Kentucky School Advocate
April 2015
By Mike Armstrong
KSBA Executive Director
“It’s spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you’ve got it, you want – oh, you don’t quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!”
—Mark Twain
Winter is over and again many, many school districts are working in response to what Old Man Winter delivered all across the Commonwealth. Snow and record-breaking freezing cold temperatures forced superintendents to cancel classes for days at a time. Finally, schools are putting away their snow shovels and returning to a regular and uninterrupted five-day school/work week. This welcome return to normalcy finds superintendents and their local boards of education working to address a number of important topics.
Taking into consideration some local factors, superintendents and their boards will be working to finalize amended 2014-15 school calendars while likewise finalizing a 2015-2016 projected school calendar – both tasks sure to land near the top of the “to do list.”
The 2015 TELL (Teaching, Empowering, Leading and Learning) Kentucky Survey of school working conditions is underway. Also, if they so choose, local school boards, along with their superintendents, have until April 30 to respond to the Kentucky Core Academic Standards Challenge, an online feedback and awareness mechanism about the Kentucky Core Academic Standards in English/language and mathematics.
Of special importance this spring will be the completion of the Superintendent Professional Growth and Effectiveness System – a system for evaluating a district’s CEO that will realize increased as well as focused cooperation and communication between a board of education and its superintendent.
These highlighted topics are just a few of the many items that will be part of local board of education meeting agendas this spring. And accordingly, they constitute the importance of a collaborative and shared working relationship between local boards and their superintendent. The continuous cultivation of sound communication and a shared vision and agenda – especially for school leaders, is the foundation around which school leaders can embrace in a climate for perpetual growth and achievement.
So, from the freshly mowed softball and baseball fields to the decorated gyms ready for the high school prom to the elementary school “field day,” and from the opening-day “window” for the administration of the Kentucky Performance Rating for Educational Progress (K-PREP) to high school graduation, springtime is an especially busy yet productive time for school districts. Here’s wishing a heartfelt “good luck” to all local boards of education and superintendents as they shake off the winter doldrums and embrace the special work that springtime brings!