The New
Millennium--Some New Beginnings, Some New Opportunities
by Dr. Gaylord Tryon, SAI Executive Director
May the year 2000 be good for you; may
the new year be good for K-12 education in Iowa; may the new year
be good for SAI!
I am looking forward to the year 2000 with great anticipation
because I think this next year holds a lot of promise.
The legislature will reconvene on January 10, 2000. They will
have a lot on their agenda as always. In particular though, we
will be watching very closely what they will do with school funding
(including allowable growth, budget guarantees, on-time funding,
supplementary weighting, reducing class size, special education,
and infrastructure just to name a few), re-instituting funding
incentives for shared programs, and making some badly needed improvements
in our state retirement system (e.g., reverting back to a three-year
final average salary, enhancing the death benefit, and making
the system more flexible in terms of allowing/encouraging individuals
to work longer [and get credit accordingly] and allowing/encouraging
retired individuals to come back to work).
On April 13, 2000, we will be hosting our annual spring workshop
for school superintendents. This year's workshop will have a different
and interesting twist in that we will be partnering with the Iowa
Chapter of the American Institute of Architects in planning and
presenting this meeting. The general focus will be on "Design
for Education." Possible topics will include the effects
of the environment on learning, accommodating technology, constructing/remodeling
for flexibility in use, rehabilitation of older buildings, passing
bond issues, selecting and working with architects, energy management,
designing for school safety, community use of buildings, etc.
SAI staff and members of the workshop planning committee are currently
working with representatives of the AIA in developing the details
of this meeting.
Planning is well underway for the August 9-10, 2000, Annual All-Iowa
School Administrators Conference (our 25th annual conference!).
We are pleased to announce that we already have our two keynote
speakers under contract:
- M. B. "Flip" Flippen speaking on the topic of Providing
Leadership Solutions for Schools;
- Ray Golarz speaking on the topic of The Wit and Wisdom of School
Improvement.
A new focus that we are planning for this conference is the addition
of several more "distinguished lecturer" sessions-both
on Wednesday and Thursday. Another change for 2000 is that SAI
will be planning and hosting the annual Action Lab for New School
Administrators. We will host this session at the Polk County Convention
Complex. We will start this workshop on Tuesday, August 8 and
continue it on August 9-10 by incorporating several strands as
a part of our annual conference.
SAI membership is now at 1953 Regular members (compared to 1866
on the same date as last year), 45 Associate members, 32 Aspiring
Administrator members, and 9 Corporate members. Our total Regular
membership count for last year was 1935 (which was a record year!).
Since we are already at 1953 Regular members for the current fiscal
year, we have established a new record and still have a month
or so left in this year's membership drive. Wow! School administrators
in this state really support their professional association.
In April 2000, the membership will select a secondary principal
to serve as Vice-President, School Administrators of Iowa (effective
September 1, 2000). As of this writing, seven secondary principal
members have submitted letters indicating they want to run for
this office. The names of these individuals will be released after
December 31, 1999-the deadline to submit letters of interest.
Of the seven candidates, four are high school principals, two
are junior high school principals, and one individual is an associate
middle level principal. I think it speaks well for SAI, and for
the membership, that we have this many people who want to serve
as a state officer and who want to lead SAI into the next millennium.
Sometime during the summer months of 2000, SAI will be hosting
a groundbreaking ceremony to begin construction on our new office
facilities. The scheduled completion date will be May of 2001.
This will be a giant step forward for SAI in that we will own
our own office facilities, establish a permanent residence, and
be investing in our own future as a professional association.
Because this will literally be an investment in the future of
SAI, members will be given an opportunity to help with this investment
by contributing to the building fund and be recognized accordingly.
Any individual (or group of individuals-e.g., local administrator
organizations) who makes a contribution will be recognized with
an inscribed brick placed in the wall leading into the main entrance.
This is a meaningful and lasting way for members to contribute
to the future of the School Administrators of Iowa. Contributors
will be recognized as follows:
- For each contribution of $100, one brick (4"x 8")
inscribed with the contributor's name will be placed in the entrance
wall leading into the new office.
- For each contribution of $500, a brick will be placed in the
outer office wall of the main lobby.
- For each contribution of $1000, a brick will be placed around
the prestigious SAI logo that will be placed above the time capsule
that will be located in the outer office.
Flyers will be mailed to all members in a month or so denoting
more details of this investment opportunity.
Thanks to the efforts of a lot of people, and great involvement/support
by our membership, SAI has come a long way since the organization
was first founded on September 1, 1987. We have a lot going for
us but much remains to be done.
January 1 is the start of a new year. Y2K is the start of a new
millennium. As I look ahead, I see some continued challenges,
but I can also see some new beginnings and certainly some new
opportunities. We have a lot to look forward to.
SAI is ready for the next millennium. Bring it on!
Top
Terrorism,
Assault and Free Speech
by Kathy Lee Collins, J.D., SAI Director of Legal Services
Anyone who had a student come to school in the wake of the
Littleton, Colorado, tragedy ("Columbine") dressed in
a long black trench coat, or wearing white-face makeup, or uttering
threatening remarks, please raise your hand.
I thought so. (In the memorable words of Betty Lou McVey staring
through her House with the Magic Window, "I see Angel, and
Dennis, and Tom, and Mark. There's Bruce! And Larry, Jan, Joan,
Charlene, Dick, Sam, and Mike. You, too, Chris?")
Well, you get the point. All of you keep your hands up. Only put
them down if you shrugged off the student's attire, behavior,
or remarks as "DPJ" (darn poor judgment) but didn't
discipline him/her.
No arms going down? No surprise there.
Now read this:
Third Grader Suspended Over Fortune Cookie Message
Hudson, OH. At a school board hearing [on June 14], the ACLU of
Ohio will defend a Hudson third-grader who was suspended from
school after penning an allegedly threatening message in a fortune
cookie for a school assignment. Nine year-old Karl Bauman, who
enjoys martial arts videos, submitted "you will die an honorable
death" as his contribution to the class project. He was suspended
for two days in connection with the incident, which took place
on April 30th.
According to ACLU of Ohio Legal Director Raymond Vasvari, Bauman's
suspension is one of the most extreme cases of student discipline
reported to the ACLU since the school shootings in Littleton,
CO., in April... "This case is almost unique. Here the so-called
threat is nothing of the sort. No reasonable person could consider
this message to be anything more than it is: the innocent, if
unknowing, expression of a seemingly noble sentiment by an innocent
young boy." ..."Karl Bauman is a victim of the unfortunate
rush to squelch student speech after the Columbine shootings,"
said Vasvari. "He threatened no one. Death is a fact of life.
If merely mentioning death in school can be considered a threat,
then we have truly lost our way."
I don't know about you, but whenever I read those newspaper accounts,
I feel sorry and embarrassed for the administrator who made the
decision that the whole world now sees as stupid or way out of
proportion. I realize, however, that there are two sides to every
story, and it would be nice to hear what the school's view was
of this incident. But on its face it appears to be a misreading
or misinterpretation of what the kid wrote. I don't think there's
a threat there. Plus, it is the kind of thing one might read in
a fortune cookie, which was, after all, the assignment.
What would you do with this one?
Your English teacher brings in a student's paper. The class's
assignment was to do a "progressive story" where one
student starts a story and then passes it on to other students
to add to and finish. The starter student, "Douglas,"
was being disruptive and off-task, so the teacher, whom the student
calls "Mrs. C.," sent Douglas into the hall to get the
story started. At the end of the period he handed in the following:
There one lived an old ugly woman her name was Mrs. C. that
stood for crab. She was a mean old woman that would beat children
sencless. I guess that's why she became a teacher.
Well one day she kick a student out of her class & he din't
like it. That student was naned Dick.
The next morning Dick came to class & in his coat he conseled
a machedy. When the teacher told him to shut up he whiped it out
& cut her head off.
When the sub came two days later she needed a paperclipp so
she opened the droor. Ahh she screamed as she found Mrs. C's head
in the droor.
Although the student apologized and said he didn't intend any
harm nor did he mean his story to be a threat to his teacher,
the paper was turned over to law enforcement and a delinquency
petition was filed against Douglas based on an alleged violation
of the state law banning "disorderly conduct." The Wisconsin
Court of Appeals reviewed and decided this case in mid-December.
They upheld the delinquency adjudication over a free speech defense.
Just to remind you: According to the United States Supreme Court,
despite the language of the First Amendment, freedom of speech
is not absolute. In fact, the Court has, over the years, defined
five or six categories of speech that they say is "unprotected."
If someone engages in this type of speech, s/he cannot successfully
seek assistance from the courts. Those categories are obscene
speech, libel or slander (defamation), "fighting words"
or "words likely to incite imminent lawless action,"
commercial speech (advertising), and "shouting fire in a
crowded theatre." Even if speech is protected, a student
can still be disciplined if the speech caused a "material
and substantial disruption to the orderly school environment or
interference with the rights of others." So sayeth the Supremes
in 1969 in Tinker v. Des Moines ICSD.
In this case, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals said that Doug's
words constituted a "true threat" to his teacher, Mrs.
C., and, declaring it to be unprotected speech, threw out his
appeal. Because the speech was unprotected, they never even got
to the analysis of whether it caused a material and substantial
disruption or interference with the rights of others (in the school
context) or caused "a clear and present danger" (in
a non-school context).
This is the first decided case I've found in the wake of Columbine.
(Unfortunately, the decision gave no clue as to when this incident
occurred.) Frankly, part of me is surprised at the result and
part of me isn't.
You know as well as I do what the two "camps" are saying
when we contemplate suspending or expelling a student for saying
or writing something unwise or wearing something unwise, particularly
right after one of the school tragedies. We're damned if we do
and damned if we don't. We're either "overreacting"
if we kick the kid out of school, or we're "threatening
the safety of every student and employee" if we don't kick
the kid out of school. We're either Nazis or Bleeding Heart Liberals.
This whole sad scenario reminds me of a case we had back at the
Department of Ed nine years ago. A student at South Clay wrote
a "death threat" addressed but never delivered to the
librarian/study hall supervisor with whom she had an ongoing personality
conflict, shall we say. The student, Starla Roach, was in computer
class and done with her regular assignment when she typed out
the following note then, unfortunately, hit "print."
Dear Marian Rogers,
I will be your worst nightmare. When you
wake up in the morning I will be there.
Your worse nightmares will be about me.
You look out of the window and I will be
there. If you keep up what you are doing
you will die. I don't kill people by stabbing
or shooting them. I torcher them. Like for
instance by breaking your legs blowing
up your car, your house, or even seeing
dead animals out in your yard and the
more bloodier they get the closer to your
death you get. I know that you know who
this is and if you say a word your house
will be on fire when your not home. Just
remember you mess with me and you
mess with the best.
signed your worst nightmare
When the Computer teacher picked up the note and gave it to the
principal, Starla got suspended then expelled by the board with
a recommendation for counseling prior to returning to school.
She appealed to the State Board of Education, who (reluctantly)
upheld her expulsion. As I recall, we cautioned schools not to
take everything too literally, that kids this age were fond of
what I call "Grade B slasher movies" and tend to write
this kind of drivel thinking it's entertainment.
My point is this: Having "zero tolerance" policies regarding
threats can land us on the front page of USA Today and
as the subject of Leno's barbs for several nights running. (Remember
when the kindergarten student was expelled for possession of a
pink squirt gun under a "zero tolerance" policy?) It's
far better to evaluate the circumstances of each occasion where
a "threat" was uttered or written. If it was delivered
to its intended "victim," and it would be reasonable
for that person to be in fear, then an assault has occurred (whether
or not the county attorney wants to file charges) and some form
of discipline would certainly be appropriate. But where a student,
perhaps frustrated, perhaps just not thinking, makes a statement
like "If you don't change my class schedule, I'm gonna kill
you!" (the "threat" made to a counselor in another
case a couple of years ago), let's stop and evaluate whether expulsion
is really necessary.
We also have to help kids understand that timing and circumstances
DO matter, and that what was acceptable on Monday, April 19 might
not be OK on Wednesday, April 21st. Just like back in 1972 it
ceased being OK to get on a plane and wave at the pilot saying,
"Hi, Jack!" You'd find yourself in federal prison posthaste.
So, whether the kids like it or not, time and place can change
something from being perceived as relatively annoying to life-threatening
and grounds for expulsion. "I don't care if you have owned
that black trench coat for three years, Jeremy; it was DPJ to
wear it to school the day after Columbine." "We ARE
going to take very seriously any words that sound like you're
ready to engage in The Great Get-Even, Sarah."
I was pretty sure the courts would support us if push came to
shove (or if free speech came to threat), but it's nice to see
a decision come down that way. I'm relieved that the Wisconsin
Court of Appeals didn't fall for that constitutional argument.
But at the same time I'm also concerned about what the administrator
in Hudson, Ohio, did with that third-grader's fortune cookie.
I guess there's no substitute for common sense, but it's nice
to know that the "powers that be" will probably support
our disciplinary decisions-if the appeals court's reaction is
typical.
Let us take into consideration all the circumstances and act with
common sense. And then let us pray to be right 100% of the time.
Amen.
Top
Republicans and Democrats: In
Their Own Words!
by Dr. Marcus Haack, SAI Associate Executive Director
During last month's Iowa Republican presidential debate an
interesting series of questions was posed to the presidential
wannabees. Specifically the candidates were asked whether they
supported selected "planks" of the Iowa Republican Party
platform. The exchange during the debate raised my curiosity.
Two major political events are occurring in Iowa in January: the
reconvening of the Iowa legislature and Iowa party caucuses on
January 24. Given that this is such an important month in Iowa
political life, I decided to look up the platforms and positions
of Iowa's Republican and Democratic parties to see how they compared
on educational issues. Without comment here are selected excerpts:
Republican Party of Iowa
(Source: www.iowagop.org)
Due to space limitations, the following is only a portion of the
education plank in the Republican platform. For complete information,
check out the Iowa GOP Web site.
- We believe quality, meaningful, rigorous education is essential
for maintaining our republican form of government, continuing
success of our free market economic system, ensuring future success
of individual students.
- We support the teaching of traditional American values in our
schools and colleges, such as honesty, integrity and respect for
proper authority, human life and dignity. We believe we must institute
high moral standards and rules of conduct in our schools, permit
the posting of the Ten Commandments, and allow access to the Bible.
- We support the teaching of patriotism, traditional American
and World history, systematic intensive phonics, the three R's,
hard work, and respect for elders and property.
- We support the idea of choice and competition through educational
vouchers and/or tuition tax credits to assist parents as they
exercise their rights of choosing public, private, or alternative
educational programs for their children.
- We believe that Creation, as stated in Genesis, and the science
of creation should be taught in all public schools equitably with
the theory of evolution.
- We believe that voluntary individual or group prayer in public
schools should be neither required nor prohibited and that access
to school facilities should apply equally to religious and nonreligious
groups.
- We support the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education
and the downsizing of the Iowa Department of Education.
- We oppose Goals 2000 and its progeny and Outcome Based Education.
We support the immediate expulsion of the Human Growth and Development
K-12 Sex Education Program from our schools.
- We recommend that schools stress abstinence outside of marriage
as the way to prevent unwanted pregnancy and the spread of sexually
transmitted diseases. We oppose the promotion of or referral for
abortions and the distribution of condoms or other birth control
by our schools as a solution to adolescent pregnancy.
-We believe that teacher salaries should be based on performance
rather than solely tenure. We support programs that reward superior
teachers with merit pay and provide firm procedures to remove
ineffective educators.
Iowa Democratic Party
(Source: www.iowademocrats.org)
The Democratic Party of Iowa does not have the full party platform
on its Web site. Instead it has the "Iowa Democratic Agenda:
Putting Working Families First." The only statement it makes
regarding education is the following:
"First and foremost, Democrats have a real plan to make Iowa
schools number one in the country again: reducing class size,
modernizing school facilities, increasing student discipline,
and making higher education more affordable for working families."
Governor Tom Vilsack
(Source: www.state.ia.us/government/governor)
At his recent budget hearings, Governor Vilsack outlined five
goals for education in Iowa, along with initiatives designed to
reach those goals.
- Early Childhood-Iowa will be a nationally recognized leader
in pre-kindergarten learning, emphasizing parents as their children's
first and best teachers: Community Empowerment, uniform school
readiness, child care services (higher quality, higher standards,
better connections to educators), empowerment standards/partnership
agreements, accreditation assistant training and learning resources
for providers.
- Connecting Schools and Communities-Schools will be well connected
with Iowans and their communities: School safety (fire/life safety
infrastructure needs, new construction), school liaison officers,
school safety audit, extended learning opportunities, Stories
2000-Literacy Communities and Enrich Iowa (improving public libraries).
- Increasing Student Achievement-Student achievement will rise
to a world leadership level and educators will be rewarded for
the results they have helped achieve: School foundation aid for
2000-01 set at 4%, class size/early intervention funding, supplementary
weighting for alternative high school students, 21st century learning
infrastructure and innovations, school-to-work, quality teachers
(Council for Continuous Improvement/Education Innovations Fund,
teacher induction programs) targeted forgivable loans and tax
credits for shortage areas, National Board Certification, performance
based educator preparation and licensure, IPERS changes to address
administrative shortages.
- Accountability-Iowans will know how well their schools and students
are performing: implementing mandatory reporting for all Iowa
school districts, employability skills assessment, continue implementing
mandatory reporting requirements with new K-12 accreditation rules.
- Opportunities-Opportunities to pursue postsecondary education
and needed workplace skills enhancement will be increased: Jobs
for American's Graduates (JAG), CORE Opportunity Grants, focus
incentives and support for students to learn and work in Iowa.
There you have it. You decide what best serves Iowa's children
and educators. Oh, and by the way, remember to participate in
the January 24th caucuses. Make your voice heard!
Top
Three Calls for Responses
by Dr. Elaine Smith-Bright, SAI Director of Professional Development
As we all know, collective thoughts are usually more powerful
than individual ideas when there is a problem to solve, a program
to design or a process or procedure to review. This time rather
than sharing my observations or facts about a topic, I'm asking
for your input on three items. Let's start with the program to
design:
In the November issue of the newsletter I filled you in on the
work of the School Leadership Initiative, which is the state-
appointed steering committee working on recommendations about
standards for administrators. The committee has now broken into
subcommittees to look at three components: what an administrator
should know, be able to do, and be like; what is the context of
the job (time demands, stress level, etc.); and how should the
standards be delivered. I'm on the subcommittee tackling the delivery
system.
Naturally, I believe acting administrators should play an expanded
role in the development of our aspiring administrators, but that
in itself presents some interesting challenges. Acting administrators
are already strapped for time assisting in the current college
driven internship programs. What would expanded requirements mean?
Who should be licensed to provide the classes that will allow
administrators to verify they have fulfilled the standards requirements?
Should an individual have to pass a competency test before they
are licensed to be a school administrator? Should there be an
alternative licensure process for those who do not seek an educational
administrative degree, but have other demonstrated leadership
skills? Should there be an oversight committee composed of all
the stakeholders to monitor that the standards are uniformly addressed?
What should be the requirements for current administrators concerning
the newly adopted standards? As you can see the questions could
go on and on!
If you have ever bantered about in your mind, "if I were
in charge this is the way administrators would be trained and
recertified (academy, internship, testing, etc.)" please
jot down a few lines of response. I will compile your thoughts
and share them with the committee (along with the recommendations
that were developed by an SAI study committee a couple of years
back). As they keep saying to us in the steering committee- "Dare
to think out of the box!"
Next let's look at a problem to solve. This fall we came to the
four corners of the state with legal labs focusing on written
documentation, evaluation, and termination, and with career labs
focused on IPERS and financial planning. Although everyone who
attended rated the information "top notch," we had low
registration at each site. Besides the obvious, which is the busy
schedule and often-unexpected demands of administrators, we're
wondering, Why? The dates and locations were established and
published at the August convention and the registration materials
went out right after the convention. All of these labs were held
in the fall. We would like to continue coming to your area, but
we also are very conscientious about the use of your membership
dollars. Was the timing right? Do we need more publicity on the
labs or better reminders? We want to continue regional offerings,
but we also want them to serve your needs and be cost effective.
Please let us know what you think.
Finally, a procedure to review. At one of our recent leadership
labs the statement or suggestion was made that we, SAI, should
be sure to use expertise and individuals outside the central Iowa
area to make presentations. We would love to and sincerely
try! For our major workshops we use a planning committee whose
members are from various parts of the state. We always ask them
for recommendations on persons to speak on the topics they have
suggested. Often they are not sure and neither are we, so the
search begins. The truth is we are a seven-person team here brainstorming,
pulling on our past experiences with educators, contacting AEAs
for names, etc.
So here is your chance! If there is a program or procedure in
your district or building that is working extremely well or if
you have expertise in an area, and would be willing to share it
with your colleagues, I will build a database that we can consult
when we are in the planning stages for labs and workshops. All
I need is a title, a few lines of description, a contact person,
and the name of the district. To respond to any or all of the
above you can mail them in, e-mail smith-bright@sai-iowa.org,
fax 515-224-3372, or voice mail 515-224-3387. Thank you for sharing
your time, suggestions, and creative thoughts. We do want to draw
on the expertise of all of our administrators, wherever they are
located.
"In the news today-a 14-year-old student committed suicide
by hanging after repeatedly being tormented and beaten by his
peers." An American public school administrator's nightmare?
No. This headline is from Japan.
Worldwide, public and private gathering places are having to deal
with situations of violence. It's quite possible that these acts
of violence have always occurred, but that the average person
wasn't aware of them. Now we have worldwide media which can quickly
report news items with the touch of a button. This is why it's
important to include a Media Crisis Plan with your school district's
crisis or emergency plan.
The following Media Crisis Plan development pointers were shared
at the 1999 National School Public Relations Association Conference
by Jim Cummings, APR, of the Phoenix Union High School District.
Even though Cummings is from an extremely large district, his
pointers apply to all schools, no matter how big or small:
- Choose a communication center. No matter how big or small
a crisis may be, designating an information hub is important.
Where is conference space for meetings with your staff? Where
is the fax machine? Where are the phones? Where is the copy machine?
Can these items be moved into one general area, if necessary?
- Choose a media briefing area. If possible, this should be
on the opposite side of campus as your communication center. It
should be easily accessible to the media, but not give the media
immediate and easy access to students.
- Have site maps of all school buildings marked with communications
center and media briefing area and distribute to all school staff.
- Meet and share your communication plan with emergency personnel.
Be sure communication responsibilities and expectations are known
by all who may be involved. How will the school and emergency
personnel exchange information? How can you be sure you have the
news before the media does?
- Figure out who is the spokesperson beforehand. You should
have one school district spokesperson. This will keep information
and relationships with reporters consistent.
- Plan backup communications. Have extra batteries for cell
phones and pagers. Have school building and district fact sheets
prepared. Know who the key communicators are in your district
who can help communicate to parents and community members. Carry
district directories and parent phone number lists in your car.
As you work to incorporate a media plan into your crisis plan,
there are two important objectives to keep in mind. The first
is to free up school personnel to do the most important job during
a crisis: take care of students. They can't take care of students
if they're worried about rumors or being bothered by the media.
The second main objective is to disseminate all pertinent school
information during the event as quickly and accurately as possible.
Update all those involved at least every hour. Debrief with people
on campus to see what communication is working and what is not
working, then adjust accordingly. Use the above pointers to help.
A crisis won't jeopardize your district's long-term reputation.
But the media aftermath can. Formulate your district's Media Crisis
Plan before there's something to talk about.