From the Superintendent's Desk - September 21, 2012
I started my week meeting with ten super dedicated CCSD employees at the first monthly Superintendent’s Breakfast of the 2012-2013 school year. These employees are nominated by their peers for their outstanding work and commitment to CCSD and our students. The best part of the breakfast is that I get to hear directly from them about their work, and how they are contributing to the district’s ongoing progress.
I want to thank Karl Clark (School of the Arts), LaDene’ Conroy (District 10 office), Roy Deloney (Facilities and Emergency Preparedness), Winston Gardner (Moultrie Middle), Camellia Harris (CE Williams), Annette Nelson (Dept. of Exceptional Children), Thelma Johnson (Maintenance Dept), Lara Latto (Harbor View), Virginia McCummings (Strategy and Communications), and Jeremy Tunstill (Nutrition and Food Services).
Speaking of staff recognitions, this week, we also kicked-off our Teacher of the Month program. Last year, we honored eight CCSD teachers who exemplified excellence in the classroom. It truly inspires me to meet these special teachers -- to see at first-hand how engaged their students are -- and hear directly from their principals about the difference they are making. I look forward to this year’s TOM program, and I encourage YOU to nominate a teacher.
Recognizing and regularly checking in with our talented teachers is very important
to me. On Monday evening, we had over 90% of our schools represented at the monthly
Teacher Roundtable meeting. This is a chance for me to listen to our teachers and
share with them my thoughts on the district and our progress. I look forward to these
meetings each month.
On Thursday, we held our first Charleston Achieving Excellence: Vision 2016 Community Advisory group meeting. The community and business partners that belong to this group are committed to improving public education in Charleston, and they provide me with invaluable feedback that I share with senior leaders, as well as our principals and teachers. It is a great chance for me to hear from folks outside the district about issues that are important to them. We shared with them the progress we made towards our Vision 2016 goals. From 2011 to 2012, we saw improvements in the percentage of students scoring met or exemplary on the PASS in third grade math, third grade ELA, and eighth grade ELA.
We also updated them on the primary and middle school literacy academies, the rigorous interview process we implemented for the first time this year, value added evaluations for principals and central office staff, and our PALMS (Personal Achievement Learning Management System). The meeting concluded with us asking them for feedback on the use of a data dashboard that will chart the progress that our district and each of our schools are making.
A critical part of our Vision 2016 strategy is partnerships. The Trident United Way is a long time partner with the district, and directly supports our students and teachers. If you have contributed, please remember to wear khakis/blue jeans and a green shirt next Friday, September 28, the last day of CCSD’s fund-raising campaign. I am looking forward to seeing the final results, and I hope we can meet our goal of $125,000!
And finally, our district has been utilizing social media, in particular Facebook and Twitter to communicate with parents and the public for over two years now. Our Facebook page has well over 2,700 fans, and our twitter page is growing each week. I also have a personal Twitter page and have been tweeting regularly over the past few months. If you would like to stay connected with me, simply send a message to 40404 and type "follow ccsdsupt."
Until next week, have a great weekend.
Thank you,
-Dr. Nancy J. McGinley
