Just As Expected

Here we are headed into the Fourth of July weekend, and things look just about as expected. The S-lot has already undergone a major renovation. The old surface has been removed, the fencing taken down, and the entrance widened. The construction crew is heavily invested in the process of laying down the base, first sand and now stone. We anticipate they will start to pour the cement curbs in about another week.

The courtyard between the main building and S-building has also been dismantled. By that I mean that the old cement has been removed and the contractors are preparing the surface for new walkways. There is no timeline yet for installation of the new cement or replacement of some of the damaged landscaping, but we should be finished before the school year begins.

In the main building, the first floor hallway is primarily a construction zone. More than half of the ceiling tiles and old lights have been removed, plywood covers the floor, and plastic covers the lockers and entrance ways. As I write this, the electricians are updating the electrical boxes and installing new conduit as needed. We anticipate that around the first of August we will begin to see new ceiling tiles and lights.

The multi-purpose room is also busy right now, getting a pipe grid installed to hang curtains. This addition will increase the flexibility for that space, allowing the dance mirrors to be covered when necessary, and areas to be sectioned off. The curtains were part of the original design, but we had trouble getting specifications for the correct piping.

And beginning the week of July 12, we will be conducting interviews to fill the various vacancies in our building. We anticipate about 6-7 full days of interviews as we begin to pare down our list of candidates.

The vacancies were just formally announced on the website yesterday, and already I've received numerous qualified applicants. Hiring strong teachers is one of the most important aspects of our job, and we take it very seriously.

Wish us luck, and enjoy the Holiday weekend.

Year-End Odds And Ends

It's about 2:00 on Graduation Day, June 17. As I look onto the front lawn at the stage and chairs, I am put at ease by what is most apparent...big blue skies and a great temperature. It looks like we are most blessed with a terrific day and evening for our Commencement ceremonies.

Even though classes were dismissed for the summer earlier today, there is still a beehive of activity in preparation for this evening. Chairs are still being arranged, sound systems are checked, and flowers are staged. There is a lot of positive energy. It's an exciting time for more than just the graduates, as the families and our staff put a lot of emphasis on this day.

On another note, we have 17 teachers that will be taking advantage of the retirement proposal that recently passed through the state legislature. When that change was combined with the "early retirement incentive" from the district, it became an offer too good to pass up.

This is unfortunate for those that remain because by my conservative estimates, we will have more than 400 years of successful teaching experience walk out our doors for the last time tomorrow. So we have big shoes to fill. There will be many interviews conducted over the summer with the intent of finding replacements that can quickly get up to speed with our curriculum and course expectations.

Wish us luck with both the events of this evening and in finding replacements for such a terrific group of veteran teachers.

And many thanks to everyone for another successful year at South!

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.