February 19, 2010

What is this? Two days in a row with no delays or cancellations? Normal feels good, doesn’t it? And what is that big shiny thing up in the sky? It’s nice to need sunglasses again! As we get into all of our spring events, competitions, and testing, I know it’s tough to get everything rearranged and caught up. I appreciate your flexibility and patience in making it all happen for our students!

Having people stranded at home certainly has made me appreciate the convenience of technology in this day and age. Our AlertNow phone-calling system sure beats the old “phone tree,” and it allows us to notify students, staff, and home school superintendents and transportation coordinators immediately with a single phone call. (And if I goof up the message or if my dog insists on shaking his head and jingling his tags right in the middle of recording, I can always re-record it before I send it!) Our technology also allows the administrative team and many of you to just “keep on working” whether we’re in the office or not. We’ve gotten used to shooting messages and documents back and forth electronically and holding phone meetings! Makes me wonder how we ever got by without it. Many thanks to our Technology Department for keeping us up and running!

It’s been a short week so I’ll have a short blog. But I do want to share one great experience with students that I had on Thursday. I had the opportunity to visit the Career-Based Intervention students from Waynesfield-Goshen and Upper Scioto Valley as they practiced for the upcoming Knowledge Bowl Competition. The two teams squared off and mastered some really tough questions in the areas of language arts, history, geography, and several others. It’s obvious they’ve been working very hard--and they’re ready to compete! They’ll be attending the Regional competition first and then (I’m confident) advancing on to State. I wish I had thought to get a photo—but we’ll get some from their competitions. We wish them well—go Team Hi-Point!

There’s not a lot positive to share on the school funding front lately, but I do want to share some good news we received last week. As I’ve shared in the last several months, career-technical funding is being studied by a subcommittee of the Ohio School Finance Advisory Council. Up until last week, career-tech did not have any representation on that subcommittee, and we were very concerned about their ability to understand our program delivery and funding needs. We have learned that two career-tech professionals have been added to that subcommittee: John Boggess, Superintendent at Miami Valley CTC (and a former career-tech treasurer), and Dave Plahuta, Treasurer at Polaris Career Center. These two gentlemen bring a wealth of knowledge and background in career-tech to the subcommittee, and we’re confident they’ll guide the group toward an effective funding system that will protect our programming well into the future.

Enjoy your weekend and stay safe!