership of their learning.  However, we fear distracted learners only focus on instant gratification and surface understanding of course content. Finding the balance is difficult.

One of the administrative groups stated this,

For schools to meet the challenge of the digitally nimble, the learner must be engaged in ways that have never before been imaginable.   To lose all sight of the value-added interpersonal relationships that are forged when good teachers teach well is losing sight of the ultimate goal:  to produce productive, reliable students who are able to interact not only with technology, but also with people.

Twenty-first century learning requires that we, as educators, re-think and re-tool to accommodate the pace of the tech-savvy learner.  While technology is critical in this re-tooling endeavor, it cannot be the definitive answer.

Finding the balance is the key.  Otherwise, this happens…..

Last night we hosted a community forum to discuss building reconfiguration options related to the closing of Houghton School.  These are difficult and complex decisions that require feedback from a variety of sources.  The 35 member committee that has been tasked with developing a recommendation to deliver to the Board of Education in March has been busy gathering and reviewing information.  Many of the committee members were present at the meeting to listen firsthand to the community comments and questions.  I would like to thank them for their time and effort.

At the meeting I was again struck by how important it is to have the engaged participation of the community.  I feel fortunate to be in a district that has involved community members willing to come out on a cold winter night and discuss these important issues.

Today, Mr. Steve Laatsch sent out the following email…

Last night, February 22nd, we had a very good turnout at the community forum to discuss the proposed plans for building reconfiguration for the 2010/11 school year and beyond.  It was great to see so many people passionate about the financial and educational implications surrounding our district.  At the meeting, the following three proposed plans were discussed.

1) K-3 at Woodland Meadows, Harvest, and Pleasant Ridge, 4-5 at Heritage, 6-8 at Middle School, 9-12 at High School *#
2) K-4 at Woodland Meadows, Harvest, and Pleasant Ridge, 5-6 at Heritage, 7-8 at Middle School, 9-12  at High School *#
3) Pre-K programs and Kindergarten at Harvest, 1-5 at Woodland Meadows, Pleasant Ridge, and Heritage, 6-8 at Middle School, 9-12  at High School #

* In either plan 1 or 2 PreK programs such as Pooh Corner, ECSE, Early On, Early School, and EDO would be distributed into various buildings which could include Liberty School
# In all of these plans, we are also looking at moving Central Administration and Community Education offices and the Alternative Education High School out of Union and into Liberty School

The purpose of the forum was to provide a progress report on the Building Reconfiguration Committee’s task of cost containment and building consolidation. In addition, we asked for input and a chance for the community to ask questions about the proposed plans.  There were many good questions asked and a great deal of input provided throughout the meeting.

Again, we recognize that none of the proposed plans are perfect. In fact, we feel that our current configuration meets our educational needs very well.  However, the financial impact of closing a building, in this case Houghton Elementary School, is too significant to delay any longer.

It was suggested that we provide a survey to ask parents which plan they prefer.   Although, a survey would provide some information as to what plan the community prefers, it would be very difficult for us to describe the multiple variables that surround all of these plans in such a survey. Therefore, we believe it would be more beneficial for parents and community members to provide input by emailing us your thoughts, ideas, concerns, and so forth about any of these proposed plans.

We value this input and will be compiling a document that captures all of the community feedback.

Please feel free to email me, Steve Laatsch, Assistant Superintendent of Instructional Services, to provide further input at laatschs@saline.k12.mi.us OR you may call me at 429-8002.
In addition, there were several requests from the community who asked to know who is serving on the Building Reconfiguration Committee. This list is included below.

Building Reconfiguration Committee Chairs
Steve Laatsch, Assistant Superintendent of Instructional Services
Kim Van Hoek, Trustee, Foundation for Saline Area Schools

Saline Area Schools Staff- Committee Members
Doug Bacon – Buildings and Ground Director
Russ Ernest – 6th Grade Teacher
David Friese – Saline Area Schools Board President
Patti Henes – Transportation Director
Heather Kellstrom – Director of Instructional Technology
Wanda Killips – Woodland Meadows Elementary Principal
Sheila Light, Pleasant Ridge Elementary Principal
Carole London, Paraeducator, Houghton School
John Mason, Music Teacher at Heritage and Music Coordinator of the District
Peggy McEvoy, Media Center Specialist, Woodland Meadows Elementary
Luana Putz, Houghton Secretary
David Raft, Middle School Principal
Betty Rosen-Leacher, Heritage School Principal
Kristen Schwartzenberger, 2nd Grade Teacher, Pleasant Ridge
Les Sharon, Harvest Elementary School Principal
Julie Spitler, Social Studies Teacher, Middle School
Jesse Stevenson, Houghton Elementary School Principal
Mary Jane Tramotin, 4th Grade Teacher, Pleasant Ridge
Cherie Vannatter, Elementary Special Education Director
Nancy Zebrowski, Houghton Elementary School Teacher

Community Members
Michael Bernbeck
Todd Campbell
Rebecca Carter
Judy Collins
Pam Dahlman
Laurie Dawson
Heidi Evans
Cheryl Hoeft
Swatee Kulkarni
Tracy Loveland
Lisa Rentschler
Venkat Saripalli
Carl Vannatter

Thank you very much for your continued involvement in the Saline Area Schools.  We recognize that parent support is critical to the success of our students.

If you were unable to attend the meeting, or want to share more information please contact Mr. Laatsch.

Click here to download a copy of the presentation slides from last night.