Author Archives: Dr. Jim Lloyd

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About Dr. Jim Lloyd

Prior to coming to Olmsted Falls City Schools as an administrator, I began my career in the district as a school psychologist. From there I was hired as the Director of Student Services for the Westlake City School District and worked in that capacity for 9 years. I am going into my 10th year as the Superintendent of the Olmsted Falls City School District and before being appointed, I worked as the Assistant Superintendent in the district and was responsible for implementing the district's curriculum, instruction and assessment vision. I graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with a B.A. in Psychology in 1992. In 1994 I graduated from the University of Akron with an M.A. in School Psychology. In 2008 I graduate with my doctorate from Ashland University and wrote my dissertation on the Professional Development Implications of Ohio's Value-Added Assessment System. My wife (Rhonda) and I, along with our 3 children, live in Olmsted Township. All of my children graduated from Olmsted Falls High School.

What is Technology Enabled…and what isn’t?

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OFCS Strategic ObjectivesThree years ago the school district went through several strategic planning sessions that engaged multiple stakeholders–teachers, students, administrators, Board of Education members, parents and other members of the community. As the writing team began to formulate the ideas, those not participating in the actual writing were asked to provide feedback as to whether or not we were on the right track. The end result was a revised Vision and Mission statement, a reaffirmed list of beliefs and a set of strategic focus areas (Student Success, Technology Enabled, Aligned Resources & Community Partnerships) that have guided our decision making. Within each focus area the team created strategic objectives to guide the work. I’d like to focus on the objectives related to being Technology Enabled.

The district’s three strategic planning objectives related to technology are at the top of this blog section.

  • T.1. means “provide professional development to the adults in order to teach them what technology is available.”
  • T.2. means “determine what the best practices are as it relates to integrating technology and gather data as to whether or not integration is happening.”
  • T.3. means “create a set of expectations for integration; monitor the implementing so that the work can be supported.”

The district’s technology integration committee has been the primary driver of further defining what is meant by being “technology enabled” for the students and for the adults.  It should be noted that there is no final destination of Tech Enabled-stasis. Integration is on-going, simultaneous, non-linear and organic. Here is what Tech Enabled is and what it is not.

What Tech Enabled isn’t…

  • A district mentality to reach the one device per student ratio…while more technology may be nice, we’re not in a race to be the district that is 1-to-1. In other words, leading the league in the total number of devices isn’t the goal. The vision is to inspire and empower students and technology can be a vehicle in order to facilitate. The goal is a deeper level of integration. The goal is not simply, “get more.”
  • More screen time for students…certainly using an electronic device requires more actual time in front of a screen, however we do not have a goal that states, “students will increase their screen time from X to Y.” Balance is key and a student isolating oneself behind a screen for extended periods of time can be counterproductive to the learning process. The goal is purposeful integration. The goal is not “more screen time.”
  • Replacing teachers with technology…while technology can add value to and create a more engaged student, make no mistake about it; Olmsted Falls Teachers add the most instructional value and far more than any computer or device could. Our district prides itself on educating the whole child and while technology may augment our ability to do so, it doesn’t by itself fulfill that objective. You win with people…not machines. Sorry SkyNet.

  What Tech Enabled could be…

  • To me, “Tech Enabled” means integrating technology into the instructional environment (where appropriate) in order to inspire and empower students.
  • That could be done by simply teaching students how to use a particular productivity tool in order to make it easier for them to generate ideas or as complex as teaching them how to use software to create something brand new. As the superintendent of schools I certainly don’t have the market cornered on good ideas and integrating technology into the classroom is no exception. As the leader of the district one of my jobs is to empower others to enact their respective skill sets.
  • That being said, we have two district Technology Integration Specialists who provide professional development to our staff. While they do many things, fundamental to their role is adult empowerment. They teach the teachers how to more effectively integrate technology into the classroom.
  • According to Olmsted Falls Technology Integration Specialist Dawn Carlin, “Technology integration is using technology resources in a seamless manner within a classroom setting. The goal is not simply ‘use technology,’ but to use technology resources to support the curriculum, help students reach their goals and for students to become more actively engaged in the learning process.”
  • According to Olmsted Falls Technology Integration Specialist Jeff VanArnehm, “Successful technology integration is achieved when technology becomes transparent to the learning process. Students should have access to a variety of tools that match the task at hand. The emphasis is not on the technology itself, but on solving a problem or achieving a learning goal. Technology should provide students the opportunity to extend their learning or build a deeper understanding of content.”

Thanks for listening.

Jim

 

Olmsted Falls High School Construction Update

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J:Mathews K-12Current DesignMatthews Floor Plan Scheme 3 ModeA very long awaited building construction project is taking shape on the campus of Olmsted Falls High School. While we only have some construction fencing and alternate traffic patterns, people will begin to see a staging process take place.

When I became the superintendent 4 years ago one of the first things that I did was visit with the architectural firm that the district has had a long standing relationship with–the Architectural Vision Group. While the high school building project was passed only a year ago, the scope of work has been in the making for about 20 years.

During my first tour of duty as a school psychologist for Olmsted Falls, the district was going through a housing boom. Within 7 years, approximately 1,000 additional students were enrolled which led to significant overcrowding. A small addition to the high school occurred around 1996, but the district kept growing. Despite several attempts, the voters did not approve a bond issue to expand the size of the building and as a result the district was forced to acquire classroom trailers that were supposed to serve as a temporary fix. Fifteen years later, the stars aligned last fall and the voters were overwhelmingly supportive of the Bond Project which will have a significant impact on the building.

Throughout the year I will be providing you with periodic updates and they will also appear on the district’s main blog page as well.  The image at the top of this page outlines the majority of the work that will be conducted and as you can see, there is literally something for everyone to get excited about.

The most significant amount of work will solve our overcrowding problem and it will take place in the academic wings. With Academics, we will add 9 science classrooms and 4 business classrooms including a FAB Lab (16 total). In the Arts, we will add 3 new art classrooms; we will double the size of the band and choir area, and the auditorium will receive lighting and HVAC updates. With Athletics, we will renovate the locker room, create seasonal team rooms, and provide new flooring and ceiling finishes in the athletic corridors. In the heart and most visited sections, we will renovate the kitchen, the cafeteria and the media center. These areas will be completely renovated. They will be a place for students to congregate during the day and meeting space for the community in the evening.

Our goal is to have all of the additional classrooms and building renovations completed for the start of the 2018-19 school. It is an aggressive schedule and it will require those that attend the high school everyday to work around it. When the dust settles, the building will be something that will house all of our students and better prepare them for the next stages in their lives.

Thanks for listening.
~Jim

Redefining Student Success Our Way

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OFSTripleALogo-For Power Announce TemplateWe Inspire and Empower students! These words and the logo to the left of them mean something. It’s more than an image or a brand. It stands for who we’ve been…who we are…and what we can continue to become.

Soon the Ohio Department of Education, as required by the Ohio General Assembly, will release district report cards that will provide a laundry list of A – F ratings. If you think that there is a solid research base that indicates such a student measurement system leads to high achievement and growth for students you are mistaken.   Simply put, the testing rules and cut scores are created for the purpose of matching the public and policymaker’s expectations for the distribution of the grades. This coupled with the fact that (at least in Ohio) the tests that our district is required to administer to students (we have no choice in this) have changed significantly over the past few years (not only in what they measure, but how they measure it) should give you tremendous pause if you are a student taking them or a parent, a community member or an educator who is left to interpret what they mean.

There was a time in my educational career that I waited like a child on Christmas morning for the testing results to be released so that I could facilitate state test disaggregation sessions with teachers. We would get the test scores that the students produced and we would slice them and dice them trying to glean what we could in order to get better scores. We would look at test maps, which learning indicators were being measured and how our students were performing. We no longer do this…we reject this approach for several reasons. As a district we have consciously elected to disengage in “test prep” and “teaching to the test.” We found that this approach shrinks the curriculum and deprives students and teachers of the defined autonomy that they are granted within the current set of learning standards.

So how are we redefining Student Success? Through a strategic planning process that included feedback from students, parents, community members, educators and others, we have made a conscious choice to reject an accountability system which measures student success largely based on compliance with state testing mandates. It doesn’t tell the whole story and it simply doesn’t work for us. We’re not going Frank Sinatra…we’re going Bulldog–we’re doing it Our Way because we believe that the Ohio Accountability Model deprives our ability to inspire and empower all of our students to achieve their full potential. It goes against our district’s vision and mission and steals our local control. In the words of Kouzes and Posner, we’re Modeling the Way and Enabling Others to Act.

We believe that our charge in Olmsted Falls is to empower and inspire our students and that if you were to ask a student, they would tell you that they don’t feel very inspired or empowered when they take high stakes, state‐ mandated assessments. So…our challenge is to determine how to meet our charge within the “legislative policy box” that we have been forced into, when the way or the path to lead the charge and meet the challenge set before us is, currently and largely, undefined. Our Moonshot Thinking is to work with our colleagues and community to try and figure out how we can be inspiring and empowering to students; foster innovation and creativity within the instructional environment and provide the comprehensive, whole-child, Triple A experience that has been our district’s legacy.

As we approach the first full month of school, we will soon be releasing a Quality Profile that will relay Student Success information to our community as a way to demonstrate that we are fulfilling the district mission and vision that has been formulated and supported by our community.  Please be on the look out for that information.

Thanks for listening.

Jim      

 

Strong Schools Include Open and Honest Communication

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As your superintendent of schools, I know that Olmsted Falls City Schools provides a great value to the community. We have a top-rated quality of education and our expenditure per pupil is among the lowest in the county. Thanks to the support of our community, our dedicated and caring staff, tremendous parent support and amazing students who work hard every day, we have strong schools.

It is up to all of us to keep our schools strong. Our community stepped up this fall as voters approved a needed zero additional taxes bond and permanent improvement levy to address ongoing facility and maintenance needs across our district. It is now up to our schools to use this money wisely and keep our community informed about the progress that is being made.

The same is true for our academic program and fiscal management practices. We owe it to our community to be open and honest with you about our many successes as well as any challenges that we may face. It is with this spirit of open and honest communication in mind that I am beginning a new blog.

The Superintendent Update blog will provide regular information to the community about what’s happening in our schools, insights on decisions that are made and important updates as to what our district is facing.  I am an advocate for public schools and will provide followers with information related to how some of the state and federal decisions impact us at the local level. The blog is simply one more way for residents to better understand what is happening in our schools and how Olmsted Falls City Schools impacts our community. I hope you will mark this page so that you can follow our regular updates. As always should you have any questions at any time, please do not hesitate to contact the district.