Success in School Summit: A Dialogue on Dropout Prevention

Did you know every four minutes a student drops out of a Texas public school? This isn't a problem, this is a crisis.

On Saturday, November 1, Arlington ISD will host The Success in School Summit: A Dialogue on Dropout Prevention.

MISD Superintendent Vernon Newsom will participate in this worthy event to engage the community in discussions and presentations addressing the drop-out crisis.

Saturday, November 1, 2008
8:30 AM – 3:00 PM
Fielder Road Baptist Church
2011 S. Fielder Road, Arlington Texas

From Dr. María Robledo Montecel, president of the Intercultural Development Research Association:

“It is high time that Texas take a new course...[i]nvestment in change must go beyond discrete dropout prevention programs. It must reflect our full commitment to providing for quality public schools in all neighborhoods for children of all backgrounds.”

Please consider taking action and attend the summit.

Highlights include:

• The Success in Schools Summit will strengthen existing collaborative efforts relative to drop out prevention.
• This summit proposes the development of work plans to address three strategic focus areas: Crime; Youth Physical and Mental Health; Youth Focus on the Future.
• Arlington Human Service Planners will serve as the facilitator/recorder and city, school district and other state and local officials will serve to establish collaborative networks involving key community stakeholders. In addition to the monitoring of action steps and data, Human Service Planners will hold a minimum of two networking sessions annually around the strategic focus areas.
• The City of Arlington Mayor and Superintendents from AISD and MISD have given their full support to the summit.
• The summit will have representation from a variety of representatives and stakeholders such as but not limited to: Mayor, City Council, City Manager’s Office, City Agencies, Arlington Human Service Planners, Youth, Corporate Representatives, Education, Nonprofit Partners, Other Elected/Appointed Officials, Faith-Based Organizations
  

MISD Speakers include:

• Vernon Newsom, Superintendent
• Yvonne DaVault - MISD Coordinator of Other Languages
• Sgt. Greg Minter - MISD Police

MISD is a Partner in the Success in School Summit. Over 40% of MISD students live in the City of Arlington.

Superintendent Profile Development Process Announced

The following post is on behalf of the MISD School Board:

Dear Mansfield ISD district community members:

The MISD School Board has secured Horn, Smith, Wood and Preston, Educational Consultants, LLC to conduct activities to help develop the profile for seeking a new superintendent.

The board is seeking observations and suggestions from a variety of stakeholders within the district community to finalize the superintendent profile. We would appreciate your feedback and observations as members within our district community.

Please take a few moments to read through some additional information and be a part of the process. Your best ideas and suggestions are sincerely sought and valued.

Get more information and see the Meeting Schedule for Monday, October 27, 2008.

Download the Superintendent Profile Development Process Form.

From the editor: The comment feature has been turned off for this particular blog post in the hopes that readers will consider using the form to give feedback and suggestions to the MISD School Board.

Related: MISD Superintendent announces his retirement

Infinite Campus Questions Answered

Thank you to all of the people who continue to provide comments here on the district blog. We have seen some very interesting negative and positive responses so far.

Today I want to address some commonly-themed questions/concerns/issues with Infinite Campus.

The following questions and answers come from the collected comments, e-mails, phone calls, and other correspondence we've received:

• How do I get an account?
  Where do I get an activation key?
  How do I change my password?
  What do I do if I lost my password?
  These are all bunched together because they have the same answer: contact your student's home campus. Most of these types of issues can be resolved by speaking with the school receptionists.
  
  
• Why can't we see lesson plans in Infinite Campus?
  We were aware when we purchased Infinite Campus that it did not have the "lesson plan" feature. Some campuses are using the newsletter function for teachers to post their lesson plans, but so far this is a campus choice. The Instructional Technology team provided and will continue to provide training on using the newsletter feature for those campuses interested in providing lesson plans. Please note: Parents can see upcoming assignments by clicking on their Infinite Campus calendar. (See parent portal screenshots page #3)
  
  
• Will teachers ever be able to send mass email reminders to parents and/or students?
  We didn't have that feature activated, but it is now activated. Teachers will be trained on how to use the Messenger feature soon.
  
  
• Why are students no longer able to set up their own accounts to access their grades?
  Again, this is a feature that hasn't been activated yet. After we get parents logged in and settled into the system then the student portal will follow.
  
  
• How is Infinite Campus better than eSembler at meeting our needs?
  It give teachers and parents much more student information than eSembler. It's one large information system with multiple modules to help many departments.
  
  
• It seems that MISD has taken a step back rather than forward with this new system.
  Actually we've taken a great step forward. People need to remember that this isn't just a gradebook that we're implementing. Some people think that because that's the only part they see, when actually the gradebook is only a tiny piece of the big system. Please also remember that this is our implementation year. It took a couple of years to get everything activated and working correctly in eSembler.

(Photo credit: jbelluch)

Hey Anonymous, I want to talk to you

We appreciate all of the comments that are coming in to the Your Mansfield ISD blog and hope you all continue to engage in this activity. I want to encourage you to consider leaving behind the "Anonymous" moniker when you come by and comment and let us know who you are. It is difficult to address concerns when we don't know who is asking the questions or leaving their nuggets of wisdom.

Anonymous Commenting
I understand that there certainly times you may feel like not wanting your name tied to a comment. Anonymous commenting is still being allowed on this blog because we understand you may not want to have your name tied to some controversial topics and/or comments for the world to see. But, some of the commenting has come in and would have been great to have a name attached so we could rerspond via further comments or even a separate post.

Why are you here in the first place? If you want to bash the district for decisions (like switching to Infinite Campus recently) you can do so constructively. Some of you are getting that this is an area where we share and you are open to give us your thoughts. It would just help to know to whom we are talking.

This Blog's for you
We named this blog Your Mansfield ISD for a reason, because it belongs to the district community of parents, students, community, and staff. Your comments are important to us and we appreciate the constructive criticism along with the praise we receive.

(Photo credit: Matt Westervelt)

Student Attendance at Athletic Events

It's a good to have a sense of humor.

In today's Fort Worth Star-Telegram, editorial cartoonist Dick Collier provided a clever and pretty funny representation of the district's new guidelines for student attendance at athletic events:Of course, the district does not have student-sized pet carriers nor would we condone such treatment.

We would prefer for parents to come to the games with students to help build and maintain a safe environment for family enjoyment.

What are the changes?

• High school students will have to show their student ID to attend any MISD athletic event.
  
  
• High school students, who fail to provide their student ID, will not be admitted into the stadium without a parent.
  
  
• Students, eighth grade and below, must be accompanied by parent.
  
  
• Students are expected to be picked up no later than 30 minutes after the end of any athletic event. Failure to pick up students within the 30 minute grace period may result in students being restricted from attending future athletic events.
  
  
• MISD Stadium - Students will be held in the first floor community room until they are picked up by an adult.
  
  
• R.L. Anderson Stadium - Students will be on the home side in front of the ticket booth until they are picked up by an adult.

Why are we doing this?

• We want our MISD athletic events to have a family atmosphere.
  
  
• MISD is attempting to provide a safe/secure environment for all individuals attending athletic events.
  
  
• Students have been left after the conclusion of athletic events for over an hour.
  
  
• Businesses are now open in the area of MISD Stadium. If students decide to visit these businesses after a game, they will have to walk across Highway 360 at night. For their safety, it is our opinion students should not leave the stadium area at the conclusion of games without proper supervision.

---
By the way, this is the real community room:


(Thanks to cartoonist Dick Collier for granting permission to reproduce his work.)

First Day Photos for 2008

On a whim, we decided to put a call out to the MISD community for some photos from the first days of school.

We have been pleasantly surprised by the response from parents and teachers submitting photos to share.

Take a look at some of the faces that should be reminder of why we are all here. Check out the First Days of School 2008 Photo Gallery.

Welcome to Infinite Campus

We are ready to introduce to the MISD community the Infinite Campus Parent Portal. A Web page dedicated to Infinite Campus has been created to start us off by providing FAQs, Campus Contact Matrix (who to go to with issues and questions), Reference Documents, and other related information.

The Infinite Campus Parent Portal Information page will be the dedicated location for updates, announcements, and future documentation as deemed necessary by the district.

We encourage parents to be patient as our teachers learn this new system.

The attendance site will be open in the Parent Portal on the first day of school (Monday, August 25, 2008.) There may be a delay of up to a week before actual daily attendance is posted to the Portal. This will allow for class leveling and schedule changes which occur at the opening of each school year.

The grade site will also be open on the first day of school. Again, there may be a delay of a week or two as schedules finalize and assignments are made and graded.

[Update August 22] Ok, so it would appear that with the new program, comes new problems. Here's what we posted to the Infinite Campus Info page earlier today:

We are experiencing some issues with Infinite Campus related to the volume of users. This problem is being addressed by MISD, Region 10 and Infinite Campus. We expect some continued issues and delays into next week.

Thank you for your patience.

Before people start commenting about how "bad the system is" or the "see I told you it wouldn't work" let's all take a deep breath and remember that Infinite Campus is very large program and we are a comparatively large school district. Let's allow for a reasonable amount initial glitches and issues while we all adjust to the new system.