Enjoy watching previously recorded webinars from two highly respected education leaders as well as reading an interview from a forward thinking district leader.
Translate Student Data into Actionable Insight
Featuring Dr. Sheryl Abshire, CTO | Calcasieu Parish, LA
Recorded November 2012
About Dr. Sheryl Abshire
As a leader in technology integration, she has served as the catalyst to initiate the integration of technology into all curriculum areas throughout her school district, the state, and internationally. She serves on numerous national, state, and district committees focusing on the role of technology and curriculum integration in changing educational practice.. As a member of the ISTE NETS Writing Team and the Technology for School Administrators Writing Team she is deeply involved in infusing technology into standards-based instruction.
A thirty-six year veteran educator, she has worked as a school principal, K-5 teacher, a library/media specialist, a classroom teacher, and as an adjunct professor at McNeese State University, Louisiana Tech University and Lamar sUniversity (2010). Bio Source
Access New Insight for Boundary & Enrollment Planning With Geovisual sAnalytics
Featuring Debbie Karcher, CIO along with members of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools steam
Recorded November 2012
About Debbie Karcher
As the chief information officer for the nation’s fourth-largest school district, Karcher plans and directs its information technology strategy and maintains the integrity of its information systems and a network infrastructure that includes more than 400 schools and administrative locations, 45,000 employees, and 340,000 students. She is directly responsible for more than 500 information-system employees and a 30 million dollar technology budget.
Karcher has spearheaded cost-saving initiatives and system deployments that have received worldwide recognition. Through her innovation and foresight, Karcher also brought online the Microsoft SharePoint Portal, which has set standards in information sharing, accessibility, and security. Bio Source
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Jody Thompson, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning
Grand Forks North Dakota Public School District
Q: Please describe your roles and responsibilities in the process
A: I was the co-chair of a community committee that reviewed enrollment projections, boundary line options and explored new school locations.
Q: How did you first get involved with GuideK12?
A: I actually researched several similar companies as we began to prepare for our boundary line study. GuideK12 appeared to have all the resources we were looking for. I made contact with the company representative and we met to review the features GuideK12 had to offer. I was also able to view several demonstrations of the system. It was an easy decision to contract with GuideK12 after reviewing what other similar companies had to offer.
Q: Can you describe what the needs were at Grand Forks and how GuideK12 supported those needs?
A: We need to have accurate and timely enrollment projections over the course of the next 5 years. We also needed to view real-time scenarios of multiple boundary line options we were studying. Ultimately, we needed to make an informed decision and GuideK12 allowed us to do that.
Q: This was a very sensitive issue and the community had a major influence on the decision making process, tell me a bit about how transparency and community engagement was achieved.
A: We worked very hard at creating a committee that had a variety of backgrounds and perspectives. Then, we made sure all meetings were well publicized and open to the public. The local media was also invited to attend all meetings. We had many citizens that routinely came to our meetings. All citizens who attended our meetings were able to speak to the committee during the public comment period. Finally, all meeting minutes were posted on our district website and our school websites.
Q: Would it have been possible to do the study without the tools?
A: Absolutely not! The ability to run multiple scenarios in real-time was a key to our projects success.
Q: How do you plan on utilizing GK12 in the future?
A: We will continue to work on our enrollment projects, both annually and 5 year projections. We will also use the boundary line software at the district and school levels.
Q: What was the final decision and the community reaction and how long did they take in the process?
A: The final decision, based upon projections that showed enrollment growth in all neighborhoods, was to keep all elementary schools and build a new elementary school. The overall community reaction was positive because we had done our due diligence in reviewing multiple scenarios, using data on enrollment projections, allowed community input and kept the process transparent. The process from start to finish was completed in 5 months.