Brian M. Stack's School Leadership Blog

The following blog post has been written for students. It will appear in this month's Sanborn Voice (student newspaper): To Block or Not to Block Social Networking Sites at Sanborn? This is a question that I have agonized over for the past few months. Not a day has gone by that a staff member or a parent has asked me a question related to that topic. “How come Sanborn doesn’t block social networking sites like every other high school?” a parent may ask. “Why can’t the technology department give me to control when to turn on and off the Internet?” a teacher might ask. For the past few months I have been able to avoid the inevitable – making a decision to temporarily block popular social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Formspring, etc on the Sanborn network. Social networking sites have historically been blocked at Sanborn. At some point early in the 2009-2010 school year, the decision was made to remove the block. Dr. Blake, myself, and others believe that no good ca...

This past week, parents received a request from me to join our Safe Home Compact (SHC). The SHC is an opportunity for parents to stand up and be recognized for promoting safe and healthy behaviors for their children, and join a network of families in the Kingston, Newton, and Fremont communities who feel the same way. Sanborn Regional High School is committed to working with parents to keep help kids safe. The SHC is a joint partnership between Sanborn Regional Middle School, Ellis School in Fremont, and SRHS. Parents and others can join the SHC by filling out a quick form at the following link: https://spreadsheets0.google.com/viewform?formkey=dEM5Rno3VHJZM1dJUkp4TFdrclNpTFE6MA The SHC reads as follows: Dear Parents, The Sanborn Regional High School Safe Home Compact is a new service offered to the parents and guardians of high school and middle school students from Kingston, Newton, and Fremont. The compact is designed to promote a parent-to-parent exchange of "safe" househ...