Going Online

This is the first of many notices announcing that we will be handling much of the registration process for next school year via online access. Nearly all of what we formerly known as "The Principal's Packet" will be available online as of August 1st. We feel this will have several advantages over the previous method.

First of all, it will save money that used to be spent for postage. Even though it was sent bulk rate, there were so many inserts included in the packet that it was costly.

Secondly, it will save a great deal of volunteer hours that were spent collating the packets. Even though that service was free to us from the Mothers' Club, those same volunteer hours can be applied elsewhere.

Third, the information will be more current. In the past, the flyers had to be finalized so early because we needed time to make copies and get them ready for mailing. Now that everything will be online, it will be easier to keep all of the forms up-to-date.

We actually did a trial run for this type of endeavor with the Senior Packet that went online this spring. From all indications, it was successful and we received many compliments on the ease of use. That experience provided a good test for us and makes us confident we will be successful with the registration process.

However, another leap we are taking with the registration process is that all payments will be electronic. Parents (students) will pay for a yearbook, Tower subscription, or physical education uniform via credit or debit card. The voucher that used to be in the principal's packet will now be interactive, not unlike other shopping you would do online. If you want to purchase something, simply "add it to the cart".

One difference is that we ask you to print two receipts, one for your records and one to send with your son/daughter to registration. Of course, we will still require students to come to school for the on-site registration. That is where they will get their textbooks, locker assignments, and schedule. They will also pick up PE uniforms and spirit packs if they were ordered.

To many of you, this may sound like a simple change in procedure. But if you've been doing things a certain way for quite a while and with obvious success, the change can be unsettling. Registration for more than 1600 students is never easy, but we are hopeful the online registration will simplify the process and cut down on unnecessary paperwork and handling of money.

Wish us luck!

Finish Strong

This is the time of year when I often see at least a few seniors walking around with an early tan and glazed looks in their eyes. This year is probably no different.

As recently as yesterday, I had the opportunity to speak to one of our seniors that had been away on Spring Break. I just asked a simple question, something like "Well, you're getting near the end, how does it feel to be a senior?"

His response was a bit unusual but very honest, "Mr. Diver, I'm here physically but I'm not sure I'm here mentally".

That's exactly how I've usually felt upon the return from Spring Break. Some of our seniors never fully come back. Oh sure, they come to school but often they are just putting in their time. I would like to use this space to remind them to finish strong. It would be silly to blow a good thing with just a few weeks left of school before exams.

Although they have been accepted to college, more admissions offices than ever are looking at the 8th semester to insure acceptance. I can remember several cases over the past few years when students were denied their first choice of college/university because of weak grades during the second semester of the senior year. I don't want that to happen to anyone else.

So my advice is the same it would be to anyone in any job or with any task. Finish strong because you never know who is watching or exactly what the impact of their perception might be.

And good luck over these last few weeks.

Please Choose Carefully

Now that we are headlong into the scheduling process, I want to take a moment to remind parents and students to choose your courses wisely. For every one of my ten years here at South, we have reduced our teaching staff despite maintaining nearly the same amount of students. That can only mean bigger classes, and the natural result is there are fewer open seats in the master schedule.

Next fall, we will be staffed tighter than ever. We will likely lose the equivalent of more than two teachers, resulting in class sizes that are even larger than they are this year.

In the past, we encouraged students to aspire to coursework that maximized their potential. If it didn't work out, we could make what we call a "level change" to a lower level class with no harm to the student's grade point average. That is no longer the case.

We still want students to enroll in the highest level where they can be successful, but we do not have the same latitude with level changes. The reason is that the lower level classes will already be full.

The bottom line is that we ask students and parents to choose carefully. If upon reading this you feel that your son/daughter may have bit off more than they can chew, I encourage you to contact your counselor to get them placed into the most appropriate class. We just won't have room for these types of changes later this summer when the master schedule is finalized.

We are still making adjustments in the master schedule at this point, and will be for the next month or so. That means we can still adapt to changes in the number of student requests for a particular course. We use these course requests to determine our staffing and develop our layoff list. The Board of Education will approve the layoff list (something no one enjoys) later this month as required by the teacher contract.

So if you wish to make changes that we should be aware of, now is the time to act. Thank you for your interest in helping us become even more efficient.

Some Good News...Some Not So Good

If any of you have tuned in to last evening's Board of Education meeting, you know what I mean by the title of this entry. Prior to the meeting, we discussed the budget for the upcoming school year. That, of course, is the bad news.

However, during the Board meeting there were at least three pieces of good news. Our girl's State Hockey Champs were recognized at the meeting last evening as were two of our senior students that earned the Presidential Scholar Award. In both cases, students were duly honored for achievements that are nothing less than outstanding!

The third piece of good news is that the district's Foundation presented the school district with a check in the amount of $350,000 to further the implementation of classroom technology. With this latest contribution, we can expect to have every classroom at South outfitted with a Smartboard and the necessary accessories by early next fall. That is truly something we could not have accomplished without the efforts of Mr. Bob Bury, Mrs. Lisa Vreede, Mr. Pat Burke and others that dedicate their efforts to fund raising. I encourage you to watch a tape delay of the Board meeting to see their presentation first-hand.

The bad news is simply reflective of the economic struggles in Michigan. What Governor Snyder has originally forecast for schools will result in Draconian cuts. We are hopeful that the legislature will have some impact in peeling back those deep cuts, however, we know that cuts are in order with even a best case scenario.

At South, that means class sizes will get just a little larger and cuts of other personnel will mean a reduction in services. It just seems to be a sign of the times. For the 2012-13 school year, we have to look at our current schedule for the school day. We can't continue the seven-period day the way it is currently offered. The tutorials that about 50% of the students are enrolled in are not a good use of time or money. We simply must get more efficient with our schedule.

There will be much greater detail about the budget in the coming months. Until then, let's hope spring weather finally arrives.

A Successful Search and Hopefully, A Deterrent

As some of you may have heard, today we had our second lockdown exercise for the purpose of bringing drug dogs through the building. At just about 9:00 this morning, we put the building on "lockdown" meaning no one could be in the halls and no one could enter or leave the building.

Through coordination with the Grosse Pointe Farms Police and Grosse Pointe City Police (and dog handler Mike and his dog, Raleigh), we had a coordinated effort with many municipalities to adequately search the building in just over 75 minutes.

This is essentially how the search was handled. There were at least four dogs in the building and at least five dogs in the parking lots. In the building, we searched all lockers and locker rooms, and even selected five classrooms at random to be searched. In the case of the classrooms, we moved those students to the auditorium and had them leave their coats and backpacks behind. The dogs then went through the respective classrooms looking for drugs and/or paraphernalia. When the classrooms were finished, the dogs went through the hallways to search the lockers for contraband.

Outside, the dogs searched each of the lots adjacent to the building. We searched the S-lot, J-lot, K-lot and even cars parked along the boulevard and down Fisher road. Fortunately, there were very few "hits" and of those only one turned out to be positive.

I was in the lots for the car searches. If a dog hit on a car, the student was brought outside and asked to unlock the car. The student was also asked if there might be anything in the car prior to letting the dog inside. In only one case did we find anything, and that was a small amount of marijuana.

I want to publicly thank the police officers that were involved. As mentioned earlier, there were at least nine dogs and their handlers, along with many other officers from the Farms and the City. It was a well coordinated effort that I hope serves as a deterrent for our students.

All in all, I was pleased with the findings.

Day One In The Books

With the arrival of March this year, we have the onset of the MME, or Michigan Merit Exam. Today was the first day of state testing of high school juniors, with all members of the class of 2012 taking the ACT. From my personal observations, it appears we are off to a good start.

Students arrived on time and were ready to go, and as has been the case at South, we were blessed once again with very good attendance. That means the "make-up" testing window two weeks from now will not require a great deal of adult oversight.

It's amazing how standardized testing has changed over the years, especially when compared to high school administration of the MEAP not too many years ago. This battery of tests is taken much more seriously by students, and the accountability for adults in schools is dramatically different than it used to be. And more changes are on the horizon.

Wholesale changes will be implemented across the state by 2014, but we will begin to see changes next fall at the elementary and middle level with more rigorous testing. The new tests will be more closely aligned to the ACT than the old MEAP tests. What the Department of Education discovered over the years is that the MEAP was not a good predictor of "college readiness". And college readiness is the new standard, much more so than just graduating with a high school diploma.

I am hopeful the serious approach that was observable today translates into another class of strong scores. Like it or not, the reputation of our school district and community is closely tied to standardized test performance.

Cyberbullying--Some Quick Facts

A couple of weeks ago, Assistant Principal Brandon Slone and I attended a Cyberbullying conference held at Baker College in Owosso, MI. The event was free of charge and sponsored by the diploma and class ring company, Josten's. In all, there must have been about 400 teachers, administrators and counselors in attendance.

The presenter was very effective, Justin Patchin, Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and co-host of the website www.cyberbullying.us

These are just a few of the things we learned during that day:
• early research learned that only 15% of cyberbullying gets reported to adults
• 93% of teens go online regularly; 63% go online daily
• 75% of teens have a cell phone
• QIK - this is a new program that streams live video immediately to the web (think about the danger inherent in that technology)
• Twitter is not that popular with teens - only 6% use it
• Youtube - only 11% use it weekly
• almost 50% of teens use the internet for school work
• girls use technology more than boys

The Digital Divide exists--the adults are Digital Immigrants while the Adolescents are Digital Natives. No real surprise there.

Regarding the concept of Cyberbullying:
• it must occur repeatedly over time to constitute bullying
• willful and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, cell phones or other electronic devices
• informal--kids think 80% are cyberbullied; 60% bully others
• kids rarely use email anymore; but adults over 65 use it heavily
• online gaming is also used for bullying - up to 34%
• the average teen sends 3400 texts per month, or six per hour
• 45% say they are bullied via text messages
• latest research, 19 - 28% admitted they were bullied
• 8 - 20% say they bullied others; girls more likely than boys
• not much difference between the races; whites a bit higher
• middle school is the place where it is at its highest
• the bullies tend to be poor students; as are the victims
• bullies try to be anonymous; victims can usually guess who they are
• easier to be cruel through text rather than face-to-face
• there is a new website, Chatroulette, with pictures/dialogue and click ‘next’ if you don’t like the person

Technology
• 85% of teens have their Facebook account marked ‘private’; three years ago it was only 39% marked private so they are becoming better users
• once something is posted online, it really can’t be deleted, i.e. go to Google and look under cache; Facebook will keep it so it can sell the information later
• having a professional page is doable, but it should not be the public site with a personal profile, etc.
• sexting-12% say they have received naked images; 7% have sent them
• about 50% have had sex before leaving high school--which is worse?
• advice to teens...delete it immediately and send a note not to send it again, passing it along constitutes child pornography, a felony

Responding to Cyberbullying:
• it’s more than just turning the computer off...that's bad advice; flippant and dismissive to the victim
• why should the victim lose computer privileges?
• Title IX prohibits discrimination based on sex
• Tinker v. Des Moines - freedom of speech; ability to protest (i.e. Vietnam War) but that doesn't give you license to bully someone via technology

Litigation regarding schools, teens, and computer use:
• was school equipment used? that makes a difference
• was it truly detrimental to the educational environment?
• was there a crime committed?
• still have to protect the rights of a school employee to a degree
• must also be aware of sexual harassment
• is it a one-time offense or repeated acts? once it’s on the web, it’s out there...

When Can A School Respond?
• if school equipment was used, on school grounds, via cell phones at school, etc.
• must demonstrate a substantial and material disruption on campus
• inability to focus on learning
• when it interferes with teaching
• repetitive disciplinary measures are needed
• freedom of expression - must not interfere with the school’s mission
• 44 states have cyberbullying laws--Michigan does not
• the policy should include off campus behaviors
• New Hampshire has a good law that includes off campus behaviors
• most incidents can be dealt with informally
• create a “teachable moment”
• they have an online survey available to be used with students
• they also have scenarios that can be used for discussion

I encourage you to go to the website, www.cyberbullying.us as there is a great deal of information available. The most lasting impression for me was that it should not be ignored. Being the victim is just plain hurtful and unfortunately we have teenage suicides in our state to prove it.

Transition Time

A long time ago a mentor of mine told me that running a school was "like changing a tire with the car still moving". Since I first heard that comment, I've often felt there was a lot of truth to it. However, I'm not naive enough to think the same couldn't be said for many businesses and organizations.

Anyway, here we are at the midpoint of the school year already. At the same time students are prepping for exams, they are also looking ahead to select classes for next school year. Today is a dichotomy of sorts. The hallways are unusually quiet because we have 90-minute periods to allow for a comprehensive exam, yet at the same time the counselors are scurrying to make sure everything is ready for the scheduling process.

Building a master schedule for a comprehensive high school is like putting together a large, complex puzzle. There will be over 11,000 courses requested by our students that we then divide into about 400 individual sections. And quite a few of those courses will be offered only once per day, i.e. Symphonic Orchestra, Pointe Singers, and AP Physics.

We will do our very best to make sure that these so-called "singleton" courses are not placed in the same class period if there are students that want both offerings. However, no matter how hard we try, there are always a few conflicts that are unavoidable.

So during this transition time, I ask for two things; 1) Assist your students with exam preparation as much as possible without placing undue pressure, and 2) Help them choose their courses for next year very carefully. Once the master schedule is assembled and staff are assigned, there is little wiggle room for schedule changes.

I wish you well with both endeavors.

When You Need It Most

For anyone that lives and works in and around GP Schools, the past few weeks have been unsettling and upsetting for many folks. I'm speaking particularly of a few employees, but the impact has also reached some of our parents. It simply hasn't portrayed our community in its best light and didn't lead to the positive Holiday Season many of us would like to have had.

So earlier today, after a succession of meetings dealing mostly with problems, I received an email from "out of the blue". It came from a former student-athlete of mine from more than 25 years ago. As far as I can remember, it's the first contact I have had with him in more than 20 years. His message was brief, but powerful for me, and it simply stated at the end that "you do hold a special place in my life".

That former student now has three kids of his own and lives in Indiana. He coaches his two oldest in a form of Neighborhood Club and uses some of the same drills that I used back when he was a player.

We also referenced a major project that he turned in for my World History class. Becuase of the uniqueness of the situation, I can still remember the title of his project and the substance of it.

This is my point in writing this now, I have often told teachers and coaches that we never know when we impact someone's life. We have to treasure our time with them, because something that might be inconsequential to us may turn out to be vitally important to them.

And the reason for the title of this entry? When I was most in need of a pick-me-up, it arrived with just a few words from someone long ago.