January 13, 2013-Day 9 Post-session assignment: 1.

As you think about exemplary leadership practices during times of scarcity in resources, what connection do you make between trustworthiness and decision-making about district priorities? Some connections between trustworthiness and decision-making/district priorities during a time of scarcity and in resources are: Cuts in spending on curriculum materials- with these actions, teachers begin to wonder how they will continue to do what they've always done with a different or smaller set of materials and then they begin to not trust the way districts choose to spend money. This leads to distrust in general in leadership decisions. Staff reductions- similar to materials reductions above, staff begin to wonder why leaders make these decisions, and then begin to distrust "why" they make the decisions they do, often because they don't have a full picture of the financial picture of the district. Annual evaluations- with the increase in accountability, teachers feel more vulnerable about their jobs and often don't trust that administrators will give them a fair evaluation now that there is more frequent and more meaningful evaluation processes (rather than a validation every three years). 2. When you consider your districts initiatives and multiple budget priorities, are you able to articulate the connection of each to student achievement? What concerns do you have? Relate this to Standard 3.1: The administrator will use research-based knowledge of learning, teaching, student development, organizational development, and data management to optimize learning for all students. I believe we are doing more and more of this in our district. The biggest example I have is with this year's curriculum purchase cycle being mathematics, we have been slowly realizing that with the implementation of the Common Core, we can't just purchases a new "program" just because we have always done this. We are now looking at how we might invest our dollars in work time for our teachers to develop comprehensive maps and get on the same page with "what" and "how" we will deliver our guaranteed and viable curriculum. The final decision has not been made, so we will see where this ends up :) 3. When you consider making changes in your leadership practice regarding processes for budgetary decisions, what concerns do you have? I have concerns about limiting our technology budget the most. I believe that we still have the funds to cultivate our teachers and continue work identifying our guaranteed curriculum. However, if we don't keep up and move forward with technology, I worry that we will fall behind in providing our students with frequent opportunities to work with devices that are functioning well.

4. When you consider strategies for communicating the district vision, encouraging creative thinking among stakeholders, and articulating district priorities, what skills do you most want to strengthen? Relate this answer to Standard 3.7: The administrator will involve stakeholders in aligning resources and priorities to maximize ownership and accountability. We are committed to improving our communication from Central Office on curriculum matters. We have begun a newsletter that goes out three times per year and will continue that to relay large scale curriculum updates like Common Core, Next Generation, and C3 for social studies. We have created two vertical teams in the areas of Math and Writing to educate them at a depth that they can then take information back to PLCs. We would like to do quicker updates either through edmoto and include quick videos or via twitter. We also realize that we need to get our principals more involved in our leadership teams in order to properly support the vertical members in disseminating the vision and expectations. 5. Are you aware of an innovative idea regarding finances that would be helpful to share with the group? Be prepared to share.

I just heard an idea yesterday that could potentially save a little money or work in particular situations when you have some small classes with a "bubble" class coming through eventually, which is to offer leaves of absences for those who might be willing to try something new or take some time off, instead of just completely eliminating positions. Other than that, I believe most of the shrinking we are doing, is pretty traditional, cutting budgets, freezing spending and staff reductions.