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Upcoming Dates to Celebrate
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March
Music in our Schools Month
Youth Art Month
National Nutrition Month
March 17-23 Poison Prevention Week
World Folk Tales and Fables Week
March 20 First Day of Spring
March 23 World Meteorological Day
March 25 National Agriculture Day
April National Child Abuse Awareness Month (Click here for Lake County Advocacy Opportunities)
National Autism Awareness Month
April 1 April Fool's Day
April 14-20 National Week of the Young Child
April 16 National Librarian Day
April 20 Easter Sunday
April 22 Earth Day
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"Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain - and most fools do."
~Benjamin Franklin
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"Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus." ~Alexander Graham Bell
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"Spring is the time of plans and projects."
~ Leo Tolstoy
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The Four Corners
Updates for Lake County District Superintendents
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Greetings!
Welcome to the second edition of The Four Corners. Included you will find information specific to Lake County Superintendents. Please review the agenda for our March 24th Superintendents' Council Meeting. Please note that there are fewer items on the agenda to allow a little more time for discussion. We still plan on finishing no later than noon. I want to thank each of you for meeting with Tim and me regarding the LCOE Master MOU. I appreciate your feedback regarding the format and the specifics regarding services to your schools and districts. You can anticipate a follow-up discussion during the Council Meeting. Please call or email if you have any questions, concerns or additional agenda items. Thanks! See you Monday. Wally
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Information and tasks to assist with preparation for the Superintendents' Council Meetings.
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Click on the following link to review and/or download:
Reminder: Bring your draft LCAP Timeline and worksheets for discussion.
Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
Wally
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Highlights of relevant issues or helpful tips focused on addressing potential hot topics that may arise.
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The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Instructional Leaders
Encourage your team to attend this special ACSA event for Lake County leaders.
Thursday, April 10, 2014
9:00 am - noon or 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Lake County Office of Education, Kesey Room
Lunch is served at 12:00 for both sessions
$25 for Lake Charter Members
$40 for non-Lake Charter Members
RSVP by April 7, 2014 to Tim Gill 262-4152 or tgill@lakecoe.org
Click here to view the flyer and for registration information.
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School/District Newsletter Evaluation
Is your school newsletter really serving its purpose?
Traditionally, the school newsletter is the one regular communication link principals have to parents, "key communicators," business partners, community leaders and any other stakeholders to whom it's distributed. Whether your publication is the traditional printed variety or electronic, do you know if it's serving its purpose as well as it could?
Is your newsletter effectively conveying important news about your school and student and staff achievements, keeping people well-informed about issues, and providing the kind of information parents expect? Does it intentionally interface with your school and district website? Is it effective in engaging parents and creating two-way communication opportunities? Are the delivery/printing methods effective? Can you track your readership to determine whether people are actually reading the publication?
As you begin the second half of the school year, or look toward 2014/15, this is a good time to evaluate whether the resources spent on your newsletter are being effectively utilized, or if you don't currently produce a newsletter, if that would be a worthwhile initiative in the future.
Evaluation is one of the most important steps in maintaining communication with your audience, but it is often overlooked. Rather than guessing about the effectiveness of your newsletter, consider a brief readership survey.
Additional tips include:
- Keep it simple - minimal fonts, consistent colors and spacing;
- Make it easy to scan - allow space, use bold sparingly, use bulleted lists and consistent title fonts;
- Proof, proof, and proof again;
- Be predictable;
- Actively seek readers and add to your list - if you're going to spend time and resources producing a newsletter, make sure you're intentionally building readers, or all that work will be for minimal return.
Lake County Office of Education Communication Services department offers comprehensive programs to help you design effective communication strategies for your district and schools, as well as standalone services such as newsletter design, website design, branding and staff training. Click here to visit our web page for more information or contact Shelly Mascari at smascari@lakecoe.org.
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Common Core Resources
The Common Core Resources page on the LCOE website has been updated and is intended as a convenient resource for you to copy specific resource links, forward the link from our page to others, or find information. If you have a useful resource, please let us know so we can add it.
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Highlights of relevant local community issues, events or opportunities.
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All In for Health Campaign
The Open Enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act ends March 31.
Last week, you likely received communication from Tom Torlakson regarding the final push for health coverage enrollment.
To support your communication efforts, we will prepare a press release to our local media, reminding our community members of this approaching deadline.
The All In for Health Campaign has developed user-friendly materials for schools and districts to use to help families. These links were provided in the communication from Tom Torlakson, and we have also included them below for your convenience.
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Resources, information, and tasks related to the development of the LCAP.
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LCAP Update
This past week, District CBO's met with Stephanie Wayment and Michelle Buell to review LCAP plans, processes and timelines from the "Business Office Perspective". The intent of the meeting is to assist in the development of both the LCAP and budget in an aligned, complimentary fashion. This year will be especially challenging for us all due to the various unknowns and short timeline. Superintendents will be joined by Stephanie at our next Council Meeting to further the discussion.
A special Thank You to Tim Gill for reformatting our Master MOU's to align with LCAP priorities. I hope you found this helpful in reviewing your MOU. Please provide feedback at our Council Meeting.
Thank you!
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