Thinking Strategically About Schools

First and foremost, I am encouraged by the Richardson ISD's outreach efforts to get community input into the district's planning process.

On October 2, district trustees voted to adopt a revised RISD strategic plan, and stakeholders are encouraged to take part in the process by applying to be on one of the six action teams that will develop the specific steps and goals to support the six district strategies:

• We will ensure that we have diverse and engaging programs and learning opportunities to meet the unique needs of all our students.
• We will guarantee that all students will perform at or above grade level.
• We will recruit, retain, and reward quality personnel.
• We will ensure that ALL families, businesses, and community partners are fully engaged in the mission of our district.
• We will actively pursue creative funding sources and responsibly manage current resources to support our mission.
• We will ensure that our facilities and infrastructure adapt to support our mission.

Source: RISD.

Six teams of 35 to 50 community members have been formed. If all goes well, these teams will ensure community support as the RISD makes difficult strategic decisions in the future.

Where All Students Connect, Learn, Grow and Succeed

"Where All Students Connect, Learn, Grow and Succeed." That's the new mission statement for the Richardson ISD. Fifty points if you know what the old mission statement was. It used to be "Where All Students Learn, Grow and Succeed." See the difference?

I'm no marketing genius (my wife always said that if I worked in marketing, our family would starve), but in my opinion, the RISD just weakened a good slogan. Good things come in threes, not fours:

• Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.
• Of the people, by the people, for the people.
• Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.
• Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe

"Learn, Grow and Succeed." Not "Connect, Learn, Grow and Succeed." Not only is it discordant, it's the literal definition of mission creep, which has acquired a well-deserved reputation for ending in "final, often catastrophic, failure." I've got nothing against students connecting, but RISD ought to be careful not to overburden its priorities, lest nothing is a priority.

Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold (2017)

Rotten Tomatoes

Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold (2017): Documentary. Old photos, movies, interviews and readings. The precise chronicler found the dark side of life to be "Gold". This movie is...silver. B-

Read my review of Joan Didion's "The Year of Magical Thinking".

POTD: Turkey Day Down Under

Today's photo-of-the-day comes from the beach of Apollo Bay on the Southern Ocean of Australia. The photo was taken on Thanksgiving weekend of 1976. Thanksgiving dinner was cooked over a campfire in Great Otway National Park.

Bonus photos after the jump.

Mudbound (2017)

Rotten Tomatoes

Mudbound (2017): White farm family in Mississippi in 1940s facing poverty, floods, illness. Black family with same burdens. Plus racism. Script shows same events from different perspectives. Quiet but strong performances. Lessons for today. A-

Lady Bird (2017)

Rotten Tomatoes

Lady Bird (2017): A girl's struggles with best friend, boy friends, school and most of all, mother. Very believable and real look at coming of age in Sacramento. Saoirse Ronan nails it. B+

Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

Rotten Tomatoes

Murder on the Orient Express (2017): Luxurious, campy whodunnit. No reason for this remake but good fun anyway. All-Star cast all get their chance to chew the scenery. "Why the abundance of evidence?" B-

LBJ (2017)

Rotten Tomatoes

LBJ (2017): More an earnest history lesson than great drama. Covers 1960 election, JFK assassination, and civil rights. A sympathetic portrait of what LBJ's legacy would have been without Vietnam. Woody Harrelson succeeds. B+

POTD: Branding the Brazos

From 2017 09 18 Waco

Today's photo-of-the-day comes from the shore of the Brazos River in Waco, Texas.

[The artwork] pays tribute to Waco’s 19th-century days as a stop on the Chisholm Trail cattle drives from South Texas to Kansas. It features three cowboys — one white, one Hispanic and one black — driving 25 head of longhorn cattle to the western approach to the Waco Suspension Bridge.

Source: Waco Tribune-Herald.

The bridge itself was built to support the major industry in Texas at the time, the cattle business.

The twin double-towers that anchored the span were considered to be a marvel of engineering at the time, containing nearly 3 million bricks, which were produced locally. The bridge collected its first toll on January 1, 1870. Its 475-foot (145 m) span made it the first major suspension bridge in Texas. The bridge was wide enough for stagecoaches to pass each other, or for cattle to cross one side of the bridge, and humans to cross the other side. Being the only bridge to cross the Brazos at the time, the cost of building the bridge, which was estimated to be $141,000 was quickly paid back. Tolls were 5 cents per head of cattle that crossed, along with a charge for pedestrian traffic.

Source: Wikipedia.

Lost City of Z (2016)

IMDB

Lost City of Z (2016): True life drama of English explorer in the Amazon 1906-25. Percy Fawcett's motivations are a hash, never adequately explored. Would have been better as fiction. C+