Elect John Cruz

Technology means a lot more than just using computers, after all, 1995 has long come and gone.

As an IT professional, I know what it means to be on the edge of new technology. I know those who embrace it can market that and use it to become better organizations and attract new people. Those who are reluctant are viewed as out of touch, slow to adapt, and unable to commit. For Mount Clemens to be viewed as a competitive district on the cutting edge of technology, we need to make sure we are doing just that

It’s great that the school district is talking about doing an emailing list for parents, but realistically, this kind of thing should have been taken care of 6 or 7 years ago. We didn’t need to wait around to see if this email thing was going to take off before we decided to embrace it.

Here’s my plan for bringing technology up to par for the 21st century at Mount Clemens:

• Comprehensive emailing system. With options for alerts for school events, parent events, sporting events, etc. Let’s make the most use of this to commuicate with the parents and students. Afterall, the more communication we can have the more feedback we can have. And with that, district improvements.
• Embrace online learning with proper application. Moodle is a powerful, robust, open-source (aka, free) software product that makes online learning easy and interactive for students and teachers. This software is used by over 50,000 sites as well as many colleges and Universities (Oakland University, for example). We can make use of this at Mount Clemens with a very minimal cost (infrastructure and training, the former we should already have in place). Learn more about moodle here.
• Make use of Twitter. Twitter started off as a small web service allowing people to tell their friends what they were up to, but has spread to reach the potential of a mass communications medium. While some colleges and universities (such as Baker College) will make use of SMS text messaging to relay important messages regarding school closings, the ones more serious about it are using Twitter. Wayne State uses twitter to alert people of open houses, athletic events, academic events, class closing, etc. Best of all, we can get honest, real-time feedback right from the users. To see an example of how Wayne State uses Twitter effectively, click here.
• Make use of open systems where appropriate. Open source operating systems, programs and systems have wide appeal for a low up front cost and being community driven - so there are no sales or support contracts to get suckered into from a financial standpoint. Many companies are now using open systems, so in preparation, Mount Clemens students should have experience with this.
• Make more moves to web-based applications where we can. Too many times, systems can’t be upgraded because old software won’t run on new ones, or will require an expensive new upgrade. Web based applications are much more scalable and have a longer life span, as they can be used through any browser, regardless of how old or new the computer using it is. This will allow us to have the best possible programs available for teachers and students while keeping costs down at the same time.
• Have classes that encourage students to research, discover, and put to use new technology methods. Encourage the teachers to do the same thing. To think forward, we need to stay on top of new technologies so we can brainstorm ways to put them to use in Mount Clemens Schools
• Find cutting edge, cost effective ways of bringing interactive education to the classroom.

Let’s work together to give Mount Clemens the make-over it deserves: A district of cutting edge technology that is not afraid to embrace new ways of using our resources to make education better.

As a firm believer in transparency in government, I feel that it’s imperative that any and all documents should be made public for viewing.

Taking a step in that direction, here is the 2009 MCCS Reconfiguration Plan for you to review. I was opposed to this plan for reasons they never even bother to mention in the official plan. Click here to download (Right click –> save target as). You will need adobe reader to view it.

After meeting with the MEA Local 1 last Monday, I am happy to say that they have given me their endorsement. The MCEA, the Mount Clemens branch of the MEA consists of Mary Hughes, the PAC Chair; as well as the reccomendation board members Kevin Marvin, Mary Campbell, Virgie Crawly, Ann Tocco, and Lissa Volz.

It’s a great feeling to see that the message of Common Sense Education is reaching people on all sides of the isle and I look forward to working with all related organizations to improve our schools.

A big thank you is due to all of the MEA members who took the time to sit down with all of the candidates.

You can help too by making an endorsement! Head on over to the supporters page and join the team of educators, students, and citizens who are behind my message.

Are you a member of a local community organization in Mount Clemens? Contact me, I would like to see what bridges we can build to help improve our community.

Looks like the press has been good as of late. My editorial regarding the redistribution plan made it into The Macomb Daily last Friday and today’s edition of The Journal featured interview questions with all three of us going for the position on the board.

You can view a scan of The Journal article by clicking here. Very nice words for myself as well as my opponents, Mrs. Knight, and Mr. Gravlin.

The editorial that appeared in The Macomb Daily can be viewed by clicking here or by going to their website at MacombDaily.com.

Last night I had a chance to go check out the Lady Bathers varsity game against Anchor Bay. It was nice to see that there are some sports in The Clem that can still draw both a crowd and some respect. Congrats to them on their blowout of Anchor Bay.

It made me feel like an old man looking at the changes made to the High School gym since I graduated. No matter how many times I see it, I’m still not used to it.

I had a chance to sit down and have a talk with Dr. Muncatchy, the superintentent. And while we’ve had a good deal of differences on policies, it turns out that we do share some common visions for the district and even have a few things in common. It was nice to meet another saxophone player who feels the same way I do about the importants of the Arts and Music in public schools.

We also both believe strongly that members of educational leadership need to be involved as much as we can within the community and work with as many people as we can to make our district better. I’m all about building bridges, and the fact that he was willing to sit down and talk and talk with me despite the harsh public comments I’ve made about his administration proves that. So between basketball and education, it was a nice chat and a chance for us to get to know each other.

He also said that no matter what happens with the election, that he would like to get me involved with the district more, so i’m excited to see that no matter what, there will still be a chance to get some real work done in The Clem.

The February 18th board meeting was interesting. It was nice to see the Middle School (while it still is the middle school) looking good. Back when I went to school in that building (which seems like a million years ago now) it was the MLK Academy and first district school to be part of what was at that time “The Edison Project”. To say the least, things look a little different.

I had a chance to talk with Principal Reeves for a few minutes and I plan on stopping in to chat with him sometime this week about the future of MCMS. While I enjoyed his presentation, I did feel that there were too many buzz words and not enough specifics. After all, “technology” could mean anything nowadays.

The board member’s comments in regards to the public’s feelings against the redistribution plan were exactly what I expected: the same rhetoric that was given the week earlier with constant reassurance that things will get better. Call me skeptical, but after living in this district for almost 21 years, I’ve heard too many similar stories to not take this without a grain of salt.

The superintendent’s comments about wanting to get parents involved with an emailing list and similar things are great, but why hasn’t this stuff been impliemented already? All things considered, things like these should have been part of the TC Wallace Administration, but that ship has long sailed. Working in web development and internet technologies, I can tell you first hand that it will take longer to design the format of a email newsletter than the actual newsletter software takes to setup. And it can all be done for free via OpenSource software. Since we already have the hardware and IT infrastructure to support PHP / MySQL databases, there’s no reason why this shouldn’t have happened years ago.

If Mount Clemens Schools wants to portray themselves as a district on the cutting edge of technology and preparing our students for such, we can’t be waiting till 2009 to start talking about emailing the parents. I just find that completely unacceptable.

I would also like someone to explain to me why on earth these meetings are held at whatever school in the district’s turn it is to host them? This makes it much harder for parents to know where the meetings are and the audience is stuck in uncomfertable chairs for hours, prompting most of them to leave long before the meeting ends.

If only there was a place in the district that was set up for board meetings already that we could use every month and have suitable comfort for board members and parents, as well as overall convenience.

Ooh wait, we do. It’s called the small auditorium in the secondary complex. It’s time we moved all meetings there perminantly.

While I hadn’t planned on keeping a blog until after the election was won, I feel there is quite a need to keep the voters in the loop of things the way things are progressing, both with the campaign and with the issues that are ever changing.

With that in mind, check back here for updates on what is going on in the district and my thoughts on actions taken by board members.

I am also going to be posting updates of board meetings and other events live via Twitter as they happen, and you can check that out at www.twitter.com/electjohncruz.

As always, feel free to contact me with any input!