NSBA 2016 Boston

The 76th Annual  NSBA Conference was held this year in Boston, MA.  This conference had some very interesting break-out sessions that focused on just about every area of school-related governance one could imagine.  The highlight for me this year was a presentation by the Chairman of the Governmental Acoounting Standards Board (GASB) concerning changes on the horizon pertaining to how pension and other post-employment benefits are to be reflected in the financial statements of governmental entities going forward.  These costs represent significant liabilities for small governments and school boards nation-wide, and with the new accounting protocols dictating the way such liabilities are indicated in financial statements will be something to watch closely in the years ahead.

Dan Rather gives a humble, self deprecating speech to NSBA in Boston
Massachusetts, 4-9-2016 

Two of the featured session speakers, Dan Rather and Robin Roberts, gave speeches to the assembled thousands that were well received by the crowd.  Dan Rather described his thoughts on education and he hammered the point home that he believed that early childhood education was critical.  He said it was his belief that the schools should be engaged with parents from birth through pre-kindergarten.  In terms of funding this ambitious initiative, Rather stated "I do not have any ideas on how to fund this, though." Rather described his time in the United States Marine Corps as "short and not distinguished."  He was plugging his new book Rather Outspoken: My Life in the News  available now at a bookstore near you.

Robin Roberts' message was one of optimism and hopefulness.  She described her childhood as a
daughter of a military man, and she discussed her dreams of being a professional tennis player.  She ended up being a basketball standout that attended college in Louisiana on a full-ride scholarship.  Interestingly, one of her first broadcasting jobs, in addition to doing the sports reports on a small station, was as a Country/Western Music DJ!  Interesting speech about her fight with cancer and how she beat that deadly disease.

Along with the featured speakers, I was fortunate to be able to meet many other school board members from around the country, and I enjoyed and learned much from attending break-outs on:

--School Law and the latest hot-button topics
--winning bond elections
--calculating the value of a school district's economic impact on a community
--an excellent and informative presentation of all of the fun and useful tools Google offers

It was a great couple of days in Boston that will help me be a better school board member for the remainder of my tenure on the board!

#NSBAConference 2015 Nashville-Day 3--VPK, Distance Learning in Alaska, and Montel Williams.

Day three of the NSBA conference for 2015 began with a break out session on the value of VPK programs-- presented by officials from Pennsylvania that are intimately involved with VPK in that state.  I must admit that I attended this session with an open mind, however I remain skeptical as to the educational benefits, long term, that these programs impart. Nancy Fishman, the director of Pennsylvania's Early Learning Investment Coalition, and Kathy Swope, the 2015 President-Elect of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, led the panel.  The presentation began with graphics illustrating that the human brain develops the majority of its simplest, yet most important "circuits" early in life, with sensory pathways, language, and higher cognitive functions developing in the first five years.  The group described the educational benefits of ECE based upon results gleaned from the Perry/Highscope project from the 1960's.  Several other studies were mentioned, but no one specific study was listed as the proof that investment in ECE increases graduation rates.  A couple of interesting survey responses were presented in this session, although the value of this information does not really pertain to the efficacy of ECE programs so far as I can tell.  Statistic One:  93% of more than 300 employees surveyed agreed that a candidate's demonstrated soft skills (extensive list here) are more important than their undergraduate degree of study.  Statistic two:  56% of 1000 middle schoolers would rather eat broccoli than do math homework?  Also stated at the conference without any studies supporting the claim was that larger investments in ECE reduce a school district's ESE spending.  Interesting tidbit that I will look into and research.  At the end of the study I asked the panel to explain where the proof of ECE's long lasting educational impacts could be found and I asked their thoughts on the recent Vanderbilt Peabody study and the Head-Start study that appeared to both show no lasting long-term academic benefit from these programs.  The panel said that they believe the head start study had design flaws.  Needless to say, I'm still skeptical.  I believe these programs are beneficial socially, economically, and that these programs may ease transition into school for students--however I take issue with the huge amounts of taxpayer cash being fed to these programs under the guise that these programs result in higher graduation rates.  I have seen no compelling proof of this from well constructed research.

The next presentation I attended was a discussion of distance learning presented by members of the Lower Kuskokwim School District  (LKSD)from Bethel, Alaska.  This district's story is compelling.  This district is in a part of Alaska that has no roads--most all transportation takes place by air, boat, or snow machine.  The district has 4,100 students spread out in small towns and Native Alaskan Villages in a massive geographical area of 21,000 square miles--roughly the same size of the entire state of West Virginia!  To ensure all students in this district receive a world-class education, the district has invested in an extensive wireless network that links all of the school sites via computer.  The cost of the wireless network in an astonishingly huge $23 Million yearly--however the superintendent reported that the majority of this cost is met by federal and state grants.  Many of the students receive their education remotely via Video Tele-Conferencing (VTC)--which solves what would otherwise be a daunting transportation challenge. This district has made huge strides in technology; to put this district's massive move toward technology into perspective, the presenters note that as late as 1979--there was but one (1) phone in the entire town of Bethel, the main city in this district. People from around the whole area would have to line up at city hall to take "turns" using the phone.  Nowadays,  students in LKSD have many teachers that remote in from Alaska and also from as far away as Wisconsin.  The technology allows students in this remote part of the world to access the resources necessary to receive a world class education--and this district has fielded championship robotics teams three years running--teams that have competed in the world robotics challenge.  Interestingly, this district's students are utilizing technology today that is literally on the cutting edge--technology that in many respects points to the future of education for many students in our nation that live in remote areas.

The final presentation of the day was a fiery, inspirational appearance by television personality Montel Williams.  He came to NSBA's final general session with an up-beat, positive message for the assembled school board members.  Before he even started his presentation, he led the audience in a series of exercises to "Wake the crowd up" he stated.  He walked around the room for most of his presentation, rarely getting up on the stage.  He talked a lot about his own journey in life and his early days in public schools, and some of his challenges and many of his successes.  He thanked the crowd for what they do for enhancing American education, proudly exclaiming to the crowd "Do you know that our graduation rates in America today are at 82%, and this is an all-time high!"  he continued "We hear a lot about this country doing this or beating us by three points on this test or that metric---but let me tell you what, Who Cares! I mean, when was the last time Finland or Sweden produced  a start-up company that anyone has heard of?!? We live in America, the greatest country in the World" said Williams to enthusiastic applause.  He next talked about his military service, and his enlistment in the U. S. Marine Corps where he excelled and was invited to attend the Naval Academy and was the only African-American selectee among the 40 who were chosen for this honor.  Eventually, he was but one of 4 that completed their education in the Naval Academy from this original group of 40.  Williams earned his degree in Engineering, attended the Defense Language Institute in Monterrey, California where he learned to speak Russian.  He ended up serving the country for 22 years in the Marines.  After his service, he began a successful career in television broadcasting, with a 17 year run doing "The Montel Williams Show"  His message to the group was to keep working hard to make the public schools as good as they can be, and he imparted his no excuses mantra to the audience>, stating "It does not matter where you come from, what your family looks like, what your level of support is--none of that matters as long as you are supported with a strong public school--you can succeed in America!"

#NSBAConference2015 Nashville-Day 1

The first 24 hours in Nashville have flown by and the day has been eventful.

After landing in Nashville, the first interesting contact I had was with "JD" the airport shuttle driver.

He was a personable, funny guy, telling jokes and playing the harmonica for the half-dozen weary travelers headed to multiple downtown hotels in his van.

He talked about his days playing music professionally with several local bands, and he treated us to a grainy video of a performance that featured him on the harmonica, from the early 90's.  It was a great performance--he looked a bit different in the video-kind of like  Patrick Swayze with a mullet.  JD told us all "I had a lot more hair back then"  He did! (we all did!)

I told him I liked the way he played the harmonica-and I tipped him.  I was the second to  last passenger dropped off.

The next day on my 1 mile walk to the convention (which I enjoyed) I found the McDonald's that isn't friendly to homeless folks (there were a lot of them milling around)  I've never seen a sign like what was posted on the wall there "Thirty minutes maximum visit length while consuming food!"

I only spent five minutes there, washing down a sausage biscuit with a coffee as I made the final stretch over to Music City Center.

The session kicked off with what was advertised as a speech from Arianna Huffington.  Thankfully, Huffington backed out and Jane Pauley was brought in to fill in the slot.

I was genuinely impressed with Pauley's 40 minute conversation with the 6000 board members in the giant main hall.  Her stories were self-depricating, honest, personal, and humorous.  Her message was positive, and she told stories of many average citizens who make big impacts on society.  She talked about life spans expanding and the definition of retirement evolving.  She urged the audience to find something to be passionate about, stating "Inspiration is everywhere, you just have to be looking for it, and you will find it"

Next I attended a series of three break-out sessions, learning about different approaches to school policing during a presentation by @safeschools, a company with 30 years of school consulting experience regarding school safety and security.  The main thrust was do not discontinue SRO programs, work on joint training with school police, and have the courage to have difficult conversations about race, policing, and school climate.  The presenter hammered this point home when he discussed the pitfalls of watering down discipline, when he stated "unintended consequences occur when schools too attempt too quickly to fix discipline "numbers" and do not address the underlying behaviors.  Amen to that I say!

Next up, a discussion by the leadership of a Minnesota school district, Anoka Hennepin, that had endured a full-blown investigation by OCR over discrimination complaints initiated by students that were LGBTQ.  The outcome--students are still bullied and harassed, this district mediated with OCR and accepted a consent-decree from ED and DOJ which costs the district $500K yearly in costs for various mandated specialist positions that focus on equity, non-discrimination, counseling, and training staff on harassment/bullying issues.  These administrators all said the changes have made the district "better" yet they did not present solid data showing the changes have reduced incidences of bullying on thier campuses.

Last session of the day was a review of teaching practices in Finland, China, India, and Poland.  A panel from several mid-Atlantic school districts went on separate sabaticals to different countries to see what knowledge could be gleaned from these other countries and brought back home to America for Implementation here.  Lots of interesting data and anecdotal stories--but the common denominator is that other countries are different than the US, and these differences are stark.   The panel were unified in their disdain for the PISA results, which I thought was somewhat odd.  Overall a decent presentation.

Between these sessions, I visited the vendor display area, talked to several companies, got a free shirt for listening to an Elvis Impersonator  that did a very cool series of voice impersonations (Christopher Walken, Arnold Scwarzenneger, William Shatner) try to sell me on educational software products--which I must admit was a pretty cool sales tactic.

Then I had lunch at Jack Daniels Old #7 Bar and Grill (great food, weak service)

Pretty eventful 24 hours...