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

Students

Question – Charter Schools and PR

Question – The Cognos IBM tool available on the USOE site is great for transparency. It has illustrated that the charter schools are not succeeding at the rate the parents think they are. Unfortunately, as an STS who was trained on the program I can “filter out” the special populations of our schools. When I look at the neighborhood schools compared to the charter schools the neighborhood schools are succeeding at a far better rate than assumed with and without those filters. When schools do not make AYP sometimes it is due to special ed, attendance or high mobility populations. Is there a method in which we can make the message “that involved parents have successful students” more available? Every school I go to I see involved parents with extremely successful students.

When I talk to parents who have sent their children to charter schools they seem to emphasize that these charter schools emphasize arts and science more and have a smaller student to teacher ratio. My frustration is that all the resources are being pulled from the district schools to make these charter schools happen. How did the parents become so disenfranchised that instead of investing in our schools they prefer to create whole new buildings and systems? I applaud the tax hike last year to accommodate all the physical educators but maybe all these parents that moved their students would prefer to invest more in the schools but are not sure how to. How can we involve these parents so that they can help us to create the schools they want instead of going elsewhere?

Lastly, I think the size of our district enables us to do great things that other districts can not. We have great programs in place and great resources. It would be nice to see our students reflect on the great things in our district and their local schools. I know the PTA does a reflections assembly and the US forest service used to do a tree poster contest. Can we as a district do something like this to emphasis how great we are. We have certified dedicated teachers, great new schools being built, technology specialists, PE specialists……let’s have students clelebrate these things.

In closing I know these ideas are not foreign. PTA is suppose to be the conduit for change and dialogue and teacher of the year awards are to celebrate our district strengths but they are not. We need to change our image, our schools are succeeding in many ways, yet the news is full of depressing statistics. Thank you for your time.

Response – You bring up a number of great points that are currently being addressed by me and my staff. We have communicated with principals directly, the importance of ascertaining if students are leaving to go to charter schools. And we encourage them to take steps to shore up their programs to prevent or stop the loss!  Our Communications Department continues to work to highlight programs and school successes for the media and our legislators to ensure that information is getting out to the parents who ultimately make these decisions. We continue to work to identify these successes in our schools and could use any tips for programs or individual successes that should be recognized and publicized. Anyone can submit ideas tocommunications@graniteschools.org.

Lastly, we continue to work on other plausible marketing techniques to raise the profile of Granite District. Look for some of these to be implemented over the next year. While we don’t want to give anything away, they will be noticeable and draw significant attention to the efforts our great educators are making in our classrooms everyday.

Please know however, at the end of the day the very best advocate for our schools are the people who work and volunteer in them – we have thousands of “marketing agents” who have personal access to their neighbors.  Just think of the power if all of our employees and volunteers committed to share just one great thing they see happening with three people each day who don’t work or volunteer at their school!

Thanks for all you do – including eating “neatly” at your desk!

Question – Calendering Questions

We received many questions on this issue such as:

Question 1 – Next year’s calendar has some troublesome issues:
1. By starting so late that gives Granite teachers less instruction time than Canyons, Alpine, Provo, Salt Lake or Jordan school districts. This puts teachers at a real disadvantage to the other school districts. Provo and Salt Lake have a two week head start on Granite. This calendar is detrimental to obtaining optimum teaching results. It’s even more of a concern since our CRT scores, AP scores, IB scores are now published in the paper. Does this calendar really help our “failing schools and school district”?

2. What in the world are we supposed to do with our students for two weeks after Memorial Day? It’s difficult when CRT’s and AP exams are completed by the 2nd week of May. IB exams continue into the third week of May. We’ve covered the text book and finished our exams. Of course we can continue to find educational activities but the students know we have completed the course and Memorial Day signals the start of summer vacation.

3. We’ve put our high school students at a real disadvantage when it comes to finding a summer job. Granite students are out of school June 7th. Their “competition” is out by Memorial Day- again, a one or two week head start for the other school district.

I’m starting to wonder if this is a calendar based on the educational needs of our students or a means to provide cheap babysitting for two weeks. Why do we continue to base our calendar as if our pioneer heritage is in full force and we need to plant and harvest the crops with the extended vacation in August? One of the district goals is to prepare students for the 21st century. I think it’s time our school calendar revolved around testing and performance needs rather than three month summer vacations.

Yes, I know we vote on the calendar but I really doubt the educational consequences of the calendar are made known to parents. I’ve talked with them, I’ve interviewed my classes- all they look at is Winter and Spring recess. At a minimum could we publish the pro’s and con’s of each calendar when we vote in the future?

Question 2 – It may be too late to change the schedule for 2013, but starting later makes the job of an AP teacher even harder than it already is. We already lose a month of teaching time on the regular schedule – on the 2013 schedule we will lose almost a month and a half. We need to teach the entire curriculum, teach the students to write, give them time to practice writing (both essays and DBQs) and still have about 2 weeks of review time before the first week in May. Also, leaving that much time after AP testing, IB testing, Concurrent testing makes for very restless students. In short, for many reasons, I am asking (and hoping) that you rethink next year’s schedule. Is it possible to have a schedule that starts earlier in August and ends the week BEFORE Memorial Day? Using the week before Memorial Day to close out school and graduate just seems to make the most sense.

Question 3 – Granite School District is doing wonderful! But the problem i have is. I have kids in Elementary, Junior High, and High school. Elementary get the Jr high and high schools end of term off. But they don’t get short days. So my elementary kid is home alone and i cant get him a baby sitter since all the other kids i usually have look after him are still at school. This is a real issue and i’m sure it is for other parents to. I wish elementary wouldn’t get there end of terms off. It would make a lot of things easier for parents. Expectantly when you come home and see that your child has trashed the house and broken every single dish. Hope you consider getting rid of elementary having high school end of term days off.

Question 4 – I was wondering if there is any way that we can have a 2 week holiday break next year? As a teacher who puts in a lot of extra hours, who is taking classes for endorsements, and who is continually trying to have time with my family, having those few extra days that other districts received would have given me time to prepare and really enjoy the holidays. I realize that we get out of school a few days earlier than other districts in June, but personally I would feel as though I was getting a Christmas Bonus to have the 2 weeks of vacation. I know that I am not alone in my desire. I would be more than willing to work a few more days in June to have the 2 weeks off in December. It would be great if our school board would reconsider next year’s calendar.

Question 5 – I just had a question about the traditional schedule. I am in one of the schools transitioning from year-round. I actually support the change, as I feel that there was a lot of wasted time with all the going on and off track. I definitely think a traditional schedule is more conducive to a sustained learning environment. That being said, I think having an occasional break in the schedule is still beneficial to families/students/teachers, be it to just have a time to breathe, to catch up on grades & lesson plans, to travel, etc. I wonder if a hybrid-type of schedule was considered or is a possibility in coming school years (even next year)? What I mean by that is having something similar to one of the two following possibilities:

A) Start school a week earlier (Aug. 20), and extend Fall Recess to a whole week (Oct. 15-19), extend Thanksgiving Recess to a whole week (Nov. 19-23), and Winter Recess to a full two weeks (coming back on Jan. 7), then having the last day of school be on June 12. Summer vacation is only shortened by a week and a half, yet we still have some breathing time in the school year. If the school is closed during these week-long breaks (two weeks for Winter Recess), operating costs shouldn’t be greatly affected, right?

B) Start school two weeks earlier (Aug. 13), and extend Fall Recess to two weeks (Oct. 8-19), extend Winter Recess to two weeks (Dec. 24-Jan. 4), extend Spring Recess to two weeks (Mar. 25-Apr. 5), and end the school year on June 14. Summer vacation is only shortened by three weeks (so it’s still two months long), and we have some decent breaks in the school year. Again, if the school is closed during at least some of these break times, operating costs shouldn’t be greatly affected.

I am partial to option A, since the breaks are less dramatic (shorter), and therefore would result in a smaller disruption in learning continuity. I understand it is important for families who have children in elementary and secondary schools to have the same schedule, so the options above or any similar to them would be for both elementary and secondary schools.

Question 6 – I’m hoping that it was just an oversight in scheduling and not that educators are supposed to be UN-romantic. However, I noticed that the Spring Parent Conferences are scheduled for the Junior High teachers and parents on Valentine’s Day. While that may not be a problem for some, it will be for some others, myself included. While Valentine’s Day isn’t one of those major holidays, it is still a day some of us plan on doing something with our wives. In fact, for once in my life I actually planned ahead and have tickets to a concert. An easy solution could be to put both High School and Junior High Conferences on the Wednesday and Thursday (15th and 16th) having them overlap both days rather than just overlapping the one day. That would move the Junior High Conference off of Valentines.

Response – The procedure for determining the 2012 -2013 calendar (or any calendar) includes forming a committee of parents, teachers, principals, district administrators, GEA, and transportation. Reviewing the most recent survey from parents, this committee decides on two calendars that best represent the data from the survey. The calendar committee has been unanimous in their decision on the two calendars. These two calendars are posted to our web site, for input from parents, teachers, and students. The results of this input, along with the two calendars, is shared with the Board. The School Board then selects the calendar with the most support. This was the case with the approval of the 2012 – 2013 calendar.

Of the five concerns that we received:
– One wants to start one week earlier, end two weeks later, and lengthen every break during the year.
– One wants a two week winter break
– One wants the elementary school to be on the same schedule as the secondary (which will probably happen after the next board meeting)
– Two want to start earlier and end the week of Memorial Day (a week or two earlier) with no longer winter break, with testing as their number one concern

Unfortunately the competing values are often mutually exclusive.  This makes the surveys we’ve been conducting from year-to-year so important – they help inform the decision for the calendar under review and provide conceptual direction for calendar development for future years.

On the other hand, we will more clearly identify the implications associated with potential calendars as we post them for review and input in the future.  We strive to develop calendars that best meet the needs of students, parents and teachers.  We will certainly reinforce this as we meet with future calendar committees.

Thanks to our School Leadership and Improvement Services Directors who head up our Calendar Committee for assisting in responding to these questions.

Question – Fire Drills

Question – During lunch at any elementary school most teachers leave for lunch how do we track where children are if the alarm sounds during this time frame. Seems like it would be a mess, let us know.

Response – Current practice and policy indicates that in the event of a fire alarm regardless where the students are (such as lunch) they are supposed evacuate to the outside
and line up in the same location as their classroom would during any fire drill. This gives us the ability to account for them in a timely manner.

As a practical matter, it’s difficult to schedule real emergencies.  Our hope is that real emergencies never occur.  If they do however, we hope that folks will keep cool heads, evaluate the actual situation, and use the principles they have practiced to make the best and safest decision possible.  We than you for being the professionals that you are!

Question – Videos in the School

Question: I have recently discovered many great ways a digital camcorder can be used to enhance curriculum and instruction in the classroom. I have also realized the sundry privacy issues that accompany its use. Allowing parents and others to view those videos can be a very powerful tool. Other schools have posted videos on the district’s YouTube page, so I wonder what process(es) they had to go through to be able to do that without major (or minor) repercussions stemming from privacy issues. I know the district’s privacy/media policy recently changed, so what do I have to do now to be able to post videos to YouTube, whether on the district’s page or not?

Response: I have attached a link to a page that includes both the student privacy guidelines that govern this issue in addition to the media policy.

https://www.graniteschools.org/depart/superintendent/communications/Pages/default.aspx

Filming classroom activities for additional educational purposes is allowed under the following stipulations (pulled from the policies mentioned above):

Students who are filmed have NOT opted out under our “Student Privacy Rights” policy (a school secretary can run a query in Discovery to see who has opted out). We do not identify any specific students in videos with any additional text in the description or cutline. We do not interview students without express parental permission. Personal contact information about students must never be published.

We already have some videos from classrooms on our page. You can submit videos for youtube to Randy Ripplinger. You can email him at this address.

Thanks to the Communications Department for their assistance in responding to this question.

Question – School Marketing

Question: I try to keep up with issues involving education and specifically public education. I am aware that the idea of traditional free public education is under great scrutiny, with charter schools, school voucher programs and any other list of ideas. There are organizations that lobby for the use of our public money and resources and who are successful in the current political climate. Many of these organization advertise their “achievements” and the “failures” of traditional education platforms. Has their been any consideration in Granite, as a large organization, of using some resources to remind the communities of the large amount of success that is produced in our organization. Our communities benefits from the work done in our organization and should be aware of it and how to protect the work we do.

Response: Great question! We have made an ongoing effort to educate the public and our legislators regarding our students successes. Our Communications Department regularly communicates with patrons and taxpayers using direct mail and email to highlight program successes. Additionally, they work closely with the media to get coverage for our schools. We also have great relationships with our legislators to ensure they receive regular and accurate updates on pertinent information. This has to be an ongoing and sustained process and every effort we make (collectively and as individual schools) can quickly be diminished by a single problem or issue. The Communications Department continually requests tips and information on your successes so they can be highlighted appropriately. Email that information here.

Question – More than 180 days of School?

Question: Most industrialized countries in the world require students to attend school for more than 180 day per year. With the decline of U.S. students’ test scores in reading and math, why isn’t lengthening the school year been a consideration? Throughout my 20 years of teaching, more and more has been added to the curriculum but no additional time is provided for instruction. Yes, it would cost tax payers more money but it just makes sense that if we are to truly compete in a global educational society, we need to increase the number of days students attend school so that adequate time can be spent learning the concepts that are required.

Response: You won’t hear an uproar of resistance here.  In fact, we supported former state superintendent Scott Bean as he pushed hard for two or three years to get the school year extended to 240 days, then later to 220 days.  Then he gave up.  You are hitting the nail on the head when you identify this as a financial issue.  Activating teachers an additional day costs more than $1,000,000 in Granite, we are about 11% of the state.  That means a rough (and low) estimate would be more than $9,000,000 per day.  Multiply that by 60 days, or 40 days, and we’re talking about real money – year after year as well (not a none-time expense).  Thanks for your work with the limited resource (time) you have!

Question – NCLB goals

Question:

I recently received a copy of the revised AYP/NCLB goals at school. I know that Granite District is very concerned about achieving these goals by 2014. The aims of NCLB have always confused me. How can we as teachers be expected to have 100% of the students in our class and school achieve this by the year 2014? To me this is like asking the police to have no crime, doctors cure all illnesses, firefighters have no fires to fight, etc. by the year 2014. As hard as I try, there is no way I am going to have all of my students reading on grade level and doing math on grade level by any certain year. The only thing this is going to do is set me and my school up for failure. It is also going to cause many educators to leave teaching and it won’t be because they are poor teachers. Many will leave because they just can’t make students meet these goals. Teacher morale is at an all-time low, and I know because I have been teaching for almost 30 years. I will be able to retire in 2015 so will not be around much after we are supposed to reach these milestones. When are we going to start holding the parents responsible for how their children are doing in school? My school has not made AYP the last two years because of attendance issues and parent/student apathy. It’s okay for parents to take their children out of school for vacation but it counts against the teacher and the school, not the parents and students. Any light you can shed on this would be greatly appreciated.

Response:

We’re so proud of teachers and their efforts – and how far we’ve come!  You draw interesting analogies and point out some of the flaws we’ve seen in NCLB for some time, not to mention the stress fractures it’s causing in so many of us.

You may have heard from your principal, and you will hear more in the future, that our focus needs to be on the progress of individual students – rather than a focus on larger averages.  NCLB has helped us look closely at subgroups, but has also forced a focus on moving “2s” to “3s” and significantly narrowed our curricular emphasis.  We believe the focus propersly belongs on helping all kids progress as much as they can in a school year, regardless of whether they are high achievers, or members of several at-risk groups at the same time.  

We think that it is understood that when a student spends a year (or semester, or some other period) of their life with a teacher, that the student will have grown as a result of the contact.  Consequently, it seems it will be a relief to look at how far kids have come, and what standards they have mastered, as a result of the time together.

Thanks for your continued efforts.  🙂

 

Question – Optional Extended Day Kindergarten

Question:

I am a Kindergarten teacher in one of our schools. For several years we have had principals who have inquired how we might get a session of Optional Extended day Kindergarten at our school due to the low socioeconomic demographics of our community. Though we have a high percentage of students on free/reduced lunch, we do not qualify for Title I funds. We have been told that OEK is directly tied to Title I funds so we will not qualify unless we become a Title I school.

As we attended Common Core training at the beginning of the school year, we became acquainted with the team of Kindergarten teachers from a school which is right next door to ours, therefore shares our same community demographics. They are also not a Title I school. However, they have at least one session of OEK, and I believe another session was added because I know a teacher who was surplussed last month and was hired at this same school, also to teach OEK. Could you please explain why a school that is not Title I is able to have OEK? We would very much like to know the true criteria and why our school does not qualify when our neighbors, also not a Title I school, have OEK.

Response:

Optional Extended-day Kindergarten (OEK) programs are funded by the Utah Legislature. The distribution formulas are similar to federal rules for Title I funds, but are not limited to Title I schools. As you know from your own experience, students served in an OEK classroom enter first grade with reading and mathematics skills higher than their peers from traditional classrooms. We are hopeful that OEK funds will continue to be allocated (and increased) by the state.