February 12, 2015

          

  The Supt Dish                                      February 12, 2016

Over the last two days, Mrs. Helmer, Mrs. Huber, Mrs. Gohmert and I had the honor of attending a leadership conference at Whataburger headquarters in San Antonio. This was the last of a three part series we have attended. Whataburger has never shared any information before with any group, thus we were honored they chose Texas school administrators inside their headquarters.

Chairman Tom Dobson, son of founder Harmon Dobson, welcomed us and gave us a brief history of the company. Preston Atkinson, president of Whataburger, followed Mr. Dobson and had all of us dancing in the aisles! Both Mr. Dobson and Mr. Atkinson shared their philosophy to be successful. Here are just a few things to keep in mind:

Chairman Tom Dobson:

• 1.     Listen before you talk – listening skills seem to be a lost art. We must listen to our employees and our customers.
• 2.      Passion – we must have a passion for what we are doing.
• 3.    Be truthful/Integrity – we must be truthful in everything we do and conduct ourselves with the utmost integrity.

When asked what skills Whataburger needed in prospective employees, Mr. Atkinson shared this:

• 1.    Must be willing to work – work ethic is very important. When hiring high school students, students must assume responsibility to be on time and be a team member of the organization.
• 2.    Have a willingess to serve – servant leadership. We must be willing to do  whatever it takes to have a happy customer.
• 3.    Be willing to learn – learning is a lifelong trait. About 75% of Whataburger leaders are developed from within the company. Mr. Atkinson concluded his speech that Whataburger wants to be “a handoff from what educators do for students to what they can add.”

These are all things that we can apply in our lives and in the lives of our students. We left Whataburger refreshed with strategies that we can use in making Goliad ISD more successful.  Several strategies will be used as we embark on developing a Strategic Plan soon. We will unveil one item our team developed during our luncheon in celebrating Public Schools Week.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

February 5th

The Supt Dish                                     February 5, 2016

 

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of meeting with our new commissioner of the Texas Education Agency, Mike Morath. As I mentioned in my first Supt. Dish of 2016, Mr. Morath has a background in business and is a former school board member of Dallas ISD. Commissioner Morath spent over two hours yesterday at ESC 3 seeking input from superintendents with possible changes to our accountability system, specifically Index 4. It was refreshing to all to have the commissioner ask educators their opinions in changes with a new accountability framework.

There will possibly be up to five changes with Index 4 in the near future. These include 1) include attendance rate for elementary; 2) Include Special Education exit rates in which one superintendent mentioned to change to RTI exits; 3) English Language Learners (ELL) exit rate; 4) Climate/Student Surveys (student perception survey with questions such as “do you feel encouraged to ask questions in class”); and 5) extra-curricular engagement (at Dallas ISD Mr. Morath stated the goal was to have 100% of students involved in some type of extra-curricular activity).

Starting this fall, school districts will see an additional category in the accountability framework, Index 5. This index will stress the importance of community and parent engagement. There are six ways to rate community engagement:  Fine arts, Wellness & PE, Community & Parent Involvement, 21^st Century Workforce Development, Second Language Acquisition, Digital Learning Environments, Dropout Prevention Strategies, and Education Programs for G/T students.

School districts will pick three categories and self-report their progress to TEA at the end of the school year. It was just a way to remain accountable, but that self-report will comprise 10 percent of a district’s score starting next fall.  

Accompanying the commissioner was associate commissioner Sally Partridge. I have known Ms. Partridge for a few years and had the honor of co-presenting with her last fall at a convention on school turn-around. Ms. Partridge is moving in to a new role with TEA, as the agency wants to be more of a service entity while still maintaining the compliance department. She will be the liaison between the agency and service centers. Ms. Partridge is a great choice for this position and will be an asset to open communication between school districts, service centers and the agency.

February 17 is Digital Learning Day. How will you go digital that day? You can learn more about digital learning day at www.digitallearningday.org. Share your favorite digital classroom tools and resources and you could win an Apple watch!

Associate Commissioner Sally Partridge and Commissioner Mike Morath