What's with the BLOG?

The intent of this blog is for us to be able to communicate during the course of the day/week without actually having to physically get together. The colors are blog colors only and do not have meaning to school colors right now. They should change in the future, as we are working on colors and the mascot right away this school year. This blog should be a great instrument to get feedback and some decision making accomplished in a short amount of time, as well as to keep up to date on the construction of the school. The intent of this blog is that it be used exclusively by the Edgerton Lead Team. Although there obviously won't be anything here that others shouldn't see, I do want this to be a tool where only the Edgerton Lead Team is offering discussion, concerns, ideas, feedback, information, a critical lens, fresh and cutting edge ideas about how a new school should feel and be run, etc. Conversations with non-lead team members are certainly supported and encouraged, but I ask that it be you who post or add comments on this site only. My intent is to also have a separate blog that is running for parents and students by mid September. Arturo and I are working closely and we are attempting to keep general communications and actions very similar, if not the same, so you can expect that the Carson team is hearing and seeing what you are. We also hope to get the two teams together over time. You can add input to any blog by clicking on the “comments” button at the end of each posting.

Who is the Lead Team?

On the right hand column is a link titled "Lead Team Members". Click on it to learn more about your Lead Team colleagues (just me at this time). I will be sending you a template to complete and return so we can get you and your information in there asap. Please feel comfortable in adding as much or as little as you like. A couple photos would be great as well, and those can just be attached to an email to me. A quick "Who's Who?" is below, but please take the time to learn more about these fabulous team members by checking out the link to the right soon. I also plan to come to each of your buildings to get a good mug-shot that can be placed in our Flickr picture collection.

Name Current Pos./Representing -Current Work Site
Dent, Julie Kindergarten -Pope
Tavern, Erin 1st/Primary -Firgrove
Cook, Ken 3rd/Primary -Brouillet
Kraft, Amanda 4th/Intermediate -Firgrove
Farias, Greg PE Specialist/Intermediate -Hunt/Woodland
Thompson, Kristi Library Media Specialist -Wildwood
McCandless, Tricia Dev. Preschool/SPED -Sunrise
Sunich, Dave Assistant Principal -Pope
Kovacs, Guy Principal -Edgerton

What have I been up to this summer?

I have had a fabulous summer! I hope you can say the same. I had a wonderful balance of relaxing, traveling, working around the house, and working on school related items. After spending most of July in Maui and Chelan, I jumped back into the work of "Planning Principal". Arturo and I joke, when asked what we do, that we are "planning, of course". It is a pretty vague description of our time spent, so I've included below some of my work to date this summer (we also like to share that we work at ESC in our "double-wide". We are currently sharing adjoining cubicles):
· worked with Lynne Rosellini and Arturo Gonzalez to identify the Lead Teams
· was on the interview team for the assistant principal positions
· worked with Arturo to develop and submit a budget to support the work of the Lead Team
· worked with Lynne and Arturo to identify needs and a timeline for an office manager to come on as part of the lead team
· attending weekly Edgerton construction site meetings (each Tuesday)
· attending the Home Owners Association meetings at Emerald Pointmet with "Lee the Architect" from BLRB to get an overview of the format of the building and rationale for what we have, where it is, and why it is that colormet with Tom Sheilds to get informed about the capital projects budget I will be overseeing, what has been spent so far, what's left, and the perameters of how it can be spentmet regulary and walked the site with John Ovitt.
· nose deep in educational specification and blueprint design publications
· give updates of the construction work to interested parties (this week was the core guest teachers as well as the office personnel in the district)
· meet with the architect, the site manager for the district, district facility and budget folks, and continue to serve on the bond committee
· continue to work on this blog and other communications
· What am I anticipating doing this September? In addition to increasing my Edgerton on-site work with more regular walk-throughs and beginning to officially work with the Lead Team, I expect to be spending quite a bit of time at Pope and Thunder at the Ridge, as those will be the students who will be coming to Edgerton. The plan is that I will begin to develop relationships with our future student body, make connections with the parents at each site, and connect with local businesses in preparation for the work that needs to be accomplished with the PTA groups this year. We are also moving quickly on the mascot and color scheme work, doing some PR at The Fair, will begin purchasing some school materials, make decisions surrounding colors in the gymnasium, writing an initial Newsletter to our families, and attending curriculum related trainings and meetings.

What do I do at the Edgerton Site Meetings?

Well, I listen a lot. It is essentially an update from the different groups so that they are all on the same page. There is an actual agenda and the attendees usually include the following groups: PSD Project Manager (John Ovitt), BLRB Architects (they created the design for the building), Neely Construction reps (they are the big wigs on-site), the electrical folks, dirt person, and consultants as needed such as the arborist, civil engineers, etc. While the designs for Edgerton and Carson are the same (the only real differences are the orientation to the sites (including entry points), color designs and the cover over the walk-in entry to the school) we have different builders and subcontractors so our meeting experiences are very different. Our input to-date has been minimal, as we have been feeling things out, but we have gotten to give our two-cents on colors and materials. Arturo and I also gave input towards carving out a small copy room on the second floor (it was not part of the original design. This is an opening post for what I hope to be a great communication tool for our team. Feel free to post or comment, and expect much more to come. I am very excited by the fact that we are going to be creating a whole new school culture together! These are exciting times!