I absolutely love the first week of school. For me, the opportunity to be part of greeting our students and staff, and capture some of the moments that make school special, is hard to beat. It is priceless to observe the annual ritual of a young mom dropping off her firstborn for kindergarten and heading to the “boo-hoo” room for nourishment and other parental support for help through the trauma. And, seeing sixth graders negotiate their way around a much larger middle school brings back terrifying, personal memories from years ago.
Despite this being a fast summer, the energy this week exhibited by kids and staff was impressive. We truly are off to a great start – thanks to the many returning and incoming staff. Welcome back to what will be another great year.
This is also going to be an intense planning year as our Lincoln Board of Education has raised the graduation goal from 84 to 87 percent by the year 2018. We have had great success with increasing achievement, but graduating the next 3 percent will require deeper and difficult work. The keys going forward will be addressing our growing number of children with mental health and behavioral issues, and continuing to seek ways to intervene as early as possible when warnings appear. While I know we have the great people to do this, I also know that substantive change is always difficult.
The Career High School is on track for 2015. We have to complete the inter-local agreement with Southeast Community College to proceed, but I think this is imminent. Sharing cost for a building that is not on school property can be a daunting concept for some, but we are excited about the future prospects for our students.
I also am eagerly awaiting the report from the community group that has been studying our facilities. We have many building and infrastructure needs brought on by our growth, and establishing priorities to seek public support will be a difficult challenge for our Board of Education.
Finally, I want to express my tremendous appreciation to all of our staff, students and parents who have partnered with us to increase achievement across the grades. We are above state averages in most categories and with our rapidly changing demographics – that is an awesome accomplishment. We intend for this trend to continue.
Steve
