A Reader Writes... Spoke Too Soon

A reader/contributor writes:

“I see that Commissioner Robert Scott shut down Pearce Middle School! I have to eat my words now! Too bad it took five years of kids getting the short end of the stick to make this happen.”

SC Response
Yet the story hasn’t ended yet, local political leaders are still trying to save the school. They are using the same old excuses.

Excuse #1: “We need more time.” So evidently after 5+ years of horrific results, they almost have it figured out.

Excuse #2: “We’ve made progress.” They can't face the reality that in the 5+ years that it has taken the campus to go from failing miserably, to just failing, means that they are harming students at a wholesale level.

Here is what we (both the LYS company and the LYS network) know: In terms of adding value and performance growth – Some schools outperform most schools; and some teachers out perform most teachers. To be the “one of the some” requires the right tools, a singular focus on students, the discipline of an extra-ordinary work ethic, and the willingness to engage in the fight against aggressive ignorance.

If you haven’t done it in five years, you aren’t going to do it at all. And it is being done, right now. Here are a few examples:

• John Montelongo (a Brezina and Brown Guy) just took Fox Tech High School from “unacceptable” to “recognized,” in two years.

• Mike Seabolt (a Brezina and Brown Guy) took Blue Ridge High School from “unacceptable” to “recognized’” in less than two years.

• And at a district level, Tommy Price and Mike Laird (both Brezina and Brown Guys) now have the following results: When they took over the district two years ago, they inherited 4 “acceptable” campuses and 1 “unacceptable” campus. Now, they have 1 “exemplary” campus, 3 “recognized” campuses and 1 “acceptable” campus. And, pay attention to this, the “EXEMPLARY” campus is the one that started out as “UNACCPETABLE.”

Time is not the critical factor for improving schools, but time does doom students.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn…

The Places I Have Been

Let me first apologize for not keeping up with my posting duties. The past five days have been a whirlwind. In five days, I have conducted 9 presentations to over 1,100 school leaders in 3 different cities. And in each case the audiences were larger and more enthusiastic then ever before. Even the school board members were fired up to hear that dramatic and rapid school improvement is possible if you have the vision, desire and discipline.

Starting with the next post, we’ll continue the discussion on fear. I may have stopped writing for a couple of days, but you, the Lead Your School reader have not. So we will get caught up this week.

I want to thank all the Lead Your School readers who came up and said “hello” on this mini-speaking tour. One of the many highlights of the week was when I got to introduce Howard the blog participant to Mike the blog participant.

I want to thank Dr. Mike Laird, who came to my first presentation as a coach, to stand in my blind spot and give me some feedback on how to improve the presentations. And then quickly became an usher and finally a co-presenter as the audiences kept growing.

I want to thank Don Brown and Sherilynn Cotton who presented with me in Austin.

I want to thank Dr. Tommy Price and the Splendora ISD School Board. The opportunity to share with over 200 school board members the story of the ongoing “Splendora Miracle,” is just a small way to acknowledge their hard work and perseverance.

But most importantly, I want to thank the audiences at the Rigor, Relevance and Relationship Conference, hosted by Cypress-Fairbanks ISD. Your passion for knowledge is unrivaled and your focus on students unequalled. And for one of the few times in my life, I was speechless. I have included some pictures. For those of you who weren’t there, after all the chairs were taken, people brought their own chair from other sessions. After no more chairs could be squeezed in the room, people stood against the wall and sat on the floor. And finally, after every square inch of floor space was occupied, people stood and sat in the hall.

Again, thank you.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...