On Saying Thanks to So Many People
As USD 417 has transitioned from five facilities to three, including the establishment of a 7-12 facility, there are some things that I feel compelled to say. While I may repeat myself, unintentionally, it is seldom a bad decision to say thank you to deserving people on more than one occasion. So, let me start by thanking our parents for staying the course with our consolidation plans. One of my greatest fears is that through the closure of two schools and the consolidation of grades 7-12 , some parents would choose to leave USD 417. While a very small number, less than ten students, did leave our district by choice, the vast majority have remained with our schools. There are likely many reasons for this choice, however I choose to believe that parents like their respective schools and their teachers. Our enrollment numbers are essentially the same as they were a year ago, which is really great news. So my first thank you is to our parents for believing in us and believing especially our teachers and school leaders. THANKS!
A second group that I want to thank is our teaching staff. Here’s the thing, this thank you really has nothing to do about our reconfiguration. I have and continue to thank them for their flexibility during that fairly ambiguous time. Teachers value order and they just experienced several months of semi-chaos. They have been great.
However, what I really want to thank them for is their willingness to adapt and change. Specifically, our teachers have been asked to make significant curricular changes over the past two to three years. You may not think this to be a big deal but imagine if your boss came in one day and told you that the work you have known the past five years is no longer what you will be doing. That virtually everything you had planned and been good at implementing is to change. I imagine that you would be nervous and maybe even reluctant. Change can be hard especially when you are comfortable.
Our teachers have changed their ELA curriculum (and teaching tools), math curriculum (and teaching tools), their social studies curriculum ( and teaching tools) and now comes a change in their science curriculum (and likely many teaching tools). Think about this for a minute, our elementary teachers have been in a perpetual state of change for three years with more to come. And I cannot be more proud of the work, the effort, and the collaboration that our teachers have accomplished in the past three years.
Sometime in the next few weeks, the state will release the new KS Assessment scores. I have no idea how ours will turn out. And that is exactly the point I want to make here. Kansas, and the rest of the schools in our country, are undergoing a significant change right now. Regardless of what our scores may show, I am so very proud of our teachers. I know that we will be able to count on them to grow and adapt in the coming years so that our students will continue to grow and thrive as well.
I also want to offer thanks to our administrative team. I hope that all of our patrons and parents realize what bright and hard working professionals we have in our educational leaders. Mrs. Gentry is absolutely one of the sharpest and most organized Curriculum Directors in our state. She has organized and managed this change in curriculum and instruction, which is no small feat. She is the person who has arranged for the significant professional development opportunities for our teaching staff. She is the person who keeps everyone informed on state changes, of which there have been many. She organizers and implements our teacher coaching program, our Title programs, and so much more. She is truly a gem!
Our school leaders put in countless hours making sure our schools run well, our students have quality instruction, and that they are safe and cared for. The public may not know this but 50 to 60+ hour weeks are the norm for these leaders. I try to arrange things so that they actually have a private life during the school year but they won’t have any of it. They want to be where our students are, even if this means days starting around 7:20 am and ending close to 11:00 pm. Yes, there are many days like this. In a time when many of our political leadership fancies bashing school administrators, I would challenge anyone of them to walk in the shoes of our school administrators for this school year. Most people, including our politicians, have no clue what a day in the life of a school leader looks like. I do and that is why I try to thank them whenever opportunities arise.
Our team added Angela Harris last year as our special services coordinator and I could be be more pleased. Angela is a very sharp woman who actually enjoy studying data and analytics. Her joining us could not have been more timely. She is helping take the lead on our data management system, which will be significant for our district for years to come.
There are others I want to thank and will do so in part 2 of this article. I have separated these on purpose, more on that tomorrow.