jim's blog

On Tuesday evening, I climbed onboard the Delta commuter to take me to Providence, Rhode Island to join the Michigan delegation taking part in the American Youth Policy Forum Field Trip. I was AYPF’s guest for the next two days. On the plane with me was Kathleen Straus, President of the State Board of Education. We would meet the other Michigan members at breakfast the next morning. Our delegation consisted of representatives from the Governor’s office, a State Senator, a MDE advisor, the Superintendent of Detroit Public Schools, Kathleen and myself.

Saturday, March 1st, the association hosted an event for members to come together to share their experiences and ideas about contract strategies for their local bargaining association. Twenty-five MASSP members listened as Tom White, Executive Director of the school business officials gave insight to school funding, the Michigan economy, and retirement issues to understand when at the bargaining table. Tom Derderian, the labor attorney used by MASSP advised on strategies and answered questions specific to member contracts and group obligations. After Mr.

February 15, 2008 – I spent some time in the Governor’s Office visiting with Chuck Wilbur, Education Policy Advisor for Governor Granholm. Joining me was Don Wotruba, MASB Government Affairs Director. Our topic was the Governor’s proposed 21st Century Schools proposal, i.e., Small High Schools. We advised Chuck that many were seeing this as a “bricks and mortar” proposal. And, a surprising number of perceived to be high performance high schools met the criteria to be eligible for grants under the original wording. He was surprised and said this was not the intent.

Nominations for Secretary of the Year are due February 15th!

March 1st is the special workshop on employment contracts - sign up!

CTE Showcase entries are due...

Come'on West Michigan, sign up for "Are They Telling the Truth!"

Try not to forget valentines day.

Get these done, you're cool.

It is fun to watch the pride a principal has when their secretary is selected as one of our four yearly winners in the MASSP/Horace Mann Secretary of the Year Program.

I've seen the pride each of the secretaries have when they are notified that their principal nominated them for the honor.

It's just plan cool.

So, it's nomination season. Take advantage of a opportunity to say to someone, good job!

For the form just search secretary nomination.

Do you ever have those projects that you have a personal attachment to? Well our workshop entitled, Negotiating Your Contract is one of those for me. I remember one year being told to open the matchbook cover the Supt. handed me to see what my next year's salary and benefits would be. Ever since that time I've always had a slow burn regarding the way building administrators are treated.

On Friday, January 11th, I was a guest of Governor Granholm to fly with her on the state plane to visit two high schools in the Chicago area. It was like flying on Michigan’s version of Air Force One, but a lot smaller! The Governor’s plane is a prop driven Beech craft King Air. A very nice plane. It holds ten people in very close quarters.

We were told to be at the M-DOT building, Lansing airport, at 6:30 a.m., bringing no carry-ons other than small notebooks or purses. Wheels-up at 7:00 a.m. EST, wheels-down at 6:55 CST, Midway Airport, Chicago.

Who says today's kids aren't smart ??
(Well, some of them are )!!

At a high school in Montana a group of high schoolers
played a prank on the school. They let three goats
loose in the school.

Before they let them go they painted numbers
on the sides of the goats. 1,2,4.

Local school administrators spent most of the day looking for #3.

(Thanks to past president Bob Cross for sharing)