Superintendent's Blog

Some of you may recall the story from last year about a Saline Middle School student who had decided an old greenhouse attached to our Middle School needed some repair. I was pleased to hear the Saline Kiwanis Club presented Joey Omichinski with a plaque that will be hung in the greenhouse in honor of Joey's efforts and Mr. Alton Ealy, a longtime science and agriculture teacher for Saline Area Schools.


The Omichinski family should be very proud of Joey's accomplishment.

A new school year is just two weeks away. As summer comes to an end, we are busy putting the final touches on the new programs and planning for the 2008-2009 school year.

We are training staff on PowerSchool, our new student management software. The new product includes a component called, PowerTeacher. This is where staff will input attendance and grades and ultimately where parents will go to check on their child’s progress. We will be sending home log in and password information for parents in mid-September.

This Friday we have training on the NWEA assessment. As I have mentioned before on the blog, it will provide us with needed norm referenced data to aid us in making instructional decisions. There are also parent reports that will give families information on where their children are achieving as related to national averages. I had the chance to talk with Naomi Norman from the Washtenaw Intermediate School District at a recent meeting. As of this year there will be seven local districts using the NWEA tool. We shared ideas on using our collective county data to target future professional development.

The trimester at Saline High School will be an adjustment for all of us. By reducing the number of lunch periods from four to three, increasing the passing time, and scheduling final exams at Thanksgiving… the whole rhythm of the day and year will change. Staff has been working all summer to adjust curriculum, developing pacing guides and common assessments.

We are implementing the AlertNow automated dialer system. This product was used at the high school last year and now we are going district-wide. To test the system and introduce it to the Saline Area Schools families, expect a call from me soon and then one from your building principal. If we have any snow days this year – you’ll get a call from school!

There are several other new programs this year including expanded foreign language at the middle school, the Young Adult program, grade looping at Pleasant Ridge, a Smartboard pilot program at Harvest and more. I will let you know how these are going as the year progresses.

Last night's board meeting marked the end of the 6 year run of Brian Cox covering the Saline Board of Education for the Saline Reporter by presenting him with a certificate of achievement. Mr. Cox has consistently provided the Saline community with in-depth and fair coverage of Saline Area Schools. He, along with the constant pencil behind his ear, will be missed.

The meeting included a quick update about Jump Start by Mr. Ben Williams and Mr. Brad Bezeau. They informed the board that the program was a success - especially for the first year. In total, 29 students successfully completed the program.

Mr. Dave Mellor, who teaches science and agriculture classes at Saline High School gave a powerful presentation regarding the ongoing wetlands project by several of his students. The presentation highlighted various issues related to wetland health on the campus of the High School, along with the constant issue of water and sport drink bottle litter.

On the business side, the board approved having breakfast programs at the High School, Heritage and Harvest - with a possible Middle School option during the year. They adopted the 2000, 5000 and 7000 series of policies - leaving only the 8000 and 9000 sections left for our next meeting. They also adjusted he pool rental policy to include fees for various equipment rentals and staff costs.

The board also announced their new voice mail number - 429-8000x2020. Each board member has an individual email, and then they have a collective voice mail.

Five new school buses are in the lot at the Middle School. They look a bit different - they are painted white on the top to reduce the passenger compartment heat. They also have "sporty" vents on the side of the hood, larger entry doors and steps, and cruise control on the steering wheel.


Two buses have adjustable locking tracks that allow for seats or for wheelchair straps. Our Transportation Department staff is excited to take delivery and to "decommission" some buses that have served us well, but have been on the road a very, very long time.

Unless you have this blog directly bookmarked (which I doubt) then you have noticed the changes to our website. Our Director of Technology, Mr. Ken Lupo has made the switch to a product called Joomla that is making content management easier for all of us, which in turn permits increased content on the site.

I have gotten some comments that we need to "dress it up" - which I agree with. In talking to Mr. Lupo, he reminded me that he is a "tech geek" and not an artist, so we have enlisted a few creative and stylish minds to help us out with making the site more attractive over the next several weeks. Keep and eye on it for changes.

For our staff, they will find that upon logging into the site, they will see staff related content, forms and new Moodle forums to discuss district related news and issues.

As always, I would like feedback - please give me your comments and suggestions on the site. On a side, note my blog also will look different soon. I am moving it to WordPress - you will still be able to find it linked to our site.

Football Season is here! The Lions are at training camp, the Wolverines are working on a new offense and the Saline Varsity Football team is gearing up for the Big Day Prep Showdown IV on Friday, August 29th. This football extravaganza will take place at EMU's Rynerson Stadium beginning at 11:00 a.m. The Hornets will play the premier game at 8 p.m. against Ann Arbor Pioneer. Come on out for this all-day event at EMU and help start the year on a positive note. The Saline vs. Pioneer has turned into a great rivalry. In the past 8 years we have played Pioneer 10 times, going 5-5. The Hornets are currently on a 3 game winning streak. For more information on the Big Day Prep Showdown, check out www.bigdayprepshowdown.com.

Advance tickets are $9 for adults and $7 for students. The tickets will be $10 the day of the event.

There are several ways to get your ticket to the event.

1. Visit the athletic office in the high school. The athletic office is open weekdays from 8 a.m. until noon, and then 1 p.m. until 4 p.m.

2. At the Blue/Gold Intra-Squad Scrimmage on Saturday, August 16th from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m. in Hornet Stadium.

3. At the four-team (with Novi, Dearborn and Livonia Franklin) scrimmage in Hornet Stadium on Thursday, August 21 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

4. In front of Busch's and TCF Bank from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on August 9th, 16th, and 23rd.

5. During the Saline Summerfest on August 8th and 9th in parking lot 4 behind Brecon Grill.

For more information on Saline Athletics and season passes please visit www.salinehornets.com

Attached is a copy of the building start times for the 2008-2009 school year, which by the way is only 33 days away!

On July 16th, Dr. Betty Garner was in Saline to provide insight into her book, “Getting to Got it”. The book, and her training with our staff, focused on why some students struggle and some students “get it”.

Dr. Garner shared methods to help students gather, organize and make sense of information. She also provided suggestions for using these techniques in daily classroom practice.

Yesterday, I listened to a podcast interview with Terry Davidson, the Director of the Annual Michigan School Testing Conference

He had some very interesting thoughts on the “new” focus on testing. In Saline, we are adding or reviewing options to add assessments (a.k.a. tests) at various levels. Last year we implemented the Plan and Explore tests at the high school level. Our interest in doing so is to gain information that can be used here to support instruction.

For example next year, we are implementing the NWEA assessment to get norm-referenced data on our students. This information will be beneficial for staff and families to make better instructional decisions for each student.

In my opinion, Mr. Davidson’s quote below sums up both the concern and opportunity with regard to testing in the current political environment.

"Ultimately, any test data that are collected, as far as I am concerned, need to be justified, and the primary justification for it, if I am a School Superintendent, has to do with gathering assessment data that help local classroom teachers make intelligent decisions about the effectiveness of their instruction, that's number one." Terry states.

"I understand the State wants data and I think there are ways to get that, but we can't lose sight of the fact that if we take teachers away from their primary task and don't arm them with the kind of data necessary to make intelligent decisions about what's effective instruction for each and every student in their class, we have lost the battle."

Click here to listen to the podcast.

The annual organizational meeting began with Board Secretary Paul Hynek swearing in the recently elected board members – Lisa Slawson and Chuck Lesch. Their four-year terms will run until June 30, 2012.

The board then elected their officers for the 2008-2009 school year, which as it turned out will be the same as last year. Ms. Lisa Slawson will serve as the President, Ms. Trudy Driscoll will serve as Vice President and Mr. Paul Hynek will be the Secretary.

We began to adopt the new policy manual by voting to use new by-laws, human resource and financial controls. The process of policy adoption will take place over the next two months. Once the process is complete, the new policy manual will be placed on the www.salineschools.com website in a searchable format.

We discussed the new school issued email addresses for board members. It will be the practice of the board for emails that request and/or require a response to reply to the entire board. Typically, they will also be sent to the Superintendent for further response. School issued voice mail boxes for each board member will be discontinued and a main “All Board” voice mail will be established so community members can leave messages for the entire board in that format.

The consent agenda was quite large with numerous housekeeping issues being handled as we begin a new school and fiscal year. One change of note for 08-09 is that all regular board meetings will begin at 6:30pm. In the past, the first meeting of the month has been at 7:00pm and the second meeting was at 6:30pm. From time to time this had created confusion for interested community members and staff as to when the meetings were scheduled to start.

Our next regular meeting will be held Tuesday, August 12th at 6:30pm.

The 117th Annual Saline High School Alumni Banquet was held tonight in Union School. It was fitting that the event was located at Union School, as we celebrated the class of 1958, who was the last class to graduate from Union School. The next year, the class of 1959 graduated from what is now Liberty School.


Patricia Visel Aungst spoke about the class of '58 - 43 members strong, 25 of whom still live within 30 miles of Saline. For comparison, there were 428 graduates in the Saline High School Class of 2008. There were also a good number of former students from the classes of 1948 and 1943, who were celebrating their 60th and 65th reunions.


Joan Starkey and Kathy Raus Hoey performed "You'll Never Walk Alone" just as they had at their graduation on June 5, 1958.

In looking at the 2007-2008 evaluation of the Weber-Blaess Schoolhouse from the Saline Area School Historic Preservation Foundation, I was impressed by the number of people who visited this past year. Over 40 groups, including virtually every 3rd & 4th grade class from the Saline District, spent time in the schoolhouse learning about the rural education system that existed in the Saline area up until about 50 years ago. It’s a team effort, led by Jim and Cheryl Hoeft, there were 6 docents and another 3 docents in training.

It’s great to see that over 1,300 individuals benefited in one year.Thinking back to our trip to Greenfield Village in Dearborn to visit a schoolhouse when I was in elementary school and now trying to manage a budget that includes $4.00+ fuel prices, having this schoolhouse resource in our community is wonderful!

I also got word of an upcoming event at the schoolhouse at 520 Woodland Drive, Saline.On Sunday, August 17th there will be an old fashioned ice cream social.The event will include numerous activities for children and adults.

On Friday, it's time to head to Battle Creek! Saline defeated Detroit Southeastern in the Quarterfinal and have advanced to the State Semi Finals on Friday, June 13th in Battle Creek. Saline (31-9) takes on Troy (27-11) at Noon on Morrison Field.

The Pleasant Ridge site is under major renovation including parking lots and drainage capacity.



Improvements to the Woodland Meadows playground have also begun to take shape. The asphalt fitness pathway is being constructed with future developments later this summer and into the fall. A special thank you to Ms. Heather Kellstrom and the Woodland Meadows PTA who developed a CARES proposal to access a portion of the funds for this project.

What a run! Over the past 5 years, the Saline Varsity Boys Golf squad has set the standard for excellence in boy's high school golf in the Michigan. This year they were State Runner-Up. Six shots out of the Championship and had two individuals in the top 10, Matt Paterini and Phil Gieseker. A deeper look shows SEC titles, District and Regional titles, numerous major tournament wins. Along the way there were a variety of individual medalists, showing the depth of the program.

For the past five years in the State Tournament, Saline Boys Golf has finished:
2003: 2nd
2004: 21st
2005: 2nd
2006: 1st (undeafeated)
2008: 2nd
2009: Is looking solid with excellent underclassman returning.


Coach Carol Melcher has established a program that simply reloads. In the bigger (and more important) picture she has helped developed a group of young men into leaders in the classroom, on the course, and in life.

Congratulations to the Saline Varsity Baseball sqaud on winning back to back Regional titles! They advance to face Detroit Southeastern on Tuesday at 4pm. The game will be played at Carleton Airport High School.

Friday marked the end of the year for Pooh Corner Preschool. The annual graduation ceremonies were held at Mill Pond Park and culminated with the 110 "graduates" walking across the bridge to receive their "diplomas". The students also demonstrate several of the activities they have worked on during the year.


It was very successful year for Pooh Corner. The move from Union School to Houghton School was smooth and provided for synergy with the Houghton programs and staff.

Pooh Corner is almost full for the 2008-2009 school year. Call 429-8024 for registration information