#Syracuse Has the Virus – @ the chalk face

#Syracuse Has the Virus – @ the chalk face:

#Syracuse Has the Virus

by Kris Nielsen

I’ve been very busy communicating with parents and teachers in my state, finishing my speech for Occupy DOE 2.0 (Woohoo!), and stuff like that.  My contributions to The Chalk Face have been a little wanting, but it’s not because I’ve been quiet.  Honestly, I’ve felt a little sick.  Not because I have an illness or a virus, but because my new city does.  Yes, Syracuse, New York, has caught a deadly virus–the Broad Virus.

From Paul Riede at syracuse.com:

Ten top Syracuse school administrators and board members traveled to New Orleans last weekend as part of a two-year, $300,000 training program.

District officials say no district money was used for the trip, which was funded entirely by a grant from the national Say Yes to Education Foundation.

The trip was the third in a series of four out-of-town meetings district officials have had with the Houston-based Center for Reform of School Systems. Two CRSS trainers were at the New Orleans session.

The board voted to join the program in late 2011. The idea of the training, calledReform Governance in Action, is to help officials look beyond the nuts and bolts of everyday operations and develop long-range policies to improve schools.

Over the past year, the Syracuse group has met with the CRSS in Santa Fe, N.M.; Atlanta; and now New