This past weekend was one for the record books for us in Washington, D.C. — a snow storm socked us with more than 20 inches of snow. Many of us are from colder areas (Pittsburgh, for me), but we’ve been here so long that we’ve acclimated to snow-less winters.

Schools and offices are closed all over the Washington, D.C., metro area and beyond. While we’ve been trying to come up with names for the big storm (Snowpocolypse, Snowmaggaden, and Snowtorious B.I.G.), yet another storm is fixing to dump yet another 10 to 20 inches on us.

For the snowbound, this is a perfect time to catch up on reading — and ASBJ.com offers plenty of useful and thought-provoking articles to keep you occupied as the snow piles up. Read what schools can and can’t learn from business in our February issue. Also, find out how administrators and school leaders are coping with the stress of the down economy.

While you’re in an information-gathering mode, register for a free webinar on how to move your district into the next generation. ASBJ is partnering with Cisco on this webinar, which will be at 2 p.m. ET on Feb. 25 and will feature a seven-step process on how to assess where you are now and how to get where you need to go.  Go here to register.

Social networking? Then follow us on Twitter for updates, insights, and other items for school leaders and anyone interested in education.  Are you on Facebook? Become a fan of ASBJ here.

Interested in federal education policy and legislation? Read our coverage of NSBA’s Leadershiop and Federal Relations Network conferences at School Board News Today.

Happy reading — Spring will be here, soon.

Kathleen Vail, Managing Editor

ASBJ editors have been working this weekend covering the National School Board Association’s Leadership Conference and Federal Relations Network (FRN) Conference in Washington, D.C.

Read our conference updates and breaking news stories at School Board News Today Conference Daily edition.

Coverage runs through Tuesday and upcoming highlights include Arne Duncan’s address to school boards, Race to the Top information, and a look at President Obama’s proposed education budget. 

Kathleen Vail, Managing Editor

Two thousand parents, teachers, and students appeared at a public meeting this week to protest a proposal by New York City school officials to close 19 struggling schools.

That’s as clear an example as any of why school reform is so tough.

Every year, national polls reveal the same reality: People like their local school, yet they think that other schools aren’t doing well. Many say low-performing schools need to be closed.

Just not their school. If someone’s school is having problems, it’s assumed that the school can be turned around with enough love and attention. Rarely will you find a school community who thinks their school should suffer the ultimate sanction.

I understand that reaction. It’s human nature to be loyal to the familiar. And schools are an important part of any community.

So the scene that unfolded at Brooklyn Tech High School is no surprise. There, amongst the crowd, “some pleaded, some jeered. Some rationally cited statistics, while others flew off the handle . .  . as members cast their votes, the crowd shouted, ‘Shame on you!’”

Such outrage, as described by the New York Post, will be familiar to school officials in numerous urban school systems that have closed schools because of budget deficits, declining enrollments, or plain-and-simple poor performance.

But I don’t share this story because New York City officials had a tough day. Nor do I have an opinion about whether officials made the right decision.
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Consider an institution that was guilty of “a pattern of lurching from one strategy to another, always looking for a single-stroke solution to its problems. It held pep rallies, launched programs, grabbed fads, fired CEOs, hired CEOs, and fired them again.”

Sound like a school system you know?

In fact, it’s the story of grocery store chain A&P, whose corporate troubles in the 1960s and 1970s are reported by business management guru Jim Collins in his book, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t.

The parallel with troubled school systems is clear. And the reason A&P got into trouble also will be familiar with school board members. The grocery chain lacked a long-term, systemic plan for dealing with consumers’ changing tastes for nicer stores with a wider selection of food and services.

In fact, it attempted a damaging price-cutting strategy “but never dealt with the basic fact that consumers wanted not lower prices, but different stores.”
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And after you’re done reading this month’s cover story on universal breakfast, check out Doug Eadie’s latest installment on school governance. Contrary to popular belief, Eadie writes, governing isn’t just about policymaking. Indeed, “when you strip away the fancy rhetoric, governing becomes nothing more than the board making decisions about very concrete governing products.” Intrigued? Better read it soon, while it’s online for free for a limited time.

If you’re on the East Coast, you got some snow this weekend. Here in Washington, D.C., they’re calling it the Blizzard of 2009. In Northern Virginia, where I live, we officially received more than 16 inches of snow.

Yes, other parts of the country are used to this kind of snowfall — we’re not. Even those of us who hail from colder places (like me) have lived in this area so long that we’ve forgotten what it’s like to deal with so much snow.

Around here, even the threat of snow can close schools. No matter where you live, the decision to close school because of weather is controversial. Some parents are mad if you close; some are mad if you don’t.

My sons’ school district closed not only for today but also for the rest of the week — which means we won’t have school until after winter break. I’m glad my district decided to do this, even if it means my supplies for my kindergartener’s holiday party will sit unused until next year.

From my window (I’m working from home — federal government closed today, so that means our offices are closed, too) I can see the school bus stop, covered in a foot of snow. No way could kids stand at that bus stop, even if the roads were clear. Mine is not — it’s only seen a snow plow once since the storm.

Conditions at on my street are pretty typical around my county. Many people don’t own snow blowers, which are pretty much required for getting rid of so much snow from the sidewalks.

When the district made the announcement, I applauded it. I saw from my listservs and Facebook friends that other parents disagreed. One mom complained that the district had gone for the “nuclear option” by closing the district for the three days before winter break.

In a district of our size, that’s to be expected. I hope that parents keep in mind that district officials consider all factors in their decisions — sidewalks, parking lots, and road conditions — to close schools.

Also, today would have been a half day and Wednesday was an early dismissal day. I suspect not a lot of instruction will be missed in the next three days.

Anyone out there had to make an unpopular school closing decision? Let us know and we’ll publish your comments.

Kathleen Vail, Managing Editor

What’s the toughest thing about being a leader? According to New York City schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein, it’s knowing “when to put your foot on the brake, and when to put it on the gas.”

“You keep it on the brake, it will be a safe ride,” Klein says “You’re going nowhere, but it will be  a safe ride.” Put it on the gas “and you might go over the hill.”

Klein isn’t talking Driver’s Ed here; he’s looking at what makes a dynamic school superintendent. In this short video interview with Washington Post columnist Jay Mathews, he boasts about the changes he’s made in the nation’s largest school system, discusses school leadership in general, and comes to the defense of fellow pedal-to-the-metal reformer, Michelle Rhee of the District of Columbia Public Schools.

My favorite line from the interview concerns Rhee’s often brusque management style. “Systems don’t change ’cause you charm them,” Klein says.

Is Detroit getting its very own “rubber room?” Don’t cheer. This would be a shame, says the Detroit News story, which is on the Eduwonk blog. “Rubber room” is the derisive term given to that place where New York City has put unproductive teachers whose union contracts make them almost impossible to fire.  According to the News, Detroit’s latest teacher agreement may set up the district for the same thing. 

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If you’re looking for a story of hope for the holiday season, I’ve got one for you.

We receive many manuscripts for publication each month — mostly from education professors and school administrators. Articles from school board members are not as plentiful, which is why Philip Kelly’s offering caught my attention when it landed on my desk.

The Boise, Idaho, school board member has an amazing story to tell, and we were happy to publish that story in the December issue of ASBJ. Kelly heard about the plight of the “invisible children” in war-torn Uganda at a school board meeting.

He might have chosen to store that information and go about his life as usual. Instead, he ended up traveling with a handful of other educators to Gulu, Uganda, in the middle of the war zone.

Read A School Leader’s Journey to find out how Kelly connected his experiences in Gulu with his board service in Boise, enhancing the lives of people in both communities.

As Kelly puts it, “I ran for school board to be involved in the school district, not the world. Who knew being on a school board could lead me across the globe?”

Kathleen Vail, Managing Editor

Back in July, my colleague Lawrence Hardy wrote a list of “five reforms that failed.” Not surprisingly, “Zero Tolerance” policies were ranked. Larry’s example was a Delaware high school student who got suspended for bringing a pastry knife to school for a Junior Achievement project.

It certainly wasn’t the first time zero tolerance got lambasted, but apparently some schools in Delaware still didn’t get the message.

This week, a 6-year-old boy named Zachary Christie is the poster child for zero tolerance gone amuck. He’s a Cub Scout who loves school so much that he sometimes wears a suit. And on Sept. 29, he was so excited about a new tool his parents gave him—a jackknife-type tool that has a knife, fork and spoon for camping—that he brought it to school to use for lunch.

And that’s where the trouble started. Under the Christina, Del., school district code, knives are banned. Zachary was sentenced to 45 days in a school for juvenile delinquents, and his parents, who are home-schooling him in the interim, created a website and are making the rounds on national news to tell their son’s plight.

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Secretary of Education Arne Duncan wrote an article on the challenges facing school boards and big-city mayors.

The article will be published in the October issue of American School Board Journal, but we’re giving you a special preview of the article on our website. Go here to check it out.

Read the offcial NSBA statement here and reaction on our sister blog, BoardBuzz.

After you’re done reading, come back here and let us know what you think.