Friday, September 18, 2009

Commissioner to Ramp up KDE Communications with SB 1 Webinars

Commissioner Holliday announced on his blog this afternoon that KDE will be seeking increased input on Senate Bill 1 and customer service from KDE. The importance of a successful implementation of SB 1 is hard to exaggerate. As for KDE's customer service Holliday noted, that as he has travelled the state, he has heard many positive comments about KDE staff but he has also heard "concerns about communication and customer service."

For the first few months on the job, I have attempted to get to many parts of the Commonwealth. I have enjoyed meeting with superintendents, principals, teachers, parents, business leaders, legislators and students. I have utilized technology through Twitter, Facebook and this blog to communicate with stakeholders. I will continue this approach of visibility, communication and listening. I also will begin to utilize other technology to communicate with key stakeholders.

Over the next few weeks KDE staff will assist me in developing webinars that will target superintendents, principals and teachers. These webinars will focus on key strategies that are a part of Senate Bill 1 and the numerous federal initiatives that are funding education reform. We will look for two-way communication. We will present some information; however, we are more interested in gathering feedback from these key stakeholder groups. Through surveys and open-ended response questions, we will gain feedback on reform strategies from these key stakeholders.
Holliday said the department will begin to "document customer service standards" and said citizens contacting KDE "should expect a response, within 24 hours, that is accurate and delivered in a professional manner."

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

And apparently gone are Prichard's reservation about Terry Holliday. In July, the committee lamented that the commissioner pool was "not the level you would expect for one of the top education commissioner posts in the country."

All that means is he did the required amount of "butt kissing" to satisfy the Prichard Committee and assure them that they would still be relevant in K-12 (or, is it now K-50) education.

Anonymous said...

I can't wait until I go to my job at Fayette County Schools and check my email one day. In addition to receiving "Stu's News," I fully anticipate one day having to read, or at least open, an attachment from Dr. Holliday about what Senate Bill 1 means for me.

Why can't I just get on with the business of teaching while these two consider how they write the next chapter in Lawrence Cremmin's The Transformation of the School. Hey, has anyone seen Stu in his her or her school lately? I have not.....

Anonymous said...

Oh 1:11am finally Holiday is beginning his tactics to swamp the teachers with his rhetoric and paperwork. You will not be able to "just get on with the business of teaching" without first having to paper your walls with data, hold a magnitude of meetings to talk about the data and then reorganize the data to fit the agenda. One of the KY teachers said Holiday would not tell her how to teach...Kentucky was warned!

Anonymous said...

If you hate Stu, there are plenty of other school districts for you to go teach in. He's out in our schools more than any other super I ever taught under. And I never got an email from any of them either! Before Stu came we had to hold our breath for annual budget cuts and FCEA was begging to get teacher salaries above $30,000. The past two years we've gotten better raises than any of our neighboring counties. A lot of us are grateful. Sorry you're not.

Anonymous said...

Those of us who criticize Mr. Silberman don't hate him. True, he is seen by some as a faker and self-promoter who cares only about his inflated ego. Mr. Silberman does a good talk, but in the end, he makes politically correct moves. Once he was challenged by an idiotic conservative talk show host, Silberman made certain that there would be no discussion of the Obama speech lest any controversy arise.

Mr. Silberman was also incompetent at evaluating principals accurately. Look at Richard Day's editorial on that for another perspective. Too, he allowed Michael Ernst to bully and sexually harrass both gay and straight colleagues and then refused to tell the District what what was really going on when Ernst resiigned, and when parents register a complaint about a teacher, Mr. Silberman seldom supports them.

Hate Stu Silberman? Not at all. We pity him. My wife and I often see him at the Methodist church he attends attempting to drum up support for his failing leadership. Those of us who have been around long enough, remember the enlightened leadership of a Dr. Walton or a Dr. Potts. We yearn for those days again.

Anonymous said...

After reading the last exchange, I see how divided teachers are regarding Dr. Stu. It's a shame that they feel they can't use the opinion pages to write down their concerns. And it is even sadder that those guy's who slam him are told to search for a job in a different county.

Anonymous said...

Dr. Stu.

Correction...it's Mr. Stu.

Anonymous said...

I stand corrected. Stu Silberman has no earned doctorate.

Anonymous said...

"Mr. Silberman don't hate him. True, he is seen by some as a faker and self-promoter who cares only about his inflated ego. Mr. Silberman does a good talk, but in the end, he makes politically correct moves."


This Silberman character and Holliday should get along splendidly... it appears thatthey have much in common.

Richard Day said...

3:12 - "...finally Holiday is beginning his tactics to swamp the teachers with his rhetoric and paperwork."

I guess I mised it. What are you referring to? Where is Holliday swamping teachers with anything? the above effort only refers to KDE.