We are closing out another school year. I am always amazed at how fast each year goes by and what gets accomplished by our staff and students. It seems like we just started in our new and remodeled spaces. My hat’s off to all of our staff for taking what they had on September 1st for rooms with boxes, bringing them to life and doing such great work with our students throughout the year.

As we close out the school year, there are many activities and celebrations planned for each building. A part of the education process is acknowledging relationships, growth and the social and emotional aspect of education. Celebrations provide a way to share memories, deepen relationships and acknowledge the work everyone has done. It takes very special people to work with our youth to mentor them, challenge them and provide opportunities for them to succeed.

Every once in a while we have issues with students and the choices they make. Education is more than just what happens in the classrooms. Students belong to their own community – of which there are around 700 plus people in one building for seven hours a day. This requires them to learn to get along, respect others, respect rules and to work through conflict. Sometimes conflicts with one another, or ill-advised choices, can derail the efforts of what we are working towards. We call these teaching points – things not found in a textbook. We focus on these teaching points as a way to prepare students for the many situations they will experience in life.

As we end the 2016-17 school year, we transition to summer projects and building cleaning. There will be many projects at each site to finish what we planned three years ago. Our custodial teams will spend time detail cleaning each building and preparing our buildings for the next school year. We didn’t have time for detailed cleaning last summer with the remodeling projects at each site. We have a great custodial crew that takes pride in what they do and the impact their work has on staff and students. If you need to visit one of our school offices this summer, please be careful around contractors and our cleaners. We will post summer office hours on our website and in the front doors of each building.

Congratulations to all of our area graduates! We wish you well as you begin the next phase of your life.

Go Eagles!