A Few Minutes Of Your Time

Just short of one year ago, we hosted an important aspect of our accreditation process, the Quality Assurance Review. The process calls for a team of educators to visit South High School to evaluate all aspects of our program. One area of deficit that was noted in the final report had to do with "input from stakeholders". In this case, the visiting team determined that we did not receive enough two-way communication. In other words, we provided a great deal of information to parents and students, but did not seek enough information from them.

We are attempting to rectify that deficiency. In the recent issue of "High Pointes", on p. 5 were instructions for parents and students to participate in a survey regarding South High School. We used sample surveys from the accreditation program (AdvancEd) and tailor-made them for our needs. There are separate surveys for students and parents.

When you go to the South webpage, right in the middle near the bottom is information about the survey. Just follow the directions, give us a few minutes of your time, and we will have the input we need. The information from students and parents can go a long way toward shaping our programs in the future.

Thank you for your time.

A Disappointing Ending

After a few days of reflection, I can tell you that nearly all of the Homecoming events were deemed a success. The remainder of the "spirit days" were lively and appropriate. The pep assembly consisted of new and different activities and kept the students engaged and excited. And although the weather was cool, the parade was very well attended by both students and community members. To top it off, the outcome of the game proved to be the stimulus that would propel the football team into the playoffs. All in all, nearly everything was perfect.

Unfortunately, we did have a slip-up at the dance. A handful of the more than 1300 students in attendance used alcohol prior to coming to the dance. In this case, the driver of a bus limousine could smell alcohol after the students exited the bus. Upon further investigation, he found numerous containers with alcohol.

We had no choice but to seek out the passengers on the bus. And unfortunately, most of the passengers registered a positive result for alcohol on a PBT when administered by police. This was disheartening.

I have to tell you that I am glad that our nation has taken such a strict stance on drinking and driving. We have benefited from that emphasis over the years. However, renting a limo should not be license for underage youths to drink alcohol. It's still illegal.

I wish I could wave a magic wand and eliminate the use of limousines for dances, especially something like Homecoming. It's not necessary, costs far more than it's worth, and creates a false sense of entitlement.

In a couple of weeks I'll probably look back at the Homecoming dance with less regret, however, right now it's still too fresh and I wish it had been different. Maybe next year...

Let's Hope For A Good Week

Last Sunday-Tuesday, I attended our annual convention for Michigan's secondary principals. While I was there, many conversations centered around discussions of the various Homecoming festivities. Nearly everyone in attendance had just completed their Spirit Week, were in the midst of it, or were awaiting it just like we were. Today, we celebrated the first day of our Homecoming Week, a week that is too often dreaded by high school administrators.

So far, we appear to be off to a good start. The first day of Spirit Week belongs to the junior class. From my observations today, they were very spirited but also very appropriate. Their hallway signs were most creative and should serve as strong role modeling for the classes to follow. Tomorrow will be the sophomores turn, with the freshman class slated for Wednesday. On Thursday, the seniors finally get their chance to show the entire school what senior spirit can be like.

At South, the students are typically well behaved. The activities create many fond memories, as evidenced by the student speeches at Commencement. Invariably, most of the students that audition to speak at Graduation make several references to Spirit Week and everything that comes with South's Homecoming. I guess that's the way it should be if the event was a success.

Thursday evening consists of the float parties, where many members of the respective classes gather to celebrate putting the final touches on the float. Friday is the official whole-school Spirit Day, complete with the pep assembly, parade and game. It makes for a full day for everyone, and the "worker bees" are often exhausted by the time the game is over.

Of course, the entire week culminates with the Homecoming Dance on Saturday night. We usually have more that 1200 students in attendance, not bad considering we have enrollment just under 1600 students this year.

I am hopeful the week will continue as it began. Spirited kids having fun, but all of it good natured. Now if the weather will just cooperate, the entire week can be deemed a success.

It Was A Challenge; It Will Be A Challenge

Today, we are hosting the second of our two "Challenge Days". This is an opportunity for nearly 100 of our high school students and 25 staff members (each day) to participate in activities sponsored by the Challenge Day organization. You may have heard of them before, as they have been featured on Oprah on at least two different occasions.

I was lucky enough to be involved yesterday, and to say the least, it was an inspirational experience. The facilitators from CA warned us that it would be a 'roller coaster' day, filled with highs and lows, and they were true to their word.

We were engaged in a wide variety of activities, so many that by the end of the day my energy was zapped. Students saw staff members do things they never dreamed, and staff saw students in a very different light. We laughed together and we played together and knocked down barriers along the way. It was an openness I have rarely seen in a school facility, and holds hope for long-lasting change.

The basic message is this...there are countless occasions where people are mistreated. This ranges from racist remarks, to homophobic harassment, to comments made about the differences in clothes we wear. We observe it often in school settings, yet we seldom do anything about it. We rarely show the courage to step up and stop the nonsense.

As a result of the activities, participants quickly discover that we are more alike than different, and that each of us have crosses to bear. But we were also taught that we can improve our lives by supporting one another and appreciating those differences.

It is up to us what happens next. The mantra for Challenge Day is to be the change. Unfortunately, we are limited to only 200 students this calendar year, or about 12% of our student body.

Some parents have asked me how the students were selected. Teachers made recommendations with the intent of selecting a very diverse group. We specifically strived to make sure that each diverse population at South was represented, from the skateboarders, to the geeks, to the jocks. We did the same for our ethnic population and attempted to select a group that represented our diversity.

There were students that came rather unwillingly, while others with a strong desire to participate were left out. We wish it could be different. We are hopeful we can continue this activity in subsequent years, but it will be dependent on both future funding and the availability of facilitators.

To sum it up, we laughed a lot, and we cried a lot. Although many hearts were laid bare at some point during the day, the facilitators made sure everyone was properly nurtured prior to leaving. Their talent and experience with this type of emotion was readily evident.

For me personally, yesterday was a challenge. Emotions were pretty raw at certain points of the day, but I am a better person today than I was last week. Now all of us have to carry the momentum forward, and that will be a challenge.

We Are Very Lucky

As we enter the third week of school, I can't help but reflect on some of the blessings we have here in Grosse Pointe. Despite the computer glitches of the first few days, this has been a very smooth start to a new school year.

The kids have been terrific! I always knock on wood after I say that, but they have been unusually respectful and polite so far. And they have taken especially good care of the new Student Commons. They are using it to its fullest extent, but are doing a good job picking up after themselves and keeping it neat and clean.

We are also blessed to have the infusion of technology this school year. Although not all of it is fully up and running...to the chagrin of some...we are much further ahead than when we left in the spring. We are fortunate to have a district that believes in continuous improvement and invests time and money to train its teachers.

Today, we hosted the PLAN test for our sophomores at the two high schools. This test is a smaller version of the ACT that students take when they are juniors. It has a direct correlation to performance on the "big" test they will take next year. We will use results from the PLAN test to make positive interventions for these students during the next school year.

This Friday, we have the annual North/South football game. This is a big deal to many in the Pointes, and this year we are fortunate to have two competitive teams that are likely headed to the playoffs.

We are the host school this year, and the game will follow the 3rd annual "Victory in the Pointes" celebration. Come between 5:00-7:00 PM on Friday evening to sample the food from many of the area restaurants, or buy your spirit wear. This celebration will be held on the front lawn outside Cleminson Hall.

There are not many communities around the country that can provide venues like this for their citizens. Again, we are very blessed.

I can only hope the school year continues as it started. There is a great deal of positive energy in the building, and many reasons to feel optimistic.

Computers...What Computers?

Well, we're already a week into the new school year. Unfortunately, it hasn't been terribly smooth. One of our computer servers "crashed" during the morning of the first day. Our second server didn't have the capacity to support the entire building, so most of the teachers and clerical staff were without computers on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Finally, on Thursday, two new servers arrived and were added to the system meaning that by late Thursday afternoon we were finally up and running.

The glitch in the system was unfortunate for office personnel, but far more crippling for teachers. When you have prepared all of your lessons on powerpoint, or worked hard over the summer to master use of the smartboard, losing access to the presentation is extremely disappointing. And not only was the ability to display the lesson removed, but access to the material was eliminated. It's much like losing your notes for the speech right before you are to go on stage.

Aside from the glitch with phones and computers, it's been a fairly smooth start. It's gratifying for me to see the new student commons humming with activity. It's not 100% complete yet, but it's very close.

The students have been very respectful and focused, and the flurry of activity makes the hallways come alive. It's interesting how the building can be so quiet and my time so productive in the summer, yet it's really not how the school is built. It's built for kids and it's built for learning.

We're anticipating a very good year, and wish the same to our student, parents and staff.

The Clock Is Ticking

The building looks dramatically different over the past two weeks. The hallways were bright and shiny for activities of the past week, both registration of students and Freshman Orientation.

We have registered over 1400 students already with another bunch of them to be registered on September 1. We anticipate having just over 1600 students at South again this school year. Our enrollment might be down just a bit, but is holding pretty steady.

On Wednesday morning, members of our Student Association led the class of 2013 through their own Freshman Orientation. There were a variety of activities planned for them, including a tour of the building. It's always refreshing for me to see so many of our upperclassmen...there must have been 30-40 of them...willing to give up their day to help new students get acclimated.

Later that evening, we hosted parents of our incoming freshmen and approximately 250 were in attendance. They met with administrators, counselors and representatives of the Mothers' Club in the hopes of allaying some of the trepidation associated with the high school experience, especially for the first-time parents of a high school age student.

We still have work to do. The contractors will be working both Saturday and Sunday this weekend to get the new Student Commons and School Store ready for use. We also have our own internal work to be done to complete our technology installation.

I suspect that overtime may be necessary on Labor Day weekend, also. With construction, it often comes with the territory.

Back when I was principal at Chippewa Valley High School, we underwent a huge construction project. To get the building ready for use, we once employed 22 custodians to work 10-hour days the entire Labor Day weekend. In that case, we had 2700 students coming the day after Labor Day, and many teachers had not even seen their new rooms yet, so the situation was much more dire.

I'm much more confident now, and South students will return September 8th to a much improved physical structure than they left in June.