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Granite School District > Superintendent's Office > Sup’s Vlog > Employees

Employees

Question – Reading Endorsement no longer available?

Question – I am interested in earning a reading endorsement within the next two years. When considering my options, I was disappointed to learn Granite District no longer offers certain endorsement programs for teachers. Are the Granite endorsement options a thing of the past, or will there be other opportunities in the near future? I realize I can still obtain endorsements through other university programs, however meeting full-tuition costs would be difficult for me right now.

Response – We do not have plans to offer reading endorsement classes through Granite District in the near future. USU does offer an on-line reading endorsement program. The link for information on that program is https://teal.usu.edu/htm/endorsements/online-reading-endorsement/. The district does provide half tuition up to $450 per completed class for current reading specialists, but does not provide reimbursement outside of that program. We caution our reading specialists that this funding is allocated on a year to year basis. It is budgeted for this school year. It may or may not continue based on budget issues.

Thanks for your question and to the Teaching and Learning Department for their assistance in responding.

Video – Dress standards

All,

Due to the unprecedented positive response, we are posting this dress standards video for your additional review. We have been pleasantly surprised with the positive feedback that we have received from all constituency groups, particularly our teachers. It has been overwhelming. We have had teachers call and ask us to recognize the GEA for having the courage to promote professional dress. We thank everyone for helping us “raise the bar,” in Granite School District.

Snow Storms

Good morning!

I’ve had conversations with lots of you, and have heard from many more. I want to start by thanking our transportation folks, our custodians and maintenance folks, and everyone else who has pitched in to help with snow (teachers, secretaries, parents, volunteers, and on and on). I am struck again and again by what a powerful and amazing group of folks you are!

Many have asked what in the world I am thinking by not closing schools – I want to answer that question.

I came in from shoveling last night at about 11:00. I went out again this morning around 5:00. There on my driveway was my newspaper. My “newspaper boy” isn’t a kid on a bike or with the bag slung over his shoulders, it’s a guy who drives through the neighborhood delivering the papers. I wondered for a moment why he didn’t take the day off, but I know the answer – he knows we count on him.

Now, I’m not suggesting that we are newspaper carriers (although many of us have been!), but we are counted on at least as much as they are. There are some 68,000 students and more than twice that many parents, guardians and other interested folks, who count on us to be there – the same as we all count on mail carriers, police departments, municipal and county offices to do their parts. Not many years ago, we did cancel schools for snow. Perhaps you remember the backlash from those from all corners of the district whose children were left home without supervision (and for many in our district, breakfast and lunch). The backlash started up all over again a few months later when we reminded everyone in the spring that a make-up day would be held. I have reflected on that, and countless emails and telephone conversations the last couple of weeks – with many perspectives both critical and supportive. In that light, I’d like to share our protocol:

We receive reports both late and early about road conditions, transportation capability, and the status of our buildings. If the reports indicate that we can transport children safely, and our buildings can be opened and operated safely, then the public ought to be able to count on us. If reports are to the contrary, then we evaluate whether a late start would resolve the situation. If the answer is still no, then we will close the affected schools.

We clearly don’t control snow removal and road conditions in the neighborhoods our schools serve. Therefore we need to have (and we express) full confidence in parents to make the call whether conditions are such that their children can safely get to school through their neighborhoods, on sidewalks and across safe walking routes. I see this as quite similar to a parent deciding whether a child is too sick to attend school. We defer to their judgment. Consequently, if a parent believes conditions are not safe, then parents should not send their children at that time – and it is my expectation that schools will be understanding regarding tardiness and absences.

Some might say that a day with lots of snow, when many parents keep students home, will not be a very productive school day. I respectfully suggest from our experience that a make-up day in April will be neither particularly well attended nor educationally productive.

Again, I thank all of you for being who you are, and more specifically, for your amazing work and commitment to kids.

Martin

Superintendent Snapshot – Employee Recognition for Excellent Customer Service

Welcome to the latest superintendent snapshot where Superintendent Bates recognizes an employee who demonstrated excellent customer service. Happy New Year!

Question – Faculty Meeting Visits?

Question – When I did my student teaching in Davis School District the superintendent visited our school and attended our faculty meeting. He also came up and talked with me and asked how my experience was going? He wanted to know if there was anything he could do to make my student teaching experience a positive one. This experience really made a difference to me. I felt cared about and really felt this man knew what was happening in his schools. I am sure he was told I was there but he still took the time to talk to me in person.

I have been in the Granite School District for 22 years now and I have never attended a faculty meeting where the superintendent took the time to attend and find out for himself how his teachers are doing. I find that truly amazing to say the least. I believe that the superintendent could take the time to attend one faculty meeting at each school each school year. I would appreciate knowing why this could or could not be a possible.

Response – It sounds like that superintendent was a very personable man – and a good example! As teachers and principals know, faculty meetings are the principal’s meetings and that time is precious. I have attended numerous faculty meetings, but always at the principal’s invitation. I do visit all 92 of our schools annually and make time to talk with teachers when I’m there. I’ll make it a point to come to your classroom the next time I’m at Granite Park. In the meantime, I frequently have meetings with individual teachers and with groups of teachers. For people who don’t want to schedule an appointment, I clear my schedule on the first Wednesday of every month for “Walk-in Wednesdays.” I’ve found that folks seem more prepared to talk about their experience and specifically how things are going when they have some advance notice – frankly, I like advance notice myself. If you’re inviting me over for a chat, I’ll be more than happy to come by, or you’re welcome to come my way as well.

Sincerely,

Superintendent Bates

Gradebook Q & A

We have received many questions regarding the new Gradebook system. Some common questions have been posted here along with responses.

I have been trying to pull up a simple missing work report for my class…
There is currently no single report for elementary schools that will print a single page of missing assignments for an entire class of students. There is a report that can be run for each student individually, but as was pointed out, this is a lot of work. This type of report is the single most requested item we have received for the new Gradebook. Our plan is to modify the report for single students and make it so that teachers can run it for an entire class list.

We know that in the old Gradebook, teachers would frequently print off a report and send it home with their students each week. While we think this should still be an option for teachers, we would encourage them to move towards using some of the other tools built into the Gradebook system. For example, a parent can opt in to receive email notification whenever their student misses an assignment. In the new system, teachers also have the ability to send attendance and assignment information to parents directly by email.

There is NOTHING simple about it…
The program does require some initial setup up front. Teachers need to create their own grade scales (or choose a district grade scale). They need to setup their own categories (or choose a district category). They need to select their preferences (or use the defaults). These items are one-time things that you can continue to use year-after-year. Once the one-time setup is done, a teacher needs to assign a category/grade scale to a course (this is no different from the old Gradebook) and elementary teachers need to setup their concepts (this is no different from the old Gradebook). The vendor has been very receptive to ideas on how to make the system easier to use, but in order to make improvements we need specific examples of how things could be done better from the people who use it.

I have yet to find even one thing that is positive about it…
· The old Gradebook did not provide teachers with a way to communicate directly with parents; everything had to be printed off and sent home with the student. Parent email accounts will become available as parents sign up for parent accounts in the new system.
· The old Gradebook had a one day time delay between when a student entered a class and when a student would show up in the teacher’s Gradebook.
· All reports in the old Gradebook were PDF’s. The new Gradebook allows a teacher to export any report to Excel, Word, PDF, etc.
· The old Gradebook did not integrate well with other systems in the district and was difficult to improve.
· The old Gradebook was unable to maintain information from one school year to the next. The new Gradebook does.
· The old Gradebook was limited to less-than-adequate hardware resulting in frequent system outages. The new Gradebook is compatible with newer server technology and can more easily be expanded to accommodate more users on the system.

Can we have the old program back? I don’t feel the move to a new Gradebook program was optional.

Here are some of the reasons why the old Gradebook was not an option for this school year:
· Elementary schools have moved to four quarters from three trimesters. The old Gradebook was designed specifically for three trimesters on the elementary level. Making this change would have required many changes to the old Gradebook, many of which would not fully be tested by the start of school.
· We would not be able to make the transition to a new Discovery system this year.
· Over the past couple of years, there has been a significant increase in the number of teachers, parents and students accessing information from the Gradebook. The old system was already having issues accommodating the increased load from last year.

While we understand that there is a lot of frustration involved with moving to a new Gradebook system, please remember that we are several weeks into a very significant change affecting thousands of teachers and tens of thousands of students and parents. We are still working on making the system really great for all users and we appreciate your patience.

Thanks to Information Systems for their assistance in responding to these questions.

Question – A/C in the Summer

Question – There are people who have to work year round, and with the new air conditioning systems in the schools, will they be on throughout the summer time?

Response – Most of our schools utilize zones for the A/C systems that will allow janitors to turn on portions of the A/C as necessary for summer work. Additionally, all administrative offices should be on their own zone to allow for use during the summer without cooling the entire building unnecessarily.

Thanks to Support Services for their assistance in responding to this question.

Question – Cell phone use of district drivers

Question – What is the policy of cell phone use while driving a vehicle during working hours. If we don’t have one, Why not?

Response – In addition to a state law that prevents this, we also have district policy and practice which indicates (from the bus driver manual), “A driver shall not use a cell phone, talking or texting, while operating a school bus, unless the bus has been pulled over safely and stopped. Drivers may never use a blue tooth or any form of earphones. Improper use of cell phones will result in at least a written warning, whether talking or texting.” We also comply with a state office of education memo which indicates the same restrictions as our own policy.

If you see district employees violating this policy, we would appreciate notification directly to the Transportation Department at (385) 646-4280.

Thanks to our Transportation Department for their assistance in responding to this question.