Superintendent's Journal Archives

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 2:00 PM on November 19, 2009 | Leave Feedback

Superintendent's Journal: The Fundamentals of Doing Business

Continuous improvement is the focus of WCPSS's third strategic directive: "Develop and implement systems and organizational structures to support schools, ensure accountability, and engage our community."

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 3:41 PM on November 13, 2009 | Leave Feedback

Superintendent's Journal: Strengthening the Team

Dr. Burns provides a current update on the retention and recruitment fronts before focusing on efforts "helping our employees not only keep their edge, but grow into leaders."

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 4:00 PM on November 6, 2009 | Leave Feedback

Journal 21: People-Powered and Purpose Driven

"'Things' don't teach children or feed them lunch or keep the computers running or manage building programs. 'Things' won't close the achievement gap. People will."

Posted by Paul Cory at 2:26 PM on October 30, 2009 | Leave Feedback

Superintendent's Journal: Our Most Important Strategies for Learning and Teaching

Concluding our look at the first of WCPSS's four strategic directives -- focusing on learning and teaching -- in today's Journal Dr. Burns reviews two strategies we are using for systematic improvement: undertaking and responding to the independent curriculum management audit, and supporting Professional Learning Teams.

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 3:39 PM on October 23, 2009 | Leave Feedback

Superintendent's Journal: Every Child, Every Classroom, Every School

We begin an in-depth look at WCPSS's four strategic directives with the first: A renewed focus on learning and teaching.

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 3:30 PM on October 16, 2009 | Leave Feedback

Superintendent's Journal: Strategic Directions for Our Schools

Following up on last week's discussion of WCPSS's mission, vision and goals, Dr. Burns talks about the four strategic directives that have guided the school system since 2006.

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 1:56 PM on October 9, 2009 | Leave Feedback

Superintendent's Journal: Who We Are Meant to Be -- Our Mission, Vision and Goal

What drives the Wake County Public School System? In today's journal, Dr. Burns discusses our longstanding mission; our vision of every child graduating on time, prepared for the future; and the school board's academic goal for WCPSS, unanimously adopted last year.

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 3:00 PM on October 2, 2009 | Leave Feedback

Superintendent's Journal: Retaining our Teachers in a Tough Economy

The state's recent release of its teacher turnover statistics -- a report of the percentage of teachers voluntarily leaving their positions -- showed that WCPSS has the lowest rate in the Triangle region (11.12 percent), which is better than the state average (12.72 percent). Dr. Burns talks about our efforts to retain teachers in this week's Journal.

WCPSS teachers' responses to the state's 2008 Teacher Working Conditions survey are analyzed here.

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 3:46 PM on September 25, 2009 | Leave Feedback

Superintendent's Journal: School Attendance is More Important Than You May Realize

Education is cumulative, a series of building blocks requiring a foundation of earlier knowledge. When students -- young and old -- do not attend school regularly, they build barriers increasingly difficult to overcome. Dr. Burns discusses the implications, and asks for your help, in this week's Journal.

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 3:08 PM on September 18, 2009 | Leave Feedback

Superintendent's Journal: Consistency and Creativity in Learning and Teaching

Continuing the conversation about the two vital behaviors -- attending school and learning the North Carolina Standard Course of Study -- students must demonstrate to succeed, Dr. Burns talks about how the entire school system is aligning to provide more consistency in teaching the Standard Course of Study across all schools in this week's journal.

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 4:13 PM on September 11, 2009 | Leave Feedback

Superintendent's Journal: Two Vital Behaviors for Student Success

Parents, our community, and our schools can work together to influence our students' adoptions of two vital behaviors in order for them to graduate on time, prepared for the future: attending school and learning the North Carolina Standard Course of Study. Dr. Burns explains the importance of those behaviors, and offers resources for families to help their students, in this week's journal.

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 3:08 PM on September 4, 2009 | Leave Feedback

Superintendent's Journal: High SATs and a Strong Start to the Year

Dr. Burns highlights our students' strong performance on the SAT, and expresses his appreciation to school staff for a smooth and positive beginning of the traditional calendar school year, in this week's journal.

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 1:14 PM on August 28, 2009 | Leave Feedback

Journal #11: Balancing the Budget and Stimulus Funding

This week, Dr. Burns explains how the Board of Education balanced this year's operating budget in light of the state budget cuts. He also discusses how WCPSS will be using federal stimulus funds over the next two years.

Posted by Paul Cory at 3:24 PM on August 21, 2009 | Leave Feedback

Superintendent's Journal: Did Our Schools Make the Grade?

Dr. Burns describes the background of the state's "ABCs of Public Education" evaluation of schools, and notes our schools' performance against the No Child Left Behind Act's AYP standards, in this week's video journal.

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 4:26 PM on August 14, 2009 | Leave Feedback

August 7 Superintendent's Journal: 21st Century Learning

"21st Century Learning" is still a common phrase in North Carolina, even though we're already ten years into the century. Dr. Burns explains the importance of the phrase, and what its components are in a child's education, in his latest journal.

A transcript is also available

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 2:56 PM on August 7, 2009 | Leave Feedback

July 31 Superintendent's Journal: Our Focus on Graduation

Superintendent Burns discusses our efforts to attain our vision: every child graduating on time, prepared for the future.

Do You Know Which Graduating Class Your Child Is In?

This Year's:	Are the Class of:
Seniors	Class of 2010
Juniors	Class of 2011
Sophomores	Class of 2012
Freshman	Class of 2013
8th Graders	Class of 2014
7th Graders	Class of 2015
6th Graders	Class of 2016
5th Graders	Class of 2017
4th Graders	Class of 2018
3rd Graders	Class of 2019
2nd Graders	Class of 2020
1st Graders	Class of 2021
Kindergartners	Class of 2022

Posted by Paul Cory at 1:05 PM on July 31, 2009 | Leave Feedback

July 24 Superintendent's Journal: EOG and EOC Results

Superintendent Burns shares his perspective on the recently-released "modest, steady" End-of-Grade and End-of-Course preliminary test results in this week's Journal.

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 1:16 PM on July 24, 2009 | Leave Feedback

July 17 Superintendent's Journal: The Role of Central Services

While our school system has weathered budget reductions before, the state's budget shortfall is severe enough to affect schools more deeply this year. In today's journal, Dr. Burns talks about where Central Services -- the school system's business infrastructure -- fits in during this challenging time.

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 3:19 PM on July 17, 2009 | Leave Feedback

July 10 Superintendent's Journal: What We Saw During the First Week

Dr. Burns visited ten of our year-round schools on opening day. He talks about what he saw and learned then, and reports on our first early dismissal Wednesday for teachers to work in Professional Learning Teams, in this week's journal.

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 3:35 PM on July 10, 2009 | Leave Feedback

July 2 Superintendent's Journal: Back to School

In this week's video journal, Dr. Burns talks about preparations for the start of the new school year, particularly regarding transportation and early dismissal Wednesdays.

School Bus Policies:

7105 (Use of Transportation Services)

7125 (School Bus Routing and Bus Stops)

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 12:04 PM on July 2, 2009 | Leave Feedback

June 26 Superintendent's Journal: Further Actions to Prepare for a Lean Year

In this week's video journal, Dr. Burns explains further steps taken this week -- prompted by recent developments in the North Carolina General Assembly -- to prepare for the possibility of significantly reduced state funding.

Dr. Burns says that the possibilities of significant cuts in funding for teachers, teacher assistants and schools "are rapidly becoming probabilities." As a result, Dr. Burns announces extending the existing hiring freeze to include teacher assistants and teachers in grades six through twelve, as well as banning out-of-state travel and restricting all expenditures of county funding to essential goods and services only.

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 3:04 PM on June 26, 2009 | Leave Feedback

June 19 Superintendent's Journal: The Budget's Potential Impact on Schools

Dr. Burns provides an update on local funding following the adoption of the county budget, and discusses some of the potential changes in the classroom after the state government completes its work, in this week's Journal.

Posted by Chip Sudderth at 3:25 PM on June 19, 2009 | Leave Feedback

Dr. Burns Launches Superintendent's Journal

The Journal is a videotaped message from Superintendent Del Burns to parents and the community regarding the issues that affect the Wake County Public School System. In what are expected to be regular webcasts, the Journal will allow parents and other key stakeholders the opportunity to hear directly from the Superintendent about plans for the new school year, ways to become involved and how we are improving to meet the needs of all of our students.

In his first Journal entry, Dr. Burns discusses the impact the recession has on the system as we have developed our funding request for the 2009-10 school year and are planning for the opening of school in a few weeks.