A Quiet Summer?

Every once in a while you can count on a quiet summer as a high school principal. Unfortunately, due to what seems like endless construction at South, that has rarely been the case here. This summer will be no different.

First of all, we will lose use of the S-lot for the entire summer because of a resurfacing project that is long overdue. That project will begin as soon as school is out and will likely last until just before school starts in the fall. Part of that project includes new fencing to match what is used along Fisher Road near the stadium. It will be a wrought-iron fence with brick pillars, to complement the rest of the fencing around the school. I think everyone will find that much better than the rickety chain-link fence that has been there for so long.

The courtyard between the main and S-building will also be renovated this summer. The cement is badly damaged due to all of the construction projects and must be replaced to avoid trip hazards. The Preservation Committee has also has plans to improve the look of that space with brick pavers and lights along the walkway.

One of the most noticeable projects, however, will be replacement of the ceiling and lights in the hallway of the main building. This is a project that has been years in the making and the first floor will be completed this summer; the second floor in the summer of 2011.

And as some of you may have heard, we are in the running as a film-making site for two different movies. Each movie has a high school theme to the story, and the production supervisors and set directors really like what South has to offer. If we are selected, both films are set to shoot sometime in August.

Finally, it appears I may be conducting many interviews this summer as the recent retirement package passed by the legislature has induced some of our more veteran teachers to retire. I expect that we will have at least 10-15 staff members retire by the end of June.

While their experience and wisdom will surely be missed, I don't begrudge them from moving on while they have their health intact. This also provides an opportunity for young people across the state to become gainfully employed in school systems statewide. After all, that was one of the major goals of the retirement package.

So needless to say, it will be busy around South. Just in a way a little different than previous summers. Let's hope all goes according to plan.

A Good Time Had By All

This past Saturday evening, we held our annual Junior Prom at Assumption Hall. The weather was great, desserts were scrumptious, and the kids danced all night long. All that was missing was a real strong turnout from the junior class.

We typically have about 380 students in each class. If only half of the class attended, we would have done better than the 150 that attended the prom this year. And I specifically noticed that we had quite a few seniors in attendance, along with the typical number of freshmen and sophomores.

I'm not sure why this is happening, but for most dances, attendance has been lacking for a few years now. The exceptions are the Homecoming dance and the Senior Prom. At Homecoming, we typically exceed 1200 students while the Senior Prom will have about 400 in attendance. Of course, Homecoming is larger because it is an "all school" dance and it's held in the fall, not too long after school resumes, and it's less expensive.

Another interesting trend at this year's Junior Prom was that there seemed to be a preponderance of girls. One of the parent chaperones even suggested to me that girls may have outnumbered guys by about 3:1.

If it matters, declining attendance at dances is not just a Grosse Pointe issue. Many administrators around the state have been telling similar stories of reduced attendance at school dances.

It's probably time to look at doing something different as we go forward. Many schools have a combined Junior/Senior Prom, and a similar number only host a Senior Prom. In either case, we have to look at a potential change next spring.

One thing I know for sure is that the problem was not with the organization of the event. The venue was great, the music was appropriate, and the food was very good. The only downside is that many of the dessert offerings remained untouched, even as the evening was ending.

I believe those that attended had a good time. I think a strong barometer of the effectiveness of the music is the number of students that actually danced. And in most cases, 90% of those in attendance were dancing at any given time.

So we will take a look at potential changes in the near future. In two short weeks, we will host the Senior Prom. If we follow past practice, the turnout for that event will be much bigger. It is the culminating event for the high school experience, and if money in a tight economy is to be spent for anything, the preference usually goes to senior prom over the junior prom.

In any event, I am hopeful it is incident free like the prom this past weekend.

Better Than Expected

Yesterday, we finally had our long-awaited search by the drug dogs. I say long awaited because I've been advocating for this (along with others) for several years now.

As a matter of fact, a former South parent emailed me today to congratulate us for going ahead with the search as she remembers a conversation I held with parents back in 2005.

The surprise to us in this particular instance was that we had no advance notice, unless you count about three minutes "advance notice". However, with great cooperation from the Farms, City and various other police departments, we were able to conduct a search of all lockers and parking lots in less than 90 minutes.

I want to give you some inside information about a school search with drug dogs. I didn't know until recently that there are several municipalities that help one another with searches of this type. As you may know, the City of Grosse Pointe has just one drug dog (Raleigh). Tackling a building of this magnitude with one dog would be impossible. The dog works so hard during the search it would be exhausted and unable to continue effectively.

So in this case, there were many dogs. I know of at least 9-10 that I observed, but there may have been even more involved. There were K-9 units from Buena Vista, Redford and Taylor to name a few, and the dogs and handlers were most impressive!

For example, I was in the parking lots with the dogs and if they 'hit' on a car, they were correct in nearly every case. Even a small amount of marijuana residue resulted in a hit by the dog, and that was with the car locked and windows closed.

The reason for the title of this message and that it went better than expected is that we found very little evidence of drug possession. Essentially, we discovered paraphernalia (papers, pipes, etc.) in cars or lockers. Student in possession of these items suffered the consequences outlined in our zero-tolerance policy.

We aren't naive and fully understand this wasn't the perfect search, and we will make some procedural changes next time. However, I am hopeful that searches of this type of more commonplace in the future. Students have to understand that school will not be the place to possess or exchange drugs of any type.

Special thanks to Director Jensen of the Farms and Director Fox of the City for their leadership in making this happen. The sole purpose was to serve as a deterrent for inappropriate behavior.

The Audience Was "Wowed"

I've always been amazed by the talent at South, and it comes in various packages. For example, just this week we received our ACT scores from the March MME testing cycle. The current juniors did very well, with more receiving a score of 35 of 36 than I can ever remember.

But it doesn't end with test performance. The recent Art Fest featured talent as good as I've seen over the past nine years. When I looked at the artwork and the names behind the work, I couldn't figure out how they found time to do all of those pieces on top of their other academic classes. Many of the strongest artists always seem to carry the heaviest academic load.

Last night was one more example. The annual Spring Concert for the Instrumental Music program was held at Music Hall in Detroit. First of all, I have to admit it's a great venue because it trumps the acoustics we can replicate in any of our school buildings. Secondly, there's always a little more electricity in the air when students are in a different place playing for a bigger audience.

Both the band and orchestra performed strong programs packed with difficult music selections. The show also featured seven solo performers from the various groups. However, the final solo for the orchestra featured Candace Rembert playing the viola.

A few words can't express the reaction of the audience. The moment she finished, the crowd was on their feet and the ovation lasted a long time. I can't imagine a more enthusiastic response to a single performance. If you were there, you know what I mean.

I am usually hesitant to single out a particular student like I just did with Candace. However, I can't remember being so blown away by music of any type. The orchestra behind her was terrific, the directing was magnificent, but most of all her passion and enormous talent were evident.

It was truly a memorable moment for the South community.

What, No Parent-Teacher Conferences?

When I first came to Grosse Pointe almost 10 years ago, I was surprised to find the district did not have parent/teacher conferences at the high school level. A better description for my feelings may have been shock instead of surprise. I expected parents in GP to be heavily involved in their child's education, so I fully expected that P/T conferences were a given.

Through the years that I have been in this chair, every once in a while the topic comes up. It is still a rare occurrence, however. But it did come up recently from one parent, and in this case it was a middle school parent.

That got me to thinking. I've thought a lot about the changes over the years. Back when I was teaching, I distinctly remember P/T conferences. The parents would come in twice per year, spring and fall. They would sit across the desk from me and I would show them their student's work. Sometimes, it consisted of grades from the gradebook, while at other times it may be a recent test or term paper. In either case, we discussed the progress of their child in my class. The individual conference was limited to ten minutes, meaning that sometimes there were many things left unsaid.

It was the norm that I would see parents of students that performed adequately or well. However, it was also the norm that I did not get to see the parents I really wanted to see because their students were not doing as well as they should. That was probably the most disappointing aspect of P/T conferences.

Fast forward to today. Much has changed. First of all, all teachers are accessible via email and voicemail. I usually encourage parents to use email because of the ease of responding. You can get to it as soon as you can get to it, and I rarely get a complaint that teachers are slow to respond.

Beyond email and voicemail, however, is the immediate access that parents have through Parent Connect. It gives parents the opportunity to see grades and attendance almost immediately. It more or less provides a video of what has gone on in the classroom on a daily basis. When I think back to P/T conferences of old, they were strictly a snapshot of the student's progress only two times per year.

This is the summary of my thinking. Although I'm surprised we have not had P/T conferences in Grosse Pointe, I'm equally surprised that other school districts have not gone away from it. With the ready access of data available to students and parents, the twice per year meetings seem kind of passe.

I don't anticipate a change in the near future. From the lack of requests that I have had to look into the existing practice, it's apparent most parents feel their needs are being met through Parent Connect and email access to staff.

I wish all of you the best of the Easter season, and feel confident our students and staff will come back refreshed from spring break.

We Need Volunteers

As we approach the end of one school year, we need to complete a task in preparation for next school year. When the seniors graduate in June, we will lose one of our student representatives from our School Improvement Team, Sarah Parker. She will be taking her expansive skill set to the University of Wisconsin to complete her post-graduate studies. So now we need a replacement.

In addition, we are seeking another parent to serve along with Patti Groezinger. Patti has done a great job for us this past year, but has been the only parent rep and we could use a second one.

We are asking interested students in grades 9-10 to apply to fill Sarah's vacancy and are pursuing the services of another parent. Here are some details about the positions:
- the term will be for two years, 2010-11 and 2011-12
- meetings are held monthly, usually on the third Monday of the month, at 3:15
- there may be occasional task-specific meetings of short duration in addition to the monthly meetings
- there will likely be one half-day meeting prior to the start of school for the purpose of data interpretation and goal setting for 2010-11
- representatives selected are expected to serve as liaisons to other South parents and students

Applications for these positions are available through the South website by using the Parent tab and clicking on the School Improvement Team application.

Student applicants are also to use the South website, using the Student tab and clicking on the School Improvement Team application. Both applications are also available in the principal's office, if that is easier for you.

Applications are due to the principal's office by May 3. We hope to make our selections by May 17.

We thank you in advance for your interest.

So Far, So Good

Well, earlier today we finished this round of the annual MME test (Michigan Merit Exam). This test, of course, is required of all juniors and is comprised of the ACT, WorkKeys, and additional content topics that are not covered elsewhere.

The MME testing cycle is one of the biggest undertakings we have all year. There is an old adage that goes like this, "He who controls the test, controls the curriculum". Like it or not, that's the way it is. The movement to state-mandated tests like these limits some of the freedom that was previously allowed in classrooms. It forces teachers to follow the prescribed curriculum much more closely.

There is another adage that is relevant to this topic, "What gets measured; gets taught". We are hopeful our students were well prepared for the tests they just completed.

I have my own perceptions based upon what I observed, and this is some of what I saw:
- a serious approach, from both students and staff
- a positive and confident atmosphere, again exhibited by both students and staff
- terrific attendance, of the 346 juniors scheduled for the ACT on Tuesday, NO ONE was absent
- attendance was great all three days, the highest absenteeism was on Thursday, with only four students absent

We won't know the results of the tests for a few months, but all signs are positive at this point. We can only hope the early indications hold true.