Superintendent's Message
The 2019-20 school year is loaded and ready for launch. During this year many great moments will occur. There will be some bumps, obstacles, and challenges to overcome, but the journey will be a great one.
In order to make this year a great one we must be an effective team. The team of parents, teachers, administrators, students, support staff and community members can be a great one that accomplishes many great things.
What does it take to make a great team? I believe the most important quality that a team has to have in order to succeed is trust. What does it mean to trust? I think it basically means to think the best of each other. All of the stakeholders listed above have the same goal in mind; to help our students succeed. If we believe that everyone has that same goal, then we will trust that everyone is doing their best to make this school year great for each student. There will be times when things become hard or the way something is being done is questioned. However, if we all trust that each person is trying to do what is best to help each student reach their potential, we can have calm conversations on how we can work together to ensure success. There will be some strategies that succeed and some that fail. However, in the end we must all trust that all things were tried with the best intentions.
Communication is the second quality that ensures a team’s success. We must have open and honest communication. Trust will ensure that we have great communication. We need to make sure we communicate successes and struggles. If something is working great and no one shares that it is working great, perhaps the thing we were doing to be successful stops because of a lack of communication. It today’s world communication looks much different than it used to. Social Media has had a dramatic impact on our world. Sometimes for the best, sometimes maybe not. When we are presented with information, emotions can run high. All one has to do is search social media and many negative stories can be found. Most often the negativity does nothing to make the situation better. The old adage praise in public and reprimand in private works best with social media as well.
So let’s all strap in for a great ride that is the 2019-20 school year. Let’s be the best team we can be and see what greatness can accomplish.
Tim Jermain