By Dr. John Urkevich, Executive Director

Each summer Cooperating School Districts’ CHARACTERplus® program holds the Character Education Conference. On July 9 and 10, 2010, the 15th annual conference takes place in St. Louis, Missouri at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis Riverfront Hotel.

CHARACTERplus® works to advance the cause of character education and sustain its impact on the lives of educators and students by:

• designing, promoting and facilitating processes and best practices;
• serving educators and enhancing their commitment to character education;
• actively recruiting and developing community support; and
• continually evaluating the impact of our programs and services.

CHARACTERplus® has grown dramatically in the past sixteen years. We now serve over 186 school districts, more than 30,000 teachers, and 425,000 students in over 877 schools.

According to CHARACTERplus® Director Liz Gibbons, “it is our hope that this conference and the excellent presenters will inspire and motivate you to be the change agent for your schools and communities.  The difference effective character education can make in school culture, and in the community, is astounding.”

At the two-day conference, there are four keynote speakers: Marvin Berkowitz, Professor of Character Education, on “The Prime of Character Education”; Todd Whitaker, Professor of Educational Leadership, on “What Great Teachers Do Differently: 14 Things That Matter Most”; Barbara Lewis, Consultant & Former Teacher, on “Youth of Integrity Changing The Future”;  and Clifton Taulbert, President & Founder, on “Their Promising Future: our Goal.”

Other topics include: Going Green With Character Education, Film Clips for Character Education, The Culture of Character, What Does a Hero Look Like?, and NoMOre Bullying.

For more information on the 15th annual Character Education Conference, please visit the CHARACTERplus® website.

This spring, the TELE received a major overhaul: two new interactive whiteboards (one SMART Board, one Promethean Activboard) with attached projectors, a new high definition Polycom 9000, a flat screen TV, and a new audio system.

The TELE classes offered by the VLC assist teachers in integrating technology such as interactive whiteboards and videoconference equipment, plus Web 2.0 applications like blogs and wikis, into the classroom. By utilizing technology in their schools, educators are able to meet 21^st Century skills.

21^st Century skills set includes:

• Information and communication skills (information and media literacy skills; communication skills)
• Thinking and problem-solving (critical thinking and systems thinking; problem identification, formulation and solution; creativity and intellectual curiosity)
• Interpersonal and self-direction skills (interpersonal and collaborative skills; self-direction; accountability and adaptability; social responsibility)
• Global awareness
• Financial, economic and business literacy, and developing entrepreneurial skills to enhance workplace productivity and career options
• Civic literacy

We all know the importance of teachers utilizing technology to engage their students in their learning in the 21^st Century. Students enjoy collaboration and easily work with technology and Web 2.0 applications for problem solving and communicating. These skills will translate as they enter the workforce in the years to come. CSD strives to keep our students engaged in their schoolwork by providing teachers’ professional development to incorporate 21^st Century skills with technology use in their classes.

By Dr. John Urkevich, Executive Director

Earlier this week, Dr. Dolores Gunn, Director of the Saint Louis County Health Department, met with Cooperating School Districts member districts to discuss issues surrounding the H1N1 virus (commonly known as Swine Flu).

Dr. Gunn stated that the Saint Louis County Health Department is prepared to close down a school if a probable or confirmed case of H1N1 is identified (99 percent of probable cases are confirmed positive within 72 hours, so they are treated just as seriously as confirmed cases).

While she spoke, reports were surfacing that the US is advising against closing schools at the present time. Dr. Gunn responded by indicating that the ultimate decision lies on the local level, and her recommendation would still be to close a school if a probable or confirmed case is identified.

Dr. Gunn also told meeting attendees that the Health Department is monitoring the situation and is in constant communication with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

However, because 61 percent of the people who get the H1N1 virus are under the age of 18, it is very possible that a student in a St. Louis area K-12 school could come down with it. The following is information that will be critical in case school closure becomes a possibility:

• Public health officials will give the best advice possible for public health and will work closely with school administrators.
• Schools can be closed for even one probable or confirmed case.
• School closures can last for up to 14 days.
• In districts where multiple schools are located on the same campus, more than one school may be closed with one case because of that proximity.
• When schools are closed, all extracurricular school-based activities will also be shut down.
• If a child has a confirmed case and has siblings who attend other schools, everyone in that family will be tested before any of those children return to school.  It may or may not be necessary to close the school a sibling attends.

Since every case and school district is different, districts will need to be flexible when dealing with an H1N1 case and the investigation that follows. Dr. Gunn noted that public health investigations involving schools are very detailed and take some time to follow the trail of the virus through a school community.

Dr. Gunn also said that if a school nurse treats a student with a temperature over 100 degrees, a sore throat and other signs of the flu, that student should be sent home. If a school wishes to require a doctor’s note for that student to return to school, the Health Department would stand behind that requirement.

The good news was that this virus is flawed and having trouble replicating itself. Although it is still a threat, the flu is not spreading as quickly as initially thought. There is a chance, however, that the H1N1 virus could come back much stronger when flu season comes in the fall, just as school is starting again.

Remember, prevention is key. According to the CDC website, “serious respiratory illnesses like influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), whooping cough, and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) are spread by:

• Coughing or sneezing
• Unclean hands

To help stop the spread of germs,

• Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze.
• Put your used tissue in the wastebasket.
• If you don’t have a tissue, cough or sneeze into your upper sleeve, not your hands.

Clean your hands after coughing or sneezing

• Wash with soap and water  or
• Clean with alcohol-based hand cleaner.”

For more resources on H1N1, please visit these websites:
http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/
http://www.stlouisco.com/doh/Flu/SwineFlu.htm
http://www.education.com/topic/swine-flu/

If requested by the Health Department to do so, CSD will share any changes with districts on how schools should approach the H1N1 virus.

By Dr. John Urkevich, Executive Director

Missouri House Bill 2 “appropriates money for the expenses, grants, refunds, and distributions of the State Board of Education and Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.” If this bill were voted into law, funding would be eliminated for teacher professional development. The purging of funds for professional development would likely mean the closure of Regional Professional Development Centers in the state. HB2 has passed the House and is now in the Senate for consideration.

Created by Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education as part of the Educational Reform Act of 1993, the St. Louis Regional Professional Development Center is one of nine regional centers strategically placed across Missouri. More than 250,000 teachers each year receive professional development through Missouri’s RPDCs.

The St. Louis RPDC operates under contract with Cooperating School Districts, and combines CSD staff development opportunities with DESE resources.

The Regional Professional Development Centers act as a vehicle for school improvement. What does the RPDC provide educators?

•       premier growth and development opportunities
•       community resources
•       specialized academies
•       consulting and evaluation services
•       information about models and applications of current research

In St. Louis, the pooled resources between DESE and CSD make it possible for the RPDC to offer cost-effective, high quality professional development with both national and local experts. The Regional Professional Development Centers are key to offering proven, research based programs to teachers and administrators in Missouri, which will result in improving education for our students.

Here is a short list of examples of workshops and programs offered by the outstanding staff of St. Louis RPDC:

•       St. Louis Teacher Academy
•       Quality Health and Physical Education Workshops
•       STEM – Starting Everyday Mathematics
•       Cognitive Coaching
•       Aspiring Principals
•       Music Educator Forums
•       Best Practice Institute
•       Team Building
•       Instructional Coaching
•       Research-Based Strategies
•       DOK – Depth of Knowledge

If Missouri’s Regional Professional Development Centers were to be closed due to lack of funding by the state, it would severely limit our ability to train and retrain teachers to affect much needed improvement in skills necessary to educate children for the 21st century. Educators need to both teach and learn, and the St. Louis RPDC, and those across the state, facilitates important continuing education.

CSD is currently working with our state Senators in order to get money to fund our RPDCs. To learn how to contact your state Representative and Senator to share your opinion on the importance of our RDPCs, please visit Cooperating School Districts’ Legislative Updates and Advocacy website.

By Dr. John Urkevich, Executive Director

In February, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act- known to many as “stimulus money”- was signed into law. ARRA provides for over $100 billion for preschool, K-12 education and higher education. Allocating funding is not an easy task. The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education anticipates program guidance from the United States Department of Education on how to best utilize ARRA quickly and efficiently. Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has established Transform Missouri Initiative, which reveals his vision of how to use ARRA funding. DESE is working with the governor’s office on the initiative. On a local level, St. Louis area superintendents have met at Cooperating School Districts to discuss what ARRA means their districts.

With ARRA, there will be several Formula Grants and Competitive Grants. Also, ARRA creates a new category of tax credit bonds. These bonds can be used for rehabilitation, construction or repair of school facilities. Land acquisition for the construction of schools also falls under the tax credit bond.

Another exciting opportunity to come from ARRA is increased funding to technology in education. Apple recently released a white paper on ARRA, Stimulus Opportunities for Integrating Technology with Educational Goals. Included was information about the short-term crisis and information about long-term opportunities, like 21st century learning: “[ARRA] recognized that technology is fundamental to teaching and learning in the 21st century— and includes ample opportunities for states and educators across American to leverage technology to meet their elementary, secondary and postsecondary priorities.”

For K-12 education, according to the white paper, “the stimulus package dedicates additional funding to existing technology programs, including the federal Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) program.” Increased broadband in rural areas, school modernization and additional funding for Special Education will result in ARRA.

I’ve only touched on what will come about from ARRA. For information from DESE on ARRA, click here. For information from Apple on ARRA, click here. Come back to Education Today to read future blog posts on this important topic.

By Dr. John Urkevich, Executive Director

As you know, Cooperating School Districts of Greater St. Louis (CSD) offers several job-alike groups and professional development academies for our member districts. Two groups I would like to feature in this post are the Support Staff Academy (SSA) and the Executive Professional Academy (EPA).

SSA, in its 17th year, is a program designed to provide professional development to noncertified educational support professionals (administrative assistants, secretaries/office personnel, maintenance/custodial staff, food service employees, security officers, teachers aides and library aides) in St. Louis area districts. Annually and throughout the school year, several programs are held on topics like time management, legal issues, and computer applications. At the end of the year, the SSA Mini-Conference takes place. In 2009, the Mini-Conference is all day on Wednesday, June 10 at Maryville University. Speakers include keynote Judith Collins, PhD (on Heroic Leadership: 4 Principals for Transforming your Life), the Virtual Learning Center’s Martha Bogart and Nancy George, and author Jim Mullins (Champs and Chumps: Antiphonal Proverbs for Leaders), plus more. Click here for more information on the SSA.

EPA, on the other hand, is in its first year. This newly established job-alike group is for district level executive assistants. Their mission statement is: The Executive Professional Academy (EPA) will take a prominent role advocating a dynamic high-quality training and networking program for Executive Administrative Assistants to the Superintendent and to the Board of Education. The vision of the select group is to promote and support life-long learning, leadership and team networking to executive level assistants that will positively impact school districts and contribute to the academic achievement of all students. EPA meets monthly; content flips every-other-month between administrative meetings and professional development programming.

For more information on both SSA and EPA, contact Conference & Special Events Coordinator Dorothy White.

By Dr. John Urkevich, Executive Director

Recently the American School Board Journal compiled a list of legal topics prevalent in K-12 education today. (Click here for the accompanying article in the journal by Del Stover and Glenn Cook).

What’s On Your Legal List?

“Members of the Council of School Attorneys were asked to pick the top 10 issues from a list of 19 topics identified by the editors of American School Board Journal and NSBA’s Office of General Counsel. The survey was conducted in early November 2008, and 209 responses were received.

The top 10 legal issues in K-12 education, in order, are:
1.  Employee discrimination/termination
2.  Finance adequacy and equity issues
3.  Student discipline
4.  Collective bargaining
5.  Employment issues related to changes in the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Family Medical Leave Act
6.  Private placement issues related to special education
7.  Disputes regarding attorney fees in special education cases
8.  Free speech
9.  Educator sexual misconduct
10. No Child Left Behind Act interventions

Topics that received votes but were not in the top 10 were: employee and student misuse of the Internet; student searches; civil rights; discrimination; sexual harassment/sex discrimination claims; denial of Free Appropriate Public Education under Section 504 for Students with Disabilities; student and employee privacy; school board member governance; and contract issues such as superintendent procurement.“

Missouri schools are not immune to these above complicated issues. As recently as January 12, Missouri School Board’s Association (MSBA) posted on their “Legal Pad” section of their website, regarding employee background checks: “Districts must be very careful not to release the results of a criminal background check to anyone other than the applicant and those responsible for the hiring and contracting of staff. Districts are advised to make a list of the individuals authorized to receive the results of the background check. If the results are ever released to someone other than a person on that list, the district should make a record of when, why and to whom the record was released.”

Other matters listed on MSBA’s website include Collective Bargaining, Special Education, and Online Social Networking Profiles.

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) has several web pages devoted to No Child Left Behind to navigate to help educators and parents. In addition, last year, a group of St. Louis area superintendents and I connected over videoconference to Congressmen Russ Carnahan (D-Missouri) and George Miller (D-California) to discuss NCLB and air our concerns.

Clearly there is no doubt administrators have many legal matters to contend with in schools as well as many resources to help them with such concerns. What K-12 legal issues challenge you? What kind of measures do you take when working with them?

By Dr. John Urkevich, Executive Director

Technology is a valuable and relevant tool in the classroom that helps engage students to question, think and achieve at a higher understanding. What technology tools do you use to reach and teach your students and make learning relevant? The annual Midwest Education Technology Conference is bringing together a diverse group of speakers to share their knowledge, experience, strategies and expertise using established and emerging technologies in the classroom. As educators we must prepare our students for new jobs that have not yet been created by giving them the skills to question, gather, evaluate and finally produce new solutions or products.

METC is a program of Cooperating School Districts and 2009 marks the 26th year of the conference. Later this month, from January 26-28, an estimated 1,500 educators from across the country will gather at the St. Charles Convention Center to learn and share the latest in technology in K-12 education. METC 2009 invites teachers, media specialists, administrators, technical support and other education-minded people who have effective instructional technology programs and management strategies to share their methods, plans and successes. METC 2009 offers over 200 breakout sessions in eleven strands, to meet the needs of its varied audience and to incorporate its theme, Technology Tools of Engagement: R U There? Strands include:

•    1:1 Initiatives (one laptop/handheld/desktop per student)
•    Curriculum & Instruction based on Assessment and Data
•    Differentiated Instruction
•    Digital Media
•    Instructional Technology Integration
•    Library Technology Integration
•    Mobile Technology (Palm, MP3 Player, Cell Phone)
•    Technology Integration 101
•    Technology Leadership
•    Technical & Networking
•    Web 2.0 (Read/Write Web)

To read more on the Midwest Education Technology Conference, you can visit the conference website at http://www2.csd.org/metc2009.htm or follow updates on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/metc2009. METC registration is still open, and CSD encourages you to consider attending!

By Dr. John Urkevich, Executive Director

Today, November 4, 2008, is Election Day! One of the greatest freedoms we have in America is the access to vote, so be sure to visit your local polls today!

Yesterday, Cooperating School Districts welcomed a special group of visitors: Russian-speaking educators from Kyrgyzstan. The visit was coordinated through Irina Bronstein LaRose with the World Affairs Council of St. Louis and Diane Stirling with Cooperating School Districts’ CHARACTERplus. Thank you to both for their efforts.

Our visitors learned about the many services and programs offered through CSD that make a difference in the education of students in our region. From CHARACTERplus and the Virtual Learning Center to REAP and the International Education Consortium, CSD’s services help school districts work to improve the quality of education for all.

One of the topics of discussion was CSD’s advocacy work on legislative issues. I walked the group through CSD’s Legislative Action Center, a multi-faceted online tool that allows citizens to engage in the legislative process by learning more about bills and taking action on proposed legislation by contacting their legislators directly. The online tool allows you to input your home address and, at the click of a mouse, immediately obtain information about your national, state and local elected officials. If you have yet to visit CSD’s Legislative Action Center Web site, please do so by clicking HERE.

As we prepare for the start of the Missouri General Assembly, your interest and support of public education issues is vital. As I have shared before, it is the collective voice of constituents in our public school communities that truly make the difference in raising awareness and influencing legislators on important issues that impact public schools. CSD’s Legislative Platform is approved and will be used as a benchmark for advocating for our member districts. Please click HERE to view the platform.

Be sure to vote today!

By Dr. John Urkevich, Executive Director

NOTE: Within this blog is a video link you do not want to miss! Before I get into my blog, I want to encourage you to watch this short video and think about our world today and the powerful role technology can play in our students’ education.

CSD of Greater St. Louis, Inc. was recently recognized by the Gateway Media Literacy Partners for our commitment to the promotion of media literacy education. We appreciate this recognition. As an organization, we remain committed to helping our school districts integrate technology into the classroom and promote media literacy. CSD is currently looking at our technology infrastructure and forming an internal committee to assess where we are at as we move forward in the 21st century.

Our students are competing on a global stage now more than ever. With social media tools, such as blogs, and students’ use of technology in their daily life, it’s essential that our schools integrate these tools in classroom instruction. I encourage you to become familiar with CSD’s Virtual Learning Center, a department focused on integrating technology into classroom learning. The Virtual Learning Center hosts regular videoconferencing for teachers and students that allow them access to the world beyond classroom walls. To learn more about these videoconferences and other programs, including technology training for teachers, visit the VLC’s blog called The Wired Classroom.

Each year, CSD sponsors the Midwest Education Technology Conference (METC) and we are currently exploring the possibility of holding a one-day Technology Integration Summit for our member districts to share best practices and further develop knowledge of integrating technology and the use of Web 2.0 tools into the classroom.

We’ll keep you posted on our efforts in technology as we continue to help our districts network in this area and leverage our cooperation to help students succeed in school and in life.

Thank you to Stan Smith, Instructional Technology Coordinator in the Warrensburg (Mo.) R-VI School District, for his creation of the “Allison’s Day” video. This powerful video shows how one school has successfully integrated technology into classroom learning as they work to prepare students for life in the 21st century. Stacey Franks from CSD’s Virtural Learning Center worked on this project with Stan Smith and trained the teachers in this video.