For Dr. Jerry Wilson, superintendent of the Worcester County Public School System, summer “vacation” is a time of preparation, training, hiring personnel and taking care of just about any or every nuanced detail to help be ready by the time that first bell rings on Tuesday, Sept. 2.
We caught up with Dr. Wilson at the Board of Education Building last week, a facility that despite a hot, sultry shore day, was busy with cars and school personnel there for training.
It hardly seemed like the dog days of summer. Instead, it was the opposite if anything, very, very busy about with just weeks to go before school starts. It was in mid-July that county education officials approved the assigning of five assistant principals.
Snow Hill High School is undergoing renovations, and Common Core will be used as a teaching approach this year.
So there is a ton going on and that is why summer is not really a time off for the County School System administration.
“As a system, we begin hiring during the summer,” said Dr. Wilson. “Human resources takes the lead on benefits and the elements of people’s work, getting them settled right away.”
Dr. Wilson also mentioned the assignment of the five assistant principals as an important aspect of this summer’s pre-school year work.
He said also that educators use the summer time “off” to fine tune their own professional development.
Speaking of professional development, Dr. Wilson said he is always trying to find a an educational opportunity even at his level which he added are typically offered in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. areas.
“I’m working on developing a message for the opening of the school year,” he said. “It’s a clear leadership message for program implementation. I want our staff to understand the why of what we do as educators.”
Dr. Wilson said at this time of summer, the school system is still at the program development stage with a strategic direction of excellence clearly in mind.
Principals should be ready to run with programs to evaluate teachers both professionally and personally throughout the school year.
Dr. Wilson brought up the matter of student discipline, which saw a change early this year in May. Then the County clarified disciplinary guidelines “charging the superintendent to establish a code of conduct that will “enhance the learning opportunities of the students in its charge…ensure a safe environment which provides equal opportunities for all individuals.”
Important to remember is that the policy asks the principal to keep in mind the keeping of student enrolled and attending school.
We also spent some of our conversation discussing the post-Columbine world of school violence. Worcester County has zero tolerance for any such violence.
However, Dr. Wilson said, “We want to take a look at the approach and offer methods other than exclusion.” Expelling a student, Dr. Wilson said, almost automatically makes a student not college or career ready.
“There’s zero tolerance,” he said, “and then there’s the Pop Tart case (where in 2013 an Anne Arundel County second grader nibbled a Pop Tart to resemble a gun was suspended),” he said. “There is not a one-size-fits-all for school discipline. We want to see safe orderly schools. We’ll be talking more to schools about a pupil code of conduct going forward.”
Summer is also time for Dr. Wilson and his staff of educators to advance even further into the digital world.
“There is just far more online for our students,” he said. He talked about available apps and the ability to use electronic devices for countless classroom learning activities. And he even spoke about the new philosophy of Common Core, a set of national standards being used by all, with a few exceptions, states in the union.
So the weather outside was hot and humid. Most of the men in the building were without ties, including Dr. Wilson.
But the work, the preparation is getting done.
“Summer is the prime time for our system, everyone knows where the whole year is going.
“Teachers and administrators are preparing themselves during the summer, and they probably already know what they’ll be doing during the school year.”
How’s that for a “What did I do on my summer vacation?” essay.
We caught up with Dr. Wilson at the Board of Education Building last week, a facility that despite a hot, sultry shore day, was busy with cars and school personnel there for training.
It hardly seemed like the dog days of summer. Instead, it was the opposite if anything, very, very busy about with just weeks to go before school starts. It was in mid-July that county education officials approved the assigning of five assistant principals.
Snow Hill High School is undergoing renovations, and Common Core will be used as a teaching approach this year.
So there is a ton going on and that is why summer is not really a time off for the County School System administration.
“As a system, we begin hiring during the summer,” said Dr. Wilson. “Human resources takes the lead on benefits and the elements of people’s work, getting them settled right away.”
Dr. Wilson also mentioned the assignment of the five assistant principals as an important aspect of this summer’s pre-school year work.
He said also that educators use the summer time “off” to fine tune their own professional development.
Speaking of professional development, Dr. Wilson said he is always trying to find a an educational opportunity even at his level which he added are typically offered in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. areas.
“I’m working on developing a message for the opening of the school year,” he said. “It’s a clear leadership message for program implementation. I want our staff to understand the why of what we do as educators.”
Dr. Wilson said at this time of summer, the school system is still at the program development stage with a strategic direction of excellence clearly in mind.
Principals should be ready to run with programs to evaluate teachers both professionally and personally throughout the school year.
Dr. Wilson brought up the matter of student discipline, which saw a change early this year in May. Then the County clarified disciplinary guidelines “charging the superintendent to establish a code of conduct that will “enhance the learning opportunities of the students in its charge…ensure a safe environment which provides equal opportunities for all individuals.”
Important to remember is that the policy asks the principal to keep in mind the keeping of student enrolled and attending school.
We also spent some of our conversation discussing the post-Columbine world of school violence. Worcester County has zero tolerance for any such violence.
However, Dr. Wilson said, “We want to take a look at the approach and offer methods other than exclusion.” Expelling a student, Dr. Wilson said, almost automatically makes a student not college or career ready.
“There’s zero tolerance,” he said, “and then there’s the Pop Tart case (where in 2013 an Anne Arundel County second grader nibbled a Pop Tart to resemble a gun was suspended),” he said. “There is not a one-size-fits-all for school discipline. We want to see safe orderly schools. We’ll be talking more to schools about a pupil code of conduct going forward.”
Summer is also time for Dr. Wilson and his staff of educators to advance even further into the digital world.
“There is just far more online for our students,” he said. He talked about available apps and the ability to use electronic devices for countless classroom learning activities. And he even spoke about the new philosophy of Common Core, a set of national standards being used by all, with a few exceptions, states in the union.
So the weather outside was hot and humid. Most of the men in the building were without ties, including Dr. Wilson.
But the work, the preparation is getting done.
“Summer is the prime time for our system, everyone knows where the whole year is going.
“Teachers and administrators are preparing themselves during the summer, and they probably already know what they’ll be doing during the school year.”
How’s that for a “What did I do on my summer vacation?” essay.