ideas that parents, staff, students,
and
com
munity
and
political leaders want to share with
you. For that reason,
many of your entry-plan
activities must be an opportunity for constitu
ents to talk
and
for you to listen. This includes
one-on-one meetings, small gatherings
and
large community events.
In the fall of my first school year in Mont
gomery Counts I hosted 17 “listen and learn”
sessions
—
10 for the community at large and
seven for staff.
The events were well-attended,
attracting an average of
120
people to each
community meeting and 80 to each staff
meeting.
I spent a few minutes at each event sharing
my background and initial observations about
MCPS with the audience based on the transi
tion report and what I
was
learning in my tray-
Joshua Starr, superintendent in Montgomery County Md.,
uses Twitter to engage his staff, students and community.
As of late September, his account (@mcpssuper) had 6,500
followers.
Below are selected
tweets
(and retweets) from the first
two
days of school this year.
Making the final checks before hitting
‘
j
Joshua Starr @mcpssuper
26 Aug
the road #mcpsfirstday pic.twitter.com/
£
UWvz7VqUdT
MCPS @MCPS
26 Aug
Dr.
Starr at Richard Montgomery
•
HS doing back-to-school interviews
with local
media #mcpsfirstday
@mcpssuper pic.twitter.com/U2vGkbAPDj
els across the district.
And
then I spent the rest
of the time listening.
Many issues that were raised were in the
“Transition Team Report”
—
the imperative
to narrow the achievement gap and improve
interventions; concerns about the social and
emotional well-being of children; the need for
more professional development around the cur
riculum; and worries about budget cuts and
class sizes. If I was asked a question, I did my
best to answer it, but I made it clear my goal
was to listen.
To be as transparent as possible,
we taped
and posted many of these sessions on the web-
site (
)
for those
who could not attend, and we produced “The
Listen and Learn Report:’ which highlighted
the broad issues raised at each event.
The input
Craig Rice @RicePolitics
26 Aug
@mcpssuper talking about academic
performance of our MCPS students
and this new 2013-2014 school year.
pic.twitter.com/bUkmCtt7cB
Joshua Starr @mcpssuper
26 Aug
Weller Road ES 1st graders talking
about this summer #mcpsfirstday plc.
4
twitter.com/KB5mYaetHL
Check out the green roof at
Weller
Joshua Starr @mcpssuper
26 Aug
Road ES.
#mcpsfirstday
.
£
co/v/himaBLzvWaY
I
Senator Ben Cardin
26 Aug
4
Ben- Heres to a great yr ©mcpssuper
&
@MCPS.
Thanks to all the parents,
teachers, admins & community partners dedicated
to quality education
I.
.
Joshua Starr @mcpssuper
26 Aug
Health and weilness center at
Northwood HS provides primary care
to many,
many students and about 100
-
families OFarzad_ONC #mcpsfirstday
—
A Superintendent’s Twitter Connections
Joshua Starr @mcpssuper
26 Aug
I
don’t know which I
enjoyed more this
morning: watching my youngest go to
1
kindergarten or my 5th grader perform
his safety patrol duties
Joshua Starr @mcpssuper
26 Aug
1
Now at the brand new Weller Road ES
for our press conference #mcpsfirstday
36
SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR NOVEMBER 2013
