Nathan4LISD

E3 is here

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 05:35:07 -0700

For you electronics people out there - no, not THAT E3. This E3 is the Education Equals Economics alliance of Central Texas. We had our first discussion last night and the turnout was great. The numbers I heard were that 136 people signed up early and there were still additional folks registering at the door. Among the group were students, teachers, administrators, and parents. The diversity and conversation was well led and well received and the process for getting it to the region level for overall action seems sound. I look forward to following its progress through the rest of the school year.

I would like to thank the folks in charge for recognizing that more can be done to involve everyone in the improvement process. I am particularly impressed by the support community members of the district - thank you. And I look forward to seeing everyone at the next meeting.

Ike is coming!

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 08:44:00 -0700

I just requested some information on how I could be of assistance with the preparations and work that will most likely happen this weekend with the hurricane heading this direction. The most concise form of that information is a letter that is being sent home to secondary school students today but I am sure that others are interested as well - especially those (like me) who do not have a child of that age. This letter is the one sent to CPHS, but similar ones were sent to other schools: (click below to read the letter) September 11, 2008 Dear Parent(s): Cedar Park High School has been advised that it and other schools in Leander ISD will almost certainly be used as hurricane evacuation centers for people fleeing Hurricane Ike � now headed for the Texas coast. Many CPHS families may recall that several LISD campuses were used as evacuation centers during the Rita hurricane. Since those events, the evacuation plan has been completely documented and further improved. This message is notification of the possibility that our school (and six other LISD secondary campuses) may be used as hurricane evacuation centers for up to 3-4 days during an emergency. I wanted to be certain that the CPHS community is aware of the following: First, there is a plan. CPHS is a participant in a well thought-out plan prepared by a number of organizations. Leander ISD�s principals reviewed that plan on Tuesday, so that we � and the whole school district � could begin preliminary preparations. Each organization is equipped and ready to quickly implement its piece of the plan. (These include the Travis and Williamson counties Emergency Management offices, the Red Cross, and local police and fire departments, as well as Leander ISD.) Second, safety and security are essential non-negotiables. Evacuees and students will be separated at all times. The portions of our campus serving as an evacuation center will only be open to screened evacuees, approved volunteers and selected LISD staff. LISD's role is to provide the building and related support; the Red Cross and others will provide trained volunteers. If you are not a Leander ISD employee, please do not attempt to volunteer at CPHS without going through the Red Cross, receiving training as required, and then requesting the Red Cross officially assign you to the CPHS evacuation center. Volunteers who are not approved and trained will be turned away and will only disrupt the evacuation center environment. Third, NO donations can be accepted at CPHS. Donations should be made to the Salvation Army, Goodwill or other organizations. The evacuees will be instructed on what they should and should not bring to the evacuation center. The appropriate organizations will ensure that the evacuees' needs are met within the approved guidelines to protect the evacuees and LISD. Donations will be appreciated by the appropriate organizations; please do not bring donations to CPHS. This prohibition includes food. Do not prepare or deliver food to CPHS for the evacuees; it cannot be accepted. Finally, your cooperation is appreciated. Encourage your student to listen to announcements and follow the instructions of CPHS staff and faculty. The students should be aware that they are NOT allowed in the evacuation center. Classes that meet in any utilized areas (such as our gymnasiums) will be re-located during the evacuation period, which should not extend beyond 96 hours. Our goal in this effort is to show the care, compassion and concern of our LISD family for our guests, while at the same time holding school in a manner as close as possible to a regular school day. With this in mind, we encourage parents to help us keep our students focused on learning during any potential sheltering of evacuees. Updates on the Hurricane Ike sheltering effort will be posted on the front page (lower-right-hand corner) of the LISD website at www.leanderisd.org as soon as our campuses open as shelters (and throughout any use of our facilities). We cannot emphasize enough the learning that occurred during the Central Texas sheltering of Rita evacuees three years ago, and the enhanced cooperation and strengthened planning that has occurred since that �test run� of our systems. We have absolutely no doubt that this sheltering of guests from the Texas coast will be handled in a way that will not disrupt student learning on our campus, nor cause any concern for student safety. Even if our facility is used as an evacuation center, the Cedar Park High School faculty and staff will be focused on our students and their academic goals. Learning will continue despite the weather, and a potential visit from a number of evacuees! Sincerely, Barbara Spelman

First week is over

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 08:36:30 -0700

We are now officially back to school and I hope everyone had a great first week! Enjoy the long weekend and come on back refreshed and ready to excel! One more note - I was listening to the Vista Ridge / Bowie game last night (I can hear the games from my back porch). WAY TO GO Vista Ridge!!!

Board meeting 7 August

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 05:13:00 -0700

Don't forget - there is a board meeting tonight. The agenda can be found here: http://www.boardbook.org/apps/bbv2/public/index.cfm?memberkey=0246913 It looks like tonight's meeting will be mainly tax and budget items, but there is a technology section that could be interesting - I hope they have a plan to make the email system more stable. There is also a goals section for the things that they want to see the high schools attain. Dare I say it looks like a short meeting? Nope. I'm not going to say that. That budget stuff will probably take 3 hours by itself.

TEA 2008 Ratings

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:44:00 -0700

TEA came out with their 2008 rankings for Leander ISD earlier this week and there were a couple of interesting points there. Dr. Champion did a fairly good job of hitting the highlights in his Leander Insider article.

On the positive side:

The rating of 8 campuses went up
6 campuses are rated Exemplary
16 campuses are rated Recognized
NO campuses are rated Unacceptable

Having 22 of 29 campuses rated "Recognized" or better is something that Leander ISD can truly be proud of. What we cannot do is think that it is enough or that it is even acceptable as a district - there is more to the story.

Among the areas that we need to improve are the following:

The rating of 2 campuses went down
The district as a whole is rated merely "Acceptable"
Science and math performance still falls short
Drop out rate is high and going the wrong way

Certainly, some of the solutions to these challenges will have an impact in more than one area. And just as certainly, these can't be changed with the wave of a wand, but they do need to be looked at and studied.

So what comes next? First we have to look at the things that we did well and figure out why we did them well so that we keep doing the right things to maintain and improve in those areas. And we need to recognize those people who have done exceptional things to achieve what we have! The next thing is to accept the challenge of improving those things that we failed at. Make no mistake about it - we did fail in some areas. A completion rate and a TAKS passing rate less than 90% is us failing our children. Keep in mind that the only reason the district was rated as acceptable instead of lower is because a waiver has been granted that keeps the drop out rate from lowing a rating. I don't think that LISD is an unacceptable district, but that is what the rating could have been without the waiver.

Solutions are complex and there is no one item that will fix them all. This is something that the board, administrators, teachers, parents, and students will all need to work towards improving. In addition, we are in a tight budget cycle this year and have to be judicious with our solutions. Therefore, we need to utilize the 80/20 rule and focus on the area where we can get the greatest return on our investment. I see those 2 areas being the services to our left brained students, and the services to our gifted students.

I have ideas and I have preferences which I advocate, but I am not the one in charge of making the final decisions and executing these plans. I would like to call to attention the fact that we may not be attacking the drop out rate with the group of students who have the biggest problem with dropping out. Surprising to most people is that the group of students with the highest drop out rate are the unserved gifted. Their performance in school and eventual drop out rate is actually worse (as much as 10 to 20% worse) than what are typically considered the high risk students. In addition, the number one reason that students drop out is the lack of challenging and engaging educational material. Obviously the challenging aspect could be missing from our gifted students, but for those students who are math and science learners, the most recent test scores indicate that we are not providing them with the intellectual stimulation that they require. It is by challenging all of our students that we will make progress on the standard measurements, but most importantly that is how we can prepare them for success and excellence in life.

Other interesting reading:
The end of gifted education?
Overcoming under achievement
Secretary Spellings
Teaching science
Math and Science resources

Next board topics

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 10:55:00 -0700

Here are some items that may be of interest to you that will be discussed at the next board meeting (17 July)

Employees: Changes to the catastrophic leave policy
Students & parents: Changes to the code of conduct
Taxpayers: Tax rate increases - proposal is for roughly a 10.5% increase in the average homeowner's tax bill

Be sure to attend if you are interested in hearing the discussion and possibly commenting on them.

Dates to note

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:51:00 -0700

I wanted to repost some dates and information that I had seen on the Leander ISD website - just in case anyone had missed it.

LISD is offering registration for all elementary schools at the main Administration Building and at Cedar Park High School during the months of June and July. Students can be registered at either location.
Athletic Physicals for the 2008-2009 school year will be held on August 2nd at Vista Ridge High School. Cost is $20 (make checks out to LISD). There are new forms (4) that must be completed.

For additional information, see the Leander ISD website or ask here and I'll answer what I can!

Musings on Vandergrift High

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:11:00 -0700

Recently the Leander board decided to name the next high school Vandergrift High School after the first LISD graduate to give his life in the current conflict. They also took the wishes of the neighborhood into account and named the nearby middle school after the Four Points community. I thought that this was a great decision - an improvement over the recent generic school names - and should have been universally supported. I was wrong. This country has a history of specifically honoring the first person to accomplish a specific event. Ask most people the first person on the moon, or the first president of the United States, or the first African-American to play in the major leagues and most people have the answer. Ask who the second person was and the number who can accurately answer drops significantly. Now the first LISD graduate to give the ultimate sacrifice in this conflict will be similarly remembered. This is not to understate the efforts of those who come later, but by remembering the first we set a standard for which to strive. We honor the individual, and the ideals for which they stood, but we also recognize that others picked up the fallen flag and continued the struggle. This naming *IS* for Lt. Vandergrift, but it is also for all of those who picked up where he left off. Isn't it great that we are safe at home and able to debate these things while others are out there defending our rights to do so? Thank you to every one who does their part.

Board Meeting June 5, 2008

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 05:52:00 -0700

A few interesting things happened at the last board meeting that I would like to share with everyone. I'm going to try and hit the highlights here, but if you would like to know about anything else that happened feel free to ask!

It's budget time again...

The new board members were sworn in and officers elected. Congratulations to the new president, Don McCall; new VP Jim Sneeringer, returning secretary Don Hisle, and new member Will Streit.
CC Mason is pursuing the IB program and may be the second IB PYP school in Leander ISD. This is a great move and I am very excited to see this program growing.
LISD did great on energy consumption. All 26 eligible campuses received the energy star rating. Only about 120 campuses in the state received that designation - and we had 26 of them right here.
Anyone have any ideas for the names of the next high school or middle school?
Enrollment this year was slightly lower than expected and more students were absent. This hurt our state funding slightly from projections, but we were still able to come in under budget for the 2007-2008 year.
For the 2008-2009 year, LISD is looking at many cost saving measures, but the current plan still calls for an increase in taxes and dipping into savings. LISD taxes will go up about 3.4 cents and nearly 5Million will come out of savings. We will also enter into chapter 41, aka Robin Hood, and will have to return some of this tax increase to the state for redistribution.

Those were the big topics from last time. The key takeaway for me were the budget items. A couple of things to note... LISD is currently living beyond its means, but it was planned that way because of the mess made of the school funding issue at the state level 2 years ago. If the situation doesn't change at the state level in the upcoming legislative session though, things could be quite different this time next year. I also applaud the cost saving measures taken so far - they shouldn't impact the education of our children while still saving a significant amount. Those are the best kinds of savings to have. And please keep looking - suggestions for other savings and improvements are always welcome!

NJHS Induction

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 09:54:00 -0700

I had the pleasure of attending the Running Brushy NJHS induction ceremony last night and was quite impressed with the more than 100 students joining the organization. I knew several of the inductees from my time assisting with Born 2 Run, and it was great to see such a significant number of them academically accomplished in addition to athletically accomplished.

My thanks go out to the LISD AFJROTC, the Running Brushy choir, and board member Elizabeth Frey. Your time and participation was greatly appreciated.

And a special thanks goes out to all of the parents who encouraged their children to succeed. This accomplishment belongs as much to you as it does to your students. I know that many people missed out on pictures due to the flash restriction. Thank you for working with us on that, and in order to make sure that memories are preserved, I will be posting links to all of the pictures that I took last night. I have zipped them up into 8 files of roughly 12MB each and have password protected them to assist with any privacy concerns. To view them, download the files below, and then use the 4 letter acronym of the school in all capital letters as the password.

Thank you for allowing me to be a part of this event!

Induction setup
Introducing guests
Graduating students
New Inductees #1
New Inductees #2
New Inductees #3
Cake and punch #1
Cake and punch #1

But for those who would rather not download quite so much, I have made 30 copies of these pictures and have put them on CDs. Feel free to stop by the learning lab and ask Mrs. Deckinga for one. I'll be happy to make more if needed.