Month: September 2012

Update on Diversity & Equity- upcoming releases

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Diversity and Equity 
The Diversity and Equity Committee of the Board has been working this fall on a strategic vision for diversity and equity within the District. This work will be brought to the full Board for approval at the October 9 Board meeting.
In addition, the pilot Annual Equity Inclusion Report will be released to the full Board at the October 9 Board meeting, with the goal of public input for the first complete report in mid winter. We have asked principals to share this report with faculty in advance of the October meeting and to share tools on how to read it, how to ask questions that need deeper review and to encourage people to give input. This report is based on 2010-11 baseline data and we will release the 1st annual in Jan/Feb 2013 with 2011-12 data. We look forward to shaping that report with responses to this report, so the annual report is meaningful and accessible.
Please weigh in or come to the Oct Board meeting to hear about both the Board work on a vision and strategic plan and the Equity  Inclusion Report!

Spotlight – Superintendent’s Column

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Greetings. I hope you are enjoying the cooler but sunny days and the excited faces of children learning. Our mission is that all children learn and are engaged. To do that, we hire high quality teachers and provide high quality professional development. Behind every school full of children and teachers there is a system of supports and, without these supports, the basic function of teaching would be very difficult.

In Burlington, Central Office and building administration is about eight percent of the entire budget. With 900 employees, a $60 million budget to manage, and more than 10 campuses and  buildings that range from 55-112 years old, we are a lean machine! Beyond principals are the District functions of facilities, curriculum, special education, grants, human resources, instructional technology and business. If these central functions did not exist, you would be cleaning and repairing your own buildings, ordering and setting up your own technology. There would be no consistent curriculum or professional development to keep us moving forward. You would be dealing with legal issues in special education and would lack basic support such as payroll and contract management.

We are undertaking an analysis of our District services this year. In addition to the changes in the Diversity & Equity Office that I have spoken of earlier, Facilities will also be restructured. Joel FitzGerald and Mark Irish served as Interim Co-Directors for the summer and did a phenomenal job with the many projects happening across the District. Joel and Mark have agreed to continue in this role for the school year. We will begin a director search in the winter/spring and are fortunate to have their complementary skills to keep Facilities moving forward.

At Central Office we have very few administrative support staff. In Grants this summer, the .5 administrative assistant and the 1.0 Afterschool bookkeeper/administrative assistant both left to move south! In reanalyzing needs, Grants decided to create a 1.0 administrative assistant and .5 bookkeeper. We also have a 1.0 receptionist position that serves as the administrative assistant for the Director of Operations. We have no administrative assistant for IT, Diversity & Equity and only .5 for Curriculum. Looking at our needs with a critical eye of making sure District services can continue to serve the school efficiently, we are pairing the .5 bookkeeper position with .5 of the receptionist position, leaving .5 of the receptionist position to be filled. (Are you still following the math portfolio problem?!) To the remaining .5 receptionist position we are adding 10 hours of support for IT, which given the 1:1 initiative and the Partnership for Change, is minor, but enough to keep purchasing and payroll running smoothly.

In short, we simply reorganized duties and positions and at the end of the day, added 10 administrative assistant hours of total support to Central Office. There are more changes—of the visual kind—which you will see the next time you walk through our front door! In trying to meet the needs of additional staff that the Partnership for Change brings and those who work at a floating worksite in the reception area, we finally purchased professional workstations which afford privacy to those who work in that area and will house staff who had no place to work in the past couple of years.

All of these changes have been made with a focus on supporting the work of the classroom teacher and students, while also staying within the resources we have. It has been a busy summer and promises to be a busy year.

Jeanné

 

Spotlight – Superintendent’s Column

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Greetings! By the time you read this, school will be in full swing, students have met teachers and are making new friends, learning routines and opportunities are up and running. Check out first day of school pics on our Facebook page—sure to make you smile!

We started the year as a faculty and staff with training on being a multicultural educator, including overview of a recently coined term: Equity Literacy. There are many things we can do in all of our roles in the District to stop “isms” in the schools, starting with becoming aware of behaviors that perhaps are not overt and may be written off as part of being a child. We need to stop,  intervene and teach in each of these instances.

The Equity Plan I released on June 1st has been very active in preparation for the school year. With the appointment of Henri Sparks as Equity Director, Dr. Linda Walsleben as ELL Director, Dr. Dan Balón as Director of Diversity Education and Engagement, and Nikki Fuller as Deputy Director of Human   Resources and Recruitment & Retention Specialist, a more robust team is in place to address issues of harassment and discrimination in the District. In these appointments, I was able to eliminate existing positions to fund them within the District budget. All Administrators have been trained in the complaint and investigation procedures of the Harassment Policy and all schools have designated employees who will be trained in September. We are making the Policy and complaint process more accessible to all parents and students.

Administrators have also participated in intensive professional development on racism. This specific training will continue throughout the year, including at faculty meetings as we learn to discuss racism and other isms and the impact on our school cultures, students and faculty.

In October, we will release the pilot of our Equity Inclusion   Report Card, which will make transparent all data related to  student achievement and behaviors. We will use this data to guide changes in our District as we hold a mirror up to our  practices. I am very excited about this progress as we strive to make Burlington Schools Excellent and Equitable and a  welcoming, safe learning environment for all students.

At the same time, the Partnership for Change work is at full steam. All Burlington and Winooski residents are invited to a BBQ at North Beach on September 8th(noon-3pm) to learn more about this work and how to get involved. Our goal, working alongside Winooski School District, is to remodel our system to focus more intensely on student-centered learning in  rich environments that lead students to meet proficiency standards in lieu of credits. This will allow us to tailor learning to individual student needs and interests, much the way the internet already does, with keeping the basics firmly in place. We start this year with the 1:1 Initiative, 9th Grade Academies, and the Year End Studies Program in May and June. Come to the BBQ to learn more or keep an eye on the website:

www.partnershipforchangevt.org

As always, I appreciate hearing your comments and suggestions about keeping our schools excellent. Have a great school year!

Jeanné