Dear Bryan ISD Employees,
I love this time of year. The weather is beautiful and everything is turning green. With the exception of this pesky pollen, it doesn’t get much better.
I want to address something that I’ve heard a lot about in my Salsa with the Supt. meetings. It’s the amount of “paperwork” we’re asking you to do. I put that in quotes because paper isn’t really used anymore, but it’s the amount of times you’re required to enter information. I want you to know we are working very hard right now to streamline that across the district so you won’t have to enter as much information so many times.
Another big change we’re making is with evaluations. You know about T-Tess. Now we have B-Tess. For teachers with three years or more experience, and proficient evaluations, you’ll be exempt from the 45 minute evaluations. We have more details coming about this, but we believe this change will show the confidence we have in our veteran teachers, and free up our principals to address other items on campus.
Looking at the legislature, I’m still closely monitoring House Bill 3, which would impact school funding. We know this could result in additional funding, allowing us to concentrate on teacher salaries and hopefully everyone else. Representatives Raney and Kacal are supporting public ed and co-sponsored the bill because they’re listening to us.
Finally, this year I’ve been reading the book Love Works. by Joel Manby. As we transition into April and model our Essential Eight trait of Leadership, this line from the book really hits home. “It’s not as much about what happens to us, but how we react.” Our students are watching, and will respond accordingly. For those who bought an Essential Eight shirt, let’s wear them and a nice pair of jeans on Monday, April 8 as we talk with our students about leadership.