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Hipster Adoption Curve

Dear readers, please enjoy this fun graphic from The Idiot Economist

October 19, 2013 Short URLUncategorized

I remember reading the following story as a kid – probably in the Readers Digest. A family buys a new washing machine, so they leave the old one out front of their house with a sign “Free”. No-one takes the washing machine. So they change the sign to “Works Great, Only $50”. The washing machine

October 18, 2013 Short URLchoice, government schools, home schools, perceived value, private schools, public education, public schools, school choicePublic Schools

Classroom Dollars and Bad Teachers

Start with a graphic representation of a dollar bill. Divide it up to show how many cents are spent in which categories. Not a bad way to represent expenditures. Except when it is done this way: Why? Because this cartoon is not just wrong, it is dishonest. The categories of expense are a bit hard

October 17, 2013 Short URLbad teachers, business, cartoon, classrom, classroom dollars, education, education dollar, firing teachers, Management, public education, school district, school district administration, school district business, teachers, unions, wasted dollarsManagement, Public Schools, School District Jobs, Working Together

Taking a Position

The director and manager of school construction sat down in my office. They had made it clear that they needed to see me NOW. “What’s up?” “Well, you hired a supervisor. For the construction department.” “An accounting supervisor. Yes.” “We should have been consulted. After all, she works in our department.” “Yes, she’s physically located

October 15, 2013 Short URLaccounting, construction, construction accounting, hiring, hiring practices, human resources, job description, Management, Position control, positions, school district, school district business, school district jobs, supervisor, supervisor positionAccounting, School District Jobs, Working Together

Why My Son Went to Private Schools

I have worked in public education for more than 20 years, yet my son went to private schools. This was not a rejection of the public school system. We live in an area with some of the best public schools in the country, and could have sent our son there for free. Why didn’t we

October 13, 2013 Short URLban private schools, choice, freedom of choice, freedom to choose, michelle rhee, private schools, school choice, warren buffettUncategorized

Arson

FIRE ACCOUNTING Click on the link for my manual on school arson. I have dealt with three major school fires in my career. And believe me, there was no manual. The first thing I did ten years ago when confronted with my first school fire was to Google “accounting for school fires” and couldn’t find anything terribly useful. I

October 12, 2013 Short URLaccounting, arson, best practice, burning schools, business, computers, fire, fire accounting, Management, peocedures, school, school district, school firesDaily Work, Risk Management

Stages of Grief at Work

Much has been written about Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’ five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. I am thinking about this, because a family member is currently dealing with cancer. He spent some time in denial (delayed seeing a doctor). He spent months bargaining (if I become a vegan, this will go away). I

October 10, 2013 Short URLacceptance, anger, bargaining, business, consequences, denial, depression, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, five stages of grief, Management, next step, problem solvingWorking Together

How to Take a Break

CaveGirlMBA’s post about the guy who plays online games at work really struck a chord with me, because here’s a second post about it. For me, the story is explained by one of two possibilities. 1. He is thoroughly disengaged and doesn’t give a s**t 2. He is engaged, but takes breaks inappropriately You’ll know

October 6, 2013 Short URLbusiness, computer games, expectations at work, inappropriate work behavior, Management, mental breaks, problem solving, taking a breakSchool District Jobs, Working Together

Stepping into a Pile of Management

My boss told me that the only difference between management and non-management is that managers get to hire and fire (so you’d better get good at it). Truth be told, she said this during a somewhat negative performance review. That’s a blunt way of saying non-managers are responsible for tasks while managers are responsible for people.

October 5, 2013 Short URLbusiness, discipline, employee engagement, firing, health issues at work, hiring, job description, Management, performance review, problem solving, progressive discipline, reprimand, verbal warning, written warningDaily Work, School District Jobs, Working Together

We Don’t Need No %@# Standards?*

Imagine comparing two school districts’ test scores, where each district uses different tests. That would be meaningless, right? Yet, this situation exists on the business side of things. Legislation will require a calculation, but the implementation is unclear. Subsequent guidelines and regulations (if any) sometimes just cite the statute verbatim. For example, prior to the new funding formula, conversion

October 3, 2013 Short URLaccounting, analysis, business, data, Education Code, Excel, fiscal, government, problem solving, SARC, School Accountability eport CardAccounting, Analysis, Data, Excel

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