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

Sup’s Blog

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

Thanks

Hello all,

I hope most of you have a chance to read this before you break for the weekend.

This past Wednesday I signed several hundred letters to employees who have been with us for 15, 20, 25, and 30 years. That evening I attended the 25-year recognition – all district employees who had reached 25 years. Thursday during the day I participated in a Rotary Club recognition of a group of teachers and Thursday evening attended the Granite Education Foundation Excel Awards dinner. This morning I was pleased to participate with Karen Huntsman as one of our educators received a Huntsman Award.

In all of these events, I’ve heard dozens of genuinely touching stories. I will share one. A little girl came to school in one of our elementaries with a hat she refused to remove. It turned out that as discipline at home (I’m not clear on the details) the girl’s hair was cut horribly. The teacher made contact with the parent and, upon receiving permission, took the girl to the teacher’s own hair dresser to fix and style her hair. Please don’t get hung up on whether or not teacher supply money could be used to reimburse the teacher of if she had to pay for this herself, but consider with me, the way this teacher feels about her students.

The last three days took me back strongly to my own years teaching, special education at Timpanogas and Wasatch Mental Health and math at Independence High. I’m painfully aware that I’ve been out of the classroom for a long time. But I feel to tell all of you in your various capacities that I honor you and your efforts. I thank you sincerely from my own heart for working as hard as you do in this challenging profession.

I know this school year is winding down. I run marathons and know that when I can finally see the finish line a big part of me wants to walk it in. Let’s finish this one strong and then start training for the next one!

I thank you all again,

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.

Superintendent Snapshot – Budget Input

Welcome to the latest superintendent snapshot. Its budget time again and we are asking our employees and patrons for feedback. I am sending an email to all of our employees, school community council members and PTA leaders asking for their input through a specific feedback process. The budget projections presentation is linked below in a previous post. Feel free to post your budget questions (or any other questions) here, or you can email them to SuperintendentsBlog@graniteschools.org. Thank you in advance for your critical feedback!

Budget Projections presentation

This is the budget presentation that was provided to the board on Tuesday, April 5. We encourage patrons and employees to review this presentation previous to providing input to your school community council or PTA. Feel free to post questions here regarding these projections.

Click here to view the presentation – GSD Budget Projections – FY 2012