Summer is here

Another successful school year is behind us. I congratulate all of our outstanding teachers on the part they played in this success. Each of you put in long hours at workshops learning the new mandatory curriculum. You reorganized your class routines to implement it. Many of you resented having to abandon the quality programs you spent years developing, but the test scores tell it all: our students are better at taking tests than ever! The teachers deserve part of the credit for these improvements.

We will be hiring 230 new teachers to replace those who accepted the district's early retirement offer. New teachers bring new energy and a willingness to try new ideas, such as the highly successful new curriculum. With veteran teachers, it is often a case of "you can't teach an old dog new tricks," but now that many are leaving us, we can better control who is teaching our children and what exactly is being taught.

We hope to have all our new hires trained in the mandatory curriculum before school starts, so the children can get down to work on the first day of the new school year. Expect to see another increase in test scores next year. Success!

More positive news

Our students scored 1.3% higher on average on this year's standardized tests. Our decision to remove everything from the curriculum that wasn't directly related to the standardized tests really paid off! We reached our goal of positive improvement in our scores after scoring lower every year for the past nine years.

I want to thank the teachers for trusting in this administration. We said that if teachers taught only what would be on the test and taught it over and over, the students would score better, and they did! The union expressed concern for the plight of the teachers of music, physical education, drama and other nonessential subjects, but in the end, the positive results say it all! Our kids can and do do better when the instruction is focused on what is important.

Congratulations to everyone, especially our wonderful students.

After the tragedy

The tragedy in November has not slowed my commitment to improving teacher performance and raising student tests scores in our school district. At our professional development meetings in December and January, teachers learned about new ways to meet the needs of underperforming students. Support staff worked to test and identify those most in need of intervention. The identified students will receive a personalized performance plan with specific goals for each curricular area.

No child in this district will fail through a lack of effort on our part to identify and diagnose the problem.

As always, feel free to call me at any time Monday through Friday 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM and someone in my office will be glad to help you.

Our Shared Tragedy

We as a community grieve the loss of three students today. Our hearts are with the parents of the children. Grief counselors were brought in today and will be at the school site tomorrow to counsel children traumatized by this incident. It is always a shock when we lose students, but I know that we as a community can get through this together.

Many are talking about whether this tragedy could have been avoided and questioning whether the adult in charge behaved responsibly. We should not rush to judge until all the facts are in. The teacher has been placed on temporary paid leave as required by law while the police investigation takes place. Now is not the time for finger-pointing or for bringing up past incidents as proof that this incident could have been prevented. Now is the time for healing.

Hindsight is always 20/20. Second guessing our past decisions will not bring back those beautiful children. Let us honor their memory by putting aside our anger and outrage and working to prevent an incident like this from ever happening again.

Dealing with Problems

I have an Open Door policy at my office. You can call, email or drop by anytime during my office hours if you have a question or concern and someone in my office will be glad to help you.

Recently, we have been dealing with a large number of concerned parents. Please understand that no matter how upsetting an issue is for you, we cannot take action until we have heard the facts from every side of the story. We speak to parents, teachers, administrators and sometimes even students in an attempt to get to the bottom of every problem. I like to bring all the involved parties together and see if we can't find a "win-win" solution.

Inflexibility is the number one enemy when looking for solutions. Statements such as "I want her fired" or "There is nothing she can say that will change my mind" or "She is a danger to children" do not help us when we are trying to resolve problems. And while you always have the right to consult an attorney when you feel it is necessary, I feel that, working together as adults, we can find a solution without resorting to extreme measures that only intimidate rather that help. Thank you.

Important message from your Superintendent

If you have concerns about a teacher in our school district, you should call or email my office and I will deal with it. A rumor is being spread that one of our teachers is incompetent, that her own children were taken away from her during a custody hearing, and that she is an alcoholic. Some are saying that her students were discovered lined up in front of the classroom waiting to be admitted, and that when another teacher at the site opened the door of the classroom, this teacher was "passed out" on the classroom rug.

These are rumors. Every teacher deserved the benefit of the doubt. Information from custody hearings is private and therefore cannot be used against any teacher. Statements such as "I smelled alcohol on her breath," "She appeared confused and disoriented" and "She said she had taken too much cough medicine" are not proof of misconduct and should not be repeated. There have been no safety violations yet and we cannot take action against a teacher based on the appearance of misconduct. Thank you for your understanding.

School has started

And 91% of our classrooms have a credentialed teacher! That means 51 classes (or about 1100) students are being taught by day-to-day substitutes (or a string of day-to-day substitutes), many of whom do not have a teaching credential. The teacher's union would like every job filled by a qualified teacher, so we have the substitute teachers working in the "undesirable" schools in neighborhoods where the parents either cannot or do not complain. In this way, we ensure that these schools never improve. Fortunately, many immigrant and lower-income parents simply trust us do right by their children.