Healthy Kids

Some of you may have heard about the Healthy Kids Act. It is a federal piece of legislation that has forced quite a bit of change on schools in the past couple of years. This year full implementation of this act must be in place. While I do not believe that anyone will disagree with the idea that we need to do what we can to help children lead healthy lives, there is some interesting debate about this legislation. Some of you will find some of the changes we have to make going to far. Others will understand why it is being done.

Senator Tom Harkin has been a leader in the development and passage of these new laws. I remember a few years ago that money was made available to qualifying schools to put fresh fruit and vegetables in front of students for snacks during the school day. At Indianola High School, there were boxes of apples in the hallways for students to pick up and eat on the way to class. At Creston Elementary, students received carrots, celery, broccoli, and cauliflower with ranch dip in the afternoon. The Senator had a lot to do with this, but interestingly, I don’t hear about this much any more.

Now that the act is to be fully implemented, a number of noticeable changes will be in place this year. No carbonated beverages can be sold during the school day. No candy or other restricted items can be sold during the school day as a fundraiser, which includes some of the bake sales groups have had. No pizza parties during the school day. I know that there will be disagreement on a number of the things that we are required to do, and honestly, I’m not sure I agree with all of them. However, it is law and we will input the changes with integrity. The one thing about this that truly bothers me is that while we are required to make all of these changes because of the high levels of childhood obesity in our country, we seem to be the only ones required by law to do so. This is certainly a scary health problem. But I do not believe for a minute that the diets and levels of exercise will change outside the school. In my opinion, there needs to be a much bigger attitude shift in our country. Since schools receive public funds, it is easy for our government to invoke rules on us, and at the same time, nearly impossible to do the same thing in the private sector. And, we are charged with education, and thus it does make sense that we have a role in this effort. However, as long as they give out toys in kid’s meals that are limited in their nutritional value, are we fighting a losing battle? Are there other sectors that can help fight the battle?

We live in a land of plenty and in many respects we have become out own worst enemy when it comes to our health. Too often we do not thing about the consequences of our sedentary lifestyle, yet expect medicine to take care of problems that we have imposed on ourselves. Thinking all of this through, perhaps this is a good first step, but I honestly believe that we are going to need more Jessie Oliver’s to take on this food revolution if we are going to make a difference.

A New School Day

The day at the high school will start a little earlier this year. First period will begin at 8:15 a.m. That is seven minutes earlier than in years past. Our day will finish at 3:20 p.m. Make sure to set your alarm clocks accordingly!

Not only has the start and end times changed, but what happens in the middle has changed as well. We actually have two different schedules. The A and B Day stays, but we will have a different look on Tuesdays and Thursdays. First off, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday have a standard eight period day. The length of the class periods is longer than in the past at 48 minutes. However, on Tuesday and Thursdays, we will have an advisory period for twenty minutes between second and third period.

In light of these changes, we have an additional 44 minutes a week of instruction time. You can never have too much of that!

Registration and Class Schedules

Registration for the upcoming school year takes place next week. The process has not changed much from previous years. There are a few things that we want to draw your attention to before you come in. First of all, many students have already checked out their class schedule through Infinite Campus. If you have not already done that, we encourage you to do so. However, you do need to know that the schedule is not final! Mr. Clark is still making adjustments to balance classes and resolve conflicts. So, what you see today may actually be different tomorrow. It is also important to remember that while we make every effort to meet the requests of each student, it is impossible to do so. Putting a master schedule together is similar to assembling a jigsaw puzzle, but in this case, we often have to go with what creates the fewest conflicts, acknowledging that some students will not get all of the courses they want. This is why we asked students to list alternate choices when they selected classes in the spring. If you check your schedule prior to coming in to register and would like to go over your schedule with Mr. Clark, he will be available.

I also want to mention that we will have activity tickets for sale at registration. I am not sure that people truly understand the cost savings that exists when one purchases a ticket for a student. The Board of Education dropped the price to $30.00 for a ticket that will admit students to all high school and middle school activities except for the play and state sponsored events. With student admission set at $5.00 for football games and $4.00 for other athletic events, by attending five home football games and one volleyball game, you have basically paid for the ticket with many more events ahead! We strongly encourage parents to purchase the tickets as they are the most affordable way for your child to attend events at North Fayette.

Early bird opportunities are once again available to order yearbooks. Students will be on hand to take orders for this coming years book. I got a peak at the 2010 book that just arrived and I am sure that everyone will be impressed by the full-color edition. There are a lot of great photos that capture the essence of the 2009-2010 school year.

You will very quickly get a sense of the changes that are going on in our building once you enter the main doors. At the current time, quite a bit has been torn up and soon things will be put back together. It looks like it will go right down to the wire as far as the high school office being ready for the start of school, and the central office will be finished some time after that. However, ready or not, we will be ready to go when students arrive on August 18! Bob Heins has told me stories of what it was like years ago when he worked on the construction of the building and it was not finished when school started. Block and plank "lockers" and classrooms that had to be emptied at night so they could pour concrete! Wow!

I will be in the building on Monday and Tuesday during registration and invite you to stop in my office to discuss any matter that is on your mind, whether it has to do with school or not! Tuesday evening I leave for our state administrator convention in Des Moines and will be attending sessions Wednesday and Thursday. This is always a good event as SAI brings in a number of strong presenters in the field of education, and it is nice to see friends that I have made throughout my career as a teacher and administrator.

It’s Summertime!

Note: I started this on June 1 and did not get back to it until nine days later. That would explain a few things with this article!

One more day of school for the students, and another for the staff and then it is officially summer! It has been a very good school year from my perspective and while I still have a lot to get done before I can take a few days to get away, I have enjoyed working with the staff and students. So much has happened that I am not going to go through the year month-by-month, or event-by-event. But there are a couple of things I want to mention.

John Rothlisberger is a wonderful man and has done a very good job moving our district through a difficult decision-making process. It is important for people to understand that in tough times it takes people that are willing to make tough decisions to do what is in the long-term best interest of a group, or in our case, a school district. I respect John R. as an administrator and a human being. I am thankful that I had the chance to work with him. He has restored my faith in educational leaders!

I must admit that I am at least a bit anxious about the middle school in the fall. You are most likely not aware that both Kathy Bauer and I have worked with middle school teachers to put a structure in place for next year. There is a lot to do, but I am confident that when the doors open for students in August, we will be ready. I just need to work on convincing myself of that! The primary reason for my faith that this will happen is because of the great group of teachers that will be in place at the building in Fayette. They are true pro’s and I have no doubt that as we work the kinks out, your children and mine will receive as good of an education as one can find in this part of Iowa!

The staff and students have been outstanding this year at North Fayette High School. I know that with staff cuts at the end of the year, it made for a tough situation for some. In spite of that, I was impressed with how the teachers kept the focus on student learning and that the students kept after it as well. Throughout the year I was made to feel welcome and I hope I had as positive of impression on the people in the building as they had on me.

It’s been a great year to be a Hawk! I look forward to seeing everyone again in the fall!

Note: I may include a few entries in the blog this summer and will definitely return in August. My hope is to improve upon this year and provide interesting and relevant things for you all to ponder!

A Great End To The Year

I have spent a little time reflecting as graduation is about twenty-four hours away on a couple of recent events that have taken place. The funny thing about it is that they are actually two of my least favorite events/activities associated with being a high school principal. Before you read any further, I would ask that no one takes offense and remember that what I have to say is my opinion (though I know it is shared by a number of other high school principals through conversations we have every year!). Prom and Awards Night. Just mention of those words tend to bring sighs and grimaces to the faces of high school principals. Read on and I will tell you why, and also share how this year my stance has somewhat softened.

Prom is a four-letter word, lumped in with all of those other negative four-letter words. Prom reeks of excess, over-indulgence, misplaced values, and cheesiness reinforced by 1980’s teen movies. I have never liked prom, even as student, yet I have been to at least 16 of them over the years! The amount of money that is spent is way out of whack. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t see a problem with kids getting all gussied up and having that kind of an opportunity, but when one looks at the cost, it is ridiculous! And, try to get 16- or 17-year-old girls to focus on anything other than dress styles, hair decisions, and size of heels after the end of February! And boy, I don’t even want to get into what is going on in the minds of the boys!

Awards Night has traditionally been that evening for me that has equal parts happiness and hard feelings. For every student that receives a major award, there are two or three that believe they were slighted. Adults in the audience keep a scorecard updated with number of wins and total dollars. Certain kids don’t show up because they do not think that they are going to get anything, or worse yet, because they don’t care. Understand that these are general observations and not necessarily indicative of any one experience. However, more often than not, I have seen things like this happens and at least from my standpoint, it taints what should otherwise be an evening that celebrates the efforts of a group of students that are grouped together as a class.

I will not say that I have changed my mind completely, but after experiencing both events for the first time at North Fayette, I have tempered my opinions and in some respects, I see hope! Or at least, I feel that there is some perspective. Starting with Prom, for the past twelve years, I have often wondered whom Prom is really for: the students or the moms. Seriously! It has seemed that a lot of moms have been more engaged than the daughters, and for the last nine years, parents were constantly hovering -- some years even watching kids eat! – during an evening that was originally considered a coming out for high school students. People spent more time talking about what so-and-so’s dress cost than they did taking joy in the often overlooked young lady who dressed up so beautifully. But I saw little of that here. More important, I saw a lot of kids having a lot of fun, which is what it is all about. They truly seemed to enjoy each other’s company and were absolutely no trouble at all! The faculty gave the kids some space and was treated respectfully in return. It was refreshing! I still have a problem with sophomores and 9^th graders attending, but that is for another day! It was a very enjoyable evening and a wonderful process to be part of this year.

Awards night was incredible! Yes, there were a few pencils working out there tallying up numbers, and I am sure that there were some questions as to why someone won a particular award and someone else did not. But, the outpouring of support from the community through Dollars for Scholars is most likely unequalled for a school this size. Support was spread throughout the class, but when I watched the students go up and accept, in most instances I thought that folks got it right. You know, the kids that work hard and achieve should be awarded for their efforts and excellence. We don’t give everyone a gold medal regardless of where they finish a race on the track, nor should anyone expect something different when honoring those for what they do in the classroom.

The end of the school year is by nature stressful, but I am enjoying the last few weeks of the 2009-2010 here at North Fayette. Give me a few months to recharge my batteries this summer and we’ll be ready to get going again in August.

Does Anyone Else Think The Way I Do?

From time to time I tend to have rambling thoughts and questions that I ponder. I don’t know if other people ever consider some of the same things, and if so, perhaps someone can provide answers to some of these questions. So, from a mind that wanders, here are some of those thoughts that run through my mind.

Is there are good reason that in youth sports today kids play 45 softball games a season, play seven volleyball matches in a day, or wrestle a 100 matches throughout the year other than for their parents to be able to say that they played that many games? Or because parents pay so much money into these programs that they believe they have to get a return on their investment?

Whatever happened to politicians being public servants that take their turn rather than making a career out of holding office and seeking ways that are in their best interest to stay in power at the expense of those who elected them? Our government comes to a virtual stop because these folks need to campaign to get re-elected, and with the fact that campaigns start earlier and earlier, do they ever just govern?

When an Iowa State fan claims they cheer for Iowa except when they play the Cyclones, or when an Iowa fan claims they cheer for Iowa State except when they play the Hawks, are they truly a fan of their team? In my opinion, a true Cyclone never cheers for the Hawkeyes and vice versa.

No offense to any particular schools, but I am now aware of two schools that refer to their girl’s athletic team as Lady Pirates. Does this sound right? Aren’t lady pirates wenches? From an English teacher perspective wouldn’t ‘lady pirate’ be an oxymoron? I never liked the sound of it. Can’t they just be Pirates?

A question was posed in one of the classes I observed lately in regard to the existence of a double standard between males and females in our country. The students certainly agree that it does exist though there was a significant difference of opinion on the extent of the standard. What bothers me a great deal, especially being the father of a teenage daughter, is how so few girls recognize that at the root of the double standard is power. Why do so many young ladies, and for that matter so many women, give up their power to a male?

Is it safe to say that American patriotism really got it’s biggest shot in the arm as a result of the Miracle on Ice at the 1980 Olympics when the U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! chant first appeared? Did that victory over the Soviet Union lead to the eventual failure of the communist regime? Would a victory this year have toppled Canada?

Do I understand correctly that our representatives in Washington, specifically an ethics panel, have said that it is okay to steer special projects toward their financial contributors? So by today’s standard it is ethical to give government contracts to people that throw you a big sum of money to help get you elected. Wow! In my mind, that sure sounds like “bribery!” Ethics sure have changed!

A recent item in the newspaper shared theses results from ten years of research: students with high quality teachers learn more than those who do not have high quality teachers. No kidding! Another instance where we spend millions of dollars researching common sense!

We Need More School

About seven years ago, I went through a transformation in regard to my opinion about year-round school. From the time that I first understood the school calendar, summers had always been sacred to me. Certainly as a kid, I valued time off from school and all that went with the summer, swimming, baseball, picnics, vacation, time at grandparents. As a teacher, I saw summer as an opportunity to do two things: supplement my income and continue my education. I pursued both with zeal every summer of my teaching career. Once I became a principal, I also became a parent. Summer gave me a chance to finish those things up that I couldn’t get to during the school year, as well as to spend time with my kids. We have had some great vacations to wonderful places, as well as spent a lot of time watching ball games and other things our children have been involved in. But as I stated at the outset, my opinion has changed.

One reason that I have changed my mind has nothing to do with school. It is more from the perspective of what has changed in the American family. When I was in school, my mom was home every day in the summer and my dad had a work schedule where he was flexible enough to get to ball games in the evening. Each day we had work to do or 4-H projects to work on in the morning, and usually we hit the pool in the afternoon, at least until I was in high school and worked for area farmers. Today, many of our students are with a babysitter, or home alone. Some high school kids work, and perhaps here there are more that have the opportunity for some good, full-time summer jobs, but many do not. I was fortunate because I had a lot of quality family time in the summer, but times have changed. And due in part to that, I think that a lot of our students would be better served to be in school.

The other major “whys” are numerous. We need more time to teach students what they need to know. Looking at those that come into school, they are not as well equipped as they once were due to changes in the family structure. But once we get them, the expectations are much greater than they were when we were in school. What educators are being asked to teach, and what students are expected to be able to do when they graduate, is so much more than it was just fifteen years ago it is hard to comprehend. To be competitive in the global economy, our kids need to have a more solid foundation of content knowledge and skill development. In addition, we need to have a more serious approach to school. There was a time when that was not an issue, but today the value of an education has diminished in the eyes of many. If we are not careful, the America of the future will include an underclass similar to what we see in some of those overpopulated countries on television. Imagine the level of poverty seen in Mexico City and Mumbai!

So what if the powers-that-be made the decision to go in that direction? What is the fall out? A good friend of mine lives in Highlands Ranch, Colorado and when his boys were in middle school and elementary, one attended a school with a traditional schedule and the other went to a year-round school. His comment to me was that it just takes organization and scheduling. Both boys had some time off in the summer, so that is when they took vacation. Both boys had some time off in the winter, and they vacationed again! They did not see an issue with family time with one of their sons having going year-round that could not be overcome. And because some of the breaks were staggered for the boys, they got to spend some quality one-to-one time with each of them that was not possible before. I guess it’s one of those glass-half-full situations if you choose to have that perspective.

If at some point we go year-round, we need more school, not just spread the year out. My proposal would be 200 days for students and fifteen to twenty days of training for teachers. No early outs or late starts for professional development. That would all be taken care of with those 15 to 20 days of mandatory professional development for teachers. Let’s have more time for kids and more time for teachers to learn how to improve their craft. A consistent criticism of teachers is that they get the summer off. Okay, make them 12-month employees like everyone else and take that criticism away. But, make certain to compensate them accordingly and include adequate time for this to continue their growth through new learning. Great idea? It is not original! I stole it! But, it is an idea whose time has come.

Yes there are obstacles and conflicts that will have to be resolved. Being an old 4-H’er, I often wonder about how county fair will be possible if the kids are in school? Well, we may need to move fair dates to fit into a break. Or, perhaps activities involving school age kids will be in the evenings. Or maybe the fair becomes an educational activity that partners with the school in some capacity. While I may not have all of the answers, give me enough time and I will find them!

What I know is that the world has changed. We have to change to better prepare our kids for that world. We also need to drop some of the “protectionist” beliefs we have and the denial that exists. Folks, it ain’t going back to the way it used to be! The world is going to have an impact on the students that live in our communities. If they are to have any hope of living at the same standard of living you and I enjoy, we must look at change. Let’s start with more school!