Welcome to the new school year!
Mahalo for your aloha welcome to the Hawai'i State Department of Education. Last week, I began my Superintendency and had the opportunity to meet many of you at the meet and greet coordinated by Claudia, Janet and Gail. Over the next few months we will have multiple opportunities to get to know each other.
As I listened to all of the great work that you do you every day for the department on behalf of Hawai'i's children and youth, I thought about the idea of having a way to communicate with you regularly. Therefore, on a weekly basis, I will send you a staff brief that will allow me to communicate with you directly about some of the things that I am engaged with or thinking about. This is meant to be informal, but also can serve as an opportunity for you to stop me in the hallways to chat with me about these topics. I am looking forward to working with you this year as we work as a team to ensure that all students graduate on time, and are prepared for their college and career aspirations. Start of School
Today we begin our 2017-18 school year. I will dedicate some time this week to visit several schools to meet and greet our students, parents, teachers and school-based staff.
School Visits
During the next few months I will be visiting schools within each Complex Area. My goal is to:
During these visits, I hope to connect with local leaders and to hold several community forums.
Office Visits
Similar to school visits, I will also organize office visits with each of your teams. This will be an opportunity for me to meet each of you and to learn about the scope of work that your office leads.
Walk and Talk
I want to encourage you to introduce yourself to me in the hallway as I walk around. Every leader has his or her own style of leading, and one nuance particular to my style is that I enjoy what I often call "walk and talks." Basically, this is when I take a break from my many meetings to casually walk around to say hello.
Key Department Vacancies
We have several key vacancies in state and district offices and we are working as quickly as possible to fill them. I want to be sure that I hire leaders that complement the incredible talent that I already have in the department, therefore, while I want to fill positions quickly, I will also take my time to find the right people. The positions I am directly working on include:
Christine Shaw is also overseeing some critical hires at the Director level in information technology.
Our Shared Vision for 2017-18
By now you have read the Superintendent's Education Update - August Edition. You will note that there are three areas that we will focus on for the 2017-18 school year. These include:
Your office leader will be discussing this vision with you, and engaging you in a dialogue about how your work contributes to this collective vision for student and school success.
ESSA Plan – Final Revisions and Submission
Please note that we have a near-final draft of our ESSA Plan to submit to the federal Department of Education. My goal is to have a final discussion and review with the Board on September 5 at the Student Achievement Committee (SAC). I thank everyone for your input into this important planning document.
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