Andrew C.M. Mizsak
Bedford City School District (Ohio)

Brian Wheeler
Albemarle County Public Schools (Virginia)

Jennifer Abell
Charles County Public Schools (Maryland)

John Boerger
Lake Stevens School District #4 (Washington)

Molly O’Holleran
North Platte Public Schools (Nebraska)

Rich Benson
Mount Prospect District 57 (Illinois)

Rich Parker
South Whidbey School District (Washington)

Terri Sharpp
Lindop District 92 (Illinois)

Tom Reed
Loudoun County Public Schools (Virginia)

Sandra Smith-Jones
Virginia Beach City Public Schools (Virginia)

This topic was supposed to be the basis of my previous post, but obviously my passion got the best of me, and I went down a different path.

Congratulations to now-NSBA Past President Norm Wooten (Alaska), now-President Barbara Bolas (Pennsylvania), and Executive Director Anne Bryant and the entire NSBA Team for putting on a great conference here in Orlando.

The American School Board Journal annually showcases award-winning projects and outstanding programs that are examples of excellence in school governance. The 2008 Magna award winners were fantastic! (www.asbj.com/magna)

Lorna Donatone, president of corporate sponsor Sodexho School Services (www.sodexhoUSA.com), spoke eloquently in praising the Magna award recipients. The accolades and monetary gifts were much appreciated. The distinctive programs in these outstanding schools can translate into similar success in your school districts.

Following the meal, Linda Perlstein, author of Tested: One American School Struggles to Make the Grade, documented the difficulty in tapping into creative and innovative educational programs due to the stringent requirements of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). What should have been a celebratory and inspiring speech was a talk of frustration and needed reform to the federal mandates of NCLB. The venue was inappropriate!

I would recommend that NSBA and the American School Board Journal select a speaker who has the knowledge and experience of a district that has aspired to greatness. Wouldn’t it be a great tradition to have one of the previous year’s grand prizewinners speak briefly of how their district became more effective leaders? The past award winner could share how their district still makes school more relevant, breaks down barriers for English Language Learners, improves health and wellness, increases high school graduation rates, or engages their community. This is what attendees at Magna award luncheons want to hear and celebrate.

The Magna award winners share practical advice on how their districts solved pressing problems. The following districts made inspiring school reform during 2008. We salute you!

Grand prizewinner under 500 enrollment, The Santa Ynez (Calif.) Valley Union High School Board created a program that outfits their students with Global Positioning Systems, Geographic Information systems and other tech tools to serve their community in mapping sea cliffs in Isla Vista and retracing the Fremont Trail.

Grand prizewinner in the 5,000 to 20,000 enrollment, the Clarke County School District, in Athens, Ga., created a program to reduce the high dropout rate symptomatic of intergenerational poverty. It also brings back students who have already dropped out with flexible schedules, job training and childcare and parenting classes.

Grand prizewinner in the over 20,000-enrollment category, the Cherokee County School District of Canton, Ga. offers high school programs that fit the needs of the economically diverse student population. Nontraditional middle and high schools were created to meet the needs of students facing academic challenges or disciplinary issues. Another high school allows students to take night school. Gifted students can take advantage of joint-enrollment classes with local colleges.

We salute the grand prizewinners and the other thirty school districts that have taken bold steps to advance student learning. It was inspiring to be in the presence of such greatness!

Molly O’Holleran
2008 NSBA Blogger
North Platte Public Schools
North Platte, Nebraska

A friend of mine who is an administrator in a neighboring School District once told me that her Superintendent told her this when she joined their leadership team: “If you are not going home exhausted at the end of the day, then you are not working hard enough.”

I am exhausted and definitely ready to go home.

Now, that does not mean that I have not enjoyed myself, learned a lot, and appreciated this conference. Oh, to the contrary. This has been one of the most enjoyable and worthwhile professional experiences of my career in public service.

Accountability and Community Engagement: Communicating District Progress and Performance to the Public in a Continuous Improvement Model

Monday, March 31, 2008 11:15 AM-12:30 PM

Can your Board of Education go paperless? Is an electronic board meeting right for your district? Can you at the same time address accountability and community engagement on a budget? . BoardDocs Emerald Data provides a paperless governance solution. BoardDocs features contribute to a better experience for staff, board of education and the public. (See www.boarddocs.com. The phone number is 800-407-0141) This paperless solution complies with the open meetings act.

Marguardt School District 15 (Glendale, Illinois) http://www.d15.us/schools/mms/staff/678-encore.php highlighted the way to discuss accountability and community engagement. Their goal is to communicate district progress and performance to the public in a continuous improvement environment through BoardDocs Emerald Data.

1. Parent and community access to district information is important. Monthly communication with the community via public board meetings is a constant. BoardDocs educates and involves parents, students, and community stakeholders concerning district business and progress in achieving district goals. It helps build ongoing partnerships with community stakeholders. The public access page also allows the public to view committee meeting and agendas. Minutes of all meetings facilitate access to public information. The district’s mission and goals is the centerpiece of the BoardDocs homepage. All policies are also included.

2. The use of technology (BoardDocs Emerald Data Solutions) enhances community engagement. A search feature allows the constituent to quickly find answers. The superintendent and central office verified the paperless solution helps increase transparency with the public. The paper mailing to all constituents includes the web links to the district’s homepage and BoardDocs. Usually the superintendent’s executive assistant inputs the agenda, takes the minutes online, and receives ongoing upgrades. Having a director of technology helps coordinate the needs of the district with the wireless portal.

3. At the board level wireless communication increases internal communication in an affordable and immediate manner. This includes weekly reviews from central officers and committee meetings and agendas.

4. Benefits abound. It has proven to be cost effective. It makes more efficient use of time and personnel within the District. Also the flow and accessibility of information between the Board, community, parents and staff is increased.

5. The private site is password protected and visible only to specific members on the board and central office.

Unique properties of Marquardt School District 15

Essential standards of core subjects are in alignment. They are consistent between schools horizontally by grade and vertically between grades. This provides smooth transitions for student learning. Assessments are reliable and formative. The district has plans that address those students that don’t learn standards. Definite roles of strategic and operational responsibilities exist to advance student learning. At the base are core values.

Customer service requires input from stakeholders. Quarterly at parent/teach conferences, parents take a satisfaction survey. Staff and students also take the survey. The same twenty-five questions are asked each time. (Gallup can help your district ask the key questions for a healthy climate and educational culture.) From the results, the district addresses issues needing improvement.

Emerald Data BoardDocs can include a district scorecard. Each district can publish what it uniquely determines as most important. The input is displayed on the district BoardDoc site. Improve the system and you’ll improve results. It includes student achievement, safe and nurturing environment, fiscal health, customer service, and quality personnel. The priorities have corresponding goals. Each goal has indicators and timing. The priorities are hyperlinked to graphs and charts that are easily read by the public visiting the web site. This encourages consistent improvement. The school district can disaggregate the scorecard by school.

Monday, March 31, 2008

Vice Chairman of the School Board, Tom Heidemann, said the district got serious about community engagement when a levy failed to pass in 2001. “It was clear there were some communications gaps,” said Heidemann. After that, Anoka-Hennepin set a course for transparency, for an improved flow of information, and to regain the public’s trust. This session focused on their high-tech approach to improving communications.

As Director of Communications, Mary Olson added a couple staff to her team when the School Board was convinced that would deliver a sound return on investment. According to Olson, “Without understanding, there is often lack of support, and that is a key factor in the failure of [school] levies and bonds.” Olson and her team built a multi-faceted communications platform within the district.

Monday, March 31, 2008
From Orlando, Florida

Andrew C.M. Mizsak
Member of the Bedford Board of Education (Bedford, Ohio)
E-Mail: amizsak@sbcglobal.net

Both this morning and this afternoon, the NSBA Legislative Staff provided for School Board Members a comprehensive briefing on legislative issues affecting public education at the Federal Level.

Here are some highlights:

• NSBA is continuing to work hard to promote HR 648 (NCLB Improvements Act, sponsored by Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska/At-Large), and those efforts are being led by our National Association President Norm D. Wooten of Alaska. This bill has 40+ provisions in it that would improve this law.

• With regards to federal funding – especially for Title I and IDEA; To provide public school districts with funding necessary for special education, and for mandates enumerated in NCLB.

• School-Based Medicaid Reimbursement: School Districts provide necessary health services to many students, and this has a large financial effect upon local School Districts. School Districts need money to provide these services, and we need to be rid of this underfunded mandate.

• Head Start: To support Head Start, provide Head Start instructors with opportunities for professional development; and for federal resources to be there for local head start agencies and school districts in order to help our youngest students begin to develop academically.

• Private school vouchers: The NSBA is in opposition to any and all funding for school vouchers.

It is encouraged that all School Boards pass the resolution in support of HR 648, and get their Member of Congress to sign the Pledge to America’s School Children if they have not done so.
Many of the things discussed this morning were those we lobbied for as Members of the FRN during our Day on the Hill in February. Our lobbyists work tirelessly on the issues that are important to this Association, and it is our duty as public officials to continue to convey to our Constituents what we stand for. We also have a duty to make contact and build relationships with our Members of Congress and serve as their local point persons on education-related legislation. As both our National Association and State Association lobbyists have said to us time and again, you want to be the person that your legislator or their senior legislative counsel calls to get the feeling of the public education community in their district when it comes to important pieces of legislation.

The way our lobbyists are effective, truly, in conveying the message of the public education community to elected representatives at the Federal and State levels is when Board Members are engaged and knowledgeable on legislative issues. To this end, we elected officials are looked at to be lobbyists on behalf of our local School Districts and our states in order to push for education-related legislation that makes sense. We, too, represent people, and if we say to our legislators that we are doing this on behalf of our constituents, our voices become a little bit louder, and our message becomes a little bit clearer.

I highly encourage you to get your District to pass the resolution in favor of HR 648, to continue to communicate with your constituents about ways they can get involved, and to communicate on a regular basis with your fellow elected officials.

For additional grassroots outreach information, please contact your State Association, or NSBA’s Kathleen Branch at kbranch@nsba.org

-A.Mizsak

Author’s Note: Andrew C.M. Mizsak is a Member of the Bedford Board of Education in Bedford, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, where he serves as it’s Legislative Liaison and National Affiliates Advisory Network (NAAN) Liaison. In addition to his District service, Mizsak is a Member of the Legislative Platform Committee of the Northeast Ohio and Ohio School Boards Associations, and is a Member of the Ohio Delegation of the National School Boards Association’s Federal Relations Network, coordinating the 10th and 11th Congressional Districts of Ohio.

Andrea shared a story from earlier in her teaching career. She revealed that she made a "rookie mistake," and didn't take attendance prior to the start of a music concert. She talked about the importance of every member in the orchestra and how in this particular piece of music being played, she realized at the point of his solo, that the cymbal player wasn't there. Not only did he miss his queue, but in a moment of silence, someone exclaimed, "Wow, Joe didn't show up".

In short, the moral in Andrea’s story is that, "we all need to show up to the concert". She acknowledged that she failed as a teacher to show Joe just how important and valuable he was! Of course, this was a lesson learned and she has excelled to greater heights by making sure that she shows up for her students and values their contributions.

She inspired the audience by leaving us with the following quote:

"Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love."
-- Martin Luther King Jr.

Andrea is an amazing inspiration to the children of Granite Falls, WA and received this honor which was well deserved. Congratulations and continue the great work that you do on behalf of the children!

In this session, Northbrook Superintendent David Kroeze [Photo] shared background on the Baldrige framework and how his school district and board are using it as a tool for continuous improvement. Board member Sally Lane said it was not about getting the Baldrige award. “In all honesty… our focus is to figure what is important to us, how to get there, to then get there, and how to sustain it.”

Former Justice O'Connor, who is now the co-chair of the Civic Mission of Schools, believes that civic learning has been pushed aside in this current environment of standardized testing and accountability. While she believes these are important goals we need to be careful that we don't lose sight of the fact that to sustain democracy we need an educated and informated citizenry.

Humorously, she cites a few alarming facts. For instance, only one third of Americans can name the three branches of government, but two thirds can name all Three Stooges. Less then 1 in 10 can name the Chief Justice of the US, but 7 out of 10 can name a judge for "American Idol"

She also noted that she's realizes that today's student is dramatically different. Education methods today need to be more engaging and relevant. She cited a few examples of Service Learning programs in Oregon, Maine and Arizona that have integrated civic education in an exciting project-based format. These classes are about teaching students to be citizens, and they will have a toolbox of skills.

Finally, she shared with us a project that is being collaboratively worked on at Arizona State and Georgetown University that is an interactive website to teach civics for K-12 student. It's scheduled to launch in the fall of this year. To learn more go to: http://www.ourcourts.org

From their perspective the core subjects still need to be emphasized in education, however, additional emphasis must be placed on skills such as, problem solving, critical thinking, media literacy, global awareness, collaboration, and civic engagement.

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills is a non-profit organization located in Tucson, AZ. their mission is: "The Partnership for 21st Century Skills serves as a catalyst to position 21st century skills at the center of K-12 education by building collaborative partnerships among education, business, and community and government leaders."

So far, they're working in partnership with 7 states, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina, South Dakota, and Iowa.

Melissa Bartlett, from North Carolina provided the audience a State's perspective and Bob Hale give us the School Board viewpoint.

For more information on the Partnership for 21st Century Skills you can visit their website @http://www.21stcenturyskills.org