Augusta Area School District Administrator's Blog

Greetings Parents and/or Guardians, During the 2016-17 school year we asked parents to complete a brief online survey which would provide us feedback regarding our current methods of communicating with you and keeping you informed. The reason for seeking this feedback was to gain an understanding of what you believe to be current strong communication practices implemented by the District and which areas you feel are in need of improvement. I would like to thank those of you that participated in the survey. We ended up with a total of 63 parent responses. The survey asked the following 8 questions (with the responses included): 1.How often do you typically receive information from your child's school or from the district (Augusta Area School District) during an average year via email, phone, notes, etc? o    68% indicated they receive information more than 15 times a year o    6% indicated they receive information 11-15 times a year o    21% indicated they rece

Being an effective administrator requires a vision that is clear, communicated, and shared with all stakeholders involved. T he concept of having a vision that everyone believes in is essential to the success of the school. To have a vision without any action is meaningless. Words alone are just that, words. Words with action can transform a school. One of the books that I reference often is DuFour’s   Learning by Doing  text. Throughout DuFour's work s ome common themes are repeatedly mentioned which I think are applicable to this post. Perhaps the most important thought is the idea that the first step in developing any vision is the need to establish a fundamental purpose. The creators of a vision need to be aligned in their belief of the things that are important and the things that need to be accomplished. Establishing that common ground must be done before any further steps can be taken.  If the creators of a vision can’t agree on what the basic purpose of the school is or sho