New Superintendent Update Archive
2008-2009 School Year
By Dr. Richard J. Voltz
2008-09 IASA New Superintendent Workshop Series
Webinar Example
P.R.E.S.S.
Update
to New Superintendents February 16, 2009
Randy Pausch
is the author of the bestseller book The Last
Lecture. The book was a result of the tremendous response
Randy had from the video of his last lecture as a professor at
Carnegie Mellon University.
Update
to New Superintendents February 9, 2009
This is the
third of a three-part series on the topic of “Taking Care of
You.”
Update
to New Superintendents February 2, 2009
This is the
second of a three-part series on the topic of “Taking Care of
You.”
Update
to New Superintendents January 26, 2009
With the
beginning of a new year, many people make a resolution regarding a
health issue. This will be the beginning of a three part series on
the topic of “taking care of you.”
Update
to New Superintendents January 20, 2009
This is
the fifth and final part of a series about communication between a
board of education and the superintendent.
Update
to New Superintendents January 8, 2009
“Lunch with
Rich” Meeting:
I need to
reschedule the “Lunch with Rich” virtual Internet session
previously planned for January 13, 2009. The session has been
changed to Monday, January 12, 2009 from noon to 1 p.m. The main
topic for this meeting will be “School Board Retreats.”
Update
to New Superintendents December 19, 2008
I would like
to take this opportunity to wish you and your family best wishes
during this holiday season and break. The focus of this message is
for you to step back from your position, spend time with family,
relax, recharge and get ready for the second half of your first
year.
Update
to New Superintendents December 15, 2008
This topic is
a continuation of the advice you were sent the past two weeks
concerning Board-Superintendent Relations. The sources for this
series are Dr. Voltz’s practical experience as a superintendent and
information obtained from a Michigan Association of School
Administrators article on “Administrators’ Tricks of the Trade.”
Some key points to superintendent/board relations were identified
through a MASA survey.
Update
to New Superintendents December 8, 2008
Just last week
I had an interesting discussion with a superintendent from the
2007-08 New Superintendents’ class. He inquired as to when I was
going to share with this year’s new superintendents about
exercising. It seems he had just received a phone call from a new
superintendent in his area who said he was just overwhelmed with
his new superintendent’s role and was feeling tired, frustrated and
out of balance
Update
to New Superintendents December 1, 2008
At the ISBE Conference Meeting for New Superintendents, the
possibility of IASA hosting a workshop on the ISBE projection
software was presented. Last year Brent Appell, Regional Financial
Consultant for ISBE, had designed a very detailed series of Excel
worksheets in an Excel workbook for school officials to use for
budget preparation and three to five year projections. A series of
administrator academy sessions were scheduled around the state on
this topic and were very well received.
Update
to New Superintendents November 26, 2008
I have had
many superintendents ask me about bidding procedures this year.
This is a common question for new superintendents but this year
this has also been a popular topic for veteran superintendents due
to the change in the bidding limit. The bidding limit has changed
from $10,000 to $25,000.
Update
to New Superintendent November 10, 2008
Sorry I did
not issue a New Superintendents’ Update last week, but I have been
in China for nine days. I had been asked to present a keynote
speech at the 2008 Jiangsu International Forum of School Principals
on the topic of Leadership and Technology.
Update
to New Superintendents October 29, 2008
Attendees at
the New Superintendents’ Session on October 22, 2008, were asked
about interest for an IASA sponsored one day workshop on the ISBE
Finance Projection Software, as well as some information on tax
levy. Upon speaking with ISBE personnel, I have learned that the
new financial projection software program is not ready yet. Due to
the changes in the accounting manual and fund designations the
program is still being written. In addition, the software program
will be updated for even better use by school finance
personnel.
Update
to New Superintendent October 20, 2008
Unfortunately,
I need to change the date and time of the next “Lunch with Rich”
session. It had originally been scheduled for noon on November 4,
2008. It will need to be a “brunch” meeting with the date and time
changed to November 17, 2008 at 10 a.m. Although we had low
participation on October 8th, a lot of information was
shared. I would highly recommend to new superintendents to join
this service, if you have the time. Due to the low number of
participants on October 8th, I have extended an
invitation to several of the 2007-08 new superintendents who had
participated in the “Lunch with Rich” sessions on a regular basis.
This should make our sessions even better.
Update
to New Superintendents October 14, 2008
As a district
superintendent, I wrote a regular column that our local newspaper
was kind enough to publish. This concept of writing to the
community was derived from a conversation I had with an important
citizen. We were trying to pass a referendum and he mentioned to me
that the school district should communicate to the public on a
regular basis, not just when the district needed money for
buildings, staff, etc. This really impacted my thoughts and from
that time forward I wrote a regular column to the public about the
school district, which is similar to the regular updates I write to
you as new superintendents.
Update
to New Superintendents October 6, 2008
Unfortunately there was not
time at the New Superintendents’ Conference this year to demo a
great resource for revising your school district policies. IASB
provides a service to all member school districts that allows you
to search issues on its policy website. The great aspect of this
service is that the individual policies written by IASB attorneys
have hyperlinks to actual laws, case studies, administrative code
citations, etc.
Update
to New Superintendents September 30, 2008
IASA
sponsored a workshop this week where Dr. Elle Allison of the Doug
Reeves Leadership and Learning Center presented research based
information on various factors that improve teaching, learning and
leadership. Some features included leadership initiatives including
some new research, grading practices, utilization of data, and
vision statements. Thirty-four Illinois educators participated in
this workshop and each developed at least one research based action
plan to utilize in their home school district. This conference will
again be presented on October 5-7, 2008 in Fairview Heights. There
is still time to register for this event. Information for this
conference can be found on the IASA website at www.iasaedu.org
Update
to New Superintendents September 15, 2008
I have presented many workshops on how to
podcast and usually tell the story of how my wife discovered a
superintendent podcasting on the Internet. Barb Underwood,
Superintendent of Carmel Clay School District in Indiana, has
produced and posted a video podcast on her website to inform
visitors about the positive aspects of the school district. This
may be a great way for you to generate your own positive public
relations to the community instead of just complaining about what
the news media covers. You may view her podcast at http://www1.ccs.k12.in.us/district/superintendent/
Update
to New Superintendents September 8, 2008
New
superintendents often ask questions concerning closed session
procedures and processes. My recommendation to superintendents is
to go into closed session (proper term according to the act is
closed session not executive session) as little as possible. In my
opinion, if school boards go into closed sessions on a regular
basis, i.e., at the start of every school board meeting, it gives
the public the impression that the school board is deciding issues
in private instead of discussing the issues in public as required
by law. Perception is reality in the eye of the beholder. If the
public thinks you are deciding issues in closed session, even if
the board is not, the perception becomes reality.
Update
to New Superintendents August 29, 2008
For those of you who attended the New Superintendents’ Conference,
you may recall the discussion suggesting communication to school
board members via Interim Reports, or what some call Friday
Reports. Discussion included how to involve your school board
in important board business and communicating to the school board
as a whole. It was interesting to note that in the August 2008
issue of Board & Administrator, Bob Delane, deputy
executive director of the Ohio School Boards Association, listed
these four reasons why superintendents get fired:
Update
to New Superintendents August 22, 2008
I have had several emails from
superintendents concerning how to embed a video into a PowerPoint
presentation. I demonstrated using CosmoPod on the Mac at the
conference. I have also made a podcast video of how to do embed a
video on a Mac.
Update
to New Superintendents August 13, 2008
IASA
has decided to start a formal mentoring program for the 2008-09
school year even though there is no state funding for this
project.
Update
to New Superintendents August 8, 2008
This is the first edition of the newsletter,
Update to New Superintendents. I plan on emailing you an
edition of the newsletter approximately one time per week during
the school year.
