Finders Keepers? Not at Coral Springs High!

What would you do if you came across a duffle bag containing more than $900 in cash and $100 or so more in checks? Well if you’re the honest type – like Coral Springs High School Head Custodian Keith Grant – you would return it to its rightful owner. And that’s exactly what he did.

Keith – a 15-year District employee and a Coral Springs High graduate himself – was readying the school’s auditorium for an early morning assembly when he came across a bag accidentally left there by a member of a church group that had leased the room that same evening. "I wanted to see if it contained any I.D.," he explains, "so I opened it up and looked through it. I was surprised it contained so much cash and glad to find a name and phone number so I could get it back to whoever it belonged to." You might think the church member would be surprised by Keith’s honesty, but that’s not the case. "They know me and weren’t surprised at all that I was the one who returned it. It was the honest thing to do and it made me feel good."

Keith’s not the only honest one on the custodial staff at Coral Springs High, either. Facilities Service staff member Mike Davis recently found a $100 bill while cleaning the school at night. He turned it in to the office, hoping someone would claim it. When sufficient time passed and no one did, Mike earned a $100 bonus.

District Wins Data Warehousing Institute’s 2002 Best Practices Award
Keeping track of more than 260,000 students is a daunting task, to say the least. As a way to help keep accurate records in a way that is user-friendly, a few years ago the District implemented the Data Warehouse. That implementation has certainly paid off. The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI) recently honored the District by presenting it with a coveted annual Best Practices Award. The District was chosen to receive this honor for its business intelligence deployment in the government and non-profit organization category. The award was receieved by Dr. Nancy G. Terrel, Assistant Superintendent, Communication, Strategic Planning and Community Relations and Dr. Phyllis Chasser, Senior Data Warehouse Analyst at ETS.

As the nation’s fifth largest school district, Broward County needed an easy way to track and monitor more than 260,000 students. The information that is maintained by the Data Warehouse includes attendance, test scores and overall classroom performance. The objective of the business intelligence deployment is to use this detailed information to improve student achievement and success.

"We’re thrilled to have been chosen as a winner of the TDWI Best Practices Award," says Dr. Phyllis Chasser. "The Data Warehouse has played a vital role in our organization, enabling staff to gain key insights used to improve teaching and problem solving strategies."

In the old days, if a teacher wanted to see the past history of one of their students, they would have to either contact the student’s former teachers or previous school. Now, thanks to the Data Warehouse, a teacher can instantly see a student’s history to get a better picture of where the student was and how to help them succeed in the future.

"The competition this year for the Best Practices Awards was once again very strong," says Wayne Eckerson, director of education and research at TDWI. "But the Broward County School District clearly stood out from the rest and demonstrated a set of best practices from which others can follow and learn from in the government and non-profit organization category."