Monroe Central School Corporation

From the Superintendents Desk
April 23, 2010

SUMMER HOURS OF OPERATION: Just a reminder, the staff, to include custodians and secrataries will be working four ten hour days in the summer. As I stated earlier in the spring, we are utilizing this as a cost savings measure to minimize our utility costs. The buildings will have the thermostats turned down and lights turned off (with the exception of emergency lights). We will evaluate the effect this has on our utility expenses and compare it to the productivity of our staff over the course of the summer. We will base a decision on four days work weeks in the summer off of our findings. The Superintendents Office will be open Monday thru Friday.

RACE TO THE TOP: Indiana will not compete for the remaining federal “Race to the Top” grant money. “State superintendent Tony Bennett announced Thursday that he will not complete the state’s application because of a disagreement with Indiana’s largest teachers union over proposed school reforms. Bennett’s plan called for student testing and performance to account for at least 51 percent of teacher and principal evaluations. Bennett claimed those changes would make Indiana competitive with other states. The Indiana State Teacher’s Association argued that the changes were unfair and that teacher support alone would not have helped the state’s bid.”
– Indianapolis Star, August 23, 2010
However, as a corporation we will still strive to reform our processes to continue to move us into modern approaches for delivery of instruction. An excellent author to read in your spare time is Dr. Willard Daggett. He has spearheaded education reform in many states and authored numerous books relating to brain research and educational reform. I encourage you to visit his website at; http://www.leadered.com/

REMINDER- – - – - – - INSTRUCTIONAL DAYS: Waiver for Snow Days: I wanted to again, share the following information, in talking with Dr. Bennett there will be no waivers for missed school days. Therefore, we are solid with the following days due to the weather related cancellations;
• JUN 9 Last Day for Seniors
• JUN 11 Graduation Rehearsal
• JUN 11 Senior Awards Program (PM)
• JUN 11 Last Day for Underclassmen
• JUN 13 Commencement
• JUN 14 Teachers Last Day/Staff Recognition Breakfast

CORPORATION ASSESSMENT SCHEDULE:
April 26th – May 5th I-STEP+ (Multiple-Choice) for grades 3rd – 8th
May 24th – May 28th ECA for English 10 (On-Line)
May 24th – May 28th ECA for Biology 10 (On-Line)
June 1st – June 4th ECA for Algebra I (Paper/Pencil)

DEPLOYMENT INFORMATION: If you are interested, I now have a link on our corporation main page for my deployment to Afghanistan. I will be blogging during the course of the next school year on the different activities that are taking place in my role with the Agribusiness Development Team. I hope to have pictures of the schools in which I will be working and other interesting points in this region of Afghanistan.

“The greatest gifts my parents gave to me………
-Were their unconditional love and set of values.
-Values that they lived and didn’t just lecture abvout.
-Values that included an understanding of the simple
difference Betwee right and wrong,
-A belief in God,
-The importance of hard work and education,
-Self-Respect and a belief in America”

-General Colin Powell
(United States Army, Retired)

Sincerely,
Shane Robbins