Conrad/Thomas Jefferson Tribune
WEEK OF AUGUST 13-17, 2018
VISION, MISSION & CORE VALUES
CONRAD/THOMAS JEFFERSON FEEDER PRIORITY GOALS
STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
Advance teacher effectiveness and improve the quality of instruction through research-based professional learning practices
QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION
Close achievement gaps through effective data practices and alignment of core content curriculum.
CLIMATE AND CULTURE
Develop and sustain a positive and supportive climate and culture of high expectations through effective communication, inclusive practices and leadership development.
A MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Illustrious Leaders,
This week we were exposed to our Day #2 of our Principal Retreat at McShan. We continued our work that was started on July 30. Much of what was presented was focused on Culture: Culture of Environment, Core 4, Classroom transitions, Hallway transitions and Observation & Feedback. All those encompass the overall Culture of your Campus. As I stated, your Culture drives what occurs on your campus, positive or negative. As the instructional leader, it is up to you to ensure that culture building occurs is sustained and if evident across your entire campus. Modeling the expectation for all the above was imperative so that there is clarity what is expected for the Conrad/TJ Elementary Cluster. As you self -reflect prior to PD on Monday, answer the following questions:
1) Have I provided the expectations around culture?
2) Have I explicitly modeled or shown exemplars of the expectations to ensure no misconceptions occur?
3) Have I explicitly informed the staff when talking about any practices and expectations we always need to answer:
What is the root cause of why we are not 100% in our practice?
Is the root cause academic or management?
What will you do about ensuring we fix our root cause?
How will you know our students are learning due to the teaching that was taught?
We also continued our action on Campus Branding. It was so awesome to see each of you take the opportunity to take a photo with Dr. Hinojosa on Tuesday night at our TRE Community Meeting to add to your campus website for Campus Branding. Kudos to you all!
We also were reminded of our 3 Priorities:
1) PLC’s
2) Balanced Literacy
3) SEL
Should be grounded in our work including blended learning and the diverse learner, which means ALL our students.
Mr. Lusk confirmed how important the work we were invested in was in order to see Academic Achievement for ALL our scholars.
I am excited to spend time on ALL your campuses next week to see all your staff engage in the Professional Development that your leadership team has prepared. Please do not stop the flow of your PD when I come to your campuses. I am there as a learner and will engage with what your staff is invested in at the time of my visit.
Good luck on your Professional Learning next week as we have so many exciting professional learning coming to life through our 2 year initiatives. Next week will mark our TJ Feeder Wide Leader in Me Professional Learning alongside the license. Congratulations to Mrs. Loskot and Burnet for becoming our first official Leader In Me Campus in our feeder. As a model campus, we are excited to have a campus in which we can visit as a top notch campus that is truly a Leader in Me community from the scholars, staff and community at large.
We also have our Jiv Daya Kick off at Joe May on Thursday from 12:00 to 3:30 pm for all our 3-5 teachers.
Thursday at 3:00 p.m., we will have our office first meeting of the mind with our Elementary Northwest CIC’s and ILC’s at K. B. Polk. Please ensure that you send your CIC’s as our priorities, vision, mission, values, goals and expectations of our learning will be discussed followed by our Open House.
Mrs. Clayton Brown and I are so excited to begin the work with all the CIC’s.
Please rest this weekend as you have a heavy week ahead.
WE ARE IN IT TO WIN IT...GO FOR THE GOLD!
Ms. Torres
Emmett Conrad/Thomas Jefferson Executive Director
WHAT IS HAPPENING IN OUR CLUSTER?
Conrad & Jefferson Elementary Cluster Principal Retreat &
Community Meeting with Dr. Hinojosa: Principals' Efforts for Campus Branding
Pre-K Enrollment Update
We are in the home stretch – one week to the start of school!
We have seen increases in both PreK and Kinder, as all enrollment for the district is increasing as we get closer to the start of school.
Mass media will be going out soon – mailers and billboards. We also have done some school messenger calls. Early Learning is also going back out for “Pressing the Pavement” next Friday, the 17th. The campuses chosen for next Friday were based on lower enrollment at this point.
Kinder Registration Update
Kinder enrollment is climbing faster now, adding 500 students since last week.
CORNERSTONE FOR TEI
All TEI tasks will be entered in Corner Stone. Attached is a document with links to Quick Reference Guides and videos on how to submit TEI tasks in Cornerstone. All administrators should review these short instructional videos and Quick Reference Guides no later than August 20th to be prepared for the new school year. If necessary, TEI is available to schedule a short training session for networks to review this new platform. For additional information, please contact Jamie Luellen (jluellen@dallasisd.org) or TEI (972-749-5712) TEI@dallasisd.org .
PEI CHECKPOINT #1
PEI Check Point 1 launch in Corner Stone on Monday, August 6th. It is important that time is dedicated during Check Point 1 to review the 2018-2019 PEI Overview with each of you to highlight and discuss the addition of the Recruitment and Retention metric. The window to complete PEI Check Point 1 is August 31. (It has been extended from Aug. 24 to ensure that we have a meaningful discussion and time for the discussion). Please refer to the schedule below and the weekly updates that were sent on Friday.
Summer School Promotion
As we prepare for the first day of school, please see the attached document (Summer Promotion) that entails how to ensure student records are updated and students are placed in the correct grade-level at the start of school. For additional information or clarification, please contact Lori Griffin (lgriffin@dallasisd.org
Teacher Vacancies
Please continue to work on vacancies to ensure every classroom has a certified teacher before students arrive on Monday, August 20th. Attached is the most recent Teacher Vacancy list. We are making progress, as of 10 AM today there are still 157.9 teacher vacancies compared to 196.5 as of yesterday. Thank you for hard work thus far. We will receive another report from HCM that has been updated with recommendations from the job fair last night.
Recruitmemt and Retention Reminders
Open House events will be held next week for our Elementary Campuses– Thursday, Aug 16. Please work with your leadership teams to ensure you are all prepared to provide a well-organized and welcoming event for our scholars and families. Attached is the Recruitment and Retention Timeline.
Campus Fire Drills
Fire drills MUST BE conducted between August 20th – 31st in order to be in compliance.
Media Protocol & Communications
Please note that any communication to the media must be communicated directly to Deputy Chiefs for approval. The media protocol is attached for further review.
As you engage in communication with trustees please be sure your Deputy Chief is informed of any significant information. Additionally, please ensure that you communicate with me, your ED as you engage with trustees as well. It is necessary to ensure communication with me as you engage with trustees as well.
Campus Capacity Protocol
In the weekly updates, you were given a spreadsheet for capacity. Please review the spreadsheet (Capacity 2018 NOT 2017) to identify the district determined capacity of your campus. Use the Capacity Protocol if your campus enrollment approaches capacity after the first two weeks of school.
PRINCIPAL MONTHLY MAP
DATA ON THE HORIZON
COMMON ASSESSMENT WINDOW
CAMPUS DATA PACKET
Campus Data Packets currently available at Investigate > Campus Data Packets. Notice regarding TELPAS: Performance standards for the new 2018 TELPAS were not available for publication. New data packets will be generated when all TELPAS composite ratings and yearly progress indicators can be reported. Campus Data Packets will be available on the public side on Monday, August 13th when we roll over to the new system under Statistics & Reports > Data Packets.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
AUGUST
16-Elementary CIC PD @ K. B Polk Library-3:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.
16-Elementary Open House-4:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m.
20-First Day of School
22-PEI Checkpoint #1-Joe May & Walnut Hill
23-PEI Checkpoint #1-Burnet, Cigarroa & Tom Field
24- ED Meeting & School Leadership B ED Meeting
27-Think Tank-Ms. Torres
27-PEI Checkpoint #1-Jill Stone, Highland Meadows & Jack Lowe
28-PEI Checkpoint #1-Stephen Foster & Saldivar
29-PEI Checkpoint #1-K.B. Polk & McShan
SEPTEMBER
3-Labor Day Holiday-NO SCHOOL!
MARSHALL MEMO #746
Approaching a new School Year with a "Design Perspective."
In this article in Education Update, authors Alyssa Gallagher and Kami Thordarson list the characteristics of what they call “design-inspired leadership:”
- User- or student-centered;
- Recognizes the intelligence in the room regardless of status;
- Focuses on practices that result in learning;
- Begins with possibilities;
- Leads with What if…?
- Prefers action;
- Starts with questions;
- Embraces ambiguity;
- Comfortable with “messy” learning;
- Values great questions and experimentation;
- Has a growth mindset.
They contrast this to traditional leadership, which is leader- or teacher-centered; heavily influenced by organizational hierarchy; focused on “best practices;” answers questions with yes, but, or no; begins with constraints; is slow to act; starts with answers; is fearful of the unknown; prefers things to fit in boxes; takes the safe path; values being right; avoids risk; and has a fixed mindset.
Gallagher and Thordarson suggest five ways that school leaders and teachers can move from traditional to design leadership:
• Shift from problem solving to problem finding. This means resisting jumping to immediate solutions and instead asking questions. A principal might kick off a beginning-of-the-year staff meeting by asking what colleagues are excited about as they start the year, what priorities they have, and how they see their dreams aligning with the school’s vision.
• Orchestrate learning experiences that stretch the status quo. For example, replace the traditional back-to-school night by having teachers offer learning activities that get parents collaborating, asking each other questions, and sharing information about their children.
• Challenge practices that aren’t helpful. Colleagues might be asked to identify a rule or practice that interferes with learning, ask why it exists, and modify it to improve student learning, even if it causes some inconvenience for adults.
• Create rapid learning cycles. A bold new idea that seems impossible for the beginning of the school year might be broken into pieces with feedback solicited after each stage.
• Be a storyteller. “The start of each year is like opening a new book on what learning will look like in your school,” say Gallagher and Thordarson. “If you focus on schedules, rules, and routines, then your students will discover that compliance is the overarching theme of their learning story for the year.” What if the focus were teambuilding to lay a solid foundation of collaboration and communication skills?
“Lead Like a Designer” by Alyssa Gallagher and Kami Thordarson in Education Update, July 2018 (Vol. 60, #7, p 1, 4-5), https://bit.ly/2NwhvoH
EMMETT J. CONRAD/THOMAS JEFFERSON SCHOOL LEADERSHIP
- Jack Lowe Elementary: Principal, Sandra Barrios
- Jill Stone : Principal, Rosalinda Pratt
- Highland Meadows: Principal, Julian Davis
- David G. Burnet Elementary: Principal, Sonia Loskot
- Leonides Cigarroa Elementary : Principal, Douglas Burak
- Tom W. Field Elementary: Principal, Selena Deboskie
- Stephen C. Foster Elementary: Principal, Irma De La Guardia
- Joe May Elementary: Principal, Israel Rivera
- K.B. Polk Elementary: Principal, Kourtnei Billups
- Julian T. Saldivar: Principal, Edgar Jaramillo
- Walnut Hill Elementary: Principal, Robert 'Chase' McLaurin
- McShan Elementary: Principal, Cecilia Criner