385-646-5000
2500 South State Street Salt Lake City UT 84115
F.A.Q.
Translate:

Granite School DistrictGranite School District logo

Granite School District > Superintendent's Office > Sup’s Blog > Employees

Employees

Superintendent Snapshot – FY 2011-2012 budget challenge overview

Hello all,

I know you’ve been involved with the budget process through school community councils and other avenues. As you may know, we had a special board meeting on the 24th – and will have another one on Tuesday, the 31st – as we’re building the budget. Here is a copy of last night’s PowerPoint presentation that I sent to you earlier this week and reference in the below snapshot. Board meeting May 24, 2011.

I think the Board is keenly aware of sacrifices you have made and continue to make. In fact, as we talked about changes to the health insurance plan over the last few years, board members rose to applaud the 100 or so employees who attended the meeting. Please attend on the 31st at 8pm if you can.

I encourage you to look at the presentation closely. In a very real way you are the most credible (and therefore the best) advocates of public education in general and certainly our district and schools.

Thanks for all you do and have a great weekend!

Martin

Question regarding facebook access

I had a teacher out at Whittier Elementary submit the following question:

“I really like your snapshot idea. My question is why are teachers denied access when we try to go on your facebook?
I like how involved you are and how you are trying to keep us informed about what is going on in the district.”

It is a great question. Our district social networking committee continues to study social networking opportunities to see what they provide in terms of enhanced learning. Earlier this year, they recommended to the superintendency that we open up youtube because of the potential value to the learning experience. Our district social networking policy states that teachers and other district employees are not to be “friends” with students on any social networking sites. However, it does allow social networking sites to be authorized for classroom use if a teacher submits a proposal to their supervisor that offers up educational value for their students.

Regardless, we are reviewing opportunities to open facebook up to our schools. We anticipate a potential pilot for school administrators to have access to facebook starting next year. This would provide them a tool to investigate bullying and other violations of safe school policy.

Our district utilizes facebook as an public outreach tool to engage the community. There may be additional value for schools in that capacity. We continue to look at those options.

Superintendent Snapshot – Teacher of the Year Surprise!

Howdy,

With all the budget discussions, it has been quite busy. We have scheduled two additional board meetings over the next two Tuesday evenings (24th and 31st at 8pm) to talk budget. Busy time, but I will post more responses here throughout the week. Check back early and often and send new questions to SuperintendentsBlog@graniteschools.org.

Superintendent Snapshot – Discrimination Policy

Here is the latest snapshot. Keep your questions coming.

Air Conditioning and Auto-Shop

Here is the latest superintendent snapshot regarding air conditioning in certain places in our buildings. Please keep the questions coming and have a nice weekend!

Martin

Question – What impact will S.B. 63 have on K-3 reading programs in the Granite District? Will funding be cut for reading specialists next year?

Answer- Great Question. The legislature left the funding for K-3 reading programs unchanged for this year. The district does not expect any changes in our current service pattern.

Have a question for the Superintendent? Ask! Email him at SuperintendentsBlog@GraniteSchools.org. He will respond personally, post the question here or answer it as part of the superintendent snapshot. Keep the questions coming.

Superintendent Snapshot – Pianos?

Here is the latest superintendent snapshot with a music related question. I appreciate the questions so please keep them coming! I am also interested in your comments related to the budget so don’t hesitate to post those as well.

If you have a question…ASK! Email your questions to SuperintendentsBlog@GraniteSchools.org.

Question about RMC survey and assessment

Since I can’t respond to every question I receive via video. I am posting additional questions on the blog for everyone to see. Feel free to follow up with a comment if you have additional questions or you can always email me at superintendentsblog@graniteschools.org. Thanks and keep the questions coming!

Superintendent-I believe it was last year or the year before that an outside company conducted surveys/supervisor evaluations.  What happened with that information?  How did that benefit the District?  How much did it cost the District?

Response-

Granite School District is required by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act which is also known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) to spend 10% of the Title I-A allocation to help the district achieve Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) standards. Granite School District has participated in two appraisals of the district by RMC Research of Denver, Colorado. The first appraisal occurred from 26-28 February 2008.  Because Granite School District participated as a pilot district in this appraisal there was no cost to the district. The second appraisal was conducted from 24-25 March 2009. The results of both appraisals were reported to the Superintendent and to the Board of Education by RMC Research.

Granite School District has adopted a Local Education Agency (LEA) Improvement Plan to implement recommendations from the appraisals.  The initiatives identified in this plan include:
a.       Instructional audits of all Granite School District schools relying on rubrics developed in consultation with RMC Research.
b.      Algebra/Pre-Algebra Institute training for all secondary mathematics teachers of these subjects.
c.       Mobility analysis of students in the district.
d.      Progress monitoring of school district improvement efforts.

Granite School District has benefited by improving support to students.

Welcome Back to the new version of the Superintendent’s Blog

Hello friends, patrons, employees and students. I am relaunching the superintendent’s blog in coordination with my new weekly video series, the “Superintendents Snapshot.” Those videos will be posted here along with other questions and answers that have been asked. You can always send a questions to superintendentsblog@graniteschools.org.

I will also be posting regular updates on various topics that come to us at the district. Feel free to use this blog as a sounding board for your concerns and questions anytime. Don’t forget to also visit our district twitter account (feed is on the left) and our other social networking sites as you are able.

Thanks for all of your support of Granite Schools and the students we serve!

Superintendent Martin Bates