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O'Connell Announces Summer Meal Program for Families Hard Hit by Economic Downturn Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell recently announced that socioeconomically disadvantaged children may receive free meals during the traditional summer recess under the Summer Food Service and the Seamless Summer Feeding Option at hundreds of sites throughout the state. “Many families are still reeling over the economic downturn that has made feeding the family quite a challenge,” said O’Connell. “Thankfully, there are still places for families to take their kids and certain adults for a free, nutritious meal to help spread their grocery dollars during the summer break.”... Community Involvement Essential When Rearranging School Attendance Boundaries (This story is the first in an occasional series designed to help school districts handle transitions and changes as they implement budget reductions.) As districts continue to face severe reductions in school funding, all potential avenues are being considered to address the current fiscal crisis. One difficult area of savings involves the closure of a school site. While the savings in implementing closures are attractive, the controversy and public pressure that go with any school closure make this decision extremely difficult. However, due to the extreme pressure of budget reductions in place, many districts are considering the option... Risk Management . . . Can It Be Deferred? Almost every article you read these days is full of bad news. The unemployment rate is up, the federal deficit has reached unprecedented proportion, and our Governor is deferring revenue payments once again. As school districts prepare for another fiscally difficult year, many have reduced and/or eliminated the position responsible for risk management within the organization. But while the position may no longer exist, the practical functions of the job remain... Does Your District Have a Policy? And Is That Policy Followed? Issues Students Face Using Social Networking Sites (Part II in a series) As discussed in the previous article on social networking sites, students and adults are increasing using social networking sites to communicate and to keep up with the news. Students are able to communicate through their social media sites from computers and most cell phones. These sites are attractive because they allow students to communicate with many friends and family members simultaneously. However, the immediacy of the response and the ability to connect from anywhere can lead students to some common difficulties... Jicama's a Hit in Alisal, Where Food Program Nourishes Many Students Four Times a Day Irene Vargas, director of food services in the Alisal Union Elementary School District, is always on the lookout for ways to improve nutrition, which promotes good health and good study habits – especially for the district’s neediest students. Alisal serves an “early bell” breakfast, and a mid-morning snack, followed by lunch, and an afternoon school snack for students who stay after 3 p.m. for extra academic enrichment programs aimed at narrowing the achievement gap. “So we’re feeding many of them four times a day,” Vargas said... Should Teachers, Students Use Facebook? Social Media Has Growing Impact on School District Communication (Part I in a series) Many students and adults are regularly using social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. According to a recent Nielsen study, this year more people accessed social media sites than checked their e-mail. The immediacy of the information and the ability to share the information with large groups of friends contributes to students’ comfort in using these forms of communicating. Most school districts block these sites within their information networks... Federal Task Force on Childhood Obesity Asks the Public for Ideas to Solve Obesity Challenge The U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Education and Health and Human Services are asking the public for ideas to help the Task Force on Childhood Obesity come up with recommendations for public and private sector actions to solve the problem of childhood obesity. The work of the Task Force will complement the efforts of First Lady Michelle Obama as she leads a national public awareness effort to tackle this critical public health issue... Many Districts Can Save By Pooling Resources Exploring Shared Central Services Is a Conversation Worth Having . . . Tough economic times are often the impetus for creative thinking which can provide new approaches and solutions to problems. School districts throughout California should be engaged in this kind of creative problem-solving as they deal with the real-world impact of the state budget morass and its impact on quality education for all students. While some districts and communities may be talking about unification, another topic is also well-worth discussion and evaluation, in the short-term. It is a discussion that may be easier and more efficient than unification... School Nutrition Programs a Priority Obama Administration Pushes Swift Reauthorization of Child Nutrition Act The Obama Administration is pushing for the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act to reduce hunger and improve the health and nutrition of our nation's children, and reduce childhood obesity – legislation that impacts school children and school districts around the country. “The priorities announced by Secretary Tom Vilsack for the upcoming Child Nutrition bill would be a major step in the right direction for the health and well-being of our school children,” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said last Wednesday... U.S. Department of Education Releases Report on Use of Data Systems to Support Reform States and school districts are making significant progress in building educational data systems and are starting to use that valuable data to change classroom practice and improve student achievement, according to a new report released this week by the U.S. Department of Education. But school leaders are still searching for the best models to mine the data and to discover the best instructional methods for students, the report says... Duncan Reminds Educators That Kids Under 10 Need a Second Dose of H1N1 Flu Vaccine Arne Duncan, the federal Secretary of Education, reminded elementary school educators and parents last week health authorities now recommend that all children under 10 years of age should receive a second dose of the H1N1 flu vaccine to ensure full protection against the virus and prevent further outbreaks of the flu. To underscore this message, Secretary Duncan joined U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, Congressman Jim Moran, and Arlington Public Schools Superintendent Patrick Murphy for a tour of an H1N1 school vaccination clinic... Deadline to Apply is January 15 O'Connell Calls for More School Breakfast Programs to Help Hungry Students Succeed State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell on Wednesday urged local educational agencies to apply for available School Breakfast Program and Summer Food Service Program Start-up or Expansion grants. The deadline to apply for the competitive grants is Friday, January 15, 2010. “We have long known that it is harder for hungry children to learn in school, and that they are more often tardy or absent compared to well-nourished children,” said O’Connell... O'Connell Announces Distribution of Personal Protective Equipment to Help Combat Flu State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell announced a multi-agency effort last Friday to distribute millions of protective masks and gloves to schools throughout California to help prevent and mitigate the spread of the H1N1 influenza virus and other influenza outbreaks. “In order to prevent the spread of disease, the federal H1N1 guidance for schools calls for the use of personal protective equipment in situations in which a student becomes ill while on campus,” O’Connell said... TSS/ACSA Workshops Explore Intricacies of Charter School Petition Process A growing number of charter school petitions are being received by California school districts. These petitions can consume significant amounts of valuable administrative time, as well as financial resources for legal consultation. In response to this situation, Total School Solutions and the Association of California School Administrators are sponsoring one-day workshops to provide an objective perspective and overview of charter petition process and related legal requirements... Citing Early Start of School Year, State Fair Drops Traditional August Dates, Opts for July Bowing to changing social trends and family lifestyles, the California State Fair will abandon its traditional late August dates and switch to late July dates in 2010. In announcing the change, the State Fair’s board indicated that the primary reason for the change is that the Fair’s traditional August dates now conflict with classroom instruction in more and more school districts – leading to a significant decrease in State Fair attendance on weekdays. An audit by the State Fair of the 2009-2010 Greater Sacramento Area K-12 school population revealed that there are approximately 400,000 school-age children in the State Fair’s target geographic area... New "Green Energy" Pilot Program Launched The California Department of Education (CDE) and Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) are laying the groundwork for a new “green energy” academy pilot program. The New Energy Academy, announced this week, is designed to provide energy career education for students who might otherwise not have the opportunity. CaliforniaALL (CalALL), a non-profit committed to enhancing the success of California's students, has also supported development of the Academy... O'Connell Releases Draft of New Pandemic Flu Manual for Schools – Comment Sought State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell held news conferences in San Jose and San Diego on Thursday to update the public about efforts to combat the spread of the H1N1 virus and to release a draft of the Pandemic Influenza Planning Manual for California public schools. The manual, created by the California Department of Education (CDE), is a state-specific supplement to the guidance provided for schools by the Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Department of Education... State Board May Soon Offer Webcast of Meetings California’s State Board of Education (SBE) is apparently moving to offer live webcasts of its meetings in Sacramento – with a pilot broadcast perhaps becoming available as soon as next week’s SBE meeting on September 16 and 17. This is a welcome idea, since it will give local school board trustees, superintendents and other district-level administrators a better window through which to observe the policy discussions that take place at SBE meetings between SBE trustees and senior administrators from the CDE... State, Federal Authorities Release More Resources Regarding H1N1 Flu and Schools The California Department of Education (CDE) and the federal Department of Education (DoE) released additional guidance to local school districts during the past week regarding Novel H1N1 flu, also known as “swine flu.” The CDE released an announcement reviewing recommended procedures to prevent the spread of flu, including having students stay home until 24 hours after they no longer have a fever, sending students who become sick at school to a separate room until they can be sent home, and so on... O'Connell: New Cost-Saving Technologies May Be Used to Submit Student Attendance The Internal Revenue Service initiated electronic filing of tax returns, on a limited basis, way back in 1986. Now, some 23 years later, California is ready to let school districts submit student attendance data electronically. The transition could save school districts hundreds of thousands of dollars. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell announced this week that local educational agencies may be approved by the CDE... New Report Evaluates Free Digital Texts The California Learning Resource Network (CLRN) has released its review of free digital textbooks, evaluating more than a dozen texts that are now available to school districts. The report outlines how high school math and science textbooks submitted under the first phase of the initiative measure up against the state’s rigorous academic content standards. Of the 16 free digital textbooks for high school math and science reviewed, ten meet at least 90 percent of California’s standards. Four meet 100 percent of standards... New Federal Guidance on H1N1 Announced, Duncan Urges Schools to Prepare for Flu Season Federal authorities, including Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, announced new, updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control for local school districts regarding H1N1 flu. The announcement was made at a press conference early Friday morning. A new vaccine against H1N1 flu will likely be available in mid-October. It will consist of two shots, administered about three weeks apart. Sec. Duncan and Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, encouraged districts to consider establishing vaccination... What Students Need to Know About Privacy – and Protecting Their Identity – on the Internet A university student wrote a negative article about her hometown on her MySpace online journal. The article was seen by a resident of her hometown and it was given to the local newspaper. The local newspaper published the article as a letter to the editor, and included the student’s name. The student’s family’s business soon lost customers (based on negative reactions to the article) and her family received death threats, and ultimately had to move. University admissions staff often do research on students who apply online... Free Digital Texts Offered to Schools Nine “content developers,” including Pearson Education, one of the nation’s major textbook publishers, submitted a total of 20 free high school math and science digital textbooks by the June 15th deadline for the first phase of Governor Schwarzenegger’s Digital Textbook Initiative. The Governor’s Digital Textbook Initiative aims to review existent free digital textbooks to determine whether these materials meet to California’s academic content standards. If these free materials are deemed suitable, California schools may utilize them in the classroom... Study Urges Preschool Effort to Improve Nutrition, Promote Exercise, Reduce Obesity The initial recommendations of a new study on child care nutrition and physical activity — recommending interventions during the years before children enter kindergarten — was released on Wednesday by the California Department of Education and the California Health and Human Services Agency. The report concludes that better nutrition and more exercise would pay dividends in terms of the health of California’s children. These findings probably won’t come as a major surprise to many K-12 educators,... Cyberbullying: What Teachers Need to Know In the first article on cyberbullying, we discussed what cyberbullying is, and why students get involved in cyberbullying. In this article we will discuss what teachers need to know. Teachers are usually familiar with what to do when a student is being bullied by another student at school. But teachers also need to recognize the warning signs that a student may be a cyberbully, or a victim of cyberbullying. Teachers need to know what to do when they find that a student is a victim of cyberbullying... Upgraded iSchoolFinder Software Helps Districts Project Student Enrollment Total School Solutions (TSS) and Helm Solutions Group (HSG) have released a new and upgraded product called iSchoolFinder.com version 3, which school districts can use to forecast future student enrollment. Many schools and parents have enjoyed the ease–of–use found in the earlier versions of iSchoolFinder.com for locating appropriate schools for students based on a student’s home address. This new version incorporates current year enrollment data, and projects future year enrollment... Cyberbullying: A Behavior Problem You Cannot Afford to Ignore Bullies and bullying have been around for a long time. From verbal threats to written notes and “slam books,” students have found ways to threaten other students. Cyber bullying is a complex and challenging issue, and in this article we will look at what cyber bullying is, and why students are involved in cyber bullying. Today’s technology has given students additional opportunities to bully others, and the impact of a single act can spread quickly... Act Swiftly to Access Federal Economic Stimulus Funds Supporting School Technology Programs The federal economic stimulus plan includes $650 million additional dollars for education technology in schools. The funding will come to the states through the federal Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) program. The plan is for half of the funds to go out to the states within the next 40 days, and the rest of the funds to arrive within six months. The technology funds should move more quickly than some other areas of funding because the process to award the money to the states is already in place... Districts Seek Solutions for Hungry Students School districts are reporting more students filing applications and qualifying for subsidized meals. Last year the number of meals served through the program increased by 4.9%. The program funding the meals expended all of the funds allotted for meals prior to May and June thus districts have not received funding for the meals served in May and June of 2007-2008. The combination of higher food costs and energy costs, along with this increase in the number of students eating subsidized meals, has left districts struggling with how to continue providing meals for the increasing number of hungry students... Data Breaches Aren't Just Business Issues... They Are School District Issues, Too How secure is your district's Information Technology System? Do you adequately protect confidential information about your students and your employees? Do you know if your district has had a data breach? When a breach compromises staff or student data, it can devastate the life of the victim for years to come. The effects of a Social Security number being stolen can have lasting consequences. There are some that will use an unauthorized SSN to get a job, and some who will use it to assume the identity of another... New Law Requires Internet Safety Training On October 10, the Broadband Data Improvement Act was signed, requiring school districts that receive federal e-rate funds to provide Internet safety training to students. School districts will now be required to "educate minors about appropriate online behavior, including interacting with other individuals on social networking websites and in chat rooms and cyberbullying awareness and response." This requirement will be added to the certification districts sign when they file their e-rate 486 forms in the spring... Is Technology a Part of Your Facilities Master Plan? Most school districts create a facilities master plan to address construction of new schools, and modernization of old schools. These plans often include technology wiring infrastructure – but the plan should include much more. Technology is changing the way America works and relaxes. The changes need to be reflected in the infrastructure designed for schools – and this is often where school districts fall behind... Smart Classrooms: Technology is Easy to Acquire, But Needs Planning to Implement Fifteen years ago, schools and universities began creating "smart classrooms" – model learning spaces that provided all of the technology tools available at the school. These classrooms were exciting, but changed instruction only minimally because the room had to be reserved, and was not the "regular" classroom in which most instruction took place. Cost of the early smart classrooms was one of the reasons these classrooms were scarce. Today, many schools are integrating the ideas pioneered in the early smart classrooms... The Inter-dependence of Special Education and Transportation: Why not Collaborate? Did you know that there is no state or federal requirement for busing students to and from school – except for some Special Education students? Transportation is considered a "related service" to Special Education, yet most districts fail to develop and insist on a real collaboration between their Special Education and Transportation divisions. Here's what we know... Providing Tech Support with Fewer Techs Every tech director I meet can tell a story about budget cuts in their department – and many are worried about further cuts. These tech directors are worried by this trend, because each year the responsibilities of the technology support department get larger, while the staff numbers stay the same or get smaller. Every director wants teachers, students and office staff to be able to fully use the systems, software and hardware... Have You Measured the Effectiveness of Your Local Wellness Policy? The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 required that all local education agencies or school districts that participate in the National School Lunch and/or School Breakfast Program develop a local wellness policy to promote the health of students and addresses the growing problem of childhood obesity. These policies were required for all LEA’s, regardless of size, as of July 1, 2007. A local wellness policy must include, at minimum... Are You Ready for Online Classes? The past ten years have seen online classes for adults increase dramatically, growing from a few technology classes or limited graduate school lessons to a broad array of routinely offered classes, covering many different subjects. Online classes have also become a common learning tool for professional development in the work place and in many industries, with the goal of meeting professional growth requirements... Technology Partnerships that Work: a real-life example As a former Director of Technology in multiple districts, I know how hard it is to balance the day to day tech emergencies with long-term technology planning. In most cases, the long-term planning is postponed for a “quieter” day and meetings with vendors are pushed to the back burner. This practice may hinder possible partnerships that will have long-lasting benefits for the district. In Fresno Unified School District, Kurt Madden, chief technology officer, took the time to create partnerships... Student Information System Selection Many school districts in California face the challenge of selecting a new student information system. Pearson School Systems has announced product support will end on August 1, 2010 for the SASI student information system. According to Pearson, SASI is used by 16,000 schools nationwide. These districts are being offered a free license to another Pearson student information system called PowerSchool. School districts with SASI will need to decide which student information system best fits their needs. Selection and implementation of a new system... Health And Safety - Schools, Staff Is your school district meeting the regulatory requirements for protecting the health and safety of your school district faculty, staff and students? Do your personnel know what to do in the event of a workplace injury? Will your school sites know what to do if an OSHA complaint is made regarding an unsafe workplace condition? Did you know that every California employer, including public school districts, must establish, implement and maintain a written Injury and Illness Prevention (IIP) Program... |
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