Author Archives: chipjones

Each week my Superintendent post a 21st Century Learning “Tip of the Week”. The tip is sent to all employees, school board members, and local governing body officials. The weekly tip is a great reminder of how classrooms of today need to be structured to meet our students needs. Below is the tip for this [...]
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The article link referenced below is a great reminder for everyone. The link was sent to a all administrators in my school division on Monday morning. It is hard to imagine that a simple piece of paper can mean so much. Enjoy! The Sticky Note:  http://www.edutopia.org/blog/sticky-note-teaching-tool-ben-johnson
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The article below was sent to administrators in our school division this morning. I found it to very helpful as a new week begins. Enjoy! Michael Kennedy, after 38 years of teaching in Vermont and Minnesota, has recently decided to retire from classroom teaching.  In an article in the Star Tribune, he has listed a [...]
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Over the last couple of weeks I have encountered many opportunities to practice my listening skills. Until recently I have always thought I was a good listener. The texts that are being used in class as well as the activities have made me realize that listening was not one of my strongest qualities. I realized [...]
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Today I dealt with a personnel issue that I became aware of late Friday afternoon. I thought about the situation throughout the weekend pondering my path of action. I knew both parties needed to have their due process and I needed to get more information from their immediate supervisor. I met with both parties involved [...]
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Each day one of the most policy driven areas I seem to deal with is personnel. This area can be very complex and very time consuming especially in dealing with all the paperwork. Personnel is a challenge because you know the person is a great person on the social side but the professional side he [...] Read more »

The following is an excerpt from the February 29, 2012 VSBA newsletter. I found this very interesting and informing as we continue our journey on becoming future superintendents.  Enjoy! Sycamore County School BoardNot the Best Use of the Superintendent’s Time Ed Ukates, Sycamore Public Schools Division Superintendent, sipped his morning java and ate his “Special [...] Read more »

Last week I had the privilege of attending a symposium at Hampden Sydney College.  The speaker I heard was Dr. Bryant Marks from Morehouse College who spoke about “Meeting Them Where They Are: Student-Centered Approaches to Educating Males in College”. The speaker was very engaging and his message could be applied to K-12 education as [...] Read more »

Everyone thinks of February as the month of love. I believe this is very ironic  because in the world of education it means budget time.  Budget times brings out anything but love.  School divisions begin recommending possible cuts due to loss of revenue.The recommended cuts are usually personnel. As budget information becomes available people begin [...] Read more »

One of the major pieces of legislation that is being considered by the General Assembly that would impact my school division is the repeal of the Kings Dominion Law. If the GA passes this bill it would create a policy that returns control to the local governing body. It would show school divisions that politicians [...] Read more »