I am not normally too fond of themes for the school year, but this year one message kept centering itself as we have planned for this school year:

FORWARD

We have to keep moving forward. We have to keep putting one foot in front of the other toward a better tomorrow. In some ways, this school year could be simpler than last school year. We aren't preparing for three learning models. We aren't planning to clean classrooms between every class period. We aren't planning to implement one-way hallways.

In other ways, this school year is more complicated than last school year. Without statewide requirements, we have a patchwork of efforts to move forward while still dealing with multiple pandemics: a health-related pandemic and, to quote my friend Steve Underdahl, a cultural pandemic.

We don't get to select the travails we face in life. We determine how we respond. It is time to move forward...together,

We always start with gratitude. One of the television shows our children loved when they were small had a line that I've always remembered: "A thankful heart is a happy heart. We're glad for what we have, that's an easy place to start."

I am thankful for you. Our staff. You are doing a hard job and you are doing it well. Your contributions to our community are immeasurable. As educators, we rarely experience our full impact in real-time.

I won't sugarcoat the struggles we could have ahead of us. However, I know we will meet them head-on by moving forward together.

Our vision has been clear:

Prepare EVERY student for lifelong success within a world-class learning envrionment with a commitment to community partnerships and sustainability.

Sometimes we say ALL students and sometimes we say EVERY student. We use EVERY in our vision statement because it signifies our desire to prioritize the human being in front of us. Remember that difference. It seems slight but is essential.

People: those in this room, our students, our families, and our community.

Learner outcomes: Futurist Ian Jukes said we endeavor to prepare our students for THEIR futures not our PAST. We do this through academic and social/emotional skill-building, problem-solving, and teaching them how to think critically. There has been a lot of rhetoric over the past few months about "indoctrination" vs. education. Of course, we know this is foolishness. We can barely get kids to...

Stewardship: we seek wise use of limited resources: financial, human, and time.

Partnerships: we know we cannot do this work alone. we seek to do this in concert with our community, state, nation, and world.

Equity: we understand in our pursuit of a more perfect union, some may need more support at times than others. Equity comes from the spirit of "help your neighbor."

At the start of each year, it is vital we center ourselves around what we expect of each other.

1. Prioritize relationships. We know the old adage that kids don't care what you know until they know that you care. I ask you to start the year simply...learn their names quickly. Greet them by name at the door when they enter your classroom.

2. Believe all kids can learn. They don't all learn at the same rate or in the same way. But every child can learn. This has to be part of our soul. If we don't believe this, then we need to seek different employment.

3. Professionalism: we conduct ourselves as professionals. In the way we approach our vocation. In our pursuit of excellence. In how we present ourselves in the classroom and to the community.

4. Commit to continuous improvement. How do we make tomorrow better than today? Let's continue to use a variety of data to judge our current reality and identify how we will know that we have done better.

5. Please read the district update. It contains important information.

I think by now, everyone knows the safety measures we are taking for the upcoming school year. We've used the expert advice of reputable public health and medical professionals at the national, state, and local level.

I understand people are in different places on the continuum of what they think are the best things to do in this situation. Our goal is to prioritize uninterrupted, in-person learning.

There are few people in this room who want to be able to end our safety measures more than me.

We will continue to systematically review the key data points of infection, illness, and vaccination rates to inform how we adjust our safety measures.

This is about prevention. We are experiencing another wave. It, so far, seems smaller here than the previous surges. That is good. Our safety measures are intended to keep COVID-19 from spreading in our community. That is why we are prioritizing proactive measures rather than reactive measures.