Persistence to Graduation

Last Saturday, Dr. Tom Prater, vice president of the board of education, wrote a guest editorial in the News-Leader discussing the district’s Persistence to Graduation initiative. With spring break, you may have missed it.

We began the Persistence to Graduation (P2G) initiative three years ago. The early phase consisted of thorough research to give us more insight into the problem, identify students at-risk for dropping out of school much earlier in their schooling and devise appropriate interventions for those students.

P2G is a district-wide effort, involving stakeholders at the classroom, school building and district level for a more uniform system of identifying students before they fall through the cracks. Though it’s a district-wide program, interventions reflect the needs of individual students. After identifying students, teachers, principals, counselors and others put their heads together to devise intervention strategies tailored to the needs of individual children. I believe that this is the real strength of the program.

Right now, we are seeing some very positive results, as Dr. Prater mentioned in his article. For the 2008-2009 academic year, a total of 329 students had dropped out of school by February 2009. This February, that number was down to 211. Of course, we’re working hard to make sure those numbers keep declining.

Persistence to Graduation carries lots of potential. I’ll be keeping you posted on the results.

SPS budget and finance Q and A

School finance can be a complicated subject, not often easy to squeeze into a sound bite or a 500-word news article. Yet, school finance, budget, revenues, etc. are going to be on the minds of many as we continue the process of developing the 2010-2011 budget over the coming weeks and months.

With that, I want to take this opportunity to invite you to use the comments section of this blog post to ask any question you may have around this topic. Just click on the comments link below to submit your question for us to answer.

I would also encourage you to check The Bottom Line for the latest news and information about district finances. Also, be sure to check out our FAQ page for some commonly asked questions about the district's revenue and the budget planning process for 2010-2011, and take a moment to view this video which provides an overview of the budget development process. You can also find a complete list of district financial reports on our website.

Springfield Public Schools strives for an efficient and effective use of community resources, and as part of that goal we want to promote an open dialogue around that subject.

A note about comments: Please keep them appropriate; foul language and personal attacks will not be tolerated. We do have to review comments because of inappropriate spam that can show up without using the moderation process, so please note that your comment will not appear immediately.

CHS student Nicole Andrews wins Poetry Out Loud competition

Congratulations to Nicole Andrews, a student at Central High School, for winning Missouri's 2010 Poetry Out Loud competition held last week in Jefferson City.

Nicole will go on to the national Poetry Out Loud competition in Washington DC on April 26 and 27. Students receive a $200 prize for winning at the state level and an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington DC for the national competition. Central High School will receive a $500 stipend to purchase poetry books.

Please join me in wishing her luck next month.

Poetry Out Loud is a national poetry recitation contest among high school students in all 50 states. The program is conducted by the National Endowment for the Arts, working with state arts agencies. It's a great offering for classrooms, providing the opportunity for students to interpret and evaluate poetry as literature while building public speaking skills and confidence.

Parents speak out about the need for involvement and dialogue

In recent weeks, the Springfield News-Leader has featured several editorial columns filled with inaccurate and misleading information about our Springfield Public Schools. Because that erroneous information is presented so prominently on the paper’s opinion page my staff and I have attempted to correct it, because I believe an informed conversation about our schools and the challenges we face has to start with facts rather than conjecture.

Thus, it was refreshing to see two parents and volunteers speak out on behalf of our schools today. Both authors shared a common theme in their contributions: the need for real community involvement to ensure the success of our children and schools.

Tim Burk discussed his experiences as a volunteer and president of his school’s PTA.

Gail Melgren urged readers to take a broader view of the achievement gap, rather than attempt to address the issue with vitriol.

Less than a month after the editor of the paper called for a more civil dialogue on the opinion pages, it’s good to see that several have heeded that call. If you have questions or concerns about your school or the district, don’t hesitate to reach out to our staff, myself included. We want you to be informed about the state of our schools. I encourage you to take the time to volunteer in our schools, donating a small portion of your time pays immense dividends in the lives of students.

Ten minutes can help your community and schools

This spring, the United States will once again conduct a national census. Going back to 1790—when George Washington was president—our country has taken an official count of the population every ten years according to instructions in the U.S. Constitution.

Please know how important your participation and a complete, accurate count is to our school district and community. In addition to establishing the number of U.S. Congressional seats for each state, census information is used to distribute more than $400 billion in federal funds to local, state, and tribal governments each year. Schools also receive funding based on data from the decennial census and the ongoing American Community Survey. In addition, census information is critical when determining locations for medical services, improving schools, building roads, expanding public transportation, and creating accurate maps for emergency responders. Even allocation of vital supplies, such as influenza vaccines, is provided to local communities based on census counts.

In March 2010, households will receive a mail-back form which should take no longer than10 minutes to complete. The 2010 Census questionnaire will be one of the shortest in history, asking only 10 questions. Strict laws protect the confidentiality of respondents and any information they provide.

To keep costs low and help the City of Springfield achieve a high mail-back response rate, everyone is encouraged to mail back the form (postage-free) as soon as possible after receiving the form. Census Bureau workers will not need to visit households to collect the information if the mail-back form is completed and returned by mail. People who live in group quarters (e.g., dormitories, nursing homes, etc.) will be counted through a group quarter count rather than receiving mail-back forms.

We join the Census Bureau in reminding everyone: “We can’t move forward until you mail it back.” Please mail your Census 2010 survey back as soon as possible!

Thank you for your continued support for our school district and community.

Meet Hillcrest's Pro Start culinary team

Yesterday, I told you a little bit about the Pro Start Culinary career education program and the award-winning team at Glendale High School.

Today, I want to share this video with you featuring Hillcrest family and consumer sciences teacher Robin Jones and several of the Pro Start team members there, including one young lady who has had a great experience interning with the pastry chef at the Tower Club. I'll let them tell you all about it.



Here are links to today's story in the News-Leader and the report (with video) from KOLR 10 about the GHS Pro Start team.

This is just one of the innovative programs we're pleased to offer SPS students.

Pro Start career education program a recipe for success

The elaborate setups of the TV show “Iron Chef” usually come to mind when you mention cooking contests. However, one of the real challenges of being a professional chef is being able to adapt to the conditions around you, while still putting together a final product that meets a certain standard. Many television chefs may balk at having to prepare a meal on a two burner propane hot plate, but that’s exactly what the students on Glendale High School’s Pro Start Culinary Team had to do last month for the state Pro Start competition.

The GHS team competed against 28 other teams and won second place, which included a $500 prize and a renewable scholarship at East Central College for each team member. This is just the second year of the Pro Start program at GHS.

SPS’ Family and Consumer Sciences department implemented the Pro Start culinary arts curriculum in the fall of 2008. This is one of the district’s innovative career education programs that bring together what students learn in the classroom with the application of that knowledge in the workplace. The program offers students a sequence of courses that can lead to certification from the Missouri and National Restaurant Associations and a leg up on culinary school or other post-secondary training. Students get another opportunity to put themselves to the test through internships with local businesses.

The benefits of Pro Start are not limited to the culinary arts. The program fosters students’ problem solving skills and critical thinking ability as they react to various challenges and circumstances as individuals and members of a team. These are the skills that transfer across classrooms and throughout every facet of life, the most essential ingredient for success in anything students pursue.

Currently, SPS has Pro Start teams at Central, Glendale and Hillcrest.