Recap of School Board Special Meeting & Workshop on 4/24/2012

“The digits are coming… the DIGITS ARE COMING…”

Tuesday was a Special Board Meeting and Board Workshop. At the Special Meeting the board approved the appointment of Ms. Donnie Brown as the new principal of Crystal River Primary School, effective July 1, 2012. The board also approved the appointment of Suzanne Swain to the position of Coordinator of Certification and Professional Standards, effective July 1, 2012. I am excited about both of these appointments as I know these educators personally and I look forward to them beginning their new roles.

Also, at the Special Meeting the board was presented with a presentation of the new administrative appraisal system which was required to be changed under the new “Student Success Act” law (a.k.a. 2011 SB736) like the teachers’ appraisal system was earlier in the school year. After the presentation the board approved the appraisal system

During the Workshop portion of the meeting Assistant Superintendent Ken Blocker gave a 2012-2013 budget update. As I have shared previously, at this time the school board has agreed to keep things in “status quo” for the 2012-2013 school year

One of the most exciting news items was the announcement of a special pilot project shared by Dr. Mike Geddes, the Director of Instructional Technology. A new and recent Florida statue has expedited the implementation of school district’s transition from print to digital curriculum. As a result, last year the school board set funds aside from the Race to the Top Grant to pilot one student and one digital device. This is often referred to in education as a “One-to-One” pilot initiative. Dr. Geddes formed a Technology Standards Committee (TS) who was charged with recommending a digital device. I am the Board Member Representative on this committee. After great research, and even some debate, the committee recommended the Apple iPad. Next, middle and high schools in our district were encouraged to apply for the pilot program. The objective of being the pilot was to use a digital device (ex. iPad) to impact approximately 200-300 students by transitioning them from print to digital curriculum. Additionally, the pilot would track the results of the one-to-one pilot program and compare a digital curriculum to the traditional print curriculum. The TS committee reviewed and scored the pilot applications and the school with the highest score was recommended by the TS committee to be awarded the pilot program. After the scoring was completed, all thirteen TSC members gave Citrus Springs Middle School the top highest number of points and CSMS was awarded the pilot program

For the 2012-2013 school year 7^th graders at Citrus Springs Middle School will each receive an iPad. The iPad will replace the textbook for Social Studies and will supplement the textbooks for other subjects. A great deal of curriculum planning is underway to maximize the use and effective learning using the iPads. Teachers are already scheduled for training in the use of the iPad in their classrooms. Students will be given training for the use of the iPad when they are issued their iPad in the Fall. As a school board and district we have been developing new technology policies and guidelines for the use of these emerging technologies. This year a special filter student wall-to-wall wireless network was installed in all of our middle and high schools. Many details of this initiative and pilot will be released in the coming weeks and months.

I am tremendously excited about this pilot study and initiative. I strongly believe that in order for our students to be competitive in college and in the job arena they must learn for the world of the future instead of the world we have come from. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to read my blog post “Steve Jobs on Education”, Posted on February 16th, 2012.

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