Dear Superintendent:

I know that this might require (maybe) some Congressional action…however…the more I think about this the more I like it.

Everyone knows that true CRT test results normally don’t happen that often. There are a lot of issues behind those names. i.e. lack of food in the home, divorce issues, death of family members, and the biggest is APATHY of students!

How might we address the issue of apathy in students? Hit them where it does matter!!!! I have heard that other states have it where if the student “passes” the test, they do not come back to school the remaining two weeks. They begin their summer early. (That’s their incentive). Those that don’t “pass” the test are required to return back to school for the remainder of the school year.

We need to think how we can get the kids motivated to do their very best on the test. I don’t think chewing gum worked. That only increased the incidences of gum chewing in school when it is not allowed.

Response:

This is definitely a legislative issue. Since the district cannot legally compel parents to take an interest in their child’s education and performance, I am interested in other teachers and administrators ideas on how we can improve student performance. Please reply to this post with your responses.

Thanks,

Martin

Hi Superintendent,

I appreciate the fact that you are willing to take questions from the staff.

I think that the policy for surplus computers should be changed. Currently old computers go to the warehouse and then are discarded. I think employees should be able to buy them. I understand the district’s concern about
confidential information leaking. However, it wouldn’t take much to empty all info from the computers.

I have researched this and the 3 other districts in the state that I looked in to sell their computers on a surplus auction website, after removing all software and information. Also the University of Utah sells their old
computers, but removes the hard drive.

By having the GSD sell old computers they could make some money and employees could have some fairly decent computers. Also, it would prolong the time they would go to the dump.

Answer:

In researching your question, I spoke with Phil Johnson from our warehouse. He can be reached via email here if you have additional questions. Here is his response:

Naturally, we do not like to discard working equipment without offering these surplus assets to the public. We have determined the cost of dismantling, washing (cleaning data off the hard drive) and posting computers is not worth what patrons or employees are willing to pay. We currently recycle the computers with a company called Electronic Recycling Solutions. This company has a $1,000,000.00 liability insurance per incident policy. They are also qualified to clean or wash hard drives to the Department of Defense standards. The risk factor along with the estimated 20 to 30 minutes to actually clean the data off a computer and restore the operating system back to the original starting point is simply not cost effective when you take in account what people are willing to pay for the old machine.

We do have a policy in place to make a computer available for auction. In order for a computer to be authorized for public sale it must be cleaned by an STS professional or a staff member of Information Systems. One of these employees of the district must donate their time to prepare the computer. Once the computer has been prepared for sale, the employee submits a form available through Information Systems Service Center. The sale is then approved by the Information Systems Service Center, and the machine is posted on the auction site, www.publicsurplus.com where the employee can then bid on the specific machine.

I would like to point out that the Surplus Warehouse does not send the computers to the Land Fill. Each computer is recycled according to strict electronic waste standards. Computers that are worth keeping complete are prepared for resale and those of no value are dismantled into various waste categories. The recycle company pays one rate for the usable computers and a different rate for scrap.

“Dear Dr. Bates,

My husband is a Granite District employee and has been interviewing for a principal position for the past several years and each year has been unsuccessful. It is very frustrating to watch him get rejected each year and not know why. Is there a principal mentoring program available for those hopeful and dedicated employees, so that they can better themselves and achieve their full potential?”

Response- Thanks for the great question. I have a vision of the school principal’s role transforming in response to the various needs our students have and will bring to school each day in the future. The 21st century principalship will evolve and be defined in terms of instructional leadership, community leadership, and visionary leadership. For this ideal to responsively mature, our district is currently discussing how we should develop and grow our future principals. This discussion is still early and will develop more fully over time with the intent of purposely training, coaching, and mentoring aspiring administrators to be the prepared for this role. Thank you for your inquiry to afford me the opportunity to share this idea as we begin its development here in the Granite School District.

Sincerely,

Martin

I had a teacher out at Whittier Elementary submit the following question:

“I really like your snapshot idea. My question is why are teachers denied access when we try to go on your facebook?
I like how involved you are and how you are trying to keep us informed about what is going on in the district.”

It is a great question. Our district social networking committee continues to study social networking opportunities to see what they provide in terms of enhanced learning. Earlier this year, they recommended to the superintendency that we open up youtube because of the potential value to the learning experience. Our district social networking policy states that teachers and other district employees are not to be “friends” with students on any social networking sites. However, it does allow social networking sites to be authorized for classroom use if a teacher submits a proposal to their supervisor that offers up educational value for their students.

Regardless, we are reviewing opportunities to open facebook up to our schools. We anticipate a potential pilot for school administrators to have access to facebook starting next year. This would provide them a tool to investigate bullying and other violations of safe school policy.

Our district utilizes facebook as an public outreach tool to engage the community. There may be additional value for schools in that capacity. We continue to look at those options.

Here is the latest snapshot. Keep your questions coming.

Here is the latest superintendent snapshot regarding air conditioning in certain places in our buildings. Please keep the questions coming and have a nice weekend!

Martin