Technology Standards for School Administrators
A Day in the Life of a Superintendent
Imagining the Very Near Future
Dr. Sue Steinbeck's day begins at home with a quick check of her PDA
(personal digital assistant) for the day's calendar. She then logs on
to access email messages from board members, central office personnel,
principals, teachers, parents, and community members. Messages demanding
an immediate response from the superintendent are handled directly by
email. Board members, using their districtsupplied workstations, typically
get “priority” response. Tasks more appropriately handled by other staff
members are referred via email for attention by directors, principals,
and other district personnel. For responses requiring additional research,
the superintendent "files" the message, tags it for followup, and sets
an electronic "tickler" as a reminder to complete the response.
Upon arriving at her office, Dr. Steinbeck accesses the administrative
team's online calendar to review schedules of senior administrators and
determine an appropriate time for a special cabinet meeting. Reviewing
the district calendar, she also gets a sense of what is happening across
the district, and where she might best spend time attending functions
or visiting classrooms.
Following her attendance at a Rotary Club luncheon, where she makes a
multimedia presentation that highlights the district's new technology
plan, Sue checks legislative Web sites to learn about pending action that
may impact her school district. Dr. Steinbeck emails two influential legislators
regarding a school funding bill under consideration, and she schedules
herself to testify in support of a bill requiring technology competency
for certification of new teachers in the state. An unusually high percentage
of the district's graduating seniors were admitted to competitive colleges
and universities this year, so Dr. Steinbeck emails the district chief
information officer. She requests that he draft a story (complete with
digital photos) that she will review online prior to publication in the
local newspaper and posting on the district Web site.
Superintendent Steinbeck reviews requested electronic end-of-year reports
from cabinet members and directors regarding transportation, food service,
facilities, budget, personnel actions, and curriculum enhancement activities.
An electronic reminder by her PDA of an upcoming meeting with an unhappy
parent alerts her to query the student database to gain background information
about the student's schedule and performance. She reviews a priority email
requested that morning from the student's principal to gain further insight
on this parent issue before moving to the conference. Following the meeting,
Sue visits a campus improvement team meeting at the new middle school,
and then a grand "re-opening" of an elementary library that had been damaged
earlier in the year because of roof failure during an intense thunderstorm.
Dr. Steinbeck observes with pride the success of re-opening the library
as a model, technology-rich, 21st Century library as she observes a student
who served with her on the library redesign team guiding a parent through
one of the new online, full-text periodical services.
Driving home from the office, Superintendent Steinbeck reflects upon
the vision she hopes to advance for the use of technology across the school
district. She begins to develop in her own mind strategies for using community
connectivity to optimize her efforts to communicate and advocate that
vision. Later that evening, Dr. Steinbeck connects via the Internet to
prepare for a collaborative online course that involves other superintendents
meeting virtually the next day to explore curriculum-based budgeting.
Before retiring, she reviews her calendar for the following day and checks
her email messages, which include a brief district budget update from
the Associate Superintendent.
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